The Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Erosion of Scottish Political Culture

I will argue that the Scottish National Party (SNP), in their pursuit of independence for Scotland (a region of the United Kingdom), has used tactics such as the creation of an “us versus them” narrative and undermining trust in democratic institutions to substantially damage the political culture of Scotland and Scottish democracy.

The SNP repeatedly makes references to the supposedly undemocratic Westminster government. Their website says, “Scotland keeps getting Tory governments we don’t vote for” (The tale of two governments, 2022). This demonstrates the belief that Scotland is not being fully democratically represented. In the last four general elections, many Scottish voters voted for the Conservatives, peaking in 2017 with the Conservatives winning 13 of the Scottish seats. While it is true that the Conservatives did not win a majority of Scottish seats in any of these elections, that doesn’t make the entire system undemocratic. We can compare this situation to the constituency of ‘Leeds Central’. Leeds Central has not voted in a Conservative MP in any of the last four elections: would we claim this is proof of an undemocratic system? Would we support the independence of ‘Leeds Central’ just because they haven’t voted for the party that formed the Government in recent years?

While the Conservatives haven’t won a majority in Scotland over their recent terms in office, the previous Labour government did in three consecutive general elections. The SNP’s suggestion, that the Scottish people are not being democratically respected, is based on selective evidence. It is designed to make people feel as though they are not currently living in a democracy. Furthermore, consider that Scotland has a population of only 5.4 million out of the United Kingdom’s 67.8 million inhabitants. You could pick out any group of approximately 8% of the population and then say that the majority of the 8% haven’t necessarily always had their view in government. Simply put, a random 8% of the population will not necessarily represent the majority view.

As well as attempting to undermine the British electoral system, they also attempt to bring the Scottish people into a clash against the British government. In 2022, the Scottish parliament passed the ‘Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill’. This was an attempt to force the Westminster government to override the Scottish parliament (using the constitutional mechanism of section 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act). Having two different methods for obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate would cause issues in tax administration and equal pay measurements in the wider U.K. For these reasons (and possibly due to some minister’s views on gender recognition), Westminster would predictably overrule the bill. The Scottish Government still insisted on passing it. After the Westminster government overruled the bill, Nicola Sturgeon (the leader of the SNP at the time) referred to it as, “a full-frontal attack on our democratically elected Scottish parliament and its ability to make its own decisions on devolved matters” (2023).

There have also been attacks on the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that the right to hold a referendum is not one of the powers of the Scottish Government. While this was a matter of legal interpretation, Nicola Sturgeon’s reaction was to say that, “Scottish democracy will not be denied” (2022). This is an attempt to politicise the courts and suggest that they are attempting to deny Scottish democracy is an attack on the independent judiciary.

I hope that I have successfully, although briefly, outlined how the SNP attacks the British democratic system, turns the people against the Westminster government, and attacks the courts. These factors form an “Us versus Them” narrative - the people of Scotland against Britain. To turn people against the democratic system of their country certainly seems dangerous.

All of these factors make me concerned that British Political Culture is weakening in Scotland. Almond and Verba (1963) researched the link between political culture and the strength of a democracy, they found that this connection was critical. They saw that features of political culture, such as participation in politics, directly related to the strength of the democracy itself. In Scotland, the SNP directly motivates people to feel less invested within the political culture of the United Kingdom. In practice, they create a self-fulfilling prophecy where people are told to be less involved and invested in British political culture. Then, they complain when that same political culture is weakened within Scotland.

Bibliography:

Adam, K (2022). The indyref ruling has laid bare the undemocratic Union for all to see. [online] SNP.org. Available at: https://www.snp.org/the-indyref-ruling-has-laid-bare-the-undemocratic-union-for-all-to-see/ [accessed 17 Oct. 2023]

Almond, G; Verba, S (1963) ‘The civic culture: political attitudes and democracy in five nations’. Princeton University Press.

Brooks, L and Quinn, B (2022). Supreme court rules against Scottish parliament holding new independence referendum. [online] theguardian.com. Available at:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/23/scottish-independence-supreme-court-scottish-parliament-second-referendum-indyref2 [accessed 17 Oct. 2023]

NicolaSturgeon. Twitter, Posted on 23 Nov. 2022. Available at: https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1595361356546539522 [accessed 17 Oct. 2023]

NicolaSturgeon. Twitter, Posted on 16 Jan. 2023. Available at: https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/1615047894402273283 [accessed 17 Oct. 2023]

Paun, K and Allen, B (2023). The use of Section 35 of the Scotland Act to block the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. [online] instituteforgovernment.com. Available at:

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/section-35-scotland-gender-recognition-bill [accessed 17 Oct. 2023]

SNP (2022). The tale of two governments. [online] SNP.org. Available at: https://www.snp.org/tale-of-two-governments/ [accessed 17 Oct. 2023]