Why Scottish nationalists should see Burnham as a real threat – and an opportunity | Rory Scothorne

The PM’s goals may spell bad news for the SNP. Ironically, his EU bridge-building could also resurrect their dreams of independenceFifty years ago this month, a group of leftwing Scots gathered in the Golden Lion hotel in Stirling for the inaugural conference of a new political party. The “Scottish Labour party” had formally split from Labour at the beginning of 1976, driven by disillusionment over the party’s timid proposals for a new Scottish assembly. They were led by the firebrand MP for South Ayrshire, Jim Sillars, who promised to take Scotland’s Labour tradition back to its roots in both socialism and home rule.Sillars’ new party was a media sensation in Scotland, and quickly joined by public intellectuals such as Tom Nairn, Hamish Henderson and Neal Ascherson. It offered something new and exciting: a fusion of the two movements that were battling for Scotland’s soul in a decade that had already been defined by electoral clashes between Labour and the Scottish National party. Continue reading...