Conservatives and the Union: Study of Conservative Party Attitudes to Scotland

The Conservative Party has never been as unpopular in Scotland as it is today. By tracing the history and ideology of Conservatism in Scotland this new study helps to explain the Party’s current weakness. It begins with an analysis of the Party’s dominant role in developing its opposition to Scottish Home rule up to the mid-1960s and describes Edward Heath’s brief flirtation with devolution in the late 1960s. The SNP challenge of the 1970s and the Conservative Party’s persistent opposition to legislative devolution throughout the Labour Government are covered. Finally, the book moves up-to-date, looking at the increasing unpopularity of the Party in the 1980s and analyzing why Thatcherism has been unable to extend into a Scotland suffering from a supposed debilitating “dependency culture”.