1979-1982: Sir Samuel Curran (Independent)(1)
1982-1988: Donald Dewar (Labour) (2)
1988-1996: Margo MacDonald (Scottish CommonWealth Party) (3)
1996-1999: Michael Forsyth (Democratic Unionist Party of Scotland) (4)
1999-2010: Mike Gove (Democratic Unionist Party of Scotland) (5)
2010-2012: Steven Gordon (Democratic Unionist Party of Scotland) (6)
2012-2018: Ian Murray (Labour) [7]
2018-XXXX: Ruth Davidson (Labour) [8]
(1) The Scottish Referendum of 1979 followed from the Scotland Act of 1978, it required a simple straight majority to pass (an attempted amendment by George Cunningham to require a minimum 40% of the total registered electorate to vote was narrowly defeated). The referendum passed narrowly by 51% but a on very low turnout of 32% of the registered electorate. This, along with the recent deaths of the two front runners to be First Secretary Geoffrey Shaw and John P. Mackintosh was seen as a very inauspicious start and many commentators predicated the new Assembly wouldn't last.
And it probably wouldn't have if not for Labour appointing the Principal of the University of Strathclyde, Sir Samuel Curran, to the position. An unexpected appointment (even to Curran himself who thought someone was playing a joke when he received his first summons) Sir Samuel threw himself into the role with gusto, seeing himself as Scotland's primary representative on the world stage, something that didn't always go down well with the Secretary of State. However he worked well with the Callaghan government and was privately relieved when it survived a no confidence scare in 1979.
A serious minded, gifted administrator he guided the development of the new assembly and prepared it for its first elections in 1981. Seeing his work as a midwife for the new regime he stood aside once the Assembly elections had successfully concluded. A popular figure until his death he is well regarded as the father of the assembly and sober, hardworking statesman. All the more surprising when you consider he was never activly seeking the role.
(2) Dewar had been out of parliamentary politics for years before the referendum vote, but by being one of the main faces for 'yes' he was able to jump forward as the obvious candidate for Labour's successful government. He oversaw a hugely ambitious plan to transform Scotland: to improve the schools, to bring in land reform, to abolish the feudal system of land tenure, to bring in national parks, and, once the Conservatives took power in Westminster, to oppose every Tory policy possible.
However, he'd been out of the parliamentary game for too long and had too little recent experience, and a lot of Dewar's early years were spent trying to keep control of his own party and keep control of his own bills. An attempt to sack any minister or aide who briefed against fellow Labour MSAs did impose some order, at the expense of making him look more like he was struggling for control. This perception cost Labour in the second Assembly elections, forcing Dewar to form a Lib-Lab coalition to keep a majority. With hindsight, we can see some of his reforms did get through - and Labour was quite united against the feudal system - but the reputational damage lingered.
(3). The leader of the infamous 79 split of the SNP the Scottish Commonwealth Party was inspired partially by the party of the same name from the 40s, a combination of Libertarian Socialists, Radical Labour Members, Euro-Communists and Social Democrats and Scottish Nationalists the Party steadily gained in popularity lead by the charismatic Margo MacDonald and her vision of a Federal Social Democratic Scotland similar to the Scandinavian countries. As the Dewar Government became more unpopular the popularity for the CommonWealth Party grew.
In 1988 Assembly election the party would narrowly scrap due to reform being popular but Labour being tainted causing Margo to become First Secretary. Margo would gain the support of Liberals and the Labour Left in terms of implementing Social Democratic ideals and Federalist ideas. The main problem though would be balancing the books and with the Conservatives threatening to cut funding Margo decided to sell off Scottish Oil (one of the victories of the Dewar government) which lead to a split with certain Scottish Nationalists.
An attempt to kill Margo MacDonald in 1990 by Radical Scottish Nationalists failed and in 1991 she would win a slim majority. With the books balanced she was able to implement much of her original ideas including increased rights for Sex Workers, a more Federalised system and increased use of Nationalised industries and Co-Ops. Of course these weren’t popular with everyone and a referendum over legalisation of Marijuana would be the last straw for the Religious and Conservatives in Scotland as 1996 loomed.
(4) Everyone knew that there was going to be a backlash against the alliance of the Scottish CommonWealth Party and Labour that had held power in the devolved Parliament, however few people the early 1990s would have put money on the Democratic Unionist Party of Scotland. Initially one of the most bizarre political experiments, DUPoS began in 1983 as a small band of Unionists in Scotland finally loosing their temper with the Conservative's in Westminster. Unable to claim sole ownership of the Unionist mantel however, they soon decided to emulate Ian Paisley's party based in Ulster and formed a pact of sorts.
As the decade turned, DUPoS turned increasingly morally, fiscally and socially conservative as the Conservatives turned more Liberal and Free Market, and with this the Party gained increased traction and overtake the mainstream Scottish Conservative Party. Its new leader, Michael Forsyth was the embodiment of the new agenda and became famous for attacks directed more at his Unionist opponents than the Scottish government. Only after the Marijuana referendum did Forsyth lead DUPoS in for the kill against MacDonald. In the following election, Forsyth managed to one up the Ulster DUP by crossing the Religious divide after he received an endorsement from the Catholic Archbishop of St Andrews. A cluster of seats in Glasgow that would have made the difference shocked everyone when they turned DUPoS, however the border seats remained traditional Tory and Forsyth had to govern with his Unionist rivals.
The coalition rocked to and fro for three years. The focus was on domestic and social policy: MacDonald's protection of Sex workers was overturned with a flat out ban on them; increased conditions on unemployment benefits increased, although relaxed for child support and child benefits increased; finally an tightening on divorce law which sent changes to the law back further than anywhere in the UK since the 1960s. Things were going well until Forsyth finally snapped. During a meeting with the Scottish Conservatives, Forsyth was called (not for the first or last time) 'Judas' one time too many, and heated argument broke out of which the end was nearly the break up of the DUPoS led coalition. However, his Party was not with Forsyth and he was duly ejected from leadership rather than break up the coalition.
(5) "Michael II", the political satirists called him and draw him as a Stuart monarch - something that felt became a little worrying as it seemed nothing would depose him. The fact he was both extremely cocky and a nerdy swot should surely have counted against him, but it covered up a highly cynical, targeted mindset great for political machinations. The Conservatives would lament that he had briefly been one of them until he was told by the Conservative Research Department he was "insufficiently Conservative" and "insufficiently political" - likely why he'd ended up with the DUPoS.
His first election was won by predominantly focusing on winning Conservative seats, dumping all the blame for unpopular or unfinished policies on them. The next election would again see a majority DUPoS win, this time fuelled by appeals to Decency and Standards in the face of the horrifically socialist and libertine Labour government in Westminster - and a scandal involving the CommonWealth bigwig Salmond. With twelve years of power, Gove continued to oversee a government of social conservative policies, a sweeping "free school" revamp of the Scottish education system, and looser restrictions on business. He also was able to attract several businesses, though not as many as his propaganda claimed, up to Scotland from Labour-ruled London.
But fifteen years of very conservative control meant an exhausted government with growing corruption and crapping-up scandals, and a seething demographic of young Scots looking down south and seeing places that looked more fun - and Gove had spent a lot of time cracking down on the 'Second Wave of Rave' that rippled across Scotland under the DUPoS. Cannily, he resigned as leader shortly before the election so someone else would have to try and win.
(6) Steven Gordon was the leader of the ‘Left Wing’ of the DUPoS, advocating for a mixture of Social Conservatism and Social Democracy and his sincere belief that he could allow the DUPoS to continue staying in power through gaining the Scottish Blue Labour vote as it was dealing with it’s own battle between the Progress candidate Douglas Alexander and the SCG candidate John McAllion. But Steven Gordon was betting on the wrong horse.
The Labour Government in Westminster, the Scottish CommonWealth Party and the Liberal Democrat’s watched in glee as the Gordon government collapsed. First there was the ‘Orange Rave Surge’ of the Scottish CommonWealth Party in local elections lead by former actor Peter Mullan, there was the ‘Murdo split’ in which Murdo Fraser created the Scottish Democratic Party with 12 DUPoS MPs who were angry at the Social Democracy aspects of Gordon’s Government and finally came the Hargreaves incident.
George Hargreaves was considered by many to be the person who should have won the DUPoS leadership election and he had spent the years since the election letting Gordon know it. When Gordon considered loosening the Scottish Divorce Laws under pressure from the Westminster Labour Government Hargreaves lost it, going on an hour long tirade in the Assembly before calling for another leadership election. Although Gordon managed to win it was by a hair and by the time the 2012 election came the DUPoS was exhausted. The so called ‘Conservative Coalition’ had collapsed and in it’s wake the other parties of Scotland’s would pick up the scraps.
[7] Ian Murray was not the man many expected to see come out ahead when the dust of the 2012 election settled. The handpicked choice of the national leadership in London to not as much unite the party as beat the establishment into shape and liquidate any left-wing insurgents he came across, the young Edinburgh AM had managed to in the short eleven months between his ascension to the leadership and election day not only emerge as the premier voice of the opposition but also seize back the center ground from Gordon and the DUPoS. He accomplished those feats partly through a highly disciplined message of Change and Clean Government that gave no one any hint that it was technically a center-left social democratic outfit he was running and partly by successfully associating the SCWP with the radicalism of the MacDonald years and the decades of right-wing governance that followed. In the landslide that followed it almost looked like Labour would have a majority of their own but in the end it would become necessary to strike a deal with the LibDems.
More than one Scottish lefty would complain that the policies implemented by the Murray government stood a fair bit to the right of the ones promised by the 2012 DUPoS manifesto, but throughout his first term the First Secretary rode high in the polls. The Scottish education system saw itself practically drowned in money to the extent that not even the EIS raised to much of a fuss when the charter scheme was implemented. Same sex marriage was introduced in Holyrood a full year ahead of Westminster and a broad package of civil protections for women and sexual minorities were introduced. On the more mechanical side the old Goveite patronage networks were at least partly rooted out (to be replaced by Murrayite ones some say) and the EU flag was flown from Holyrood for the first time in decades. Scotland was, in the words of a government spokesman, brought into the 21st century.
Soon after his reelection, which saw Labour's plurality decrease somewhat, Murray announced his resignation. Rumors points to anything from a sexy job at the UN to a brewing scandal or palace coup, but the official reason remains that he wished to serve his community in another role.
[8] One of the 'Class of '12' AMs that Murray's government brought in, Davidson was both openly gay and married when she took power - a walking symbol of social change in Scotland. To some extent, this has cause damage to the DUPoS as it exposed faultlines between hardcore 'culture warriors' and homophobes in that party and those willingly to at least publicly shift position. With socially liberal views, aid for schools and disadvantaged parents, pro-business leanings, and Tough On Crime measures, she managed to perfectly colonise the Scottish centre and has left the Liberal Democrats feeling a bit lost for their own USP.
Whether this will see her to another Labour victory depends on how she continues to deal with the new Conservative government in Westminster, as she's been accused of not standing up enough for Scottish seperate interests.