Regional resistance to European integration: the case of the Scottish National Party, 1961-1972

Abstract

'This article examines the evolution of Scottish National Party (SNP) attitudes, policy, and rhetoric toward European integration between 1961 and 1972. Initially lukewarm, even positive, toward the proposed British membership in the European Economic Community (EEC), the party became increasingly hostile to EEC membership and adopted an aggressive anti-EEC position. By the early 1970s, the SNP was the leading anti-EEC political actor in Scotland, and it was the SNP's efforts that helped turn an ignored British foreign policy issue into a Scottish domestic political issue that had wider implications for Scotland's relationship with the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as for the ongoing Europeanization of Scottish politics and society.' (author's abstract)|