Rebus is for the most part apolitical – in "Strip Jack" it is revealed that he has only voted three times in his adult life, once for Labour, once for the Conservatives and once for the SNP. His general ambivalence towards politics is tempered by a dislike of sectarianism, resulting from his experiences as a soldier in Northern Ireland. He also reveals that he abstained on the Scottish devolution referendum in 1979 with suggested occasional guilt pangs when he later befriends an independence advocate. He voted against independence in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Many plots feature nascent political independence or devolution as backdrop with reference and settings including Scottish parliament.