Edinburgh Napier University

  John Smith, when Leader of the Labour Party, said that devolution was “the settled will of the Scottish people”. However, far from quelling debates about governance – and particularly the implications for economic policy and performance in Scotland – such debates continue unabated. These issues dominated much of the Scottish Parliament election in May 2007, the third set of elections since the Parliament was reconvened in 1999, after a gap of nearly 300 years. The Scottish National Party (SNP), who had put the promise of a referendum on independence for Scotland at the heart of its campaign, ended up as the largest party (with 47 of the 129 parliamentary seats compared to Labour’s 46), although how much was due to its campaign and how much to disaffection with Labour over Iraq and other issues is an open question. The SNP formed a minority government in Edinburgh, led by the new First Minister Alex Salmond, but it will find it difficult, if not impossible, to put together support for its more contentious policies, especially the referendum idea.