The Progressive Party was a municipal political organisation that operated in several

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

cities and towns in the 20th century. It was based on tacit anti-Labour co-operation between the Unionist Party,

Scottish Liberals The Scottish Liberal Party, the section of the Liberal Party in Scotland, was the dominant political party of Victorian Scotland, and although its importance declined with the rise of the Labour and Unionist parties during the 20th century, it w ...

and independents.

Origins

National political parties were rarely active in local politics but the rise of the Labour Party led to a process of party politicisation of local government. However, at first Labour were opposed by the Progressives before other national political parties entered local government elections on a significant scale. The Progressives formed as a loose alliance of unofficial Liberals, Unionists and independents. Apart from a distinct focus on their urban localities the other essence of the Progressive groupings was opposition to Labour policies and control, plus a desire to avoid splitting the anti-Labour vote.

History

Progressive groupings formed in

Edinburgh Corporation The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland. In its current form, the counci ...

in 1928 and Glasgow Corporation in 1936 before spreading to other cities and towns. Their members were mainly drawn from local middle-class businessmen opposed to the introduction of what they saw as municipal socialism and Labour control. They dominated Scottish local politics for almost 50 years and as late as

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

Edinburgh Corporation was made up of 21 Progressives, nine Conservatives, 33 Labour and five Liberals. However, by the end of the 1970s they had completely disappeared as the entry of

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

, Liberal and Conservative candidates into local politics supplanted their role of opposing Labour.

References

Defunct political parties in Scotland History of local government in Scotland 20th century in Scotland Scottish Conservative Party Scottish Liberal Party {{UK-party-stub