 Having once been the largest party in Scotland (most recently in 1959), the 2001 and 2005 general elections had done very little to reverse the downward trend that culminated in the loss of all eleven Conservative seats in Scotland in 1997.The Liberal Democrats made gains against Labour in both regions of Scotland and picked up a modest number of seats.On average, their vote rose approximately 5% across Scotland, though again this translated into few gains as the Liberal Democrat vote was not particularly concentrated.