"The Little White Rose"

The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet - and breaks the heart.

Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978) "The Little White Rose"


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Take a look through the electoral maps that represent the make up of the Scottish parliament through the years.
The following colours represent each of the four main parties.

Labour Red

Liberal Democrats Orange

SNP Yellow

Conservative Blue


The Scottish Parliament election 1999 was the first general election of the Scottish Parliament, with voting taking place on 6 May 1999 to elect 129 members. Following the election, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats formed the Scottish Executive, with Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Donald Dewar becoming First Minister.

The parliament was to be elected using Mixed member proportional representation which is a combination of First-past-the-post and proportional representation. This meant that it would be unlikely for any party to gain a majority of seats in the new parliament and coalitions would have to be formed.
The Labour Party was the largest party following the election with 56 seats, which was nine seats short of an overall majority and a coalition was then formed with the Liberal Democrats who had won 17 seats. The Scottish National Party (SNP) had done well in opinion polls running up to the election, gaining 40% in some approval ratings but this level of support was not maintained, and the SNP were the second largest party with 35 seats. The Conservative Party failed to win a single constituency seat but managed to win 18 seats through the Additional Member System.
The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and the Greens picked up unexpected additional member seats.

The Scottish Parliament election 2003, the second general election of the Scottish Parliament was held on 1 May 2003 and it brought no change in terms of control of the Scottish Executive. Jack McConnell, the Labour Party Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), remained in office as First Minister and the Executive continued as a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition.
The results also showed rises in support for "minor parties" including the Scottish Green Party and the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and declines in support for the Labour Party and the Scottish National Party (SNP). The Conservative and Unionist Party and the Scottish Liberal Democrats each polled almost exactly the same percentage of the vote as they had in the 1999 election, with each holding the same number of seats as before.
Three independent MSPs were elected: Dennis Canavan, Margo MacDonald and Jean Turner. John Swinburne, leader of the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party, was also elected. This led to talk of a "rainbow" Parliament, but the arithmetic meant that the coalition of Labour and Scottish Liberal Democrats could continue in office, which they did until the 2007 election.

The Scottish Parliament election 2007, was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fell on the same day.
The Scottish National Party emerged as the largest party with 47 seats, closely followed by the incumbent Scottish Labour Party with 46 seats. The Scottish Conservatives won 17 seats, the Scottish Liberal Democrats 16 seats, the Scottish Green Party 2 seats and one Independent (Margo MacDonald) was also elected. The Scottish National Party formed a minority government as a result of the election, with support from the Greens on certain issues.

The Scottish Parliament election 2011, were held on Thursday 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.
The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, with the Scottish National Party winning a historic 69 seats, the most seats the party has ever held for either a Holyrood or Westminister election in its history and party leader Alex Salmond expected to remain First Minister of Scotland. The Scottish Labour Party lost seven seats and will be the largest opposition party; party leader Iain Gray announced his resignation following his party's disappointing result. The Liberal Democrats were soundly defeated; their popular vote share was cut in half and their seat total reduced from 17 to five. Tavish Scott anounced his resignation as party leader shortly after the election. For Scottish Conservatives, the election proved disappointing as their popular vote dropped slightly and their number of seats fell by 5. Annabel Goldie the Tory leader also resigned.

It's an obvious trend when you look at it like this.



Credits to

Wikipedia for content

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