‘Scottish Control of Scottish Affairs’: 1945–1964

Following the Second World War, Scottish Unionists and their allies in Parliament slowly began to assume a more consistently mainstream position within the emerging Scottish political system. Intriguingly, they did so partly by framing that system along ‘nationalist’ lines, criticising the Labour government at Westminster on the basis that it did not understand Scottish sentiment and sought to rob Scotland of autonomous institutions through its nationalisation agenda. This ‘Scottish Control of Scottish Affairs’ agenda formed part of the broader Conservative Party ‘territorial code’, which championed decentralisation and unity through diversity. Yet while there were electoral rewards to be gained from this ‘nationalist unionist’ strategy, particularly at the general election of 1955, it also proved better suited to opposition than to office. Back in government after 1951, the Unionists in Scotland found themselves vulnerable to the same charge they had levelled against Labour: that the party neglected peculiar Scottish grievances. Why was legislative devolution good enough for Northern Ireland (Stormont) but not Scotland? This chapter will examine Scottish Unionism’s high watermark – 1955 – and its subsequent decline. The standard explanations for this change in fortunes, Imperial decline and a shifting economic backdrop, will also be prosecuted. Broader changes in Scottish society will also be analysed in order to contextualise shifting support for the party. Why did an individualist political appeal no longer resonate as strongly by the late 1950s as it once had?