The Shetland Movement was a pressure group and political party created in 1978 to advocate for greater autonomy in
Shetland
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
. The group called for the creation of a Shetland Assembly or 'Althing' with limited legislative powers and control over direct taxation. The Movement's membership included several key public figures in Shetland, including local author, politician and compiler of the ''Shetland Dictionary'', John Graham and Shetland Islands Council Convener from 1986 to 1994, Edward Thomason.
History
The Shetland Movement did not begin as a political party. In the
1982 Shetland Islands Council election the movement promoted candidates supportive of autonomy for Shetland, who won a majority of council seats. In the
1986 council election the Shetland Movement nominated candidates for the first time, winning 13.7% of the vote and five seats. The Shetland Movement decided to contest the
1987 general election for the
Orkney and Shetland constituency, running John Goodlad as a joint candidate with Orcadian autonomists under the party label 'Orkney and Shetland Movement.' The
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, PĂ rtaidh NĂ iseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
agreed to stand aside in favour of Goodlad, who won 14.5% of the vote.
It took part in the 1989
Scottish Constitutional Convention
The Scottish Constitutional Convention (SCC) was an association of Scottish political parties, churches and other civic groups, that developed a framework for Scottish devolution. It is credited as having paved the way for the establishment of t ...
that developed a framework for the eventual
Scottish devolution
Devolution is the process in which the central British parliament grants administrative powers (excluding principally reserved matters) to the devolved Scottish Parliament. Prior to the advent of devolution, some had argued for a Scottish Parl ...
in 1999.
In the
1990 council election the Shetland Movement increased its representation to six seats, a level it maintained in 1994. However this marked the high point of the movement's electoral success. After 1994 the group dissolved, never contesting another local or general election.
In 2015 a cross party movement,
Wir Shetland
Wir Shetland was a short-lived pressure group that demanded greater autonomy for Shetland, an archipelago of Scotland.
It was launched in October 2015, and campaigned for British Crown Dependency status for Shetland, which would separate it from ...
was created to campaign for greater self-government for the islands, comparing itself to the Shetland Movement.
Electoral performance
UK general elections ( Orkney and Shetland)
Shetland Islands Council
The Shetland Islands Council ( sco, Shetland Islands Cooncil; gd, Comhairle Shealtainn) is the local authority for Shetland, Scotland. It was established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and is the successor to the former Lerwick Tow ...
elections
References
Politics of Shetland
Defunct political parties in Scotland
1978 establishments in Scotland
Political parties established in 1978
Political parties with year of disestablishment missing
Regionalist parties in the United Kingdom
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