Campaign for a Scottish Assembly The convention has its roots in the
Campaign for a Scottish Assembly (CSA), which was formed in the aftermath of the
1979 referendum that failed to establish a devolved
Scottish Assembly. The all-party Campaign for a Scottish Assembly, which was launched at a rally in
Edinburgh on 1st March 1980, was led by Jack Brand, and later headed by Jim Boyack. By July, a Labour Campaign for a Scottish Assembly had been established to build support in the party at constituency level and exert influence at the party conference. The CSA contained individuals committed to some form of
Home Rule for
Scotland. Activists were drawn from the
Labour Party, the
Scottish National Party (SNP), the
Scottish Liberal Party, the
Scottish Ecology Party, the
Communist Party and the trade union movement. Some were formerly members of the
Scottish Labour Party (SLP). The CSA organised the committee, chaired by
Professor Sir Robert Grieve, that published the
Claim of Right for Scotland. The Claim held that it was the Scottish people's right to choose the form of government that best suited them (a long-established principle, first formally stated in the
Declaration of Arbroath, 1320 ), and which also recommended the establishment of a convention to discuss this.
Scottish Constitutional Convention The Scottish Constitutional Convention was then established in 1989 after prominent Scottish individuals signed the Claim of Right, and superseded the role of the CSA. The first meeting was held in the
Assembly Hall in Edinburgh on 30 March 1989. Canon Kenyon Wright, the convener of the executive committee, opened the meeting.
David Steel and
Harry Ewing were adopted as co-chairmen. A second meeting on 7 July was held in Inverness. Various organisations participated in the convention, such as the
Labour Party, the
Liberal Democrats, the
Scottish Green Party, the
Communist Party, the
Scottish Trades Union Congress, the
Scottish Council for Development and Industry, the Small Business Federation and various bodies representing other strands of political opinion as well as civic society in general. Representatives of the two largest churches – the
Church of Scotland and the
Roman Catholic Church – were involved, as well as smaller church groups, and some non-Christian communities which decided to participate. Initially, the
Scottish National Party (SNP) participated, but the then party leader
Gordon Wilson, along with
Jim Sillars, decided to withdraw the SNP from participation owing to the convention's unwillingness to discuss
Scottish independence as a constitutional option. The Conservative government of the day was very hostile to the convention, and challenged the local authorities' right to finance the convention, although the courts found that they were in fact entitled to do so. Under its executive chairman, Canon
Kenyon Wright, the convention published its blueprint for
devolution, ''Scotland's Parliament, Scotland's Right'', on 30 November 1995,
Saint Andrew's Day. The report had proposals for a devolved arrangement. In December 2013,
John McAllion, who participated in the convention as a Labour MP, claimed that it was "self-appointed", "elitist", and "ultimately unrepresentative" of Scottish society, and should not be a model for a future constitutional convention. ==Further reading==