The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic and Scottish nationalist party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence.

The SNP is the largest political party in Scotland in terms of membership, MSPs and local councillors.

The SNP was founded in 1934

With the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the SNP became the second largest party, serving two terms as the Opposition.

In 2007, the SNP won the most seats in the Scottish Parliament, forming a minority Governmant with party leader Alex Salmond elected First Minister of Scotland.

In 2011, the SNP formed a majority government in the Scottish Parliament.

The SNP currently holds 6 of 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom

The SNP currently holds 65 of 129 seats in the Scottish parliament.

Membership 25,000

Alexander MacEwan, 1934 - 1936 Andrew Dewar Gibb, 1936 - 1940 William Power, 1940 – 1942 Douglas Young, 1942 – 1945 Bruce Watson, 1945 – 1947 Robert McIntyre, 1947 – 1956 James Halliday, 1956 – 1960 Arthur Donaldson, 1960 – 1969 William Wolfe, 1969 – 1979 Gordon Wilson, 1979 – 1990 Alex Salmond, 1990 – 2000 John Swinney, 2000 - 2004 Alex Salmond, 2004 – Present

Alex Salmond

Gordon Wilson

John Swinney

Scottish independence

Scottish nationalism

Social democracy

Civic nationalism Republicanism

Fundamentalists

Gradualists

The SNP have been the main party to promote Scottish independence from the rest of the UK.

On the 15 of October 2012 the SNP gain a landmark victory by signing the foundation for legally holding a referendum on Scottish independence.

The SNP had attempted to gain this in 2007 but they were unsuccessful in negotiation with the UK government.

The referendum will be held on the 18 September 2014.

The question will be: should Scotland an independent country?

The answer is only a Yes or No.

The SNP are a central left wing party.

Health and Social Services

The SNP have increased the number of consultants, doctors, nurses, dentists, emergency workers and cleaners in the NHS since 2007.

The SNP has abolished prescription charges, ending the unfair tax on ill health.

HousingThe SNP’s various schemes to support first-time buyers, including the open-market and shared equity programme, have helped 6,400 households buy a home, and they recently announced an additional £16million to further expand schemes like this.

The SNP will maintain the momentum generated in council house building by funding construction of 5,000 new council homes in the next parliamentary term, creating an estimated 8,000 jobs. Overall, our aim is to build over 6,000 new socially-rented houses each year.

Tourism

The SNP want the world to see Scotland as a great place to visit and a great place to invest.

The SNP will work with the National Companies and Collections bringing together, where they can provide, National Company tours, museum and gallery loans and trade missions for an ‘all Scotland’ approach to cultural and economic promotion.

Sports and The ArtsUnder the SNP, huge strides have been made in the delivery of Physical Education in our schools. 55% of school pupils now receive two hours of PE per week, compared to just 5% in 2005.

The SNP have used £40 million seized from organised criminals and invested it in a wide range of Scottish activities – from football to basketball to hockey – for children in deprived areas.

Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries The SNP will support and protect our famous and valuable salmon and freshwater fisheries. They will modernise the management structures and continue investing in the Strategic Framework for Scottish Freshwater Fisheries.

The SNP will keep the Forestry Commission as a publicly-owned body and our forestry estate as an asset for the nation.

Education and Training

The SNP have created a new type of national qualifications for young people in 2013-2014. They have said it will be on time and on budget.

The SNP have pledged to maintain the policy of free higher education for all Scottish citizens, by putting £93 million into university funding.

Law and Order

The SNP have said “the best way to fight crime and make our neighbourhoods safer is to have a visible police presence on our street. That is why over the last four years the SNP has put 1000 more police on the beat in Scotland”.

The SNP wanted to tackle the problem of gun crime in Scotland, so they have started a new scheme this means every gun before being sold is test fired and the marks left on the bullet from the gun are recorded. This helped the problem of gun crime to be tacked easily.

Some Aspects of Transport

In recent months the SNP government has provided an extra £19 million to deal with the damage caused to our roads by the severe winter weather.

The SNP kept it policy to extend the M80 and the M74 which they achieved.

Environment

Since the SNP took office they raised the renewable electricity target for 2020 from 40% to 50%, and have recently raised it further to 80%. However, given the scale of Scotland’s offshore renewable potential they believe our nation can achieve even more and so they propose increasing our 2020 target to 100%.

Scotland is already more than halfway to meeting our 2020 target of a 42% reduction in emissions and it is clear that more work is needed in the years ahead.

Local GovernmentThe SNP have frozen council tax in their administration to help working class families with the growing problem with bills and debt. The government has put £343 million for their Council Tax Reduction scheme to fix the problem left by the Westminster government.

The SNNP are putting £50 million which they hope will attract money from the European investment bank and will be used for urban regeneration.