1. The Scottish National Party  Underlying tenet is Scottish independence from the United Kingdom: “equal nations—friends and partners”  Considered center-left, similar to Social Democrats  Party Leader: Alex Salmond  7 representatives in House of Commons; hold minority government in Scottish House of Commons  16,000 members total

2. Policies  Scottish independence  Support funding for education and public services  Opposed to both nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants  Opposed to the war in Iraq; hope to bring home Scottish troops stationed overseas  Against tax increases  Support developing renewable energy and renewable resources

3. History  Founded April 20th, 1934 as a result of the Scottish Party and the National Party of Scotland merging together.  At first the party worked for a Scottish Assembly in the UK but now are fighting for full independence.  Members were vilified because they refused to be drafted be England during WWII.  The party has had many attempted splits including the Labour Party of Scotland, the 55 Group, Sion nan Gaidheal, the 79 Group, the Campaign for Nationalism in Scotland. Internal factions were outlawed in 1982.  Recently, the internal conflict has been between the gradualist wing (retaining power bit by bit) and the fundamentalist wing (building support for independence.  In 2005 the party only recieved 17.7% of Scoottish votes, the first time in history that the Liberal Democrats beat the Scottish National Party.