We in Scotland have to make our stand for pure Liberalism: John M. Bannerman and Scottish Politics, 1932-1968

This article assesses the political career of John M. Bannerman from his entry into Scottish politics in the early 1930s until his final speeches in the House of the Lords in the late 1960s. The principal issue which it addresses is the history of the Liberal party in Scotland in the period from 1945 to the late 1960s. By analysing Bannerman's Liberal candidatures (he stood eight times in four different Scottish constituencies from 1945 to 1964, losing on each occasion), his attitude to Scottish Home Rule, his role in keeping the Scottish Liberal Party alive, and his ideas on the revival of the Scottish Highlands, it deals with his role in the survival of a party which had once dominated Scottish politics but had fallen into deep decline. The position of the Liberal Party during a period in which the Labour Party and the Scottish Unionist Party dominated the politics of Scotland is also a theme of the article. Some additional comments are made about the way in which both the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party have deployed Bannerman’s memory in arguing their positions vis-à-vis post-devolution Scottish politics.