thumb|left|Scottish Parliament Building, Holyrood, opened in 2004 and intended to evoke the crags of the Scottish landscape and, in places, upturned fishing boats In the second half of the 20th century the Labour Party usually won most Scottish seats in the Westminster parliament, losing this dominance briefly to the Unionists in the 1950s. Support in Scotland was critical to Labour's overall electoral fortunes as without Scottish MPs it would have gained only two UK electoral victories in the 20th century (1945 and 1966).L. Bennie, J. Brand and J. Mitchell, How Scotland Votes (Manchester University Press, 1997), p. 46. The number of Scottish seats represented by Unionists (known as Conservatives from 1965 onwards) went into steady decline from 1959 onwards, until it fell to zero in 1997.S. Ball and I. Holliday, Mass Conservatism: the Conservatives and the Public Since the 1880s (Routledge, 2002), p. 33. Politicians with Scottish connections continued to play a prominent part in UK political life, with Prime Ministers including the Conservatives Harold Macmillan (whose father was Scottish) from 1957 to 1963 and Alec Douglas-Home from 1963 to 1964.
thumb|left|Scottish Parliament Building, Holyrood, opened in 2004 and intended to evoke the crags of the Scottish landscape and, in places, upturned fishing boats In the second half of the 20th century the Labour Party usually won most Scottish seats in the Westminster parliament, losing this dominance briefly to the Unionists in the 1950s. Support in Scotland was critical to Labour's overall electoral fortunes as without Scottish MPs it would have gained only two UK electoral victories in the 20th century (1945 and 1966).L. Bennie, J. Brand and J. Mitchell, How Scotland Votes (Manchester University Press, 1997), p. 46. The number of Scottish seats represented by Unionists (known as Conservatives from 1965 onwards) went into steady decline from 1959 onwards, until it fell to zero in 1997.S. Ball and I. Holliday, Mass Conservatism: the Conservatives and the Public Since the 1880s (Routledge, 2002), p. 33. Politicians with Scottish connections continued to play a prominent part in UK political life, with Prime Ministers including the Conservatives Harold Macmillan (whose father was Scottish) from 1957 to 1963 and Alec Douglas-Home from 1963 to 1964.