Regionalist populism in Britain's "Celtic" peripheries: a longitudinal analysis of Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party

Populism is not an exclusive feature of state-wide and/or majority nationalist parties. Regionalist parties can also develop a populist discourse either as a stable and defining characteristic or at specific times and under particular conditions. By the mid-1970s, both parties were part of the anti-EEC front during the 1975 referendum on UK membership. The anti-austerity populist strategy of Plaid and the Scottish National Party continued after the 2015 general election, in spite of the Brexit referendum taking centre-stage in the political debate. The chapter aims to investigate how different populist themes can be included into the ideological and discourse repertoire of minority nationalist parties. The inclusion of different sets of populist themes in different times appears to depend on the overall ideological profile of the parties, beyond the regionalist elements, which in turn is linked to strategic considerations based on the contextual socio-political conditions.