Undoubtedly, The Scottish Nationalist Party today dominates Scottish Politics in an impressive, and to some, even unthinkable way when compared to the party’s grassroots standing a mere 10 years ago. As of 2015, the SNP party is by in large the biggest political party in Scotland in terms of membership, reporting over 112,000 members, or more than 2% of the Scottish population (Scottish Parliament, 2015). But, this domination is perhaps not much of a surprise when the parties leaders, plans and goals are studied systematically, and I will argue that while there are undoubtedly a multitude of reasons to why individuals vote the way they do, perhaps we can classify these instances into 3 main categories: a push for national independence, a trend
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Although there is inadequate space here to consider several different approaches in several different time periods, the field of sociology offers some compelling reasons as to why national identity has grown and developed the way it has, and why it has become such a prominent fixture in today’s society, and for the success of the SNP. McCrone and Bechhofer (2015) argue from a sociological perspective that in recent time, Scottish identity has become both more distinct, and more powerful, a concept, which begs to be understood, as politics and identity, are two concepts that feed off of one another. This perceived notion of an ever more powerful national identity is perhaps one of the driving reasons behind the spike in national support for the SNP party. Often, but not always, for voters of the SNP, a strong national identity goes hand in hand with a vote for independence. Home rule has been a prominent feature in the manifestos of SNP since its creation in 1934. The reasons …show more content…
However, it cannot be overlooked that a vote for SNP does not necessarily go hand in hand with a vote for Scottish Independence. This became apparent with the SNP domination during the 2015 General Election, and in turn the result of the Scottish independence referendum. The results showed SNP recording a ‘historic landslide’ of seats in Scotland, winning 56 out of a possible 59 (BBC, 2015), Yet the subsequent losing of the referendum with a majority of the ‘No” vote was a sign that the SNP has a diverse base of supporters with a diverse political agenda. BBC political analyst Brian Taylor suggests that in fact, the landslide win by SNP “tells us nothing at all about independence-other than the fact that the people of Scotland were not seemingly scared to endorse a party whose reason for being is to end the Union” (Taylor, 2015). Instead, we can infer that some votes for SNP are what we can label as ‘protest votes’, making the SNP a ‘protest party’ of sorts (Gallagher, 2015) Many SNP voters may have been drawn to the party not on the premise of independence, but rather as an alternate vote against the traditional British political Liberal Democratic powers that have dominated the political landscape for so long in Britain. Their progressive policies set forth by the SNP act as a challenge of Labor and Liberal Democratic
Although there is inadequate space here to consider several different approaches in several different time periods, the field of sociology offers some compelling reasons as to why national identity has grown and developed the way it has, and why it has become such a prominent fixture in today’s society, and for the success of the SNP. McCrone and Bechhofer (2015) argue from a sociological perspective that in recent time, Scottish identity has become both more distinct, and more powerful, a concept, which begs to be understood, as politics and identity, are two concepts that feed off of one another. This perceived notion of an ever more powerful national identity is perhaps one of the driving reasons behind the spike in national support for the SNP party. Often, but not always, for voters of the SNP, a strong national identity goes hand in hand with a vote for independence. Home rule has been a prominent feature in the manifestos of SNP since its creation in 1934. The reasons …show more content…
However, it cannot be overlooked that a vote for SNP does not necessarily go hand in hand with a vote for Scottish Independence. This became apparent with the SNP domination during the 2015 General Election, and in turn the result of the Scottish independence referendum. The results showed SNP recording a ‘historic landslide’ of seats in Scotland, winning 56 out of a possible 59 (BBC, 2015), Yet the subsequent losing of the referendum with a majority of the ‘No” vote was a sign that the SNP has a diverse base of supporters with a diverse political agenda. BBC political analyst Brian Taylor suggests that in fact, the landslide win by SNP “tells us nothing at all about independence-other than the fact that the people of Scotland were not seemingly scared to endorse a party whose reason for being is to end the Union” (Taylor, 2015). Instead, we can infer that some votes for SNP are what we can label as ‘protest votes’, making the SNP a ‘protest party’ of sorts (Gallagher, 2015) Many SNP voters may have been drawn to the party not on the premise of independence, but rather as an alternate vote against the traditional British political Liberal Democratic powers that have dominated the political landscape for so long in Britain. Their progressive policies set forth by the SNP act as a challenge of Labor and Liberal Democratic