Originally Posted by Britannist

I think you may find, SP, that the majority of Scottish people in Scotland did not vote for a Scottish Assembly in 1979. A slight majority of those who turned out to vote in the 1979 Scottish Assembly referendum backed the proposal to set an Assembly up but the rules of the referendum of 1979 were (I believe) that a majority of all those entitled to vote had to back the Assembly. Only a minority of all those entitled to vote backed the proposal to establish a Scottish Assembly in the 1979 referendum.

You mentioned the Conservative Party (in the quote above) - the 1979 Scottish Assembly referendum took place during the closing period of the 1974-9 Labour Government and the rules of the referendum were set by the Labour Government of 1974-9. The Conservative Party did not deny a Scotland an Assembly. The voters did not vote for one in sufficiently large numbers under the rules, and, consequently, a Scottish Assembly was never set up.