Qualla: Scottish Parliament

Scottish Parliament: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Russ McGinn, CC BY-SA 2.5. When Donald Dewar opened the Scottish Parliament on 1 July 1999, he quoted the first words of the Scotland Act: "There shall be a Scottish Parliament." The phrase was inscribed around the head of the parliamentary mace, alongside the four virtues the new institution aspired to: Wisdom, Compassion, Justice, Integrity. The mace was struck in silver and inlaid with gold panned from Scottish rivers. The Parliament it represents had been gone for 292 years - dissolved in 1707 by the Acts of Union that merged Scotland and England into Great Britain. Its restoration was the most significant constitutional change in Scotland in three centuries, and it produced one of the most controversial buildings in modern British architecture.

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Image: Russ McGinn | CC BY-SA 2.5

Scottish Parliament: The Long Argument

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Mebanana at English Wikipedia., Public domain. Suggestions for a Scottish parliament had circulated since before 1914. The First World War shelved them. In the 1970s, the discovery of North Sea oil and the rise of the Scottish National Party gave the question new force - the SNP's "It's Scotland's oil" campaign argued the rev...

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Image: The original uploader was Mebanana at English Wikipedia. | Public domain

Scottish Parliament: Holyrood's Strange Building

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0 de. The new Parliament needed somewhere to meet. While a permanent building was designed and built, the body convened temporarily in the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland on the Royal Mile, then briefly in Glasgow and Aberdeen. The permanent site chosen was at Holyrood,...

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Scottish Parliament: Loved, Hated, Studied

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Klaus with K, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Holyrood building remains polarising. Critics see the cost overruns, the schedule chaos, and an aesthetic some Scots have never warmed to. Defenders see one of the most original parliament buildings in the world: a complex of leaf-shaped debating chambers, gabion walls built ...

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Image: Klaus with K | CC BY-SA 3.0

Scottish Parliament: How It Works

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit dun_deagh, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Parliament has 129 Members - MSPs - elected for five-year terms by a regionalised additional-member system: 73 from individual constituencies plus 56 returned from eight regional lists. The system is deliberately more proportional than Westminster's first-past-the-post, which...

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Image: dun_deagh | CC BY-SA 2.0

Scottish Parliament: A Mace, a Casket, and a Phrase

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit dun_deagh, CC BY-SA 2.0. The ceremonial mace sits in front of the Presiding Officer's desk during sittings. It represents Parliament's authority to legislate. Around its head: "There shall be a Scottish Parliament." Round the bowl: Wisdom, Compassion, Justice, Integrity. The mace was crafted from silver ...

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Image: dun_deagh | CC BY-SA 2.0