Whatever Happened to Tory Scotland?

David Torrance

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Year: 2012
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9780748646883
• Subtopic: Essays in Politics & International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Explores the history and ideas of the Scottish Conservative Party since its creation in 1912. You might not believe it now, but the Scottish Conservative Party played a significant role in the politics of Scotland during the last century. The party governed Scotland and the UK for much of the 20th century. But their support has nosedived from a majority of votes and seats at the 1955 general election to just a single constituency and 17 per cent of the vote in May 2010. This collection brings together academics, writers, commentators and analysts of Scottish politics to address the nature of the Scottish Conservative Party: its standing in Scotland, its influence on the Union, its role in the Scottish Parliament and why it fell so out of favour with the Scottish electorate.

Table of contents

• COVER
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on the Contributors
• Tables
• 1. Centenary Blues: 100 Years of Scottish Conservatism
• 2. Sociability, Status and Solidarity: Scottish Unionism in the era of Irish Home Rule, 1886–1920
• 3. Patriotism, Paternalism and Pragmatism: Scottish Toryism, Union and Empire, 1912–65
• 4. More than a Name: The Union and the Un-doing of Scottish Conservatism in the Twentieth Century
• 5. Smithians, Thatcherites and the Ironies of Scottish Conservative Decline
• 6. ‘It’s only a Northern Song’: The Constant Smirr of Anti-Thatcherism and Anti-Toryism
• 7. The Wilderness Years
• 8. Why no Tory Revival in Scotland?
• 9. Refashioning Welsh Conservatism – a Lesson for Scotland?
• 10. The Press, National Identity and the Scottish Tories
• 11. ‘Handbagging’ the Feminisation Thesis? Reflections on Women in the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
• 12. Conservative Unionism: Prisoned in Marble
• Index