It took decades of campaigning and two referendums to create a Scottish Parliament. Holyrood is now so firmly established it’s easy to forget how long the battle was to see it built.
As far back as 1979, a majority of Scots voted in favour of powers being devolved from London to Edinburgh. The Conservatives then spent 18 years trying their hardest to ignore the growing campaign for devolution.
The party also called for Scots to reject it when a second referendum was finally held in 1997. So the suspicion lingers that many Tories would gladly shut down the Scottish Parliament, given the chance.
