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John MacCormick is a Scottish Nationalist politician and legal professional in the Union of Britain, currently serving as a Glasgow Muncipal Councillor. He is most prominent for his involvement in the 1928 Scottish Independence Referendum and internment at Lincoln Jail's Special Custodial Department for counter-revolutionary acts. During his imprisonment, he continued his political activities and write prolifically on legal theory and Scottish nationalism.
Following an early release in late 1932, he reinvolved himself in Scottish politics, retaking his place as president of the National Party of Scotland and winning election to the Glasgow Municipal Council as an NPS candidate. Since his release, MacCormick has been a major advocate of Scottish home rule within Britain and eventual independence via gradualist means.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Born in Pollokshields, Glasgow, in 1904. His father, Donald MacCormick, was a sea captain from the Isle of Mull and his mother was the first district nurse in the Outer Hebrides. McCormick was educated at Woodside School, and began to study law at the University of Glasgow in late 1923, though his studies were interrupted by the civil war. He became involved in politics while at university, joining the Glasgow University Labour Club and the Independent Labour Party in 1923.
Involvement in the Civil War and After[]
MacCormick was a student of law when the fighting broke out. A pacifist by nature and lacking prior military experience, he was initially skipped over in recruitment into militias or other combatant forces, though this period of violence further ignited his support for Scottish nationalism. He aligned with the Nationalist faction that had formed within Scotland but initially remained with the ILP. Rather than participate in the fighting, MacCormick became a clerk in the Scottish Provisional Republic, continuing in his position within its regionalist successor.
Following the end of hostilities, MacCormick returned to Glasgow University to complete his legal studies. In 1927 following the end of the Constitutional Convention early in the year, MacCormick left the ILP and formed the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association to promote Scottish culture and nationalism. This new organisation initially promoted increased devolution as a province within the Union, but soon abandoned this in favour of an independent Scottish state within the British sphere, modelled somewhat on Irish External Association.
The Independence Referendum[]
In 1928, as campaigning for the Scottish referendum took place, GUSNA entered into discussions with other Scottish nationalist organisations. This soon bore fruit, with GUSNA acting as a neutral 'honest broker' between the various groupings, and the National Party of Scotland was founded. Robert Cunninghame Graham of the SWRP was elected its President and MacCormick became the party's National Secretary and Deputy President. Despite initial cooperation, MacCormick soon joined a budding 'centralist' faction within the party, which advocated moving away from its more 'confederal' structure of smaller parties to a single, central body.
Despite being a talented and charismatic speaker, MacCormick would be often relegated to clerical roles with Cunninghame Graham leading most public engagements. However, he is often regarded as inadvertently orchestrating the downfall of the campaign when he was asked if Scotland would remain a republic or seek a restoration of the monarchy following the referendum. MacCormick responded that 'no option was off the table' if necessary to secure Scotland's place on the world, at least for the short term. While MacCormick would clarify at a later event that he was speaking in terms of seeking diplomatic recognition, he was largely interpreted as acknowledging a restoration of the monarchy was feasible.
Imprisonment[]
Following the bombing of Glasgow University, the independence referendum was suspended, with high-ranking nationalists arrested. Cited as a leader of the campaign - and already under suspicions for royalist sympathies - MacCormick was among those tried at the Old Bailey in London for counter-revolutionary terrorism. During the sensationalised trial, MacCormick opted to cooperate with the prosecution service so as to secure an earlier release, while maintaining his innocence. Ultimately, he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment at the Lincoln Jail Special Custodial Department for being an accomplice to terrorist activities.
Owing to his cooperation, MacCormick's was placed in a minimum security holding with a fair degree of access to outside amenities and contact. While he was officially censured from participating in political activities - his attempt to found the Lincoln Scottish Nationalist Club was met with a dim response from the prison administration - MacCormick maintained access to political works, literature and limited contact with his associates, while also being allowed to continue his writings.
In Scotland proper, the NPS began to unravel with the common threads uniting the organisation now severed. The internal SWRP leadership (now composed primarily of orthodox socialists) voted to suspend association with the NPS and re-establish independent activities. MacCormick was the designated leadership successor and his supporters among the party's right and centre factions wished for him to remain as president. Regardless, de facto leadership was now controlled by the left-wing, headed by Roland Muirhead who was the Chairman of the NEC and the newly chosen Deputy President. The position of National Secretary also passed to Hugh MacDiarmid who would begin to try and shift the party in a leftwards slant.
In prison, MacCormick wrote prolifically on legal theory, Scots' Law and the path to independence. Believing that the British political establishment to be inherently hostile to Scottish nationalism as well as violent and dangerous, he argued that a 'suffragist' model had to be adopted. Scottish nationalists would have to campaign peacefully and pursue independence via a slow gradualist approach, making the case of an independent Scotland to the common people rather than London administrators. It was via this strategy, he argued, that pro-independence political parties could secure dominance over Home Rule institutions and effectively make it impossible to stop independence. His ideals would be warmly received by the NPS and 'gradualist' electoralism was adopted as its official strategy.
Return to Scotland[]
Following the 1932 parliamentary crisis, Chairman Tom Mann instituted a period of less radical leadership and grant political amnesties, with MacCormick being released shortly after. He returned to Scotland and retook leadership of the NPS in full. By now, the party had undergone two major splits, with the right and left wings of the party becoming the Scottish Party and SNP respectively. The NPS remained in a state of flux, lacking proper leadership but still regarded as a primary player in regional politics. After reassuming leadership, MacCormick reorganised the party and simplified the leadership structure. Additionally, MacCormick shifted policies to reflect the positions of a 'moderate Home Rule' party with independence as a long-term goal. With the banning of the Liberal Party, the NPS began to ride off of a wave of incoming members from the now defunct Scottish liberals. MacCormick's pragmatic approach of appeasing these new members was widely regarded as aiding in the return of the NPS as a major regional party.
The prior political climate had also led to the collapse of the Scottish Party, ending any notion it would be a politically relevant force. Now relegated to more of a pressure group than a party, with much of its leadership in exile in Ireland, some members of the Scottish Party opted to hold dual membership with the NPS too. Swelling to a moderate size and with charismatic leadership, the NPS once more became a notable regional party in Scotland and secured some victories in local elections and by-elections. MacCormick himself won election to the Glasgow Municipal Council in 1934.
Politics[]
MacCormickism[]
WIP
Gradualism vs Fundamentalism[]
WIP