Home Rule Scottish Labour Party
Which party was Jim Sillars a member of from 1976 to 1979?
Jim Sillars James Sillars ( born 4 October 1937 ) is a Scottish politician and a leading figure in the campaign for Scottish independence . Sillars served as a Labour Party MP for South Ayrshire from 1970 to 1976 . He founded and led the pro-Scottish Home Rule Scottish Labour Party in 1976 , continuing as MP for South Ayrshire until he lost the seat in 1979 . Sillars joined the Scottish National Party in 1980 and later served as MP for Glasgow Govan after winning a by-election in 1988 , and was Depute Leader of the Scottish National Party . He was married to Margo MacDonald until her death in 2014 . Early life . Sillars was born in Ayr , the son of Matthew , a railwayman , and Agnes Sillars ( née Sproat ) , a carpet weaver . He was educated at Newton Park School and Ayr Academy . After leaving school he worked as an apprentice plasterer , before following his father into working on the railways . Sillars served as a radio operator in the Royal Navy from 1956 to 1960 , before becoming a Firefighter . It was as a fireman that he became more active politically , through the Fire Brigades Union ( FBU ) , and he joined the Labour Party in 1960 . He served as a member of Ayr Town Council from 1962 to 1970 , and was Head of Organisation and Social Services at the Scottish Trades Union Congress ( STUC ) from 1968 to 1970 . Labour MP . Sillars was elected at a by-election in 1970 as Member of Parliament ( MP ) for South Ayrshire constituency , representing the Labour Party . He became well known as an articulate , intellectual left-winger , strongly in favour of the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly . SLP breakaway . In 1976 he led a breakaway Scottish Labour Party ( SLP ) . The formation of the SLP was inspired primarily by the failure of the then Labour Government to secure a Scottish Assembly . Sillars threw himself into establishing the SLP as a political force , but ultimately it collapsed following the 1979 General Election . At that election the SLP had nominated a mere three candidates ( including Sillars who was attempting to hold on to his South Ayrshire seat ) . Only Sillars came remotely close to winning and it was this failure to secure a meaningful share of the vote that prompted the decision to disband . Scottish National Party . In the early-1980s , Sillars ( along with many other former SLP members ) joined the Scottish National Party ( SNP ) . Being a left-winger he had fostered close links with the SNP internal 79 Group ; who had encouraged him to join . Sillars , along with the 79 Group and the former SLP members in the SNP , started to shape the SNP as a clearly defined , left-of-centre party . Policies adopted included the support of a non-payment scheme in relation to the poll tax introduced by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher , as well as the policy of independence within the European Union , of which Sillars was a leading exponent . Sillars also started talking in terms of direct action to bring prominence to the Scottish independence cause , stating that : we must be prepared to hear the sound of cell doors slamming behind us if we are prepared to win independence . Having failed to win the Linlithgow seat from Tam Dalyell of the Labour Party at the 1987 general election , Sillars was chosen to be the SNP candidate for the Glasgow Govan by-election . Govan was a Labour seat ( although Sillarss wife Margo MacDonald had won it for the SNP in a by-election fifteen years previously , in 1973 ) , but Sillars won a dramatic victory . Sillars became the SNPs Depute Leader , with many surprised he did not stand for the party leadership when it became available in 1990 . The 1992 general election proved a disappointment for Sillars personally ; as he lost his Glasgow Govan seat . It was at this time that Sillars made his famous comment that the Scottish people were 90 minute patriots ( a reference to the amount of time a football match lasts ) . This comment proved the beginning of a break with the SNP leadership . The SNP leader at the time , Alex Salmond , had been a Sillars ally , but his comments in the aftermath of the 1992 general election ( and it is also suspected the fact that Sillars supported Salmonds opponent in the leadership contest , Margaret Ewing ) , started this break . In 2014 his book In Place of Fear II : A Socialist Programme for an Independent Scotland was published , in which he outlined his vision of a socialist and independent Scotland . The book was named after Aneurin Bevans 1952 work , In Place of Fear . In 2016 , contrary to the SNP position , he announced he would campaign in favour of British withdrawal from the EU during the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum . He has said : I think ( the EU ) is a profoundly undemocratic organisation which has shown a callous disregard for people , in Portugal , Spain and Greece for example . Theyve been willing to make people destitute - beggar nations - in pursuit of a single policy to create a United States of Europe irrespective of whether the people want it . Scottish independence referendum . During the 2014 Scottish independence referendum , Sillars said : BP , in an independent Scotland , will need to learn the meaning of nationalisation , in part or in whole , as it has in other countries who have not been as soft as we have forced to be . We will be the masters of the oil fields , not BP or any other of the majors . Alba Party . On 26 March 2021 , Sillars backed Alex Salmonds new Alba Party by saying : This is a very welcome development as it gives the independence voters a party that is not the SNP - which many , including me , with justification , believe is tainted with political corruption , and which is grossly incompetent in a whole range of its activities from building ferries to building hospitals , and boasting about being the Saudi Arabia of wind , without creating jobs . He still remains a member of the SNP . Published work . - Why Im not in the SNP , in Easton , Norman ( ed. ) , Crann-Tàra No . 1 , Winter 1977 , p . 4 - Review of The Politics of Nationalism and Devolution by H.M . Drucker & Gordon Brown , in Murray , Glen ( ed. ) , Cencrastus No . 6 , Autumn 1981 , p . 34 - No Turning Back : The Case for Scottish Independence within the European Community and How we face the Challenge of 1992 , Scottish National Party , August 1988 - Freedom and Order , in Ross , Raymond J . ( ed. ) , Cencrastus No . 34 , Summer 89 , pp . 14 – 16 , - In Place of Fear II , Vagabond Voices , Glasgow , 2014 , References . - Jim Sillars calls for day of reckoning - Govan by-election online video Scotsman.com - Sillars calls for Swinneys exit BBC.co.uk