The 1979 UK election in 'The Celtic Fringe' by Grant Toway

While the Liberals absconded from a lot of the constituency contests again, this election reversed the swing that characterised the October 1974 election. This time there was a surge in support for the Conservatives, and the SNP suffered a large collapse both in terms of votes obtained and in terms of parliamentary representation. The SNP's vote share had fluctuated from 11.4% to 21.9% and then a staggering 30.4% in the two elections of 1974 before sliding back to 17.3% in this national poll. For the SNP, this setback suggested that the previous success four and a half years earlier was but a false dawn. This electoral reverse also came on the heels of a disappointment for the cause of Scottish nationalism at a recent devolution referendum when an insufficient number of the populace endorsed the proposal for devolved government in Scotland.

Labour won back a few Scottish seats, but went into retreat south of the border. As for the Conservatives, they found themselves returning to national government.

In Wales, the Liberals and Plaid Cymru were still very much a 'work in progress'. The latter polled 8.1% in all the constituencies which represented their lowest return since 1966.

The duopoly of the Conservatives and Labour was demonstrated by the fact that in the 35 constituencies where the two main parties competed, they both finished in the top two positions in 29 of those seats.

The Liberals declined to compete in eight of the 36 constituencies. This was probably a case of deciding not to spread their resources too thin everywhere, but only to concentrate on contests where they felt confident of a reasonable vote. Sometimes this confidence was a little misplaced.

The only constituencies to change hands in this election were: Anglesey, Brecon & Radnor, and Montgomery, all of which were gains for the Conservatives, as they ousted Labour from the national government.

One interesting piece of trivia is that two cousins contested the general election in two different Welsh constituencies and experienced mixed fortunes.. Whilst Tom Hooson won election to Westminster at Brecon & Radnor, Emlyn Hooson's tenure as the MP for Montgomery was ended. Remarkably, Tom was a Conservative while Emlyn was a Liberal.