Word: scottishly
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...found to save the devolution bill. But the vote seemed to consign the measure either to endless debate (only three of its 116 clauses had been considered in eleven days of discussion) or eventual abandonment for this session of Parliament. It drastically undercut Labor's position with Scottish voters and, though not a vote of confidence, raised the question of the Labor Party's ability to govern. For the first time since Prime Minister Callaghan took office eleven months ago, it appeared that his government might be forced to call general elections before 1979, when they are next...
...somewhat cynical campaign by Laborites and Tories alike to check the growing influence of nationalist sentiment in Scotland. Building on Scots' resentment at being treated like country cousins by Westminster -and fueled by the development of North Sea oil off Scotland's coast-the independence-minded Scottish National Party in the past six years has become second only to Labor as the most powerful party in Scotland. With many of Labor's traditionally safe seats in danger during the 1974 election campaigns, worried leaders came up with a limited home-rule bill, promising a regional ("devolved") assembly...
Devolution Scheme. The trouble was that while Labor had thought up the devolution scheme to keep Scotland part of the United Kingdom, the Scottish National Party shrewdly endorsed the measure as the first step toward total sovereignty. The S.N.P. endorsement troubled backbenchers on both sides of Parliament. Political leaders in economically deprived English regions began to talk of local assemblies of their own. Liberal M.P.s wondered whether a federal system for the entire U.K. might be a sensible idea. Furthermore, as parliamentary debate on the government's bill opened, the original devolution question became mired in a muddy loch...
Callaghan's gamble on slicing through such secondary matters with the guillotine could have proved a deft ploy. Had it passed, the devolution bill, carrying the hopes of important Scottish and Welsh constituencies, would have been hard to turn down. But too many M.P.s of all parties resented the attempt to end the debate. Then the Tory shadow spokesman on devolution, Francis Pym, proposed an alternative-an all-party convention to discuss the whole devolution matter. The adroit Tory maneuver may have encouraged wavering Laborites to defect on the guillotine vote...
...Omnium. Along the way, their lives intertwine with-among a hundred or so others-a headstrong early feminist, Alice Vavasor, and her rascally cousin George; a young radical M.P. from Ireland, Phineas Finn; and a mistreated wife, Lady Laura Kennedy, who flees from her cruel husband, a rich Scottish baron...