The conflicting loyalties of the Scottish Labour Party

Abstract

The legitimacy of Scottish Labour as a party representative of the Scottish people has been called into question for much of its recent history, not only by disgruntled members of the Scottish electorate and political commentators, but also by Labour members and leaders themselves. Although there have been recent moves towards a more autonomous Scottish Labour Party, the post-devolution period for Labour has been marked overall by the difficulties entailed by the paradoxical centralisation of the organisation and structure of the party in a decentralised political environment where the constitutional issue has become the main political divide. This chapter therefore seeks to examine the current soul-searching crisis experienced by Scottish Labour through the analysis of the party’s experience of devolution in light of the two contradictory forces exerted by a traditionally centralised party in a unitary polity on the one hand and an overarching constitutional debate in a devolved environment on the other hand.