The Scottish National Party (SNP; Scottish Gaelic: Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba; Scots: Scots Naitional Pairty) is a social democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom.
The SNP was founded in 1934, and has had continuous representation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom since Winnie Ewing's groundbreaking victory at the 1967 Hamilton by-election.
With the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the SNP became the second largest party in the devolved chamber, serving two terms as the main party of the Opposition. In the 2007 elections, the SNP won the most seats in the Scottish Parliament for the first time, governing as a minority administration, with party leader Alex Salmond as First Minister of Scotland. In the 2011 elections, the SNP won a landslide victory and became the first party to form a majority government in the Scottish Parliament since its resumption.
The SNP currently holds 6 of 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom and 2 of 6 Scottish seats in the European Parliament. The SNP is also currently the largest group in Scottish local government and, in coalition, forms 12 out of 32 local administrations.
Read more about Scottish National Party: History, Party Leaders, Party Presidents, Scottish Parliamentary Leaders, Westminster Parliamentary Leaders, Party Organisation, Policy Platform, Party Ideology, European Affiliation, Electoral Performance
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“Better wear out shoes than sheets.”
—18th-century Scottish proverb, collected in J. Kelly, Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs (1721)
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“This will not be disloyalty but will show that as members of a party they are loyal first to the fine things for which the party stands and when it rejects those things or forgets the legitimate objects for which parties exist, then as a party it cannot command the honest loyalty of its members.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)