Editing Scottish National Party (section)

===Ideology===
[[File:Building a New Scotland An Independent Scotland in the EU (53344432131).jpg|thumb|right|The SNP advocate for Scotland to regain its independence and re–join the [[European Union]]]]
The Scottish National Party did not have a clear ideological position until the 1970s, when it sought to explicitly present itself as a social democratic party in terms of party policy and publicity.<ref name="Lynch">{{Cite book |last=Peter Lynch |title=SNP: The History of the Scottish National Party |publisher=Welsh Academic Press |year=2002}}</ref><ref name="Brand1978">{{Cite book |last=Jack Brand |title=The National Movement in Scotland |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul |year=1978 |pages=216–17}}</ref> During the period from its foundation until the 1960s, the SNP was essentially a moderate [[centrist]] party.<ref name="Lynch" /> Debate within the party focused more on the SNP being distinct as an all-Scotland national movement, with it being neither of the [[Left-wing politics|left]] nor the [[Right-wing politics|right]], but constituting a new politics that sought to put Scotland first.<ref name="Brand1978" /><ref name="Brand199028">{{Cite book |last=Jack Brand |title='Scotland', in Watson, Michael (ed.), Contemporary Minority Nationalism |publisher=Routledge |year=1990 |page=28}}</ref>

The SNP was formed through the merger of the centre-left [[National Party of Scotland]] (NPS) and the centre-right [[Scottish Party]].<ref name="Brand1978" /> The SNP's founders were united over [[self-determination]] in principle, though not its exact nature, or the best strategic means to achieve self-government. From the mid-1940s onwards, SNP policy was [[Radical politics|radical]] and [[Redistribution of income and wealth|redistributionist]] concerning land and in favour of 'the diffusion of economic power', including the [[decentralisation]] of industries such as coal to include the involvement of local authorities and regional planning bodies to control industrial structure and development.<ref name="Lynch" /> Party policies supported the economic and social policy status quo of the post-war [[Welfare state in the United Kingdom|welfare state]].<ref name="Lynch" /><ref name="Hassan2009120">{{Cite book |last=Gerry Hassan |title=The Modern SNP: From Protest to Power |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2009 |page=120}}</ref>

By the 1960s, the SNP was starting to become defined ideologically, with a social democratic tradition emerging as the party grew in urban, industrial Scotland, and its membership experienced an influx of social democrats from the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], the [[trade union]]s and the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]].<ref name="Brand199032">{{Cite book |last=Jack Brand |title='Scotland', in Watson, Michael (ed.), Contemporary Minority Nationalism |publisher=Routledge |year=1990 |page=32}}</ref><ref name="Mitchell1996208">{{Cite book |last=James Mitchell |title=Strategies for Self-government: The Campaigns for a Scottish Parliament |publisher=Polygon |year=1996 |page=208}}</ref> The emergence of [[Billy Wolfe (politician)|Billy Wolfe]] as a leading figure in the SNP also contributed to the leftwards shift. By this period, the Labour Party was also the dominant party in Scotland, in terms of electoral support and representation. Targeting Labour through emphasising left-of-centre policies and values was therefore electorally logical for the SNP, as well as tying in with the ideological preferences of many new party members.<ref name="Mitchell1996208" /> In 1961, the SNP conference expressed the party's opposition to the siting of the [[US]] [[UGM-27 Polaris|Polaris]] submarine base at the [[Holy Loch]]. This policy was followed in 1963 by a motion opposed to [[nuclear weapon]]s: a policy that has remained in place ever since.<ref name="Mitchell19961994">{{Cite book |last=James Mitchell |title=Strategies for Self-government: The Campaigns for a Scottish Parliament |publisher=Polygon |year=1996 |page=194}}</ref> The 1964 policy document, ''SNP & You'', contained a clear centre-left policy platform, including commitments to [[full employment]], government intervention in fuel, power and transport, a state bank to guide economic development, encouragement of [[cooperative]]s and [[credit union]]s, extensive building of [[council house]]s (social housing) by central and local government, pensions adjusted to cost of living, a [[minimum wage]] and an improved [[NHS Scotland|national health service]].<ref name="Lynch" />

The 1960s also saw the beginnings of the SNP's efforts to establish an industrial organisation and mobilise amongst trade unionists in Scotland, with the establishment of the SNP Trade Union Group, and identifying the SNP with industrial campaigns, such as the [[Upper-Clyde Shipbuilders Work-in]] and the attempt of the workers at the Scottish ''[[Daily Express]]'' to run as a co-operative.<ref name="Lynch" /> For the party manifestos for the two 1974 general elections, the SNP finally self-identified as a social democratic party, and proposed a range of social democratic policies.<ref name="Brand199027">{{Cite book |last=Jack Brand |title='Scotland', in Watson, Michael (ed.), Contemporary Minority Nationalism |publisher=Routledge |year=1990 |page=27}}</ref><ref name="Hassan2009121">{{Cite book |last=Gerry Hassan |title=The Modern SNP: From Protest to Power |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2009 |page=121}}</ref> There was also an unsuccessful proposal at the 1975 party conference to rename the party as the ''Scottish National Party (Social Democrats)''.<ref name="Hepburn2013143">{{Cite book |last=Eve Hepburn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dTOOAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA143 |title=New Challenges for Stateless Nationalist and Regionalist Parties |date=18 October 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-96596-1 |page=143 |access-date=25 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503092815/https://books.google.com/books?id=dTOOAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA143 |archive-date=3 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> In the UK-wide referendum on Britain's membership of the European Economic Community (EEC) in the same year as the aforementioned attempted name change, the SNP campaigned for Britain to leave the EEC.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Devenney |first=Andrew D. |year=2008 |title=Regional Resistance to European Integration: The Case of the Scottish National Party, 1961–1972 |journal=Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung |volume=33 |issue=3 (125) |pages=319–345 |issn=0172-6404 |jstor=20762312}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Ley |first=Shaun |date=18 August 2016 |title=The dilemma facing Scotland's Eurosceptic nationalists |language=en-GB |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37107148 |url-status=live |access-date=12 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321075249/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37107148 |archive-date=21 March 2021}}</ref>

There were further ideological and internal struggles after 1979, with the [[79 Group]] attempting to move the SNP further to the left, away from being what could be described a "social-democratic" party, to an expressly "[[socialist]]" party. Members of the 79 Group – including future party leader and [[First Minister of Scotland|First Minister]] [[Alex Salmond]] – were expelled from the party. This produced a response in the shape of the [[Campaign for Nationalism in Scotland]] from those who wanted the SNP to remain a "broad church", apart from arguments of left vs. right. The 1980s saw the SNP further define itself as a party of the political left, such as campaigning against the introduction of the [[community charge|poll tax]] in Scotland in 1989; one year before the tax was imposed on the rest of the UK.<ref name="Lynch" />

Ideological tensions inside the SNP are further complicated by arguments between the so-called [[SNP gradualist]]s and [[SNP fundamentalist]]s. In essence, gradualists seek to advance Scotland to independence through further devolution, in a "step-by-step" strategy. They tend to be in the moderate left grouping, though much of the [[79 Group]] was gradualist in approach. However, this 79 Group gradualism was as much a reaction against the fundamentalists of the day, many of whom believed the SNP should not take a clear left or right position.<ref name="Lynch" />