Union and Unionisms: Political Thought in Scotland, 1500-2000

Abstract

In these days of devolution, and in particular with the success of the Scottish National Party, ‘union’, and the constitutional relationship between the four countries which make up Great Britain, are very much up for debate. Events have moved fast in recent years. We now have a Scottish Government; or rather, we do not, because constitutionally the majority party in the Scottish parliament is the Executive. But we believe that there is a Government because Alex Salmond's minority ruling party, the SNP, decided to change the name, and, when few other than the British prime minister challenge this, it is the perception which is important. So, despite the fact that opinion polls still show that the majority of Scots do not want an independent Scotland, attitudes towards the union are visibly shifting. Colin Kidd's analysis of Scottish unionist thought therefore comes at a particularly appropriate moment, not least, as he rightly points out, because it has been a surprisingly neglected subject. Inasmuch as it was thought about at all, the assumption has been that Anglo-Scottish union was created in 1603 because of Elizabeth's determined virginity, and strengthened with the union of parliaments in 1707, when the alternative was its collapse. And, although Anglo-Scottish hostility rather than friendship was the natural order of things, the union has jogged along more or less unquestioned ever since, because the English were happy enough to be the dominant power, and the Scots—apart from a few extremists—weakly conformed because they saw the advantages to themselves. Opportunities offered by the empire certainly proved the Scots right, and sufficient sops to national pride, such as the invented tartans of the nineteenth century, to be seen inter alia in the great aristocratic houses of London, and Victoria's love of Balmoral, ensured that any sense of neglect was kept in reasonable check. Only in the later twentieth century, when Britain had lost both empire and Great Power status, did the Scots begin to wonder if union was really such a good idea, and calls for devolution or even independence became more strident.

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