The 1992 election in Scotland in context

The 1992 election results in Scotland confounded politicians, pundits and opinions polls. The general expectations had been that the Conservative rump of nine MPs would be diminished further, that the Scottish National Party (SNP) would gain votes and seats and that even Labour would improve on its 1987 performance when it won fifty Scottish seats. Related to this was the expectation that the 'constitutional question' would come to the fore of British politics. Since April 9, there has been a backlash against the pre-election interpretation which had exaggerated the demand for change.