The importance of culture within Scottish politics is arguably as old as the national story itself – perhaps especially when political channels seem insurmountably blocked. In the 20th century, a line can thus be traced from the inter-war flowering of the 'Scottish Renaissance' (whose leading figure, the poet Hugh MacDiarmid, was a co-founder of the SNP), through the folk music revival of the 1950s and 60s, and John McGrath’s landmark 1973 'ceilidh play', The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black, Black Oil, right up to the cultural resurgence that began under Thatcherism, and continues to the present day.

Detailed discussion of these developments can be found in the Culture in Scotland section of this website, but many have drawn comparisons between the dynamism and influence of the Scottish arts sector in the pre-devolution period, helping to propel a virtuous circle of escalating cultural confidence, and the so-called 'Quiet Revolution' which saw Quebec winning greater autonomy during the 1960s. Perhaps the most emblematic occurrence was Glasgow’s year-long reign as European City of Culture in 1990. The designation attracted equal parts perplexity and scorn when first announced, given the bleak post-industrial reputation of Scotland’s second city. The local authorities, however, together with other bodies, displayed impressive energy and enterprise in capitalising on the title, and by the year’s end many sceptics – though by no means all – had been roundly won over. Besides the physical legacy of venues such as the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 1990 did much to fast-track Glasgow’s reinvention as a cosmopolitan, tourist-friendly hub of contemporary arts, design and creative industries, as well as supplying an extra fillip to Scotland’s wider cultural revival, not least through increased exposure to international work.

Back on the political front, the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly, a non-affiliated group founded from the ashes of the 1979 referendum, seized the initiative in 1989 by establishing the Scottish Constitutional Convention. Launched with the manifesto document A Claim of Right for Scotland, which laid out the grounds for self-government alongside a draft blueprint for a Scottish parliament, it drew its members from most of the pro-devolution parties (the SNP remained aloof, for fear of diluting its independence message), trade unions, local authorities, churches and other civic groups, as well as inviting input from other outside bodies. As well as the backing of pressure-groups such as Democracy for Scotland and Scotland United, the Convention’s detailed proposals, published on St Andrew’s Day 1990, enjoyed increasing official support from the Labour Party. At a UK level, the latter was meanwhile emerging from the political wilderness, firstly under Neil Kinnock and then under Tony Blair’s 'New Labour' modernisation programme, which finally helped secure victory over the Conservatives in May 1997. Thanks to the particularities of Scottish politics before and since devolution, however, and notwithstanding the prominence of Scots in Blair’s various cabinets, Labour in Scotland has largely retained its distinctive identity towards the left of the party.

As promised, the new Blair government was quick to initiate the necessary home-rule legislation, ably stewarded by Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar (who introduced the bill with the succinct yet immeasurably resonant statement 'There will be a Scottish Parliament'), and expedited by unprecedented unity in the pro-devolution camp. The ensuing referendum in September returned a majority of 74.3 per cent in favour of a Scottish parliament, and 63.5 per cent who approved its having powers to vary income tax rates. Elections for the new legislature’s 129 members (MSPs) duly followed in 1999, employing a new hybrid voting system that incorporated an element of proportional representation. The result was a coalition government between Labour, with 56 seats, and the Liberal Democrats with 17, with Dewar appointed as First Minister of the inaugural Scottish Government, while the SNP’s 35 seats made it easily the second largest single party.

Ironically, after the preceding general election had left the Conservatives without a single Scottish MP at Westminster, the devolved parliament they had so vigorously opposed provided them with a foothold back into Scottish politics, with an initial tally of 18 MSPs. The election of three minority-party members – one Green, one Scottish Socialist and one Independent - which would have been impossible under the UK first-past-the-post voting system, was meanwhile received as a propitious omen by those who hoped that devolution would bring about a less divisively adversarial mode of politics in Scotland.

The Scottish Parliament was (re)opened by the Queen in July 1999, in a ceremony that included a stirring rendition of Robert Burns’ anthem to democracy, 'A Man’s A Man For A’ That'. Little more than 12 months later, Scotland was mourning Dewar’s sudden death, with the widely-admired 'father of devolution' being briefly succeeded by Henry McLeish. Following McLeish’s resignation over a petty financial scandal, the reins passed to Jack McConnell in 2001, the same year in which Tony Blair won a second UK term, while the Scottish parliamentary elections of 2003 produced another Labour/Lib-Dem coalition. Four years later the historic Scottish Parliamentary Elections of May 2007 marked the Labour Party's first election defeat in Scotland for 50 years, bringing the SNP to power in a coalition with the Green Party.

Devolved government in Scotland has thus experienced a somewhat bumpy first few years, albeit exacerbated by an excess of negative media coverage, but symbolised perhaps most saliently in the furore over massive overruns in construction costs for the new parliament building, designed by the late Catalan architect Enrico Miralles, and finally opened in late 2004. Nonetheless, with a wide range of legislative measures having seen Scotland’s ministers adopt a distinct policy approach from that of the UK government, there is no disputing that the parliament’s opening did indeed represent – to coin a popular pre-devolution term – 'the settled will of the Scottish people'. The day-to-day focus of Scottish political and public life has shifted swiftly and decisively from London to Edinburgh, with Westminster seeming increasingly remote from affairs north of the border.

Whether the Labour vision of devolution, as a means of containing separatist aspirations inside the UK, or the SNP’s preferred version, with the current parliament serving as a stepping-stone towards full independence, will ultimately prevail remains anybody’s guess, but what’s certain is that the home-rule settlement – itself representing arguably the UK’s most profound constitutional change of the last hundred years or more – is here to stay, and that Scotland has entered the 21st century in an exceptionally interesting state of political and cultural flux.