Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 26 March 2024.
Shirley-Anne Somerville
Scottish National Party
I discussed the matter only yesterday, when I was at Westminster and met my colleague Stephen Flynn, who continues to press the UK Government and will press any successive UK Government on what it would do. Disappointingly, he has had no response.
Paul O’Kane should be assured that the Scottish Government and the SNP group at Westminster will continue to press for action. I have a great deal of respect for Mr O’Kane and there are many issues on which we share common cause, but this Parliament cannot just be about mitigating the worst excesses of Westminster, whether they be Labour or Tory excesses. This Parliament is for much more than that. I am deeply disappointed that a Labour representative comes to the chamber and asks what the Scottish Government will do to mitigate the policy of a prospective Labour Government.
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.
