Editing History of Scotland (section)

===Politics and devolution===
{{See also|Politics of Scotland}}
[[File:Scottish Parliament building, Holyrood.jpg|thumb|left|[[Scottish Parliament Building]], Holyrood, opened in 2004 and intended to evoke the crags of the [[Scottish landscape]] and, in places, upturned [[Fishing industry in Scotland|fishing boats]]]]
In the second half of the 20th century the Labour Party usually won most Scottish seats in the Westminster parliament, losing this dominance briefly to the [[Unionist Party (Scotland)|Unionists]] in the 1950s. Support in Scotland was critical to Labour's overall electoral fortunes as without Scottish MPs it would have gained only two UK electoral victories in the 20th century (1945 and 1966).<ref>L. Bennie, J. Brand and J. Mitchell, ''How Scotland Votes'' (Manchester University Press, 1997), p. 46.</ref> The number of Scottish seats represented by Unionists (known as [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]] from 1965 onwards) went into steady decline from 1959 onwards, until it fell to zero in 1997.<ref>S. Ball and I. Holliday, ''Mass Conservatism: the Conservatives and the Public Since the 1880s'' (Routledge, 2002), p. 33.</ref> Politicians with Scottish connections continued to play a prominent part in UK political life, with Prime Ministers including the Conservatives [[Harold Macmillan]] (whose father was Scottish) from 1957 to 1963 and [[Alec Douglas-Home]] from 1963 to 1964.<ref name=Quinault2007/>

The [[Scottish National Party]] gained its first seat at Westminster in 1945 and became a party of national prominence during the 1970s, achieving 11 MPs in 1974.<ref name=Cooke&Stenevson2000p93/> However, a referendum on devolution in 1979 was unsuccessful as it did not achieve the necessary support of 40 per cent of the electorate (despite a small majority of those who voted supporting the proposal) and the SNP went into electoral decline during the 1980s.<ref name=Cooke&Stenevson2000p93/> The introduction in 1989 by the [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]]-led [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] government of the [[Community Charge]] (widely known as the Poll Tax), one year before the rest of the United Kingdom, contributed to a growing movement for a return to direct Scottish control over domestic affairs.<ref>{{Citation |title=The poll tax in Scotland 20 years on |date=1 April 2009 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7976782.stm |work=BBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728035915/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7976782.stm |archive-date=28 July 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> On 11 September 1997, the 700th anniversary of [[Battle of Stirling Bridge]], the [[Tony Blair|Blair]] led [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government again held a referendum on the issue of devolution which led to the establishment of a devolved [[Scottish Parliament]] in 1999. A [[coalition]] government, which would last until 2007, was formed between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, with [[Donald Dewar]] as [[First Minister of Scotland|First Minister]] until his death in 2000.<ref>{{Citation |title=Devolution to Scotland |date=14 October 2002 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/2321531.stm |work=BBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623063430/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/2321531.stm |archive-date=23 June 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> 

The new [[Scottish Parliament Building]], adjacent to [[Holyrood House]] in Edinburgh, opened in 2004.<ref name="Audit">{{Cite web |title=The New Scottish Parliament at Holyrood |url=http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/publications/pdf/2000/00g01ag.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206171310/http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/publications/pdf/2000/00g01ag.pdf |archive-date=6 December 2006 |access-date=10 December 2006 |publisher=Audit Scotland, Sep 2000}}</ref> Although not initially reaching its 1970s peak in Westminster elections, the SNP had more success in the Scottish Parliamentary elections with their system of [[mixed member proportional representation]]. It became the official opposition in 1999, a minority government in 2007 and a majority government in 2011.<ref>{{Citation |last=A. Black |title=Scottish election: SNP profile |date=18 May 2011 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13315752 |work=BBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520031327/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13315752 |archive-date=20 May 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> A [[2014 Scottish independence referendum|national referendum]] to decide on [[Scottish independence]] was held on 18 September 2014. Voters were asked to answer either "Yes" or "No" to the question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Scotland's Referendum 2014 – Background |url=http://www.scotreferendum.com/information/ |access-date=8 September 2014}}</ref> 55.3% of voters answered "No" and 44.7% answered "Yes", with a [[voter turnout]] of 84.5%.<ref name="Now">{{Cite news |date=19 September 2014 |title=Referendum results: Turnout a record high as Scots vote No to independence |work=Scotland Now |url=http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/referendum-results-turnout-record-high-4286461 |access-date=20 September 2014 |archive-date=11 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411043734/http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/referendum-results-turnout-record-high-4286461 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the 2015 Westminster election, the SNP won 56 out of 59 Scottish seats, making them the third largest party in Westminster.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Election 2015 Results |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results |access-date=28 March 2017 |website=BBC News}}</ref>