SNP: The Turbulent Years 1960-1990
September 16, 2009 by David Torrance
Tonight sees the launch of an interesting new book by the former SNP Leader Gordon Wilson. SNP: The Turbulent Years 1960-1990 isn’t packed full of political indiscretion, but it is the first – as far as I know – detailed account of the party’s often tumultuous period leading up to the election of Alex Salmond as leader. I’ll be reviewing it for the next edition of the Scottish Review of Books.
Below is a press release issued by the SNP yesterday:
Queen’s Intervention in Scottish Politics Recalled in Former SNP Leader’s New Book
The unprecedented intervention of the Queen in Scottish politics during a period when the SNP had 11 MPs and was rising high in the polls is recalled in a ‘personal history’ of the SNP from the 1960s to 1990 written by former party leader Gordon Wilson which will be launched tomorrow [Wednesday 16th] in Edinburgh.
The episode, which provoked constitutional crisis in 1977, was sparked when the Queen made a speech in Westminster Hall – the ancient part of Westminster where William Wallace had stood trial – to make a direct attack on the nationalist movement by stating that she had been crowned Queen of the United Kingdom. It later transpired that the reference had been added by the Queen herself, despite the long-established protocol of the monarch not intervening in domestic politics. Deputy Parliamentary Leader Gordon Wilson’s first instinct had been to overlook the remark but Western Isles MP Donald Stewart, Parliamentary leader of the SNP group at Westminster had already launched a counter-attack, publicly warning the Queen that her rule was based on consent of the Scottish people.
A few months later, the monarch visited Glasgow and took the highly unusual decision to parade through the city with the Household Cavalry. This unexpected move raised suspicions that the Queen was making a further political statement and perhaps even attempting to play the ‘Orange’ card, a possible explanation for the event taking place in Glasgow with its greater loyalist support than in Edinburgh.
Thirty-two years after these events, Wilson reflects that “when the main aim of a political party is attacked by a supposedly neutral monarch, it is significant… (and) also a reminder that the British State was not taking the challenge lying down.”
‘SNP: The Turbulent Years 1960-1900‘ covers three decades of political turmoil from the party’s leanest years at the end of the 1950s to the start of the 1990s when it was poised to become a power in the land. The book offers a detailed and insightful commentary on those crucial years, written in a direct, punchy style enlivened with many telling anecdotes.
Other incidents covered include the internal schisms within the party in the mid-1980s when members of an internal left-wing pressure group, the 79 Group (including present First Minister Alex Salmond) were expelled from the party.
The book is certain to be of interest to SNP supporters and all who are interested in Scottish politics and will prove an invaluable source book for academics and commentators on modern political history.
Former party leader Gordon Wilson, who represented Dundee East in Westminster from 1974-1987, joined the party as a law student and his earliest impact was as Director of Programming for the clandestine Radio Free Scotland, keeping one step ahead of the broadcasting authorities and the police.
The book sets the scene with the crucial knife-edge vote of confidence in Westminster on 28 March 1979 which brought down the Callaghan government and led to the electoral crash of the SNP at the subsequent General Election. Early chapters from the early 1960s cover the party’s struggle to make an impact and get broadcasting coverage. Structural changes within the party, necessary to allow the party to develop and win elections, are also covered as is the political campaigns on Scottish Oil and the party’s internal schisms of the 1980s.
As MP and party leader, Gordon Wilson had access to the inside track at key moments in Scotland’s tumultuous political rollercoaster ride through these momentous years and the book benefits from access to official SNP records and personal recollections of all the key players. It’s the essential inside story of the growth of the SNP from protest movement to mass party for government.
The book will be launched at a reception in Edinburgh on Wednesday and there will be a number of book-signing sessions including one at SNP Conference in Inverness in October.
ENDS
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