This article reviews developments in Scottish local government post-devolution. In doing so it outlines some expectations, assumptions and realities about local government in Scotland. Three assumptions are examined and rejected: 1999 was 'Year Zero' for Scottish local government; central-local relations are characterised by a cohesive centre versus a cohesive locality; central-local relations in Scotland are nothing more than a fuzzy microcosm of central-local relations in England. The article argues that Scotland increasingly offers a different 'story' of central-local government relations with pre-existing differences accentuating in the context of minority government, different processes of governance and attitudes to the welfare state.This article seeks to highlight inaccurate assumptions about Scottish local government post-devolution. It is suggested that these have arisen due to a combination of expectations, ignorance, misrepresentation and misunderstanding of pre-and postdevolution developments in Scotland. These assumptions lead to implications not only for political actors in Scotland and the UK but also for the wider research agenda. The analysis in this article highlights that Scottish local government was on a trajectory of difference and separation before 1999. Devolution has merely magnified preexisting differences (McGarvey and Cairney 2008, 8). The research for this article has been informed by a thorough review of key texts and journal articles in the field of both Scottish politics and local government in the UK over the past 30 years.A neglect of the prehistory of devolution tends to exaggerate its impact and a unitary conception of the UK state, whereas acknowledgement of the significant legacy of existing governance processes tempers such analysis. It is often neglected that part of the rationale of devolution in Scotland was based on a conservative impulse to protect welfare state institutions in Scotland from the reforming zeal of the UK government. In frustration at its exclusion from power (despite nine successive general election 'victories'-in terms of being the largest party-in Scotland) the Scottish Labour party post-1987 chose engagement with other parties, constitutional and electoral reform.Pre-devolution discussion of UK politics tended to characterise the UK as a unitary state-it tended to assume that Scotland was a micro version of wider UK politics. Ian McAllister and Richard Rose (1984), discussing electoral behaviour, refer to Scotland as 'British with a difference '. Arthur Midwinter et al. (1991) outline a