AHC/WI: Scottish Devolution fails

Considering that the referendum was like 75% yes, then it would be hard for it not to happen, unless somehow there was a much lower turnout than 60%, like with the 1979 referendum...

Or if the Tories somehow win the 1997 election, which is really hard...

However, Welsh devolution is easier to not fail...it was really close apparently...
 
Nothing is inevitable, but removing the Scottish victim complex about 'the Tories' probably helps - that in turn needs a political PoD some time back in the 1960s, which almost certainly does weird things to the 1979 referendum.

But in any case, the 1979 referendum showed that the Scottish people favoured devolution, and that tendency strengthened over time. Even with the most favourable near-term PoD for Unionists, devolution will almost certainly succeed. What you need to do is persuade the Scots to see themselves as British first, Scottish second, which probably means doing away with the Jacobite rebellions, and possibly even going back to the Middle Ages. Unless you do away with ethnic nationalism instead, but that probably means changing fundamental human nature...
 
What if Labour never introduced devolution? Would they just want it later, or would they be content with Labour being government, and then want devolution if the Tories got power?
 
Also, I never understood why exactly there wasn't a provision placed in the Scottish Act that said that the main Parliament could pass laws pertaining to Scotland, but Scotland could re-vote on them in their own parliament.
 
Same as the tin. How could, in 1997, Scottish devolution fail? Or was it inevitable?

By 1997 it's probably too late for Devolution to fail... I'm not sure what the PoD would be but in order to prevent Scottish Home Rule / Independence from becoming a mainstream cause in Scotland you would probably need:

1. The 1973 reorganisation of local government in Scotland to go ahead
2. Break up the Scottish Office - divide it's money/powers between the Regional Councils and the relevant departments in Westminster. Once the Scottish Office is gone, creating a devolved government in Scotland becomes a much bigger bureaucratic challenge.
3. Somehow people like John Smith, Donald Dewar, Gordon Brown ect. are not converted to the idea of Devolution, and the Labour party doesn't take it up as policy in the 1970s.
4. In general the people of Scotland feel better served by Westminster direct rule than they did OTL from the 1950s onwards.
5. The unravelling of the British Empire doesn't reawaken Scottish "national consciousness" in the same way it did in OTL.
6. The United Kingdom's transition to a post-industrial economy is much smoother and less socially destructive (this list is getting less plausible as it goes on.)

It's also worth pointing out that Scottish nationalism is not fundamentally about "ethnic nationalism" or "hating the Tories."
 
Ha, good luck with that. Scots will irrationally hate "the Tories" for a long time to come.

The Scottish economy was devastated by the economic policies pursued by the Tories in the 1980s .They then decided to use us Scots as guinea pigs for the Poll Tax. Now there is David Cameron with his aim of stirring up trouble between Scotland and England. Irrational ? I think not.
 
The Scottish economy was devastated by the economic policies pursued by the Tories in the 1980s .They then decided to use us Scots as guinea pigs for the Poll Tax. Now there is David Cameron with his aim of stirring up trouble between Scotland and England. Irrational ? I think not.

It'd be rational if Labour wasn't about as equally horrible to Scotland as the Tories were. Being solid Labour voters (until recently...) and blaming the Tories for all their problems was completely absurd. Labour was prett damn lucky gettinh away with it as long as they did.
 
Ha, good luck with that. Scots will irrationally hate "the Tories" for a long time to come.
Labour as well now if the reports are accurate. Several newspaper articles I've read have had quotes about them facing what some have termed "irrational hatred" during the present elections, Red Tories indeed.
 
It'd be rational if Labour wasn't about as equally horrible to Scotland as the Tories were. Being solid Labour voters (until recently...) and blaming the Tories for all their problems was completely absurd. Labour was prett damn lucky gettinh away with it as long as they did.
I

Until the Referendum I don't think Labour treated Scotland horribly in the way the Tories did. But they are about to suffer big time partly because of how they talked down Scotland during the debate about independence and partly because their economic polices are are too similar to the Tories .There are other reasons but these are probably the two main ones.
 
It'd be rational if Labour wasn't about as equally horrible to Scotland as the Tories were. Being solid Labour voters (until recently...) and blaming the Tories for all their problems was completely absurd. Labour was prett damn lucky gettinh away with it as long as they did.
I'm sorry but this is just rubbish.
 
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