The Question of Scotland

In September 2014, with the Scottish independence referendum, the United Kingdom came close to being broken apart after three centuries of one of the most successful political unions in history. Yet despite a conclusive No vote, the SNP took almost every seat in Scotland at the 2015 general election, and won a second majority at the Scottish parliamentary election of 2016. Tam Dalyell has been one of the key players in the debate about Devolution since 1962, when he was first elected MP for West Lothian. In this book he recounts his personal involvement with the issue, both during his parliamentary career and after, highlighting how both Labour and Conservative administrations have approached the question of devolved power for Scotland and ultimately failed to stem the Nationalist tide.

Tam Dalyell was born in Edinburgh in 1932. He joined the Labour Party in 1956 after the Suez Crisis and served as an MP from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow. He retired as Father of the House and Scotland's longest serving politician in 2005. He died in 2017.