scholarly journals Accommodation or political identity: Scottish members of the UK Parliament

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Hall-Lew ◽  
Ruth Friskney ◽  
James M. Scobbie
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
National Party ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Vowel Height

AbstractPhonetic variation among Scottish members of the UK Parliament may be influenced by convergence to Southern English norms (Carr & Brulard, 2006) or political identity (e.g., Hall-Lew, Coppock, & Starr, 2010). Drawing on a year's worth of political speeches (2011–2012) from 10 Scottish members of the UK Parliament (MPs), we find no acoustic evidence for the adoption of a Southern English low vowel system; rather, we find that vowel height is significantly correlated with political party: Scottish Labour Party MPs produce a higher cat vowel (Johnston, 1997) than do Scottish National Party MPs. The results contradict claims that Scottish MPs acquire Anglo-English features while serving in the UK Parliament. Rather, we suggest that the variation indexes political meaning, with a subset of individuals drawing on that indexicality in production.

scholarly journals Constructing social meaning in political discourse: Phonetic variation and verb processes in Ed Miliband's speeches

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Kirkham ◽  
Emma Moore
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Phonetic Variation ◽  
Ed Miliband ◽  
Political Talk ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Different Levels

AbstractThis article investigates how variation across different levels of linguistic structure indexes ideological alignments in political talk. We analyse two political speeches by Ed Miliband, the former leader of the UK Labour Party, with a focus on the use of /t/-glottalling and the types of verb processes that co-occur with the pronouns we and you. We find substantial differences in the production of /t/ between the two speeches in words such as Britain and government, which have been argued to take on particular salience in British political discourse. We contextualise these findings in terms of metalinguistic discourse surrounding Miliband's language use, as well as how he positions himself in relation to different audiences via verb process types. We show that phonetic variation, subject types, and verb processes work synergistically in allowing Miliband to establish a political persona that is sensitive to ideological differences between different audiences. (Social meaning, indexicality, political discourse, verb processes, phonetic variation, /t/-glottalling)*

UK election will complicate Brexit process

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
General Election ◽  
National Party ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Modest Increase ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Theresa May

Significance The result is a stunning setback for Prime Minister Theresa May. The Conservative Party secured a notably larger share of the vote, but it was outpaced by the Labour Party, which achieved a much larger increase. The Scottish National Party (SNP) suffered substantial losses to both the Conservatives (which had been expected) and to Labour (which had not). The Liberal Democrats managed only a modest increase in their representation. Impacts If Sinn Fein once more refuses to take its seats at Westminster, a Conservative-DUP accord would command a slim but not unstable majority. If May survives she will be much less dominant and have to adopt a more collegial style. In different circumstances, the obvious solution might be a second general election in relatively short order. With the UK economy showing signs of slowing, however, the Conservative Party may be reluctant to risk that option.

The SNP and ‘Five Continuing Unions’

2020 ◽  
pp. 148-167
Author(s):  
David Torrance
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Monetary Union ◽  
National Party ◽  
The European Union ◽  
National Authority ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
Head Of State ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk

This chapter flips the book’s analysis and looks at the ‘unionism’ of the Scottish National Party, which after 1942 supported the secession of Scotland from the UK. A speech made by Alex Salmond in 2013 is used as a means of examining different strands of the party’s unionism following its formation in 1934. First was the SNP’s attachment to some form of supra-national authority, initially the British Empire and later the European Union; second was defence co-operation via NATO; third was a form of monetary union as advocated by the Scottish Government during the 2012-14 referendum campaign; fourth was a long-standing SNP commitment to the 1603 Union of the Crowns, or retention of the Queen as head of state in an independent Scotland; and fifth was what Alex Salmond called a ‘social union’ between the ‘peoples of these islands’.

Scottish (Conservative and) Unionist Party: Rise and Fall

2020 ◽  
pp. 71-95
Author(s):  
David Torrance
Keyword(s):  
Labour Party ◽  
National Party ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
National Sentiment

This chapter looks at the difficulties faced by the Scottish Unionist Party as it tried to retain its ‘nationalist’ appeal after returning to government in 1951. Although it implemented some of what had been promised in opposition, it proved harder to harness national sentiment while in office, especially as the Labour Party began accusing the Conservatives of being ‘anti-Scottish’ and not delivering on its promises. Following an electoral high watermark for Scottish Unionists in 1955, ‘nationalist unionism’ transferred to the Scottish Labour opposition. Only in the 2010s was the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (as it became in 1965) in a position to recapture its earlier nationalist unionist appeal, ironically as it competed with a popular Scottish National Party.

Political Participation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Finlay ◽  
Peter Hopkins ◽  
Gurchathen Sanghera
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
National Party ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
Strong Representation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right

At the time of writing, politics within Scotland and the UK is experiencing a period of uncertainty, with issues such as Brexit, Scottish nationalism, the ‘refugee crisis’ and continued economic insecurity creating a complicated and unprecedented political climate. Scotland, for many, is considered to be expressing a distinctive politics to the rest ofthe UK (Mooney, 2013; McAngus, 2015), with the Scottish National Party (SNP) having strong representation in both the Scottish and UK Parliaments. With regard to the electorate, there is a sense that youngpeople in Scotland have recently become more politicised (Baxter et al., 2015; Hopkins, 2015), with sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds having been given the right to vote in the Scottish parliamentary elections and the 2014 independence referendum. This contests the frequent narrative that young people are politically apathetic (Kimberlee, 2002), and adds to a growing body of work that seeks to examine and unearth the varied and complex ways in which young people engage with political issues (Brookes and Hodkinson, 2008; O’Toole and Gale, 2013; Pilkington and Pollock, 2015).

2015 and all that

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-121
Author(s):  
Owen Dudley Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Present Situation ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
National Party ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Scottish History ◽  
First Time

The UK General Election of 2015, in which the Scottish National Party won 56 of the 59 seats, is likely to be a landmark in Scottish history. Moreover, for the first time since 1886, the victor in the predominant country in the Union – the Conservative Party in England – seemed to gain electoral victory in part by hostility to one of the partners of the Union. The article discusses the origins of this electoral tsunami. The immediate origin of the SNP landslide commenced with the disillusion with Scottish Liberalism, but its main victim was the Scottish Labour Party, seemingly fatally damaged by its alliance with the Conservatives during the campaign for a No vote in the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence. But whoever lost the election of 2015, it was won by Nicola Sturgeon, setting an example of civil debate untarnished by Westminster politics. Analogies with the politics of Ireland in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century cast helpful light on the present situation.

scholarly journals Finding a niche? Challenger parties and issue emphasis in the 2015 televised leaders’ debates

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 807-823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Allen ◽  
Judith Bara ◽  
John Bartle
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
National Party ◽  
Green Party ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Plaid Cymru ◽  
Niche Strategy ◽  
Issue Emphasis

Do leaders of ‘challenger’ parties adopt a ‘niche’ strategy in national televised debates? This article answers this question by analysing the content of the two multiparty televised leaders’ debates that took place ahead of the 2015 British general election. Using computer-aided text analysis (CATA), it provides reliable and valid measures of what the leaders said in both debates and develops our theoretical understanding of how challenger-party leaders make their pitches. It finds that the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Green Party, Scottish National Party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru leaders all demonstrated a degree of ‘nicheness’ in their contributions in comparison with the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour leaders. It also finds that the challenger-party leaders placed a greater emphasis on their core concerns. Nevertheless, the debates covered much policy ground. Their structure obliged all party leaders to talk about a broad range of issues.

scholarly journals Whatever Happened to the Progressive Case for the Union? How Scottish Labour’s Failure to Subsume a Clearly Left of Centre Identity with a Pro-Union One Helps to Explain Its Decline

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kieran Wright
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
National Party ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Constitutional Issue

Abstract This article presents an original account of the tactical options available to political parties in multi-level settings. It applies that framework to the case of post-devolution Scotland via an analysis of First Minister’s Questions sessions in the Scottish Parliament. It shows how Scottish Labour adopted a less left-leaning justification for its stance on the constitutional issue in the years after the party lost power at Holyrood to the Scottish National Party. Consequently, the party failed to present itself as a clearly left of centre alternative to the SNP and downplayed the progressive case for Scotland remaining in the UK.

Devolution and Entrenched Household Poverty: Is Scotland Less Mobile?

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Morelli ◽  
Paul Seaman
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
The Other ◽  
National Party ◽  
Total Income ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Household Poverty ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk

The Scottish National Party led Scottish Government has identified household poverty as a key focus for its anti-poverty strategy. The government's ‘Solidarity Target’ seeks to both increase wealth and increase the share of total income gained by the bottom three deciles. The ability to demonstrate the advantages of policy divergence within Scotland, relative to the other parts of the United Kingdom, is central to the government's aim of gaining support for increased powers for the devolved government. This paper seeks to provide evidence on one aspect of the government's anti-poverty strategy: the degree to which Scotland differs from the rest of the UK over levels of entrenched poverty. The paper demonstrates that not only does Scotland have greater entrenched poverty but that the changes in mobility since the 1990s have impacted on Scotland to a lesser degree than the rest of the UK.

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