The Scottish Jacobite Party was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. It was registered with the Electoral Commission on 8 July 2005, and launched in

Glenfinnan Glenfinnan ( gd, Gleann Fhionnain ) is a hamlet in Lochaber area of the Highlands of Scotland. In 1745 the Jacobite rising began here when Prince Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") raised his standard on the shores of Loch Shiel ...

to coincide with the

31st G8 summit The 31st G8 summit was held on 6–8 July 2005 at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland and hosted by Prime Minister Tony Blair. The locations of previous G8 summits to have been hosted by the UK include: London (1977, 1984, 1991); and ...

and roughly with the 260th anniversary of

Bonnie Prince Charlie Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...

raising his standard there in 1745. Though

Jacobitism , war = , image = Prince James Francis Edward Stuart by Louis Gabriel Blanchet.jpg , image_size = 150px , caption = James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite claimant between 1701 and 1766 , active ...

means the restoration of the

House of Stuart The House of Stuart, originally spelt Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fi ...

to the throne of Scotland or the UK, the party was republican; leader Dr John Black told ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' that "It is an attempt to tie into the romance of Scottish history. Look, if you can rebrand Labour into

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

, it is surely a minor matter to rebrand "Jacobite" as republican and non-religious". The party's ideal Scottish republic would be outside the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

but use the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

. The party had three members – the minimum required under British law – and was entirely self-funded. In the 2007 Scottish elections, the party nominated one candidate, John Black, who won 309 votes in Dumbarton constituency, and 446 votes in the West of Scotland region. Its total expenditure was returned as £528, the lowest of any party to submit a return. It filed an e-petition calling for a Scottish independence day. The SJP was de-registered and removed from the Electoral Commission's Register of Political Parties on 19 July 2007, but re-registered on 22 March 2010. John Black received 156 votes for this party in the 2010 election in

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

. Chris Black polled 134 votes in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk. The party de-registered again on 14 March 2011Search Results - Deregistered Political Parties search result for term Jacobite
Electoral Commission Register of Political Parties (GB)

References

{{Defunct political parties in Scotland Irredentism Republican parties in the United Kingdom Scottish nationalist parties Scottish republicanism Defunct political parties in Scotland 2005 establishments in Scotland Political parties established in 2005 Political parties disestablished in 2011 2011 disestablishments in Scotland

See also

References