The Scottish Assembly was a proposed legislature for Scotland that would have devolved a set list of powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Labour Government led the Scotland Act 1978 through Westminster which provided for the establishment of the Scottish Assembly.

Although Scotland voted in favour of the Act in a referendum on 1 March, 1979^{[citation needed]} , the Labour Government in London refused to accept the result,^{[citation needed]} and repealed the Act, inadvertently causing its own downfall when the Scottish National Party refused to support it in a later vote of no confidence. Home rule for Scotland would not become a reality until 1999 following the Scotland Act 1998 establishing the Scottish Parliament.

A devolved Scottish Assembly that would have some form of legislative powers in jurisdiction over Scotland was a long-held political priority for many individuals and organisations. The drive for home rule first took concrete shape in the nineteenth century, as demands for it in Ireland were met with similar (although not as widespread) demands in Scotland.

Scottish may refer to something of, from, or related to Scotland, a country in northern Europe, part of the United Kingdom since 1707.

Scottish may also refer to:

Michael Matheson (born 8 September 1970) is the Public Health Minister in the Scottish Government. He has been an SNP Member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, first representing Central Scotland and, since 2007, the Falkirk West constituency.

He was the Shadow Deputy Minister for Justice from May 1999 until September 2004. From September 2004 until September 2006 he was Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport. Matheson served on the Parliament's Justice 1 Committee from January 2000 until October 2004. During the 2000 SNP deputy leadership election he was the campaign manager for Roseanna Cunningham.

Matheson first stood for the SNP in the 1997 general election for the Hamilton North and Bellshill seat. In 1999 and 2003 he contested the Falkirk West seat in the Scottish Parliament, which was won both times by independent Dennis Canavan, who had been rejected by the Labour Party. Matheson won the constituency in the 2007 election, after Canavan stepped down. Canavan has endorsed Matheson for re-election in 2011. Matheson is also ranked second on the SNP's regional list for Central Scotland.

Richard (Dick) Lawrence Leonard (born 12 December 1930) is a British writer and journalist, writing as Dick Leonard, and also a former British Labour politician. He is a pro-European social democrat and a disciple of the late Anthony Crosland. He is married to Irène Heidelberger-Leonard, a scholar of postwar German literature, and is the father of Mark Leonard, an expert on foreign policy, and Miriam Leonard, a classical scholar.

Dick Leonard was educated at the Institute of Education at London University. He was Deputy General Secretary of the Fabian Society from 1955 to 1960, when he became a freelance journalist and broadcaster. From 1968 to 1970 he was a Senior Research Fellow (Social Science Research Council) at Essex University.

He served as Member of Parliament for Romford from 1970 until the February 1974 general election, when there were major changes made to the constituency boundary. During his time in the House he was PPS to Anthony Crosland.

From 1974 to 1985 he was Assistant Editor of The Economist. He served as Europe Correspondent in Brussels for The Observer (London) from 1989 to 1997. He remained in Brussels until 2009 and wrote on Belgian politics in The Bulletin, and on European affairs in The Guardian (London), the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement, European Voice, and other newspapers in several countries.

Grahame Smith is General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC).

Smith is a graduate of Strathclyde University, where he obtained an Honours Degree in Economics and Industrial Relations.

Smith joined the STUC in 1986 as an Assistant Secretary with responsibility for Health and Social Services and Education and Training matters. He was appointed as the STUC’s Deputy General Secretary in 1996. In that role he headed the STUC’s Policy and Campaigns Department and had specific responsibility for the STUC’s work on lifelong learning and public services. In November 2006 he was appointed as the General Secretary of the STUC.

Smith led the establishment of the STUC Lifelong Learning Unit; the STUC Skills & Lifelong Learning Team and the Ministerial Trade Union Working Party on Lifelong Learning, of which he is a member. He is a member of the Scottish Union Learning Fund Advisory Committee and the Scottish Executive’s Lifelong Learning Forum.

He is a member of the National Workforce Plus Partnership Board, the Board of SCDI, and the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council. He is the Vice Chairperson of Glasgow North Ltd, has served as a member of the Careers Service Review Committee, and was a member of the Ministerial Advisory Group on the Review of the Enterprise Network.