20th
Century Scotland - An Introduction (III)
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The
post-war period was also a time when urban Scotland was given a
major facelift and there was a mass movement of people out of the
city centres. Again, this was perhaps most noticeable around Glasgow
were over-crowding and slum housing had been a major problem for
many generations. This was one of the biggest challenges for state
intervention policies to face, but the challenge was met swiftly,
with a staggering 86% of all houses built after the war coming from
the public sector. The Clyde Valley Plan was put together by Sir
Patrick Abercrombie and his team of planners, who proposed to move
people out of dilapidated housing in the city centre into New Towns
and peripheral housing schemes, like Pollok, Castlemilk, Drumchapel
and Easterhouse on the outskirts of Glasgow. As land became scarce
to build on, the architectural fashion shifted to the construction
of tower blocks, and whole communities were split up and re-housed
in accommodation which was quite often completely unsuitable for
families or pensioners.
Many of these
housing projects were built in a hurry, they degraded at an alarming
rate, and had often no shops, amenities or adequate transport facilities.
Yet at the time they were viewed as the saviour of slum Britain
and were welcomed by many in the community simply because they had
basic facilities like private toilets. The councils role as
a major landlord also protected people from the unscrupulous activities
of private landlords, who had caused such grief both during and
after the First World War. In the 50s, council rent was a third
of that in the private sector. Again, all these developments made
Scotland a country dependent on state intervention for its survival
and a stronghold for labour at every election - a loyalty which labour
have carried with them into the 21st century.
Devolution
and Regeneration
Scotland
entered the 1970s facing rising unemployment, decline in the industrial
sector yet again, and a Conservative government under Ted Heath
which wanted to reverse the trend of interventionist policy. It
was at this time that the issue of 91热爆 Rule again came to the forefront
of Scottish political life, with the Scottish National Party proclaiming
it a travesty that Scotland could suffer such hardship when the
country had the newly found riches of North Sea Oil just off its
coastline. The SNP had relative success at the 1974 General Election,
taking mainly Tory seats, but the Labour Party were quick to perceive
the threat to their Scottish stronghold and openly flirted with
the idea of 91热爆 Rule. After a disastrous decade for Labour and
the Trade Unions, the party gave way to a referendum on the question
of 91热爆 Rule on 1st May 1979. The result was 51.6% in favour, with
48.4% against the motion, however, this wasn't deemed enough for
Scotland govern its own affairs. The turn-out for the referendum
had been poor, with the 'yes' vote gaining less than a third of
the whole electorate. A late amendment to the Scotland Act had stipulated
that a victory would require at least 40% of the entire electorate,
which was not the case, and the bill was quashed. The SNP reacted
with a 'Scotland Said Yes' campaign and tabled a motion of no confidence
in parliament which was upheld by a one-vote margin - the result
was a new Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher. The SNP
itself lost nine of its 11 seats in the election and 91热爆 Rule was
off the agenda for many years.
In the first two years of the Thatcher administration Scotland lost
a fifth of its workforce. Lowering inflation was the priority, and
this would be done through cuts in public expenditure, privatisation
and the powering down of the Trade Unions. These changes in direction
hit the industrial north of Britain very sorely. The traditional
industries on which Scotland had been so long over-dependent would
no longer be propped up through government funding and allowed to
make losses. Coal miners were hit very badly - 15 pits falling to
two pits throughout the 80s - the textile industry was also put to
rest, including the famous jute trade in Dundee, and steel production
plummeted, with Ravenscraig finally shutting in June 1993. The
last 50 years of Scottish society had been turned upside down, yet
many deemed this to be an inevitable downfall - throughout the whole
century Scotland had been dependent on one ever-narrowing sector
of the economy and finally laying this unhealthy tradition to rest
was never going to be easy. As Scotland entered the 21st century,
the diversification which was lacking for so long was starting to
penetrate the economy, with the electronics industry, the service
sector and financial institutions all excelling.
At the same time Glasgow tried to shake off the stereotypes which
had portrayed it as as a redundant, post-industrial city, fuelled
by alcohol and violence. A huge marketing drive was mobilised to
persuade people of the city's merits. In 1987 a Garden Festival
was opened on the old docklands, which was shortly followed by stints
as European City of Culture and European City of Architecture in
the 1990s. New building projects spread along docks and the city
cleaned up much of its image, although this should be qualified
by adding that many of the city's peripheral housing projects, which
visitors would never see, are still in terrible states of disrepair,
with some of the worst rates of poverty in Britain.
Confidence
in both the economy and Scottish society at large increased throughout
the 1990s and culminated in the re-opening of the Scottish Parliament.
The initiative, which owed much to the efforts of the late Labour
leader, John Smith, was picked up by Tony Blair, and the referendum
came just a few months after Labour's landslide victory in 1997.
This time round the results were unanimous, 74.3% supported 91热爆
Rule, with 63.5% agreeing that the parliament should have tax-varying
powers. In July of 1999 a parliament met in Edinburgh for the first
time since 1707. Many saw the event as the beginning of a new cycle
in Scottish history.
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