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After a visit by the grey suits, Thatcher was gone by the end of 1990, and the Tories were out on their ear in 1997. By that general election, they had no MPs left in Scotland – it was a Tory-free zone! Teflon Tony Blair became prime minister in 1997 and promised a referendum on a Scottish Parliament. The Scots, in a historic vote, opted to restore their Parliament, which had been in abeyance for more than 300 years, and it sat for the first time in 1999.
The Parliament was set up in such a way that it encouraged power sharing. The first government was a coalition of Labour and Liberal Democrats. However, the tide of opinion in Scotland was flowing toward the SNP and its leader, Alex Salmond. Salmond did the unthinkable at the last general election and won a majority. Immediately, another referendum was on the cards. This time, the stakes were higher – independence would mean the breakup of Britain and an end to a union that had stood the test of time for 300 years.
Whether it will come to pass, who knows? It’s still not clear whether the vote for the SNP is a protest vote against the failings of New Labour and the present coalition government, or whether it’s representative of a genuine wish of the Scottish people to regain their independence. Only time will tell.
What kind of history?
History depends on documents or texts, which creates a bit of a problem, because for most of human history, people have been illiterate. The creators of documents tended to be the educated elite, and if you go back even further, only clerics. Kings needed clerics and clerics needed kings, so most of the documents that survived from the medieval period concern the church and kingship. The ordinary Scot was more or less invisible – a mere footnote in celebrations of great deeds and daring do.
Following the spread of literacy from the late 16th century onward, other voices began to be heard, although the history of great men still dominated. It was really only from the end of the Second World War that these other voices began to be taken seriously by historians. The Second World War was a people’s war, and that led to a people’s history. The working class began to appear in history books! From the 1970s on, so did women! History had ceased to be only a story about the rich and powerful. It had become more inclusive, telling the stories of previously marginalised groups and peoples: homosexuals, gypsies, unusual religious sects and many more.