Abstract
In recent years politics in Scotland and England have developed along different paths. While Labour and the Conservatives have remained major parties in Scotland, their hegemony has been challenged and the balance between them has shifted radically. The SNP took over 30% of the vote in 1974 before falling back to 17% in 1979. But in another respect 1979 represented a major extension of Scottish/English differences for there was a 21% gap between the Conservative/Labour margin in Scotland and England.2 From 1945 to 1955 the Labour/Conservative balance had been much the same on both sides of the border and, although Labour enjoyed a modest advantage in Scotland from 1959 to 1974, 1979 was quite unlike anything that had gone before.
The author wishes to thank Kevin Allen, Hugh Berrington, David Martin, Kate Stephen, David Simpson, Richard Rose and Alf Young for their comments on earlier drafts of this chapter. For a fuller discussion see W. Miller, The End of British Politics, (Oxford, 1980).
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Notes
The author wishes to thank Kevin Allen, Hugh Berrington, David Martin, Kate Stephen, David Simpson, Richard Rose and Alf Young for their comments on earlier drafts of this chapter. For a fuller discussion see W. Miller, The End of British Politics, (Oxford, 1980).
See H. Drucker, Breakaway: The Scottish Labour Party, (Edinburgh, 1978).
For the Northern reaction against Scottish devolution see R. Guthrie and Iain McLean, ‘Another Part of the Periphery’, Parliamentary Affairs, (Spring, 1978).
for a review of the provisions of the Scotland Act and the likely workings of its proposed Assembly see D. I. Mackay ed. Scotland: the Framework for Change, (Edinburgh, 1979).
See also V. Bogdanor, Devolution, (Oxford, 1979).
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© 1980 David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh
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Miller, W. (1980). The Scottish Dimension. In: The British General Election of 1979. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04755-0_6
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