We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
The Decline of the Scottish Conservatives in North-East Scotland, 1965-79: A Regional Perspective.
- Authors
Saleh, Taym
- Abstract
This article takes a fresh look at the decline of the Conservative Party in post-war Scotland, a phenomenon that has provoked much debate. The analysis presented here is innovative in that it takes a regional approach, whereas other contributions to this field have tended to ignore the considerable regional diversity of Scottish political behaviour. By examining one particular region of Scotland - the rural north-east - this article demonstrates that the Conservatives' decline occurred at the hands of parties - the Liberals and the Scottish Nationalists - that did not brand themselves as left wing or right wing; the latter in particular eschewed conventional political labels. This marks another departure from the established literature, which has tended to discuss the decline in terms of the Conservative Party or the Scottish electorate moving 'left' or 'right'. Furthermore, the article makes it clear that a serious decline befell the party between 1965 and 1979: before the advent of Thatcherism that has widely been held responsible for the Scottish Conservatives' electoral woes. This analysis is conducted by examining the local press coverage of the region, as well as the national and regional records of the parties concerned. It therefore seeks to make a contribution to the wider study of post-war British politics, by demonstrating the benefits of local and regional approaches in this period where they have been largely overlooked. This article demonstrates that even in the 1960s and 1970s, when politics seemed so nationally uniform, there is considerable diversity to be appreciated in different parts of the country.
- Subjects
SCOTLAND; CONSERVATIVE Party (Political party : Scotland); ELECTIONS; SCOTTISH National Party; LIBERALS; NATIONALISTS
- Publication
Parliamentary History, 2017, Vol 36, Issue 2, p218
- ISSN
0264-2824
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/1750-0206.12296