Devolution, or ‘Home Rule’, is a very old issue in Scottish politics. As we saw in the last chapter, it dates back to at least the middle of the nineteenth century, and was adopted as a policy by the Liberal Party in Scotland in 1888.

In its most recent phase (from the 1960s), as well as being the policy of the Liberal Party, devolution has been successively espoused by the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the short-lived Scottish Labour Party, and the new Social Democratic Party. The SNP supports independence but also campaigned for devolution in the 1970s. However, since many of these parties have at one time supported, and at another opposed, devolution, the history of devolution is complex and baffling (accounts can be found in Bochel et al; Bogdanor; Drucker and Brown; Keating and Bleiman; Miller; and Rose 6, pp. 187–203). So too is the story of the shifts of opinion on the subject among the electorate and among the principal organised groups in Scotland. It is no wonder that political scientists and others have often been misled in their interpretations of this period in Scottish politics.

Very few politicians or writers on politics paid any attention to Scottish devolution until the mid-1960s. This is despite its long history, and the support which existed for a Scottish Parliament in the Scottish population, in the Liberal and Labour Parties, and in some organisations such as the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC).