The Story is split ito a number of parts:
Scotland has its own legal system but no legislature of its own.
In 1979 the people of Scotland were asked to vote in a referendum to approve an Act of the Westminster Parliament designed to resolve this anomoly by the establishment of a Scottish Assembly. However, many MPs feared the diminution of Westminsters powers and an odd amendment was passed which stipulated that if less than 40%of the total electorate supported the proposal, the government must ask parliament to repeal the Act.
When it came to voting day, only 64% of those entitled to vote actually voted - 33% for the establishment of an Assembly and 31% against. The Yes vote won but lost!
Exactly a year after the Referendum, on the 1st of March 1980, the inaugural meeting of the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly took place in Edinburgh. The declared aim of this CSA was a Scottish Assembly, or Parliament with such powers as desired by the Scottish people.
Years later, when it became abundantly clear that the people of Scotland would be satisfied with nothing less than a parliament, the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly was to become the Campaign for a Scottish Parliament.
From the start it was intended that the Campaign should include all
shades of political opinion and representatives from all institutions of
Scottish society and its membership reflected this.
Most people who supported the idea of a Scottish Assembly or
Parliament at first imagined that it would be a legislature with much the
same form as Westminster - with slightly less pomp.
However, in the Thatcher years Scotland's political opinions differed
markedly from the rest of the UK and, during that time, the televising of
parliament disclosed the undemocratic nature of Westminster as never
before. There was an ever growing acceptance that no parliament of ours
would be run in such a fashion.
The CSP was probably the first organisation to provide a continuing
forum in which people of differing political views and backgrounds could
meet and discuss, in an open fashion, the possible options for change.
Over the past sixteen years such cross-party initiatives have become a
healthy feature of Scottish political and civic life - and the CSP has
been involved in many of them.
What started off as a simple demand for home rule - to deal with those Scottish affairs which did not affect the rest of the United Kingdom here in Scotland - has become what has been best described as a constitutional revolution.
The No campaign against a Scottish Assembly
back in 1979 understandably played upon peoples fears of the unknown. One
of its most effective arguments was that rural areas would be dominated by
the central belt Taking that lesson to heart, the Campaign has
painstakingly reached agreement on the form which a parliament should take
through a process of consensus.
The CSP reflected the wishes of the Scottish people in speaking out for
constitutional reforms to provide a fairer electoral system, clear
representation of regional differences, significantly greater
representation of women and a more open system of government.
Briefly, the stages of the Campaign have been: