Scottish Parliament at 20: How PR gave smaller parties a big voice

The proportional representation voting system has transformed how Scotland is governed, writes Gina Davidson
Robin Harper and Mark Ballard salute their election as MSPs for the Scottish Greens in 2003. Picture: Neil Hanna/TSPLRobin Harper and Mark Ballard salute their election as MSPs for the Scottish Greens in 2003. Picture: Neil Hanna/TSPL
Robin Harper and Mark Ballard salute their election as MSPs for the Scottish Greens in 2003. Picture: Neil Hanna/TSPL

Devolution has seen coalition, minority and majority governments run Scotland over the last two decades.

Right from the off, the mix of first past the post for constituency seats and a proportional representation system for electing list MSPs was supposed to deliver coalition governments; this to better reflect the choices of the Scottish electorate, and to mark the Parliament out as different to Westminster which is dominated by a two-party system.

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As a result, the first elections in 1999 saw Labour winning the most seats, but still nine short of a majority. A coalition government was formed with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, who won 17 seats, making Jim Wallace Scotland’s first deputy First Minister.

SSP MSP Tommy Sheridan takes his seat in the former Scottish Parliament debating chamber on The Mound in 2002. Picture: David Cheskin/PASSP MSP Tommy Sheridan takes his seat in the former Scottish Parliament debating chamber on The Mound in 2002. Picture: David Cheskin/PA
SSP MSP Tommy Sheridan takes his seat in the former Scottish Parliament debating chamber on The Mound in 2002. Picture: David Cheskin/PA
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The SNP were the second largest party, while the Conservative Party was still recovering from its wipeout in the 1997 UK general election and failed to win a single constituency seat. The list ensured it was still represented with 18 MSPs.

And PR also saw the Scottish Socialist Party and the Scottish Greens send their first MSPs to the Scottish Parliament. Indeed, Robin Harper became the first ever elected Green parliamentarian in the UK. There was also an independent in former Labour MP Dennis Canavan.

The 2003 election saw no change in the government – with a Labour-LibDem executive – but PR made its presence felt as the make up of the Parliament changed.

The Scottish Green Party and the Scottish Socialist Party returned more MSPs while there was a decline in support for Labour and the SNP. And joining Canavan as an independent were Margo MacDonald and Jean Turner. Finally, John Swinburne, leader of the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party, was also elected.

Coalition of course meant things had to be done differently. While the two parties signed up to a partnership agreement which in practice meant the government was unlikely to be defeated, the LibDems were able to extract a price.

So the first government programmes included some key LibDem goals such as the Graduate Endowment & Student Support(Scotland) Act of 2001, which ensured that students would not have to pay tuition fees before they graduated or started earning above a certain amount. Then there was the Local Governance (Scotland) Act of 2004 which saw the LibDem policy of PR for council elections introduced.

Things changed again after the 2007 elections which saw the SNP win the most seats - by one – and the SSP and the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party, lose all their seats. Two Scottish Greens were elected and Margo MacDonald returned as an independent.

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This time the LibDems refused to negotiate on a coalition with the SNP, so a deal was struck with the Scottish Greens. It was a loose agreement, but in return for general support of its minority government, the SNP agreed to introduce a Climate Change Bill as an early measure.

Despite the agreement, the SNP government could still be out voted. A case in point was the 2009 budget where it had to concede funding for town regeneration projects in return for the support of the Conservative Party MSPs to get the budget Bill passed. Margo MacDonald also won extra funding for Edinburgh because of its capital city status in return for her support.

But despite their support for the minority government, the two Scottish Green MSPs caused the same budget to fall as they voted against it because they felt the funding allocated for a home insulation project was not sufficient.

The other side of the coin saw an SNP pledge to bring in a Local Income Tax scheme fail to get off the ground, as John Swinney, then Finance Minister, said there was not the parliamentary numbers to get it through.

Come the 2011 elections, it was all change again. This time, despite the PR system, the SNP won an outright majority – a remarkable feat. Of course it meant there was no need for party negotiations, and the SNP soon declared their plans to hold an independence referendum as they were able to get the necessary legislation through the Scottish Parliament 
(after failing to do so in 
2009).

By the last Holyrood elections in 2016, the system of proportional representation reasserted itself, and currently the SNP government is once again supported by the Scottish Greens – who this year extracted as a price for their budget support a plan to introduce a workplace parking levy to tackle emissions and pollution.

Gina Davidson