Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 17 January 2024.
Shona Robison
Scottish National Party
The UK Government’s real-terms cuts to the Scottish budget have consequences for all parts of our budget. That is the reality of the difficult decisions that we have had to make. A 10 per cent reduction in capital budgets affects infrastructure investment in rural Scotland as well as in urban Scotland, so Tory MSPs cannot pitch up here with their list of asks when their Government has slashed the funding for Scotland’s public services. [
Interruption
.]
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
