Though the SNP has existed since 1934, no full-length history of the Scottish National Party was written until the first edition of this book in 2002. With the SNP having governed Scotland since 2007, and with an outright majority since 2011, the long-held SNP policy of an Independence Referendum is now a reality and scheduled to be held in 2014. This timely 2nd Edition: traces the fortunes of the SNP since 2002 particularly since 2007 when it became the governing party in the Scottish Parliament uses recently discovered material about the party’s history to reassess some of the issues in its earlier development outlines the party’s role in government in Scotland from 2007-2013 looks ahead to the independence referendum in 2014