A Century of Labour in Scotland: Struggles and Achievements

This chapter is concerned with the historical development of the Labour Party in Scotland and its relative degree of success in securing the working-class vote across religious lines. It highlights the importance of the party to the Catholic community of Irish descent in Scotland, and it examines the relationship between the party and the Catholic Church and the way that certain sensitive moral questions were played down, and other issues like education left unchallenged, to avoid any confrontation between church and party. The chapter also assesses the appeal of the party to Protestants: the extent to which it could embody a sense of Presbyterian virtue and equity, and the extent to which it could even pitch for the ‘Orange vote’.