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The Unionist Party, referred to as the Scottish Unionist Party outwith Scotland, was the main centre-right political party in Scotland between 1912 and 1965. Use of the terms 'Unionist' and 'Tory', as opposed to 'Conservative', is a consequence of the Scottish Unionists eschewing the name 'Conservative'〔http://www.polis.leeds.ac.uk/assets/files/research/working-papers/wp13seawright.pdf〕 until 1965. Independent from, though associated with, the Conservative Party in England and Wales, it stood for election at different periods of its history in alliance with a small number of Liberal Unionist and National Liberal candidates. Those who successfully became Members of Parliament (MPs) would then take the Conservative Whip at Westminster just as the Ulster Unionists did until 1973. At Westminster the differences between the Scottish Unionist and the English party could appear blurred or non-existent to the external casual observer, especially as many Scottish MPs were prominent in the parliamentary Conservative party, such as party leaders Andrew Bonar Law (1911–1921 and 1922–1923) and Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1963–1965), both of whom served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The party traditionally did not stand at local government level but instead supported and assisted the Progressive Party in its campaigns against the British Labour Party. This relationship ended when the Conservatives started fielding their own candidates, who stood against both Labour and the Progressives. ==Origins== The origins of the Scottish Unionist Party lie in the 1886 split of the British Liberal Party with the emergence of the Liberal Unionists under Joseph Chamberlain. The 'Union' in question was the 1800 Irish Union, not that of 1707. Prior to this, the only Tory/Conservative party in Scotland was the official Conservative Party, which had never achieved parity with the dominant Whig and Scottish Liberal Party ascendancy since the election reforms of 1832. The new Liberal Unionists quickly agreed to an electoral pact with the Conservative Party in Britain, and in Scotland this pact overcame the former electoral dominance of the Scottish Liberals. After the official 1912 merger of Liberal Unionists and Conservatives in Britain as the 'Conservative and Unionist Party', the Scottish Unionist Party emerged as effectively the Conservative Party in Scotland, although some candidates still stood on a Liberal Unionist ticket because of the latent appeal of the word 'Liberal' in Scotland. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Unionist Party (Scotland)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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