Flower of Scotland (ii)

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Independence Day fireworks.

1st May 1976.

The Regiment of the Scots Guards stood proudly to attention at midnight, amidst the glare of the international media as Private Ian Galbraith and Lance Corporal William Taylor marched to the flag pole that was put in the centre of the courtyard of Edinburgh Castle. As it turned midnight, a lone bugler struck up last post as the Union flag was lowered and then, the Saltire raised. That was that. The two hundred and sixty-nine year union between Scotland and England was over. From the temporary stand, erected for dignitaries to witness the occasion, a ripple of applause developed. The revellers down in Princes Street had a party.

Suddenly, fireworks lit the night sky.

A nation was re-born.

2nd May 1976.
William Wolfe sat in the temporary office set out for him in the old Scottish Office building in Edinburgh. He sat down as the temporary Prime Minister of an independent Scotland, his first task, to pave the way for the first General Election. This was not an easy task. Several issues and obstacles were already facing him. It was agreed that a timescale should be put in place of one year for the election and that in the meantime the elected MPs would act as the members for an independent Scotland. The first task of the new Prime Minister, Billy Wolfe was to name his cabinet. He did so with a speed unexpected by many, but it was felt that speed was essential in the circumstances.



The Cabinet of the Government of Scotland as at 2nd May, 1976.
The Prime Minister : William Wolfe MP
Deputy Prime Minister : Gordon Wilson MP
Finance Secretary : George Reid MP
Foreign Secretary : Winifred Ewing MP
Home Secretary : Iain MacCormick MP
Health and Social Security Secretary : Margo MacDonald MP
Education Secretary : Margaret Bain MP
Trade and Industry Secretary : Douglas Henderson MP
Defence Secretary : Donald Stewart MP
Agriculture and Fisheries Secretary : Hamish Watt MP
Transport and Local Government Secretary : Isobel Lindsay MP
Parliamentary Convener : George Thompson MP
Advocate General of Scotland : Ian Hamilton QC
 
The first meeting of the cabinet was on the morning of the second in Bute House, the new accommodation of the Scottish Prime Minister, formerly of the Scottish Secretary. In Upon the suggestion of Ewing, it was agreed that a Constitutional Convention would run parallel to the Parliament over the next year, the findings to be first voted on by Parliament and then put before the people in a referendum.

The next issue was that of the currency. Reid made clear that he believed that going along with the McCrone Report which had helped fuel the rise in the SNP, he would go along with a separate Scottish currency, but that this should only be introduced after an agreed timescale and with the proviso that for the initial period, the currency be linked to Sterling. Anything else, so he said would risk gambling with the Scottish economy.

One issue which helped point him towards this view was that Edward Heath had signed an agreement stating that Britain would not gain any income from the oil until the petroleum companies were making a profit.

This would, it was stated, initially curtail Scottish spending and potentially create unease amongst the general public, the expectation of whom had been risen to the heights of Icarus. As such, Reid was forced to warn the other ministers that the first few years of independence would be rocky, but after that things would begin to improve.

Several at the table were unhappy with this news, Margo MacDonald openly questioning whether or not the petroleum in the North Sea could be re-nationalised. This was rejected by Reid, and a lively discussion was entered into around the cabinet table on the topic. In the end, a vote was made and Reid won through, if narrowly. Wolfe made the deciding call when he came down in favour of Reid’s position with the interesting aside that “if we use this bonanza wisely and don’t cause too much of a ruckus then we can and will be able to influence matters more than we would otherwise.”

Following the meeting, a number of phone calls came through for the Prime Minister. The first of which coming from the White House, with President Ford calling to congratulate Wolfe on his achievement. Calls from various other world leaders followed, from countries as diverse as the Soviet Union to Spain. Wolfe was privately delighted by this international attention. It was a sign that he had finally achieved his aim.

He could now, with some justification, consider himself the father of the nation.

link to the negotiations.

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The Scottish Parliament chamber in alternative use during the festival of politics.

The traditional Unionist parties in Scotland were in a mess. The Conservatives had been punished for attempting to suppress the report on the effect of North Sea Oil by Gavin McCrone, the Labour Party for not seeing the reality of the situation until it was too late. How they could recover given the circumstances was up for debate. The Liberals had come out the best, but were never large enough to sway events significantly.

The Conservatives were the first to react. George Younger put himself up as the leader of the party, putting himself as a safe pair of hands, urgently needed in turbulent times. He argued that the party accept independence and begin campaigning in the Scottish context. Against him was Gordon Campbell, the former Scottish Secretary who had withheld the report. As such, he was an outsider, but was still popular in unionist circles. He argued the corner of maintaining the link with the UK party and beginning the campaign for a new union.

Campbell fought a brave, principled campaign, but given the situation, he was seen as a liability with the wider Scottish public and as such was soundly beaten. As a result, the merger of the Scottish Unionist Party and the Conservative Party in 1965 was officially undone. The Scottish Conservative Party as the new party was to be known was born. Campbell considered splitting from the main party and forming a new Unionist Party, but he eventually backed down due to lack of support.

The Labour Party were in a much more difficult position. Not only in Scottish terms had they been defeated, in Scottish terms, in the 1975 election for the first time in twenty years, but their MPs had been amongst the most vociferous in favour of the union during the referendum campaign. Unlike the Conservatives, they had not the history of a separate organisation and were being attacked from the left on many issues by the new government.

Their plight was enhanced when Scots Labour MPs from English Constituencies such as Jack Cunningham were openly calling for the party across Great Britain to remain united and, with constructive engagement, discussions should be brought about for a new federal union. This played into the hands of the nationalists who argued Labour were wanting to reintroduce the union by stealth. As it worked out, the party had its first and most bitter leadership election in the month of may.

Following much debate, several candidates emerged such as Willie Hamilton from the left of the party, alongside Bruce Millan and Willie Ross. During a spirited campaign, Bruce Millan, the former Shadow Scottish Secretary was elected the leader of the Labour Party by one vote. Willie Hamilton though had, in standing simultaneously, been elected as Millians deputy. The result was that the Labour Party was to be as divided as it had been at any point in its history.

Aside from the ado in the other parties, the Liberals were by contrast a picture of serenity. David Steel was elected as the leader of the Scottish Liberals unopposed.

The scene was set for the following year.
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The first vote taken by the Scottish Parliament was one over the creation of a Scottish Central Bank. George Reid put the motion before the chamber, announcing that it was being created as a pre-cursor to having a Scots Pound, separate from Sterling. He gave the timescale he envisaged for the new currency to be created and how he would, if he possibly could, the attached risk. The chamber was lively, with several Labour and Conservative members arguing strongly against the move, partly and unmentioned on the grounds that it would solidify the split of Great Britain, and over various other reasons, from the accusation of the government taking too long on the issue to it going too quickly and with undue risk. These concerns were brushed aside and when it came to the vote, it passed 37-29.

The Scottish Central Bank would revolutionise Scottish Banking. At that point, various Scottish clearing banks existed, with the right to print their own, branded bank notes. This vote meant that when the Scots Pound was re-established, these notes would pass onto history. This created the first major event of the new nation, as George Younger snatched it, calling the event the death of the Bank of Scotland pound note, and urging people to sign a petition to ‘Save the pound’. This campaign was, in terms of backers, an unmitigated success, gaining over 200,000 signatures, but the government was not to be swayed on the issue.

The Prime Minister was not present at the first success of his regime, as he was on business alongside Winnie Ewing in New York, where he was to address the United Nations as the head of government of the newest member state, welcomed on the doorstep by Kurt Waldheim. Overall, the reaction was frostier than he expected, but he was recognised, and as such, the Kingdom of Scotland was now recognised by the UN.
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The very fact it was the Kingdom of Scotland ruffled many feathers amongst quite a few Scots. The constitutional convention, which was being chaired by Gordon Wilson was daily in its year long tour of Scotland, where it was listening to local views in the town and church halls from Blairgowrie to Ballater, from Stranraer to John O’Groats hearing more and more republican voices. It did vary wildly from area to area though. In the leafy suburbs of Edinburgh, and the flute playing areas of Airdrie, the Royal family were still held in high regard, although in the main, the general consensus was that Scotland should be heading towards a republic. This led to the question of which type of republic to put towards the nation and whether there should be alternatives on the ballot paper.

Following much debate, two systems were found attractive in regards the type of republic, that of France and that of West Germany. The French had the advantage of having both a powerful head of state and Parliament, whilst the German system offered the protection that Parliament would take precedence, with the President effectively taking the role of the Queen. The option of Parliament electing the President was, however ruled out.

In the meantime, people were starting to complain. As part of the independence negotiations, it was agreed that Scotland would leave the BBC coverage area and a separate SBC would be created. This led to massive spending in establishing a new BBC headquarters in Glasgow. Unlike previous spending however, it was revealed that this spending was coming directly from the public purse in the form of a grant to the SBC.

In the meantime, in a vain effort to build up the schedule, many shows were commissioned of whose quality was rather suspect.

This led to the SBC having huge rated shows being brought in from England and shows from Scotland bombing. This was, however by the government put down to issues with start-up. One area which was popular was that the SBC did manage to do well was in that they were awarded the first ever three year contract to cover the Scottish Premier Division, meaning that every Saturday, one football game would be shown.

STV, Grampian and Borders television had far less problems when it came to this issue, already being independent companies within the ITV network. It was agreed that in terms of news, STV and Grampian would opt-out of the ITV news network and that Borders TV would have two frequencies so that it could broadcast news for both Scotland and England in equal proportion.
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WORK-IN! Yelled the headline of the Daily Record, as it was announced that the Clydeside workers had opted, under their leader Jimmy Reid to perform a work-in, in protest to the decision of Ted Heath to move the production of MoD contracts from the Yarrow and Kvaerner, affecting the production of the HMS Battleaxe and various other small projects which were on offer. The Scottish Government could do little to prevent this from happening, but had no desire to hold a Type-23 frigate. This led to a stand-off between the yards and the government, where the shipyard workers continued to work on the ships in the yards, despite the fact that they knew neither the UK nor the Scottish government wanted the ship.

Following a fortnight, Donald Stewart relented. In Parliament, to the barracking of the assembled opposition and the silence of the Government benches, he announced that Scotland would fulfil the contract obligations and the new Royal Scottish Navy would take control of the ship when it was launched. Privately, George Reid had agreed to the move on principle, on the condition that the ship be sold off in due course, but this could not be revealed as it was feared it would affect the price.

In the first major industrial dispute, the unions and the Clyde shipyard workers had won.
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George Reid had a headache. He sat in his office peering over the figures for his first budget and it was scary reading. In five years, the money from the North Sea would begin to flow through the coffers of the nation, but in the meantime, there would be five difficult years and he would preside over them. England was helping in providing Scotland with trade, but the fear was there that disillusionment would set in over the next period, pushing the SNP out of office, or potentially even creating the circumstances where a new union would be possible.

This was, however the nightmare scenario.

The only option he had was to make cuts. Having agreed to back the new frigate on the Clyde, he opted to rim back further elsewhere in the Defence budget, also cutting back in areas such as Agriculture, health and tourism. The trouble was that he knew this would inevitably lead to industrial action but there was little leg room available. The new governor of the Central Bank, Lord Polwarth had suggested that Reid attempt to seek out a loan from the IMF to tide Scotland over, but this would come with conditions that the government cut back spending. This in itself would solve the temporary financial problems, but create political issues as it would look as if Scotland was seeking a bail out straight after becoming independent.

This led to the decision to cut back across the board, with some tax rises included. When Reid stood in front of Parliament and announced this, there was uproar. The SNP had won the ‘75 election on the grounds of Scotland being better off independent. Reid explained that this would be a temporary issue until the North Sea Oil began to filter into the economy, but the media were almost unanimous in their condemnation. This was compounded when it emerged that this meant the old Scottish regiments were to be merged into two regiments as a result. It was clear that difficult choices had to be made.

The problem was exacerbated by the fact that both Labour and the Conservatives were now vowing to hold a public enquiry should they win the upcoming election.

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