Talk:Scotland in the modern era

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An excellent start to a challenging subject. A few comments:

• "The first line opened in 1831." - interesting to know where it ran from-to.
• "The total output from some 300 firms (that is, 30-40 at any one time) exceeded 25,000 ships." Not clear what this means.
• I am sure Commons has a picture or two of a Scottish croft. If I see one I'll fix this.
• Per your note the last section could do with expansion. Here are a few possible additional items that may be among the less obvious: Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Renewable energy in Scotland, perhaps something about conservation from Fauna of Scotland.
• It is easy to forget that the the blue colour once dominated. See e.g. the map in the United Kingdom general election, 1955. Ben MacDui 19:04, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for these Ben MacDui. I will see if I can track down something on the individual points you raise. I should say that since I took a lot of material from other articles I have taken some of these references on faith and hope to check them over time. I take it your point about the Conservatives is that they need to be mentioned and if so it is a fair point. The political thread needs to run through the article in a more systematic and comprehensive way. Thanks again for the comments it gives me (and anyone else who wants to help) something to work at.--SabreBD (talk) 22:39, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

• "Scotland sent 690,000 men to the war, of whom 74,000 died in combat or from disease, and 150,000 were seriously wounded. Thus, although Scots were only 10 per cent of the British population, they made up 15 per cent of the national armed forces and eventually accounted for 20 per cent of the dead." The total dead for WW1 for the UK is disputed but excluding colonies and including army, navy and air force some cite a figure of 744,330. If that is the case Scotland would have a 10% and not 20% total with 75,000 dead. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Brownag (talk • contribs) 13:23, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Keir Hardie Election Image

I am not sure that having the Keir Hardie election image should be in the section "Inter-war period 1919–38". Hardie had died in 1915 and had not sought election for a Scottish constituency since 1888. The image also looks to be from the 19th century judging by Hardie's appearance in it. Hardie undoubtedly was a significant figure in Scottish political history, but the use of this image in this section of the article is rather misleading. Dunarc (talk) 21:12, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

changes to Highlands section

Deletion of "Forced displacement" and substitution with "eviction". There is no WP:RS that I can find that even suggests that the evictions that occurred during the Highland clearances can, overall, be typified as forced displacement.

"...but were particularly notorious as a result of the late timing, the lack of legal protection for year-by-year tenants under Scots law, the abruptness of the change from the traditional clan system, and the brutality of many evictions."
The cited reference does not apply the word "notorious" to the clearances as a whole - the word is used to refer to 2 individual landlords, and to the policy of James Loch of not allowing a second son of a tenant to marry and remain on the same property: i.e. preventing sub-division, and also to the position of landlords in general in parliament when looking for political support in the 1870s (i.e. c. 20 years after the end of the clearances and in the run-up to the crofters' war.).
The reference does not suggest "late timing" as a reason for notoriety - nor is it at all clear what the original editor meant by this phrase: a number of possible meanings come to mind, none of which are supported by any source I can find.
"...brutality of many evictions" is an overstatement. Richards (the cited ref) is careful to make clear that the majority of clearances were carried out without any violence - it is only the acts of resistance (and the dealing with that resistance) that gave rise to brutality. So, there was some brutality, but "many" is totally unsupportable. If anything typified clearances, "sullen acquiescence" may be a better description - but one that conceals the different circumstances of different events.
"...lack of legal protection for year-by-year tenants under Scots law" is misleading by its brevity. Some of those evicted had simply come to the end of a lease (of several years). Others had no leases, and may even have refused leases as they felt this went against the principle of dùthchas, others had not been offered one at all. Many crofters who had leases only had an annual lease. A large proportion of those evicted were not even official tenants, being squatters, sub-tenants (especially in cases where sub-letting was not allowed), etc. - many of these are the cottar class found in overcrowded crofting communities.
"the abruptness of the change from the traditional clan system" - yes, this was one source of discontent for those evicted, but it is not Richards that makes this point (you can find it in Devine's The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900). Richards goes to some lengths to give the views of Macinnes and Dodgshon, which are that the demise of clanship had its origins in the 17th or 16th century: so, a long-term process of change. It is Devine who, in accepting these views, points out that "The Highlands moved from tribalism to capitalism over less than two generations." (Devine, T. M.. The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900 (p. 120).)

Therefore deletions and some new text are needed.
ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 20:27, 9 February 2019 (UTC)