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The SNP was formed in 1934 from the merger of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party. Their electoral high point was in the 1970s when they polled almost a third of all votes in Scotland at the October 1974 general election and returned 11 MPs to Westminster, to date the most MPs they have had.
With the establishment of devolution for Scotland in 1999 the SNP has styled itself as the main opposition party to the Scottish Executive. For a fuller history see History of the Scottish National Party.
The SNP consists of various local branches of party members. Those branches then form an association in the constituency they represent (unless there is only one branch in the constituency, in which case it forms a constituency branch rather than a constituency association). There are also 8 Regional Associations to which the branches and constituency associations in each can send delegates.
The SNP's policy structure is developed at its Annual National Conference and its regular National Council meetings. There are also regular meetings of its National Assembly which although they do not formally make policy allow for detailed discussion of what party policy should be.
The party has an active youth wing as well as a student wing. There is also a SNP Trade Union Group. There is also a monthly newspaper produced, The Scots IndependentThe Scots Independent is a monthly newspaper that is in favour of Scottish independence. It was formed in 1926 with William Gillies as editor, by the Scots National League (SNL) and switched its allegiance to the National Party of Scotland (NPS) when the, which is highly supportive of the party.
The SNP's leadership is invested in its National Executive Committee (NEC) which is made up of the party's elected office bearers and 10 elected members (voted for at conference). The SNP Parliamentarians and Councillors have respresentation on the NEC, as do the youth wing, student wing and trade union group.
The SNP's policy base is, by and large, in the mainstream European Social Democratic mould. For example, amongst their policies are a commitment to unilateral nuclear disarmament, progressive personal taxation to redistribute wealth from rich to poor, the eradication of poverty, renationalisation of the railway system, a pay increase for nurses and so on. They are also committed to an independent Scotland being a full member state of the European UnionFor other uses, see EU (disambiguation). The European Union or EU is a supranational organisation of 25 European states. It was established with that name by the Treaty on European Union (commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty) in 1992 but many aspects o, as well as supporting Scottish entry to the single European currencyThe euro ISO 4217 code EUR is the currency of twelve of the twenty-five nations that form the European Union (and four outside it, as well as Montenegro and Kosovo), which form the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It is the result of the most significan, although there are some members that disagree with this.
Contrary to the expectations of many, the SNP are not an expressly republicanRepublicanism is a philosophy derived from a belief in the old Republics of Rome and the philosphy of the Enlightenment. The Republic revolves around the idea of a free body politic. The implications of a free republic is the idea of participatory and act party, although they are committed to holding a referendum on the issue following the attainment of independence. Most SNP members are republicans though, and both the party student and youth wings are expressly so. The SNP is committed to maintaining an independent Scotland within the Commonwealth of NationsThe Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of independent sovereign states, mostly formed by the United Kingdom and its former colonies. It was formerly known as the British Commonwealth (or British Commonwealth of Nations , and many still cal.
The SNP has a clear left-of-centre policy base, although not as left-orientated as it once was. In the 1997 General Election campaign the Tories accused the SNP of being the most left-wing political organisation in Europe since the collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. However such a view is more difficult to sustain in the present political climate with the SNP moderating many of its views on socio-economic issues, and the fact that they are no longer the most left-wing of the established political parties in Scotland with the emergence of the SSP.