'Macaroni for your Sunday Joint'? The SNP's Transition from Sceptical to Enthusiastic Europeans

This proposal is for the panel entitled 'Sub-state nationalist and regionalist parties and the European Union'. The paper will chart the Scottish National Party's transition from a party which was hostile and sceptical towards European integration at the time of the UK's decision to join and remain a member in the 1970s to a party that champions EU membership for Scotland in the context of Brexit. Like others in this party family (Nagel 2004), the SNP’s position on Europe has shifted over time: it was cautiously supportive of European integration in the 1940s and 1950s, deeply sceptical in the 1960s and 1970s, and embraced a pro-European platform in the late 1980s and 1990s (Ichijo 2004: 47). In the context of the Brexit referendum, the SNP was arguably the most enthusiastic supporter of the UK’s continued membership of the EU. In the context of Brexit negotiations, the party has championed continued membership of the EU single market for the UK as a whole, and has championed differentiated solutions for Scotland to remain closely aligned with the EU. Its position on Scottish independence is embedded within the context of EU membership. The paper will utilise discourse analysis to examine the party's changing positions, drawing on manifestos, campaign material, speeches and other contributions. We will identify key phases in the party's approach to the EU, and examine the relative impact of internal and external explanations for the changes in the party's position from one approach to another. We will consider the implications of the SNP's position within the current context for Scotland's relationship with the rest of the UK and the EU.