23 May 2013 Eric Shaw - The Strange Death of Labour Scotland

30 members and 3 visitors heard Dr Eric Shaw from Stirling University History and Politics department give a talk entitled 'The strange death of Labour Scotland '

His talk was based on a book that he and co- author Gerry Hassan had written in 2012.

Eric started by explaining the title was based on a 1930s book called 'The Strange Death of Liberal England' and that the book was not about the demise of the Scottish Labour party, which has been part of the fabric of Scottish politics for over a century, but more about fairly recent changes in the political landscape. The Labour party in Scotland had enjoyed years of uncontested political mastery and was embedded in some of Scotland's key institutions and the book argued that this dominance had bred both a sense of complacency and a sense of entitlement that Labour spoke for and represented most of Scotland. Eric went on to discuss the authors' reasoning for the changes, including the rise of Scottish nationalism and declining trade union membership among others.

He did not foresee a Scotland without Labour but the future shape of Scottish politics was going to be affected by the outcome of the forthcoming referendum and the next few years were certainly going to be interesting.

After fielding a barrage of questions, Eric was thanked for his talk by Bill Sharpe.