ABSTRACT
There was another reaction. It affirmed that nationalism was about more than the ultimate goal of independence. Its source was a small group of young people which was not homogeneous in terms of ideas, but they were sympathetic to the left and, rather vaguely, described themselves as 'socialist'. Their first meeting set the aim of exploring a new strategy. One origin of their approach lay in the polls which had been done for the party before 1979. These showed that the profile of Nationalist voters was almost identical with that of Labour voters in Scotland. This was interpreted to mean that both parties depended heavily on the working-class vote. Furthermore, the Labour vote in Scotland was strengthening compared with the rise of the Conservative vote in the United Kingdom as a whole. Southern England grew more prosperous as a result of a series of economic factors including the benefits of the Common Market. Scotland did not enjoy these benefits or only enjoyed them to a reduced degree. The effect of this was that Labour would increase its vote in Scotland, but the Conservatives would remain supreme in England and thus in the United Kingdom as a whole. In two or three elections, Scottish Labour voters {already very similar to Nationalist voters) would realise that their party could never improve the condition of Scotland. Provided that the SNP became a party com-
mitted to the Scottish working class, it could hope to inherit these discouraged Labour voters until it, and not Labour, became the hegemonic Scottish party.
