To cut out and keep
Posted on
January 13, 2016 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
We thought we might leave this here so that Scottish journalists could print it out and stick it on their monitors as a memory aid. It’s something they keep unaccountably forgetting for some reason.
You never know, it might just cheer them up a bit.
Ooo – for the unionists, its Lose Lose.
For the intelligent, its Win Win.
Win if it goes up, revenue.
Win if it goes down, economic savings.
Sadly, those are given to the UK, both Lose/Lose and Win/Win applies. Its the Mail though, so we know where the intellect isn’t.
Whilst I accept that the general downturn in the oil industry is the main reason for the BP job losses. Let us not forget that, in my opinion, some of those job losses are because BP is bypassing Sulom Voe with it’s latest pipeline. Surely this would not have happened in an Independent Scotland and certainly not if it was SP instead of BP.
If deflation is such a worry, why don’t we print money and give it to people to spend on sweets or build council houses? After all the only reason for not printing money is inflation and apparently that ain’t gonna happen any time soon.
I may be missing something here, but given that the BBC article is from March last year, can we be certain it still applies to the current situation?
Would be good to get an updated opinion from the Fraser of Allander Institute so we don’t get called out on this.
Hi, Jamie —
You’re spot on: and here’s how to do it…..
http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/entry/scotpound-digital-currency-for-the-common-good
Sorry but this isn’t good news to me in the slightest. Having to now work abroad as I can’t buy a job in the O&G Industry in Aberdeen is doing no favours for my family work balance.
I have so many friends on FB and LinkedIn that are out of work and have been for a considerable time that I cannot see the industry ever picking up to the level it was at 24months ago.
It’s all very well saying that Aberdeenshire and the NE were living in a bubble but Aberdeen picks up relatively little as the lion’s share is syphoned off down to Westminster.
We still have hugely inflated mortgages and all the rest of it which does no favours for anyone’s economic outlook going forward.
Who gives a f**k about cheap petrol when you can’t even afford to own a car!!!
And lastly, has anyone seen their household elec/gas bills go down cos I haven’t.
Rant over (for now)
It will also keep it in the sea for when the price picks up again and we’re independent.
Let’s not forget those who are losing their jobs – I’m sure lower fuel prices will be little consolidation to them.
However, if Scotland had voted for independence, the plan was to create an oil fund for such eventualities, although undoubtedly it’d have been too late for those 600 souls, unless it had been given its independence in 1979.
Still, at least the broad shoulders of the UK will help them now…
**tumble weed blows across the street**
I don’t think they’ve worked it out yet.
Message to David Mundell on recent twitter posting.
Who cares ?? Its yer politics that the problem ya clown!
O/T Torygraph online has Fluffy Mundell comes out as gay.
Why now?
Brent Crude, it the Andy Murray of the oil industry. Scottish when it’s losing, British when it’s winning.
“I’m very upset at not having to pay as much as I used to pay when filling up my tank” is not the kind of thing you hear a lot of people saying every day.
Oil and referendums is all that some folk seem to talk about, hmph 😉
Too wee, too poor, too stupid *jump* Too wee, too poor, too stupid *jump* Too wee, too poor, too stupid… from the unionist hacks Greatest Hits album. Available at MSM, BBC and all failing British political parties everywhere.
Are these 600 jobs some of the thousands of jobs that weren’t to be lost as long as we didn’t vote for independence? I’m confused.
A cataclysmic year ahead? But George Robertson promised we’d only get a cataclysm if we voted yes!
O/T I know
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/12097320/Cabinet-minister-David-Mundell-comes-out-as-gay.html
@Bobajock
Indeed.
Oil producing and oil consuming is a perfect hedge for a country in the circumstances.
Wider economy benefits if low oil price and our oil fund kicks in to alleviate any oil sector specific issues.
Oh wait, I see what I did there…
‘Fragile economy’… mmm yes.
Here’s me thinking the economy of the UK was doing well according Cameron. I mean last I heard we’re part of the UK and floating in a see of better togetherness, broad shoulders, shared risk etc, etc.
Quite a shock to discover that’s now apparently not the case.
So what is it? We’re better together and our economy safe in the hands of the Westminster government, or we’re a basket case and heading for a cliff under Westminster government. So confused 😮
How do you do a sarcastic emo these days?
A low oil price is great for the UK economy, Cameron is saying. But it’s catastrophic for the Scottish economy, which is why we should never be independent.
Yawn.
I hope the press continue to push both angles because nothing makes people trust them more than seeing them make contradictory arguments on either side of the border.
Re: Fluffy. You can almost feel Twitter tremble as the unionist journos scour it for derogatory comments they can pin on cybernats.
Everyone in DCT knew already. When I was knocking doors, the only ones who ever brought it up were the ones who clearly didn’t approve, and they were, oddly enough, older Tory voters. If the MSM want some homophobic comments, they should get in touch with the people who were actually voting for Mundell.
The effects on the North East of Scotland are palpable at the moment and it’s not set to improve anytime in the foreseeable future. In fact, I foresee an near macro-economic implosion in Aberdeenshire which could leave very many in a negative equity situation.
It’s very fair to say that too many have been living in a bubble, but a lot of them were born into that bubble and don’t realise how bad it can be beyond the horizon. They are in for a hell of a shock. I genuinely know of ‘young adults’ in Aberdeen living at home with their parents and spending £50k+ (or in one instance >£100k+) on a new car!!!
The current situation is fair news for the rest of Scotland. Fuel prices are at low levels, not seen in well over a decade. This is obviously good for the (non-oil) economy.
Aberdeen is a lot like the City of London in a number of aspects. The major difference is that when the City of London goes through major (banking) pain, we all feel it, from Cornwall to Unst.
The North East of Scotland has been a Westminster cash cow for nearly forty years. Those living there may have reaped rewards in terms of the housing bubble. But just like London, there is an implosion visible from the nearest vantage point. However, the cash cow will be instantly forgotten by Mr Osborne and the Granite City will be as Ravenscraig, for all he cares.
I work in the oil industry myself.
Feel for those that are losing their jobs, but to be honest I’d like to see the ‘majors’ gone from Aberdeen.
We need smaller companies and independants that are actually willing to invest in enhancing and developing the reserves of current fields as Apache does.
Big companies neglect their offshore assets. Fabric maintenance etc will be further stretched now.
BP and their ilk are only interested in plundering major finds and maximising $ recovery per barrel.
The by-passing of Sullom Voe sickens me, if you are not prepared to resist this brace yourself for more.
Also, the decommissioning of certain fields and infrastructure poses a real threat to the future viability of the North Sea as an oil producing basin.
Even the decommissioning work will be monopolised by yards in Norway and England with no discernable benefit to us.
Appalling state of affairs.
Let’s put that right. SNP x 2.
My house is heated by oil. I have seen my heating bills half in under 12 months. That has saved me literally hundreds of pounds that I can then spend on other things.
So I can pay a painter to a room redecorated that badly needed and he gets more money in his pocket to spend on what he wants to spend it on and so on.
Multiply this by tens of thousands of households and businesses and it’s not hard to see why the Fraser of Allander take on things might hold true.
Aberdeen has been living in a bubble since the 1970s and has known for almost as long that it couldn’t last. The local council there have raked it in in the good times and should have put a lot of that money away for the bad times – an “oil fund” if you like.
It was also a thriving city before oil came along – it can be again.
Meantime i don’t think the rest of Scotland should be there to bail out the grossly inflated property market in and around Aberdeen. Houses are for living in as a home – not an investment.
Yes, but what currency would we use?
“Scotland’s fragile economy was dealt a catastrophic blow…”
*Massages temples furiously*
Two things.
1. Didn’t we just have a referendum where it was constantly hammered into us that the UK’s “broad shoulders” would allow us to “pool and share” resources to enable Scotland to thrive, to be “stronger,” “safer,” and “better” together? Voting Yes was a leap into the unknown, so why would you fix what wasn’t broken?
2. That being the case, how has it come to the point where Scotland’s economy is so pathetic, so anaemic, that a price fall in just one of our resources could be a “catastrophic” blow? We’ve been in this bloody union for 300 years, yet the UK allowed Scotland’s economy to be so pitiful?
Before, it was “Vote No, or Scotland will become an economic basket case.” Well, the referendum went the way you wanted. Yet still it seems Scotland’s economy is being threatened. Why? We’re still in the UK. We’re supposed to be protected. Why is Scotland’s economy so worthless as part of your precious union that this has happened?
Getting real fed up with this.
At this rate the mod embargo on exploration is the Indy scot’s nest egg.
By-passing Sullom Voe must be more expensive. Did WM fund somehow?
Robin @ 12:55
Kerosine one year ago 50 ppl, today 32 ppl.
Aberdeen needs to be normalised, it needs to conform.
If that means lower income and lower house prices good. My house is already shedding it’s value fast. Didn’t buy it as an investment, been in this situation before.
The bubbles burst Audi boys.
Taste the fear we felt in Glasgow for years, scraping around for a job in engineering.
I’m lucky just now, have nothing holding me here but can sympathise with people who do.
I can’t help my cynicism sometimes though.
Some good comments on here today 🙂
Try telling that to Sarah Smith
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-35300495
here is a taste:
Lower oil prices can have positive boost on the economy thanks to lower production costs for business and more disposable income in consumers pockets.
But in Scotland those positives are more than outweighed by the negative effects.
A burglar breaks into your house and steals property from you, then complains in the media that he can’t spend the ill-gotten gain on his illegal activities because the stolen property price has fallen!
And we are supposed to say sorry, feel embarrassed because we are so bloody stupid!
Well Westminster you have stolen and abused my people long enough, you must know you’re days are numbered when you turn your state media into a close resemblance to North Korea, or Pravda in the old soviet days. And think that is sustainable!
Enough of BBC shite, of lies and misinformation.
Outlander?
Why would the Prime minister of a country discus a historical costume drama, that is barely clinging to any actual events save plot references to the era? What is it I can’t see?
Is the Union based on such feeble foundations, all the crap about shared value and history, so unsound that a Hollywood fluff piece with heaving bodices and dashing young men can topple the United Kingdom? No then why even mention it at all, this is bugging me, come on don’t tell me it has political significance?
Evidence the email, sent from Sony vice president Keith Weaver to chief executive Michael Lynton and other senior Sony figures, said: “From a SPE [Sony Pictures Entertainment] perspective, your meeting with Prime Minister Cameron on Monday will likely focus on our overall investment in the UK – with special emphasis on the jobs created by [ITV show] TOMMY COOPER , the importance of OUTLANDER (i.e., particularly vis-à-vis the political issues in the UK as Scotland contemplates detachment this Fall).”
Heads of agreement for meetings are common place, in fact essential, so in arranging the meeting who from Whitehall briefed Sony on items to be discussed?
Why a drama series filmed in Scotland, supporting 2200 Scottish jobs and paid for in tax breaks by you and I is not available for general viewing? A statement from the UK Treasury said it will “leave a studio legacy” when the filming of the series ends, not a pip about artistic legacy!
So we help fund it why the hell can’t we see it!
Honestly I believe there is much more to this, they ban the tartan, they ban the language and customs of a people to subjugate them!
Now some 200 years later they ban a bodice ripper, Why?
The 3rd wealthiest region of the UK – without Oil
GDP would be 98% of UK average – without Oil
What would it be without Trident / Trident replacement / Aircraft carriers / Astute class submarines / drones for overseas wars / etc etc.
What would it be without debt interest share on money spent in England to pull even more money South.
What would it be if Scotland could compete foe flight and shipping hub standard ( Prestwick and Orkneys)
What would it be if we had an oil fund to put money when the oil price was high to cover the low periods – Norway)
Same propaganda and the NO voters still don’t grasp the basic fact – If we are such a drain, why do we have the major effort to hold us fast?
300 years of proving money and cannon fodder in support of the Empire!
Fluffy ‘comes out’ as gay? I dunno about that; he’s never looked particularly happy to me.
Bob @1.04 –
Brent Crude, the Andy Murray of the oil industry. Scottish when it’s losing, British when it’s winning.
Couldn’t have put it better! Well said.
Is it just me or are the government being a bit vague on Oil and Gas in order to support it’s new found love for Fracking?
It’s all a bit too convenient that the collapse of the industry then means that they can promote this type of extraction as an alternative and a way for the country to stay afloat because our economy is taking a real hit!
Somebody is always getting rich out of this kind of adversity and people loosing work in this form means someone is making money somewhere else. Question is .. where to look!
As for fluffy and his news, Nobody gives a rats arse what you are. Sexuality has nothing to do with anything.
The oil thing is a non starter. It is just an excuse for unionists to hide behind because they don’t believe we are capable of standing on our own two feet.
Oil has nothing to do with being or wanting Scotland to be Independent. There are many counties in the world that have no oil and survive as Independent countries.
Also, low oil prices are actually good for the economy. Cheaper fuel prices means people have more money in their pocket and can spend it on goods and service stimulating growth in the economy.
Anyone hiding behind the oil price when it comes to Scotland being Independent, either needs to grow a pair, or (as I have recently discovered), just plain hates anything the SNP does and is happy to be ruled by a Tory Government who hide their private parts in unspeakable places.
Regarding Aberdeen’s economy I have zero sympathy for onshore or offshore staff who have been paid enormous amounts of cash over the years and have not saved for a rainy day (just like an oil fund).
If you piss it all away on £100k cars and £1M houses whether inflated prices or not you reap what you sow.
How very dare Fluffy Muddle come out with a statement that makes me feel a degree of sympathy and warmth towards him.
I need to lie down now :/
Still hate his politics though.
“Macca73 says:
13 January, 2016 at 1:41 pm
Is it just me or are the government being a bit vague on Oil and Gas in order to support it’s new found love for Fracking?”
Let us not forget the great love for Chinese Nuclear Plants!!
Cheer them up a bit? Don’t count on it.
The mentality of BBC Scotland news editorial has always been, and still is, a provincial reportage station, avoiding all analysis. E-mail or hand in your press release and we will select items for variety, and then present them uncritically.
Keep mentioning this logic to people asking if they have more or less money to spend every month with lower fuel price. It’s not difficult to grasp.
@jamie
Yes deflation is an issue and I do wish the SNP would start to officially support people’s QE.
O/T But maybe relevant…
I think Alex Salmond is hosting a radio show on LBC this afternoon around 4pm – does anyone know if it is possible to listen to this via the internet please 🙂
Derek Bateman
The real shock in modern Scotland is that he came out as a Tory
snigger
Hand and Shrimp
Good point, you don’t have to look far in the media in Scotland to find homophobic comments, especially and ironically from tory readers of the Scotsman!
I will wager we don’t see one off comment on WOS, because we are better that that.
Its his unionist politics that give me the boak not his sexuality, in fact we might find a silver lining, as difficult as this would have been for him, if it makes him more a peace and happier with himself he may wish to join our civil society!
Now that would be news worth reporting!
With folk in Aberdeen losing jobs, I hope they remember 2 things.
Only the ‘broad shoulders’ of the UK can protect jobs and the cancelling of the £1bn subsidy by WM for CC at Peterhead which would have supported 600 jobs.
We are in a lose lose situation as part of the UK.
Didn’t know about bypassing Sullen Voe, where are they sending the oil to?
In Saudi with the easiest of oil to get at and minimum capitalisation cost to extract and thousands of low cost economic migrants on $250 a month to do the heavy lifting it still costs $30 a barrel to extract.
So the current price is unsustainable long term.
Regime change in Venezuela and the potentially soon sanctions lifting on Iran might extend the period of unrealistically low pricing, but at some point it must come back up.
In the interim, if extraction rates from the North Sea suffer, oil left there will be money in the bank for the future when the price does return to more realistic levels as oil runs out.
Saudi only has about 20-30 years left at their current extraction rates.
First decent think Fluffy’s ever come out with. The only surprise was one mentioned the other day – ‘Fluffy has a son?’ Still a political nonentity right enough.
LBC – on digital radio
The price of oil only took off after the collapse of the banking system. The average price of a barrel of oil for decades was $20 a barrel.
This is from a couple of years ago –
https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/37604/cameron-hails-jewel-in-the-crown-north-sea-sector/
“Prime Minister David Cameron has hailed the North Sea oil and gas industry as the “real jewel in the crown” of Britain’s economy.
The Conservative leader praised a wave of new offshore investment and projects as “encouraging” at Prime Minister’s Questions today.”
I wonder if he still thinks this?
Now would be a good time for the Scottish Government to seek the complete devolution of oil and gas in Scotland’s EEZ. Here’s why..
https://www.energyvoice.com/opinion/98393/fergus-ewing-end-the-trash-talk/
Fergus Ewing – End the trash talk
It is worth a read, since the mainstream media will not report good news..
Finally, I notice in the Scottish news that the BBC in Scotland are linking an item on car sales with the ‘crisis’ in the North Sea for a fall in car sales.. What the don’t tell their viewers is that last year was a record year for car sales, and that this year was a near record year.. It just missed out by 0.46%!
@ Al-Stuart
This should help you listen to the famous Alec Salmond. 😉
http://www.lbc.co.uk/lbc-schedule-3636
Apropos politicians leading double lives:
Last year I nicknamed Mundell ‘Sweetie Wife for Scotland’ – he’s just come out as gay. Wonder how his wife and son feel? Probably very proud.
Pity he didn’t come out as part-responsible for food banks.
@Al Stuart
http://www.lbc.co.uk/alex-salmond-phone-in-watch-live-122981
Robert Kerr says:
13 January, 2016 at 1:04 pm
O/T Torygraph online has Fluffy Mundell comes out as gay.
Why now?
What a surprise. I thought he’d come out years ago. So the man lived a lie with his wife for years. Hmm
Al-Stuart Hope this helps around 16:00, fingers crossed anyway…
http://www.lbc.co.uk/listen-live-3578
weechid at 2:19
Oh why did you think that, years ago, do tell, were you friends, close friends? Do share with us we will understand. You also infer you are very conversant with his relationship with his wife?
Hmm
I can’t see the positive in this. Electricity bills are still sky high and food seems to be no cheaper even though transport costs to the backwaters, like Scotland must be considerably less. If as is the case with us you don’t drive or own a car and don’t particularly want to, there is no saving in petrol you don’t use.
The road lobby must love this though, cars are cheap, relatively, fuel is cheap and road tax seems all but a donation by what I have heard. My sis, car addict, pays 30£ a year.
That’s a bad for planet. Pollution is rising, our asthma is getting worse even in winter.
The oil and gas is there. The money from oil should have been invested in renewables. I do hope we do not end up having to import electricty from England in the next few years as has been mentioned a s a possibility.
What a mess the no voters have left us with.
PS. When oil prices drop, if you live in Australia like my brother, he says his fuel bills go down accordingly. Wheres my passport.
HandandShrimp
How very dare Fluffy Muddle come out with a statement that makes me feel a degree of sympathy and warmth towards him.
he is a tory, I cant imagine loathing him any more than I already do
he is a tory, I cant imagine loathing him any less than I already do
him being gay pales in to insignificance and is far out weighed by the fact he is……… a tory
They can stick it next to the newspaper clippings where we were warned that oil jobs would be lost unless we voted No.
I do hope we don’t get any nasty comments from pro Indy supporters about Blundell. It would be all over the news but would definitely not be false flag stuff. Put nothing past the britnat establishment.
Aberdeen needs to be normalised, it needs to conform.
If that means lower income and lower house prices good. My house is already shedding it’s value fast. Didn’t buy it as an investment, been in this situation before.
The bubbles burst Audi boys.
I have both. My audi’s like a rocket ship:D
Two issues/messages from the oil capital of Europe, run by hard core UKOK unionist twerps
1. House sales have pretty stopped in Aberdeen.
2. Every single barrel price drop like this has seen Scots oil bounce back hard and fast, the bigger the price drop, the faster the industry recovers.
If this drop isn’t cyclical, there may be long term decline but Aberdeen’s heard it all before.
I am sorry for all the people losing their jobs but Oil has not been a blessing for Scotland rather a curse. We would probably have been better off, maybe even independent by now without it and lets face it when have we seen more than a penny from it.
How are Iceland, Denmark and Ireland recovering from the 2008 bank heists and what are their interest rates rel to UK.
How are their oil industries doing? NAE oil NAE good.
One_Scot says:
13 January, 2016 at 1:42 pm
..Oil has nothing to do with being or wanting Scotland to be Independent. There are many counties in the world that have no oil and survive as Independent countries.
———
Not just survive but prosper.
Scotland with large reserves is lagging behind other similar sized countries in Europe that have little or no oil at all. That is a disgrace.
Over the long term, the unequal UK union has been a ball and chain holding Scotland back.
In a way, it might actually help the chances of Scotland becoming independent if oil isn’t such a factor.
If oil was only 1 or 2% of Scotland’s revenues, then the volatility argument doesn’t work any more. It’s amazing how unionists have managed to turn what should have been a huge asset for Scotland into a liability.
Someone will correct me – some years back oil was $9 a barrel – then we invaded Iraq to get at it for nothing.
Doesn’t matter if Mundell is gay, straight, bi, neuter or whatever else – if proof emerges that he was involved in Frenchgate and lied about it on CH4? he’ll be in the mangle baws-first.
Chic McGregor
Saudi only has about 20-30 years left at their current extraction rates
Saudi followed Kuwait’s lead in the 90’s when they started quoting their reserves on an assumption of 100% extraction of reservoirs. (maximum anywhere with today’s technology is 70%)
Saudi also lie about the water cut in the ghawar reservoir, 15% when it is, in fact 45%.
I know, I have done over 100 e-line logs in this reservoir
OT: Twitter sites that include animated advertising get paid for those commercials – correct? Or is it Twitter dropping them in unannounced? I’d have thought folk want one source of social communication completely free of hawkers and salesmen.
On the David Mundell situation, like many others have no opinion, his business.
One thing I will say that considering the number of gay people within the Tory ranks they are really horrible about same sex marriage.
I hope he finds happiness in his new life. I hope Mrs Mundell is also content with her new life, nobody seems to have considered her.
A tory comes out of the closet gets bigger coverage than
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-34357804
UK government carbon capture £1bn grant dropped
BBC propaganda soft soaps devastating economic loss for Aberdeen and the north east, losing a massive industrial investment for Scotland that had massive potential. And all because near 60% north east Scotland voted NO.
But lets focus on/applaud the last ever UKOK Scotch tory lying hypocrite to come out.
Off topic.
The council that spent 16 million on consultants fees for the Elgin Flood Prevention scheme is going to vote on hiking the Council Tax by 18%. Not forgetting the money they already spent on a road that hasn’t yet been granted planning permission or SG approval.
The Brit Nat Independents and Tory coalition will be aided and abetted by the Brit Nat Labour councillors on Moray Council in opposition it seems to force through that hike.
Oh am I looking forward to the Naw Bags and those that voted for that shower whinging about that. The plain fact is that most of the electorate of Moray doesn’t give a monkeys about providing Social Services, the make up of Moray council is proof of that. The Independent Cree went unchallenged on Disreporting Jackie naturally.
Meanwhile Disreporting Jackie goes with SNP Bad over social care and a well known UKOKer leading the SNP BAD shouts as well.
I noted that lickspittle Baker resigned his Holyrood list seat to go work for a charity, does that charity not realise that it has done untold damage to its public relations by appointing that twa faced s!!!!!!!
What’s bothering me is a lot of people on the doorsteps who say they voted Yes, but wouldn’t vote Yes again specifically cite the oil price as their factor – they either work in the industry, or have family who do. “Imagine how much worse it would be if we got independence.”
Back in 1979, there were 32,000 shipbuilding jobs in Scotland. We had to vote No to devolution to protect them. Now there are only 3,000 jobs. “Ah, but imagine how much worse it would be if we got a parliament then – we might only have 2,000?”
How many more jobs have to be lost before you people GET IT.
other countries are recovering from the 2008 crash without oil revenue….true
it isn’t the lack of oil revenue which hurts the uk and indeed an iscotland
the 1000’s in the NE, from peterhead to dundee, who lose their jobs, stop paying tax and start claiming dole.
then again, if we do have indyref2 in the next 18 months, I doubt the people in Aberdeen will vote no to maintain the status quo.
Ian Brotherhood:
Maybe this is why Mundell didn’t want his son to get into politics – he knows that his sexuality isn’t the only thing about to come out!
Have a look at this http://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/War-Between-Saudi-Arabia-And-Iran-Could-Send-Oil-Prices-To-250.html looks like the oil price may rise considerably.
I’m sorry for folk losing their jobs in O & G, but it’s pretty much a global issue just now.
Regards the comment by Macca73, and the SG love for fracking?? Are you thinking of the pig botherer? He’s the one who has broken every promise on fracking, and now looking at calling in planning applications to fast track – out of local councils hands.
As a SNP member, I want a full ban on fracking, but this SG have done far more on this issue, than any party. In the last two weeks we have seen Cluff Algy and Ineos withdraw any activity in Scotland, to focus down south.
Fracking is not consistent with SNP green policy, so I’m hopeful we will reach a ban at some point in 2017 following the public consultation.
Off topic
Moray council first out the trap to say they will defy the council tax freeze, and increase it to protect services. Other councils considering.
However, research by Spice has shown SG has propped up the freeze better than inflation!
http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2015/09/scottish-council-tax-freeze-%E2%80%9Cnot-underfunded%E2%80%9D
@mr thms
“The price of oil only took off after the collapse of the banking system. The average price of a barrel of oil for decades was $20 a barrel.”
Hmmm. In the 70s and most of the 80s Brent crude oil averaged over $50 a barrel.
It did fall to the $20 – $25 range for a little over ONE decade but then started picking up some years before the credit crunch, largely driven by the emergent BRIC’s following their entry to the WTO and ensuing World trade deals. Hundreds of millions of new car owners and a massive increase in industrial oil demand plus things hotting up in the Middle East all factors.
The CC certainly did have an effect as well, when it happened, but the price was already rising by then due to perceived ‘Peak Oil’ and the prophesised increasing supply-demand gap.
The recent fall is mainly due to fall in demand which in turn is partly due to a slow down in China as it gets to grips with its borrowing but also seems to have some unclear political factors going on as well.
Saudi and some other producers could afford to keep supplying at $30 but the average World marginal cost of production is currently $55 – $60 a barrel.
If it stays at $30 a large percentage of World capacity will close down.
The low cost producers could increase production rates to compensate and keep the price down but that would not only hit their own potential earnings but would reduce the time left for oil production there.
Even at current extraction rates Saudi only has around 30 years left.
@heed
If this drop isn’t cyclical, there may be long term decline but Aberdeen’s heard it all before.
true, short term, all expats will quit Aberdeen.
but unlike the ship building industry, mentioned by others here, the oil industry will recover, the oil cannot move elsewhere.
Saudis present political state and stability is in turmoil. the ghawar reservoir is 20% of the entire worlds total reserve.
While Aberdeen is without doubt a bubble, the positives of the bubble have mostly only been felt by those at the top end generally speaking. (of course not the poor guys losing their jobs and with no option but to move or try to change field)
At the lower end house prices coming down should be a good thing, some fuel bills coming down, and eventually perhaps general costs in shops as the well off who were just here for the oil industry or for property investment move away.
What I do wonder about though is the effect on public projects. Things like infrastructure are pretty bad here, yet large scale “public” projects almost always seem to be joint deals on far from critical things with private investors who get to build something they want beside or under the project site.
Should those private investors cease to be a thing (for example the flats they would be allowed to build on the side become worth less) I have my doubts that the council will focus on more important projects as opposed to just not doing anything at all.
Interesting stuff SC re Saudi reserves being even less.
The rancid, lying unionist George Foulkes, issuing an endless stream of pish on Politics Scotland just now.
Complaining about things that make rich people richer, after no doubt being given £300 for a few hours sitting about.
Oil and Scotland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_oil
so oil has always been a benefit to Scotland with extraction dating from 1851? (some mistake surely)
and how expensive was it to drill for oil in the north sea, well so expensive the oil giants said Britain couldn’t afford it so had to be content with a cut! another fine mess Labour got us into!
And given the vast expense how much was a barrel of oil,
How Much $10 dollars! Really!
http://www.inflationdata.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Inflation_Adj_Oil_Prices_Chart2.jpg
The great oil and gas swindle!
Scotland the only country not invaded by a foreign power (sic) to give their oil away!
Oil price per barrel.
1969 – $20
1974 – $51
1980 – $118
1986 – $25
1990 – $64
1998 – $16
2008 – $145
2009 – $43
2011 – $116
Currently – $31….notice a pattern?
I started in the oil industry in Aberdeen in 1969, no that’s not a typo. The price goes up the price goes down. People get hired people get layed off. It’s a cyclical industry and always has been. If we were an independent country we would plan for that. I’ve no idea what’s happening in Norway right now but I bet it’s not about to collapse.
The economy of Houston Texas (with a population about the size of Scotland) relied almost 100% on oil until the crash of 1986. It nearly wiped them off the map. They decided, “never again” and diversified. They invested in the port of Houston which is now one of the biggest in the world. They attracted companies like aerospace, IT, biomedical, etc. Being a state in a federal system they had the power do that.
Aberdeen City council is one of the most inept in the land but I can’t blame them for not diversifying. They have almost no power to do so and definitely don’t have the foresight. The blame for that lays squarely on the broad shoulders of the UK government who will be happy to see Aberdeen returned to the miserable backwater it was before the oil started to flow.
By the way those that think we are living in £1m houses and driving around in £100k cars are talking mince. Great way to pit us against each other though, bit of jealousy, bit of envy.
After all the education we have had on WOS surely there are not some Wingers who still believe what they read in the papers?
If this is not just another cycle I can guarantee the one person sweating bullets right now is George Osborne and for that we will all pay a terrible price. RBS is recommending their customers liquidate their portfolios. The crash is a coming and Gideon knows it. He will be begging to stay in Europe by years end.
“George Foulkes issuing an endless stream of pish on Politics Scotland just now.”
A wonder they got him out of the hospitality suite.
The Saudis warned us, ‘us’ being the UK and the USA, and Canada. Invest in fracking to become self-sufficient in oil and we will drop the price of oil until fracking isn’t financially viable. And hey presto…
Those countries with oil reserves can throw their weight around – eh? Except Scotland. Mysteriously it has no oil.
There are three separate questions to resolve from the collapse in the oil price:
* What it will mean for the Aberdeen economy
* What it will mean for Government tax revenues
* What it will mean for the Scottish/UK economies as a whole.
My answer to the first two questions is ‘negative’, and positive to the third.
*WOOOOOSH*
Scottish Secretary David Mundell: I’m gay
Daniel Sanderson, Scottish Political Correspondent
SCOTTISH Secretary David Mundell has announced that he is gay.
The MP made the disclosure in a statement on his website, saying he had resolved to come out publicly as gay in 2016.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: “I salute David Mundell’s courage – coming out as Tory isn’t easy.”
heraldscotland.com/news/14201218.Scottish_Secretary_David_Mundell__I_m_gay/?ref=twtrec
——————
Jeremey Corbyn @jeremeycorbyn ( LABOUR MParody. parody)
I salute David Mundell’s courage coming out as Tory isn’t easy.
https://twitter.com/jeremeycorbyn/status/687259567462416386
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-08/world%E2%80%99s-five-most-important-oil-fields
fracking — unlocking vast new reserves of oil trapped in shale rock. This “tight oil” is pouring into the global pool of oil supplies at a crucial time, preventing oil prices from spiking in an age of high demand and geopolitical turmoil.
But the world still relies overwhelmingly on conventional oil production from existing fields,
The legendary Ghawar field has been churning out oil since the early 1950s, allowing Saudi Arabia to claim the mantle as the world’s largest oil producer and the only country with sufficient spare capacity to act as a swing producer. Holding an estimated 70 billion barrels of remaining reserves, Ghawar alone has more oil reserves than all but seven other countries,
So what happens if the calls for sanctions against Saudi wahabist Islamic doctrine of execution and repression, gain momentum and actually happen?
result, oil at $150 a bbl by tomorrow morning
O/T
@ Helena Brown says at 2:53 pm ”On the David Mundell situation, like many others have no opinion, his business ….. I hope he finds happiness in his new life. I hope Mrs Mundell is also content with her new life, nobody seems to have considered her.”
I was thinking of Mundell’s wife and three children too Helena. It’s not my business but it doesn’t stop me wondering how many years she suffered from being ‘duped’ … if she did? Sad, so sad, if she was.
Whatever the case I’m sure that a great deal of unhappiness must have existed in that household at some point in time, so sending all my best wishes to Mrs Mundell and her children for the future.
Oil may be down & so are fuel prices but Wings is even better since Ne’erday. Congratulations are due folks! 🙂
Hobbit
There are three separate questions to resolve from the collapse in the oil price:
* What it will mean for the Aberdeen economy
* What it will mean for Government tax revenues
* What it will mean for the Scottish/UK economies as a whole.
My answer to the first two questions is ‘negative’, and positive to the third.
disagree
* What it will mean for the UK economy as a whole. Positive
* What it will mean for the Scottish economy as a whole. Negative, definitely negative, 1000’s of job loses in the NE, loss of income tax revenue for Scotland, increase in dole costs
What market news happened at around 15:30?
This seems to have happened about then:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/market_data/commodities/143908/intraday.stm
I’ve had a quick search but can’t find anything meaningful.
I keep hearing on the corrupt unionist media that hundreds / thousands of jobs have been lost re. the collapse of the oil industry in Scotland. Not trying to downplay the impact of this overall but does anyone have any idea how many Scots have lost their jobs?
Salmond live, getting very very squeezed on how would Scotland have faired with low oil price.
http://www.lbc.co.uk/alex-salmond-phone-in-watch-live-12298
LBC dude’s pulling no punches. Who knew LBC listeners cared so much passionately about Scotland?
@Hamish McTavish oil price started the day at 30.8 and at 16.00 was at 30.8 so not much has seemed to have happened.
Fluffy announces he is gay, so what, why now?. Is some shit about to hit the fan.
Is this being headlined to hide something else,
The collapse in the oil price is great news.
My unit cost of electricity is now under 10p/kWhr. Heating oil costs less than half what it did two years ago, having dropped from over 65p/litre to 30p/litre. And regular petrol is now back under 100p/litre, the lowest it’s been in many years.
That leaves more money in my pocket to save for a rainy day & to spend on other things I would choose to buy, rather than being forced to pay for.
Any business that spends a large percentage of its operating costs on fuel is also enjoying a massive reduction in costs. Inevitably that cost reduction is passed to the consumer reflected in lower retail prices.
And guess what happens when prices are lower? Demand usually increases, causing businesses to make more stuff which in turn improves economic output.
Sure, folks in Aberdeen are struggling but you have to also look at the other side of the economic equation & realise that the entire country is benefitting from this steep drop in oil prices.
If it remained thus, eventually new jobs in other regions & sectors will take up the slack caused by poor demand for work in Aberdeen.
This is how the free market is supposed to work. Of course, if you take all your economic advice straight off the propaganda broadcasts from the BBC, it doesn’t matter which way oil prices are headed; Scotland will always be an economic basket case.
@Grouse Beater
“A wonder they got him out of the hospitality suite.”
Perhaps he was lured with the promise of an additional payment – you know, another wee scheme to make the rich richer!
You say
Better together..
I say
Tomato..
You say
UKOK..
I say
Potato..
United.
Potato.
Together.
Tomato.
Let’s call the whole thing off.
Saudi Arabia getting a kicking on LBC by a caller……
point made
@scotsbob – thanks for the response.
I was more interested in the seemingly sudden drop rather than the day’s change. I suppose it’s just a “market adjustment” following someone having made an obscene profit in a trade.
Sorry – ingrained cynicism surfacing there.
eu ref now being discussed
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jan/13/david-mundell-scotland-secretary-hostile-tories-commands-respect?CMP=share_btn_tw
Incredible BetterTogether vote tory blast from Rupert Carrell. Fluffie’s sexuality is his own affair, except for the fact that he has lied to Scotland and Scottish voters, since he sneaked in to Holyrood with the list seat scam.
Just when you thought rancid the Graun couldnt get any worse in their Scotland region…
All about David Mundell
http://caltonjock.com/2014/12/16/david-made-it-ma-top-of-the-world-mundell-viceroy-of-scotland-outs-himself/
Well done Alex, and well done LBC!
Any chance BBC Scotlandshire could take some lessons in how to present a political programme?
‘Of course, if you take all your economic advice straight off the propaganda broadcasts from the BBC, it doesn’t matter which way oil prices are headed; Scotland will always be an economic basket case.’
Nailed it.
someone want to go on carrol’s blog and point out that Dumfries isn’t in his constituency?
The key issues here in regard to the current price of oil is the reason why it is dropping so heavily and can production continue at present levels given production costs.
Of course commodity prices like oil exhibit cyclical up and down swings. However, lower demand which is driving the price down is presently global in scale and shows little sign of any upturn given the current historic gap level between wages, which are depressed leading to lower and lower aggregate demand, and profit levels sustained largely now from rentier activity rather than added value from real production.
Sixteen months ago in August 2014 oil was $115 a barrel. Last Friday it closed at $33.85 a barrel.
Latest production costs per barrel can be found here:
http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/24/news/oil-prices-production-costs/
This quotes anything from $52.50 in the UK down to $36 dollars in the US and less than $10 dollars a barrel in Saudi and Kuwait where even at this low production cost predicted to see the Saudi’s run out of money in 5 years if the price does not go back to $50 a barrel. It’s not difficult to work out that unless it goes back up in price soon that the gap between production costs and prices on the market will see not just sovereign debt problems for certain countries but also for many companies in the oil business.
In these circumstances it is difficult to envisage an increase in demand when companies are laying off more workers, depressing general wages even further leading to lower aggregate demand; current storage capacity almost being reached, see here
http://ourfiniteworld.com/2016/01/07/2016-oil-limits-and-the-end-of-the-debt-supercycle
and companies going under and putting banks and financial organisations who hold their debts under threat (despite Osborne’s delusion the only sector of any economy which operates on the basis of a household is a household, meaning that private sector companies as well as States operate on the basis of defecits) leading to even worse economic conditions which are not amenable to producing increased demand.
In short, a negative feedback loop which will impact on economies regardless of whether they are independent or otherwise.
Fluffy saying that he is gay is probably the only thing that man has said that actually makes any sense to me.
@gordoz says: 13 January, 2016 at 1:01 pm:
“Message to David Mundell on recent twitter posting.
Who cares ?? Its yer politics that the problem ya clown!”
I think most people would agree with you, Gordoz, but didn’t give it a thought. Why is it, I wonder, such as he feel it is important the World should know his sexual preference?
I respect his choices – it’s his politics, and lack of integrity, I find offensive.
frogesque says:
13 January, 2016 at 4:39 pm
Well done Alex, and well done LBC!
Apart from unionist caller demanding that “once in a life time” said totally informally, means the end of Scotland running Scotland.
Salmond right about their new anthem too. Its great. If only England could begin to grasp that Scotland should be a nation state again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqvnQuRTbV4
Come on England!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqvnQuRTbV4
David Mundell:
I never gave it a thought one way or another nor do I care
He’s an unpleasant little squint of a man because he is, no more no less, but I do ask the question as to his motive for a public announcement about it in this day and age
What sort of attention is he trying to attract, because to use his sexuality for political means, I don’t believe is beneath him
There are always not nice and fair people out there of all persuasions so he’s bound to get the clicks and tweets from some of them, and if he does and then uses it as a weapon for his political cause then I certainly hope reasonable folk will see through it and ignore him big time
Fracking fooked!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fox-creek-fracking-operation-closed-indefinitely-after-earthquake-1.3400605
Fox Creek fracking operation closed indefinitely after earthquake
Magnitude 4.8 quake rattles area, but no injuries or damage reported, energy regulator says
O/T
@ G H Graham says at 4:12 pm ”The collapse in the oil price is great news. My unit cost of electricity is now under 10p/kWhr.”
I’ve just checked my latest bill from Scottish Gas / Electricity and I’m paying 11.86p/kWh. Do you mind telling me who you’re with G H Graham?
Anyone out there paying less than 10p/kWh?
I wouldn’t trust Fluffy as far as I could throw him, what’s Fluffy really up to.
Poor old Yoons. Seems that your actual King Cnut was not actually so deluded that he thought he could hold back the tide. The Yoons, on the other hand…well, it appears to me that the only possible conclusion in their case is that they are a real bunch of genuinely deluded Cnuts…
What sort of attention is he trying to attract, because to use his sexuality for political means, I don’t believe is beneath him
Fluffie just scraped in last time, so he has a good 5 years to kick some vile separatist arse, then its Lord Fluffie of Mayfair.
If he’d had waited until say 2020, or even been outed, it would have harmed his Baron Fluffie chances and that’s the kind of UKOK troughing these guys do not want to lose.
Check out how angry Lady Flipper of Mayfair gets online with vile seps.
This is what UKOK red and blue tory democracy is really all about, patronage.
“There are always not nice and fair people out there of all persuasions so he’s bound to get the clicks and tweets from some of them, and if he does and then uses it as a weapon for his political cause then I certainly hope reasonable folk will see through it and ignore him big time”
^This totally.
I’m guessing that both he and the media are looking for some kind of reaction on Twitter or somewhere to completely blow out of all proportion, or if nothing of the sort is forthcoming, then to just make something up anyway and report (i.e. lie) about it !!!
I just wouldn’t put it past them.
Venezuela has the biggest proven oil reserves in the World, more than Saudi.
But they have been extracting at a much lower rate (till now, who knows what post Chavista period will bring?). At current extraction rates of about 2.5 BB they have over 200 years supply left.
Also uploaded an oilprice graph, OK it is crude not Brent crude, but the two do mirror each other with Brent $2 -$8 higher depending on price.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0b586ffuevspswx/oilpricegraph%2070-2011.JPG?dl=0
Last month I paid 9.55p/kWhr, supplied via GB Energy.
I never sign up to fixed price contracts (scams), only variable rates.
“Gay taunts by vile cybernats” anyone?”Whose first?
I wish folk would stop swallowing this pish about everyone involved in the oil industry is on £100k salaries.
Tell that to the hundreds, maybe thousands, that have lost their jobs in Dundee. From engineering to supply, we are all suffering. As a man in my 50’s on an average wage, I have no chance of ever working again in Dundee. I’m too old to sleep in a caravan in Germany or Poland,
O/T
@ frogesque says at 4:52 pm ……. ”Fracking fooked!
Fox Creek fracking operation closed indefinitely after earthquake. Magnitude 4.8 quake rattles area, but no injuries or damage reported, energy regulator says.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fox-creek-fracking-operation-closed-indefinitely-after-earthquake-1.3400605
Thank God we’ve been protected by the SG. If it wasn’t for that, taking into account the number of licenses fired through by the Economic Affairs Committee, Scotland would’ve been fracked to death by now: Our beautiful country in the process of being totally decimated.
As a by check out the members of the EAC on the Greenpeace website. Check out how many of the 13 members have financial interests in energy companies / fracking.
Take note that Baroness Noakes, one of the main players seems to have stood down VERY recently. She with massive financial interests in Centrica, Shell, BG Group and BP. Stood down because she was making their hidden agenda pretty transparent?
They must be absolutely heartbroken with the stance that the SNP have taken especially after getting away with robbing us blind of our oil revenue for decades.
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/economic-affairs-committee/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R8dRyWUBSxwz6Zly35g47EZEpE015eu41DP7b3AAv-g/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=0
‘Fluffy’ has no choice over his sexuality and how he deals with it is his business.
He is however a Conservative by choice and that is everyone’s business.
@jim watson says: 13 January, 2016 at 1:26 pm:
“Yes, but what currency would we use?”
Our own currency of course, Jim.
You know that one we legally agreed to share with our equally sovereign partners in the three country Kingdom of England in 1706/7.
The pound, besides being an international trading currency, doesn’t belong to The Kingdom of England.
It is the currency of the United Kingdom, which last time I looked, is a bipartite treaty of union and, as such, when any bipartite agreement ends, reverts to its status quo ante. Which, “Status Quo Ante”, is legally a return to two independent Kingdoms.
Namely the single country Kingdom of Scotland and the three country Kingdom of England. Unless, of course, you can find any other partner kingdoms with signatures, and royal seals, on the Treaty of Union or indeed on either Act Of Union between
“so oil has always been a benefit to Scotland with extraction dating from 1851? (some mistake surely)”
Oil from shale,see James “Paraffin” Young.
@ G H Graham says at 5:12 pm … Last month I paid 9.55p/kWhr, supplied via GB Energy. I never sign up to fixed price contracts (scams), only variable rates.”
Thanks for that G H. Time for me to start shopping around.
@ Juteman at 5:16 pm ”I wish folk would stop swallowing this pish about everyone involved in the oil industry is on £100k salaries. Tell that to the hundreds, maybe thousands, that have lost their jobs in Dundee. From engineering to supply, we are all suffering. As a man in my 50’s on an average wage, I have no chance of ever working again in Dundee. I’m too old to sleep in a caravan in Germany or Poland.”
REALLY sorry to hear that Juteman. For you and the many others that have lost their jobs. I truly hope things pick up for you soon.
It’s Scotland’s oil when prices are low and UK oil when high…at least according to the BBC in Scotland…strange lot those unionists!
Harry Mason, I found another story at the bottom of the site you posted regarding the north Sea interesting also.
I remember reading an article someone posted about a year or so ago which related to oil fields that had been drilled previously actually filling back up to a degree after a certain amount of time due to the oil from surrounding rocks. I think the article was from either The New York Times or the Washington Post.
Isn’t it a wonder how the media in this country have kept the masses so utterly blind as we have been getting robbed and for so long?
EVEL looks like it’s just another “nothing to see here story” too.
Funny old UKOK world innit!
I am sorry for all the people losing their jobs but Oil has not been a blessing for Scotland rather a curse.
The oil is innocent, the curse has Westminster/English establishment dabs all over it.
I wish some Russians would come on here and explain to the dim westerners what “Oil” actually is, and how there are no “Reserves” as it is essentially limitless.
The “price” of oil is a political construct and has little to do with supply and demand.
The present price stems from the September 2014 meeting between Kerry and the Saudis and was aimed at sinking Putin, the plot failed in it’s objective and backfired on the US spectacularly collapsing the high cost fracking/tar sands industry (which may have been the Saudi’s intentions all along!)
Anyway we in Scotland have no control over it and must make hay when the sun shines but otherwise concentrate on diversifying our economy.
Truly terrible that people in the oil industry in Scotland are losing jobs.
As an aside, however, I have always been of the opinion that Scotland would have been independent a very long time ago, had it not been for the oil. London treats Scotland like a colony, wealth, mineral riches and other wealth goes to London. That, after all, was what empire was for, and that is how countries such as England, France and Spain got rich.
The upside is, that Scotland has another wealth, renewable energy, and all that is holding us back is our ‘friends’ in London, England.
The decline of the oil industry in many ways, will make independence easier.
On news: talking about Mundell, Anna Soubray in the HOC:
‘Finally he can be the man he’s always been.’
Huh?
Rupert Myers is a barrister and writer and on the English national anthem debate says in the Graun
“To be English is to be part of the biggest group of people in the union, to cherish the uniqueness of Wales and Scotland, to celebrate their differences, but above all else to be the middle crew, the engine room in Team GB. We don’t need to reassert our culture, and we can ill afford a tedious argument with ourselves over an identity crisis. We won’t agree on a replacement anthem, but we can agree that there is no urgency, and no good reason to try.”
Its nice to be cherished I suppose.
Rupert’s actually a torygraph cherisher of Scotland but what’s the red/blue media tory difference these days?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/rupert-myers/
Petrol is the only thing that has come down in price. The price of heating, energy, manufacture, flights, holidays, fares and goods in the shops should have come down, but some of them are going up. People are getting ripped off. Wages are not going up.
Westminster/Osbourne are taking 60% out of the Oil & Gas sector. That is why thousands are losing their jobs. It is a scandal. If this was cut more jobs would be retained. More Oil & Gas has to be imported putting up the balance of payments and the debt.
Nobody has asked why we’re heading for $10 a barrel. We’re told the Oil price is falling, well it is, but its not really the markets. Much like the $160 a barrel was manipulation and speculation, the current price is exactly the same. Our “friends” the Saudi’s are behind this and you can be certain, the US and the West are colluding. Some job losses, temporary in my opinion. IS oil is reaching the markets via Saudi Arabia and Turkey. This is also being used to drive the price down. The aim, to hurt certain countries, specifically Russia and Venezuela. If you think that war, exploitation and manipulation in pursuit of Oil wealth is over, I think you’ll find its anything but……..
MSM are a disgrace. They never mention the excessive Westminster mismanagement and 60% take. Just doom and gloom. Biased report. They talk down everything. They are totally incompetent. Why does Alex Salmond not have a radio show in Scotland?
Like everyone else, who cares what sexual orientation Bo Selecta is.
He is a Tory, end of. I take it the parasite Bitter Together supporters will play the homophobic card whenever anyone says anything about him.
BOO FU**ING HOO.
He behaves like a twat therefore he is a twat.
I had an interesting conversation with a naysayer yesterday, his first line of attack was, with the price of oil at the moment Scotland would be bankrupt. When I tried to tell him even $20 per barrel with Independence we would still be better off, rather than the paltry amount we get from Westminster.
He then replied its not Scotland’s oil its Americas.!!!!
Petra
‘Anyone out there playing less than 10p/kw’
You have to watch each suppliers standing charges per day as well as their per kilowatt price or you’re bill may end up higher than for a lower p/kw deal.
Sarah Smith puts the UKOK boot in
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-35300495
Horror stories from every Aberdonian apparently but Sarah leaves out stuff like how many oil jobs there actually are in her Scotland region, which is way too much to expect from any BBC attack propagandist
Not UK oil “Close to collapse” 2014, and so on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30525539
but
“…the oil and gas industry in the United Kingdom supports an estimated 375,000 jobs”.
Lord Bourne, 22 July 2015.
“…it is important to recognise that the North Sea supports hundreds of thousands of jobs—more than 400,000”.
Lord Grantchester, 22 July 2015.
“375,000 is the most recent estimate of jobs supported by the industry, calculated by Oil & Gas UK. Over 400,000 was its estimate at the start of 2014.
These figures don’t just refer to the total number of people directly employed by the industry. They include those whose jobs it says are in the wider supply chain, or exist because of oil and gas employees spending the money the sector pays them. About 40,000 people are directly employed in the industry.”
Sarah says BP sack 6000, or 1 fifth of BP north sea staff, but that puts that total of 40,000 people directly employed figure from UK Oil and gas all work for BP…
On and on the UKOK bullshit trundles.
I’ve taken to watching Westminster Parliament TV. I’m even more proud of our SNP MP,s when I watch what they have to put up with from people like the obnoxious Anna Soubry!
Her speech today in the commons, deriding the people of Scotland for thinking that oil was a bonus to any country, made me and I think a lot of Scottish people much more positive about our future.
They are frightened! Very worried indeed!
So Mundell wants to do to men what he’s been doing to Scotland.
Prospective partners should note his desire to dominate whether they agree or not.
Ruthie babes has the BBC, all press, STV etc for endless tory party political stuff but this is their latest attempt, vote blue tory to stop one party states and no referendum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq1_KAiXXnQ&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
Pretty dreary shots of their Scotland region too.
Chic McGregor @2:08
With the Saudis announcing last week a $67 billion black hole, or should that be deficit, against a GDP of $108bn, I can’t see them wanting to maintain current trends for much longer. People may start investing in alternatives, and let’s face it, in the case of Saudia Arabia, their economy is almost totally oil dependant.
Wonder if he shouts “Fuuucccckkk Scottttlllaaaannnndddd!” On the vinegar stroke?
Gordoz
”
Message to David Mundell on recent twitter posting.
Who cares ?? It’s yer politics that the problem ya clown!”
Well he could hardly deflect attention to what a chube he is by coming out as a TORY “there I’ve said it” he’ll have been sitting there going “how the fu*k can I deflect people from seeing what a w**k**r I am”
As Taranaich has posted- the collapse of the oil price has demonstrated vividly how much of a lie the ‘broad shoulders’ scam was. Where is the support for the industry from the UK government?
They promised ‘broad shoulders’ and now all the North East gets from Westminster are shrugged shoulders.
The second bite of the energy cherry was renewables and despite all the great progress made in that field Westminster have chosen to kneecap it for vindictive political reasons.
They promised us the “best of both worlds”- well to me having an industry that has been milked during the good times and used as an ideological battering ram against the aspirations of the people of Scotland during the bad times with zero support is the worst of all worlds.
Scotland has been harvested for centuries- now we’ve woken up to it and operation Scorched Earth has kicked in.
OT Tom Harris interviewed on LBC approx 1845 about Alex Salmond on LBC this afternoon.
Harris made a quip regarding a constituent during the referendum and the constituent’s grasp of the song Scotland the Brave.
The condescending attitude from Harris has to be heard to be believed. If you can get a podcast or recording of it then listen to it.
And Labour still don’t get it!!!
Ian: “On news: talking about Mundell, Anna Soubray in the HOC”
Anna Soubray is one of those people who strike one immediately as impressively tolerant, politically broad-minded, and charitable of secular societies.
Jings! they’ve brought back my favourite, Acorn antiques,…no wait a minute…damn just another shaky set from Ruth tank commander.
Did you actually GO to RADA Ruth?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/03/article-2056990-0EA4C7E800000578-171_306x474.jpg
Joemcg@6.48,
On his Vinegar Strokes……I had to look that up for the meaning, you naughty man…cum, cum now.
Stephen.
“Anna Soubray is one of those people who strike one immediately as impressively tolerant, politically broad-minded, and charitable of secular societies.”
EH?
What?
like him you mean?
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/7/19/1311085907828/augusto-pinochet-007.jpg
Gary45%
“He behaves like a twat therefore he is a twat.”
I am a fanny therefore I am?
@Flower of Scotland
Thought the speakers from SNP were excellent and good to see Michelle Thomson speaking, although the star was Tasmina who I think is a great orator.
Tory Bag lady Anna Soubry sitting there chuntering away to herself is both infuriating and comical.
I thought Alex was not well prepared and mishandled the very first question which ended in a rammy with the questioner. It was a very obvious question for which he should have been well prepared.
Answer should have been –
1. Scotland’s economy benefits just as much from the low oil price as does the UK economy.
2. If Scotland was Independent the revenue it would receive from North Sea oil would be at least 12 times more than it receives now.
Here endeth the lesson.
PS – Scotland’s non oil economy is doing better than the UK’s non oil economy.
In my opinion he mostly waffled through the rest of the programme and was not the Alex Salmond I know and respect greatly.
“On his Vinegar Strokes……I had to look that up for the meaning, you naughty man…cum, cum now.”
Your avin a giraffe mate?
600 jobs to be lost at BP ? Tragic news not just for Aberdeen, but also for the rest of the UK – Especially the North East of England !!
Practically every rig I worked on over the last 15 years had around 50% or more of their employees hailing from Cities in the NE of England (note that these were not Drilling rigs) – And that was on the existing platforms. When you go to the newly built ones (such as Clair Ridge is now), 80% or more of those employed in the highest paying commissioning jobs were from this area.
I was one of around 20 from North of the border working in Spain a few years ago on a new build. There must have been 100 or more from the NE there at the time, including a lot of “Technicians” who had literally completed their training a few months before who found themselves at the age of 22 working for a salary that most people could only dream about whilst experienced lads were unable to get a job because they did not have the correct postcode.
The total count of those who went offshore with the project would be around 200 over 2 rotations. These guys then fell into jobs at Burntisland and Methil doing the same all over again. Blocking Jocks, pulling their own into the jobs as usual.
Currently there are loads of them in Holland doing exactly the same stunt. Blocking those not in their clique, employing only their own and biding their time until the project travels offshore to the Montrose/Arbroath field.
Follow the link below for an idea of the way these bandits operate their very own “Blacklist” to keep outsiders at bay.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dee-jackson-a8a5915b
Fife Hauliers are the only people in Scotland Forbye posh snobby unionists who think cheaper fuel is a bad thing. Give the peasants a good thrashing! Let them eat cake.
Anna Soubray: A very nasty, Ignorant, arrogant, loudmouth, anti Scottish Snob. Typical conservative and unionist Scrubber, the scum of the earth.
Would the fact that David Mundell has a son not suggest that somebody has got it in for him?
It’s a bit unfair to cherry-pick just one paragraph, from a while back, from the Fraser Institute’s summaries and forecasts. Anyone wanting further and more up to date information can get it from http://nowcastingscotland.com/
Black flag ops methinks.
@ dakk says at 6:23 pm ……. ”Petra …‘Anyone out there playing less than 10p/kw’
You have to watch each suppliers standing charges per day as well as their per kilowatt price or you’re bill may end up higher than for a lower p/kw deal.”
Thanks dakk I’ll look out for that. I’m definitely going to change supplier at the weekend. I was informed (last bill) that my payments have gone UP and yet I was abroad for a month between the 16th September and 20th December. Greedy baaaa’s!
Maybe by the time oil recovers to a more stable level, actual Scottish workers and Scotland will be the ones who benefit the most
The Telly and print media love to bang on about the 65.000 workers who have lost their jobs maybe somebody with more local knowledge than me can tell us the Nationalities of all these workers because I have a feeling they’re not Scottish
or we really would be in serious trouble employment wise
but the unemployment figures don’t show that
uno mas
“Would the fact that David Mundell has a son not suggest that somebody has got it in for him?”
Whohahahaha
Severin has penned a ridiculous puff piece all about how Mundell is widely held in great respect despite beige a Tory. Really laughable stuff. It is on the Guardian site along side a piece about Mundell coming out. Comments on the latter article opened first and guardian mods in overdrive deleting any comments criticising Severin’s piece. I know cos I left 2 saying I didn’t care about Mundell’s sexuality but Sev’s article was a joke, they were both deleted within minutes.
Petra
If you’re a light user and go away often then a high daily standing charge would work against you.
Any savings on cheaper p/kw rate may be wiped out and more.
Try find out roughly how many units you use per year from previous bills and multiply by p/kw rate,then add the 365× daily standing charge and you can then get a better comparisons.
Don’t forget to take a note of your rough annual usage so you don’t need to plough through bills each year,maybe have it tatooed on forehead.
Westminster have chosen to kneecap it (scotlands) for vindictive political reasons.
correct, thatcher, I disliked immensely, her policies even more but she at least thought it was for the best in the long run
Cameron and Westminster are determined to damage Scotland in every way they can simply to bring down the snp
the union really is over
If Scotland were independent, how would it and the government be reacting to the current fall in the oil price, and how would it be different from what is happening at the minute? (honest question, but I would be interested in seeing people’s views).
If a low oil price is what makes Scottish independence unviable, what happens when we have a high oil price?
Golfnut says:
13 January, 2016 at 4:11 pm
Fluffy announces he is gay, so what, why now?. Is some shit about to hit the fan.
Is this being headlined to hide something else,
Ruby replies
I must admit I find it strange that he’s made the announcement now.
I always thought David Mundell was gay I was surprised to find out he was married and had a grown up family.
Even if the price of oil was low ,we would have 100% of whatever it accrues ,rather than just the “share” Westminster deems to hand out.
I think it is only around 8% of total oil revenues,based on the Treasury figures.
Roboscot
“If a low oil price is what makes Scottish independence unviable, what happens when we have a high oil price?”
Aye but!
Whit’ll happen when the price goes back doon again?
we’ll have our benefits removed,… oh?
“Cameron and Westminster are determined to damage Scotland in every way they can simply to bring down the snp
the union really is over”
That’s it!
Stop the discussion!
there’s no more to be said!
Hobbit
a Scottish government to make changes to the tax system in the oil industry to encourage eg, exploration and to stay in the industry in scotland
this would keep people in employment and keep the workforce and industry ticking along until the oil price increases again. which it will
Hobbitt
“If Scotland were independent, how would it and the government be reacting to the current fall in the oil price, and how would it be different from what is happening at the minute? (honest question, but I would be interested in seeing people’s views).”
Look at Schrodingers cats comment and you’ll have your answer,
Camerons well aware Scotland will be independent in the next ten years and he’s doing a Russian retreat, leaving NOTHING of value in his wake, the BIG mistake made by the Scots was to believe the “better together” lie!
God help us all when we finally DO get rid of those cockroaches we’ll be left with a tin of beans.
@Bob Mack 8:42
surely we dont get any oil money at all?
Isn’t the block grant worked out as around 8-10% of whatever is spent in England on devolved services?
schrodingers cat
Do you think the ‘grand committee’ is westminster’s way of forward planning: to bring in the structure to replace the union before it is actually cast aside?
From what I could see of the commons yesterday there was the usual English tory MPs bleating about injustice from their vantage point at the pinnacle of power in this asymmetric defacto English parliament. There was bafflement and outrage from Northern Ireland and even from some on the labour benches.
The whole thing barely registered and seemed to be largely unreported. That the Speaker was absent I found truly strange. And so the end begins- not with a bang but with a quiet pfft when no one is looking.
I thought the SNP should have walked out, gagged themselves in protest or disrupted the division. At the very least they could have chored the wee England and Wales sign and replaced it with something appropriate. Perhaps the ‘Jolly Roger’
Never saw any Welsh MPs speak- as if they have woken in a strange bed spooned by a large man they barely knew. The deed is done- a period of adjustment beckons, and no point greetin noo
Whether oil prices go up or down, the consequences are the same for all countries which use oil, but in all circumstances, you have some advantage from being an oil producer.
Falling oil prices are only a problem if you have built aspects of your economy to depend on benchmark prices, then see oil prices falling below those benchmarks. That is THE reason it is prudent to invest in an oil fund when prices are bouyant to ease the pain when prices are less profitable. It isn’t very complicated.
Scotland is unique in the world, an oil economy which suffers losses when times are poor, but sees no advantage when times are good. In other parts of the world, we’d be calling that exploitation.
“And so the end begins- not with a bang but with a quiet pfft when no one is looking.”
Everybody,
I would copy and archive that comment if I were you (I will) the most prophetic (and accurate) comment I have EVER seen on Wings!
I believe Soubry used to work for the Alloa Advertiser in the 80s.
I am sure she is not a native, very embarrassing for Alloa to be associated with the likes of her.
Roboscot says:
13 January, 2016 at 8:32 pm
If a low oil price is what makes Scottish independence unviable, what happens when we have a high oil price?
Then,our British Imperial masters and Scottish unionists through their propagandist BBC and MSM will tell Scotland the oil is about to run dry.
No colony is ever viable in the minds of imperialists.
You know the script.
@ uno mas
“Oh Postie yer an awfy man!!”
Tam Jardine has brought-up the subject of the English Grand Committee.
I must say, I don’t have a problem with this. Before devolution the Scottish (and indeed the Irish and Welsh) Grand committees used to feature regularly at Westminster. Why not, therefore, and English one?
The problem is, the cack-handed way the Tories chose to bring in the EGC, for political gain.
There is, as far as I am aware, no means whereby a Scottish MP could be prevented from speaking, if the House was sitting as the English Grand Committee; however, said Scottish MP could not vote at the committee stage.
The full House still has the final say. The problem nowadays is, the absolute Tory majority, plus the lack of backbone in the Labour ranks, means, what the Tories want, they will get through without serious challenge, other than from the SNP.
@Glamaig,
The Westminster cartel claim we get a share which is recorded as being paid out within the block grant.
For many years I have had real doubts about the amounts of revenue claimed by Westminter as being honest. Every other country who had N sea fields were showing revenues around 20 billion,whilst Westminster claimed the amount the Uk took from revenues was around the 8- 12 billion mark.
Something was not quite right.
Don’t forget the “Secret of the Seven Sisters” on Aljazeera. About the oil cartel and the manipulation of governments. A truly depressing story of exploitation. Do we really expect to be treated differently to the people in the middle East and Africa?
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/04/201344105231487582.html
Gay45%
“£I believe Soubry used to work for the Alloa Advertiser in the 80s.
I am sure she is not a native, very embarrassing for Alloa to be associated with the likes of her.”
Noooo, THAT CANT BE SCOTTISH? next you’ll be telling me THIS…is Scottish as well!
http://www.albertocosta.org.uk/sites/www.albertocosta.org.uk/files/imagecache/hero_mp/alberto_and_david_cameron_10_feb_15_1.jpg
Bob Mack- let’s face it WM could tell us any figure they want. We would be none the wiser. I shudder to think what the actual total is over the 40 odd years.
So fuddly mundell is a buddly cuddly,
who cares still a Tory.
jdman
Thanks John- we shall see if it proves prophetic. There was one tory who claimed that evel was going to kill off the demand for Scottish independence somehow… I’m still trying to process that one.
Maybe instead of a protest the SNP should have been in end of term mood- half of them skiving, the rest dressed down getting the board games out
‘as if they have woken in a strange bed spooned by a large man they barely knew. The deed is done- ‘
After today’s breaking news,that imagery seems a bit too real.
Soubry used to be a presenter on STV
Re oil-was reading an american article a couple of weeks ago about the glut of oil on the market now. At that point there were 40 fully laden tankers pottering about in the Atlantic just off US coast with nowhere to go & not a buyer in sight.
Was reading this morning that Saudi has requested an urgent meeting with Nigeria. Perhaps things are tighter than we think in Saudi.
@Hobbit -they wld introduce tax reduction to keep the industry ticking over. We would be investing in renewables and CC.
Both the latter having subsidies reduced by WM.
This would provide jobs and we would invest in R&D.
We would also get rid of trident and open up the Cltde estuary for oil exploration.
And if need be we would borrow money like every other independent country in the world.
The oil price will bounce back and we would then start an oil fund if possible.
We would be building our own turbines etc.
Scotland is not reliant on oil despite what the corporate media says.
Tam Jardine
Do you think the ‘grand committee’ is westminster’s way of forward planning: to bring in the structure to replace the union before it is actually cast aside?
It is a talking shop, a substitute for doing anything constructive, a simple veneer, in the hope scots indy will just go away. It is designed to show that it is the English which still rule the waves, at least those in the lesser countries of the empire…
“From what I could see of the commons yesterday there was the usual English tory MPs bleating about injustice from their vantage point at the pinnacle of power in this asymmetric defacto English parliament. There was bafflement and outrage from Northern Ireland and even from some on the labour benches.”
nothing more than ignorance, most of these tories would not know, or care that others might be insulted by their comments. see bojo comment about a pound spent in croyden etc. those that are aware now think insulting the scots,irish and welsh is a vote winner.
“The whole thing barely registered and seemed to be largely unreported. That the Speaker was absent I found truly strange. And so the end begins- not with a bang but with a quiet pfft when no one is looking.”
it isn’t the beginning of the end, the union has been deflating for some time.
as we approach the eu referendum, if the polls show an IN vote in Scotland and a narrow Out in England, calls for an English indyref may well increase, what irked the English most during our ref, was that it was the scots making the decision, not them
“I thought the SNP should have walked out, gagged themselves in protest or disrupted the division. At the very least they could have chored the wee England and Wales sign and replaced it with something appropriate. Perhaps the ‘Jolly Roger’”
The SNP MPs need to be seen to be whiter than white, they have avoided such actions in the face of extreme goading by WM, the bbc and the MSM. since support for the snp and scots indy is still increasing it is working. Avoiding all out confrontation is the best policy as we move towards indy, england is 10 times the size of Scotland.
“Never saw any Welsh MPs speak- as if they have woken in a strange bed spooned by a large man they barely knew. The deed is done- a period of adjustment beckons, and no point greetin noo”
the welsh don’t know what to do, any action they take might be seen(and in actual fact) to destabilise an already fragile union. they would get crucified by their own electorate were the blame for ending the union to fall on them.
David Mundell admits
“Im Scottish
my colleagues never knew!”
ehhh…nothing
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYoE2V_WwAMD9Js.jpging
Tell me the radio programme got better after the 11 minutes I watched.
Regards oil, I am sure the figures are available, not, so that we could all get an idea of how UKok would have fared without Scotland’s oil for the past 30 odd years?
When you read about countries in South America, Africa etc, having their resources stolen by big companies who promise them the earth, it is really not too different to Scotland having had her resources stolen, promised great things and riches which never materialised. The only difference is that they didn’t lock up murder the indigineous people who protested and who thought it seemed a bit unfair…hmmm.
Maybe instead of a protest the SNP should have been in end of term mood- half of them skiving, the rest dressed down getting the board games out
or on the junior doctors picket line supporting them and handing out leaflets ensuring that the Scottish government would ensure their training was completed with no penalties of time or money for the junior doctors
🙂
well
son of a….
take two 🙁
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYoE2V_WwAMD9Js.jpg
Gary45% – Indeed Anna was in Alloa – I remember her faintly from the time. Her time in the town may well explain her antipathy towards all things Scottish 🙂 She was not well liked from memory.
schrodingers cat
Yes- I thought this week would have been a perfect time for the Scottish NHS to stick a few big adverts in the press down south to that very purpose
I’ve been arguing with unionist the past couple of days on some Facebook posts who are rejoicing at the no vote because of the oil situation.
It seems to me that the SNP who are about the only ones in the yes camp who can command any decent amount of media coverage should be using every opportunity to dispel the long standing and current myths surrounding our oil industry.
If the unionists are going to drum lies into us the SNP need to bang the truth drum a bit harder and repeatedly.
When a lie is exposed it’s power is gone.
” I’m still trying to process that one. ”
I saw that clown as well Tam
had a Homer moment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtObrnaovrI
Does anyone else wonder just how intelligent those clowns in Westminster are that they can come out with SUCH cognitive dissonance as that, and have people believe they know WHAT THE FUCK THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT?
15000 junior doctors in England and wales
supplying temp staff and carrying out operations for other health boards is a very lucrative business 🙂
@ Peter
“Oh Postie yer an awfy man!!”
Would that be “The Postie That Always Rings Twice”?
jdman says:
13 January, 2016 at 9:45 pm
David Mundell admits
“Im Scottish
my colleagues never knew!”
He is binational.
Spokesman from the haulage industry complaining about the cost of fuel dropping?
All of these haulage companies have contracts with various firms and have tendered for those contracts when the price of diesel was high therefore they are quids in now the price has lowered.
Unionist arseholes!
Ah! yes indeed jd, the ‘Great Colossal Tit’ more common than one would think…from the genus: Conservatorus Wankerus…mostly inhabiting the Southern regions of Britain. There is of course from the same family, inhabiting one or two more Northern parts of Britain, the ‘Wee Fairy Tit’, fewer in number but still exhibiting the same Wankerus attributes of their Southern bedfellow Tits. 🙂
Hobbit
The Scottish Government like the vast majority of oil producing nations would have an oil fund.
You must remember that Scotland does not need oil or prices . high or low to survive it would be a bonus.
Hi Hobbit, the price of the oil is a red herring as it is a financial bonus whatever the price is.
Think of it this way.
Everyone in rUK has a Belgian bun, but …everyone in Scotland has a Belgian bun with a cherry on it.
It doesn’t matter what size the cherry is, it matters that we have a cherry at all.
So an independent Scotland would be scrumdiddlyumcious whereas Scotland in the UK is the equivalent of an empire biscuit adorned with a steaming curly dog turd and some sprinkles.
I really dont get this Daily Mail thing ..If the owners of this comic were so bothered about the economy of this country they should consider ceasing to use non dom status along with offshore trusts and pay the requisite taxes to their beloved and hallowed land
David Mundell: in a country famously hostile to Tories, he commands respect
Scotland secretary, who has come out as gay, has won admiration in difficult role as isolated figurehead for Tory government
Its still quite a sight watching the Guardian pile in to boost UKOK Fluffie.
Why does a gay man coming out suddenly make him command respect? apart from being the last ever tory unionist MP that hung on by a few hundred votes last May.
It all shows how important this May’s election is to our chums in England.
Hobbit, we’d huv aw the jam between oorselves, so even wi less jam, there’d be be mair fur oor pieces than the nae jam we huv the noo.
We’d be jammy basturds!
heedtracker says:
13 January, 2016 at 10:27 pm
David Mundell: in a country famously hostile to Tories, he commands respect
Aye Right.
@Hobbit
Fiscal policy aimed at incentivising companies to stay the course. This is why im in favour of our own currency (being in a currency union as seen in europe imposes fiscal constraints). Of course a national oil company would be better. At some point all of this is going to result in a shortage of oil due to the fact that producers have shut up shop and oil exploration has diminished. That could see a very high price for a while.
Of course you need a diverse economy and contrary to the press labelling us an oil economy, that’s what we would have.
An example of a non-diverse economy would be the uk with its reliance on financial engineering.
“So an independent Scotland would be scrumdiddlyumcious whereas Scotland in the UK is the equivalent of an empire biscuit adorned with a steaming curly dog turd and some sprinkles.”
OOOHHH
HMMMM
WHAAA
HA
HAHA
HAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
“scrumdiddlyumcious” brilliant!
Sarah Smith has been on an expedition to the North and produced a piece of hard hitting investigative journalism, for the BBC, on how the oil price has hit Scotland’s north east.
“you can tell Aberdeen is in trouble before you even get there. It used to be almost impossible to find a hotel room, now you can easily find a bed for the night.” I’m no expert on the hotel trade but I doubt January is their busiest month. I was expecting descriptions of burning buildings and enraged oilies rampaging on Union Street.
“As soon as I got in the taxi the driver greeted me with the news that the price of crude had hit a new low, I had not mentioned I was in Aberdeen to report on the economic impact of the falling oil price.” Aye clever buggers these taxi drivers.
“There are horror stories everywhere, Craig Watson told me when I visited his factory, Wooland and Henry, which manufactures specialist equipment for the oil industry.” It’s actually Woolard and Henry who I confess I’ve never heard of. I looked them up and they are a 140 year old company that specialized in manufacturing rollers for paper mills. They now do the odd bit for the oil industry, hardly a major employer in the North Sea. The sweetest bit? They have a vacancy on their web page for a CNC machinist. Aye they’re in deep shit.
Keeping on the theme of talking to “major Aberdeen companies” she quotes the man who runs a second had car dealership called Westhill cars, which is actually a small garage about 8 miles outside the city and is hardly a household name. Again I had to look it up. What was his horror story? “a woman ordered a nice car and came back a week later to cancel it because she had lost her job”. Holy scoop Sarah, hold the front page.
“bad news about job losses keep hitting the city, BP announced it was cutting 600 jobs.” The 600 job losses at BP are not next week but before the end of 2017 and I’ll bet my pension that most of them don’t even live in Aberdeen never mind Scotland.
So that’s it, easy to book a hotel room, quotes from a taxi driver, a second hand car salesman and a small engineering company with a vacancy on it’s books. No interviews with Subsea7, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, Weatherfords or any of the major employers in the North East.
I’m not trying to suger coat the problems facing Aberdeen but FFS Sarah surely you’re being paid to do a better job than this.
heedtracker says:
“It all shows how important this May’s election is to our chums in England.”
The SNP failing to get a majority is probably crucial for the ongoing existence of their Union!
… and they are absolutely crapping it! All the tactics so far have done nothing to the polls and SNP support. Clearly they are not quite sure what to try next!
Surely his nickname gave him away years ago.
Definition of “fluffer” | Collins English Dictionary
http://www.collinsdictionary.com › English Dictionary
noun. a person employed on a pornographic film set to ensure that male actors are kept aroused.
Definition of “fluffer” | Collins English Dictionary
Its another profession consigned to the history of porno books, sadly or happily depending on your etc.
Viagra did for them, in much the same way democracy in Scotland is doing for red and blue tories.
boris says:
Surely his nickname gave him away years ago.
Definition of “fluffer” | Collins English Dictionary
http://www.collinsdictionary.com › English Dictionary
noun. a person employed on a pornographic film set to ensure that male actors are kept aroused.
I wanted to be an “ICEMAN” am I a bed person?
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/12/opinions/drexler-murdoch-hall-marry/
Rupert got a mention on Salmond’s LBC show today in what was a clear smear at Salmond. Shares in viagra co’s have also shot up.
Bad… I meant bad
DAMMIT
Hi John, I get exasperated at times but I’m glad that tickled you.
I’m not trying to suger coat the problems facing Aberdeen but FFS Sarah surely you’re being paid to do a better job than this.
Word is she’s spewing at Laura Kuensberg getting boosted to top of BBC politics. Internal BBC politics is extremely who knows who, right sort, right school tie, Oxbridge.
OMG
Matthew Parrish on STV
“David Mundell is brave to come out”
the whole “help me Rhona” story was squirmingly annoying
lets get this (ahem)straight
NOBODY GIVES A FUCK!
once a ring piece (no matter what its used for)always a ring piece!
LET ME BE CLEAR MUNDELL, YOU COULD SHAG GOATS, MELONS,OR ANY OTHER CARBON BASED ENTITY I STILL THINK YOUR AN ARSE!
All the tactics so far have done nothing to the polls and SNP support. Clearly they are not quite sure what to try next!
mundells revision of the Scotland bill was an attempt (failed) to try something to stem the flood, getting gordo to endorse it, (and the DR,,,snigger) was mundells cunning plan.
actually, I don’t think mundell is that niave, the revision represented the best he could rig out of the cabinet, even he knows, as did ming Campbell, failure to deliver the vow would have consequences, but it is all he has to sell to save his beloved union, so selling it is exactly what he is doing. folk aint buying it though. mundell knows that with the demise of labour, the unionists hold on Scotland is slipping away.
he is as desparate to avoid a face off as much as the snp are, the charade will continue until the eu ref, it has the potential to be a game changer for all involved. both parties will keep their powder dry until then.
the lack of eu ref polls is an indication of how tenuous the situation is
jdman,
I think that question would be best answered by Raffles!
@Heedtracker
Any idea why Laura Bicker has been given a big promotion now she’s the BBC’s Wahington correspondent, it was said that she was one of us?
Just read the guardian puff piece bigging up fluffy. The piece itself is what you expect from Woodward, sorry, Severin- think hard hitting, fact based investigative journalism with an edge, with integrity, intelligence- a newsman at the height of his powers… and then simply imagine the diametric opposite.
The comments btl are well worth taking a look. It is an almost unbroken chain (well it was when i looked at 45 comments) of Sevy getting ripped to shreds. I can’t remember that unionist, faux left paper’s web page being unanimous in its condemnation of Carrell before. Must be a sair one reading through.
A fair number of comments rightly pointing out the guardian’s lack of any coverage of the fiscal framework and the passage of the Scotland Bill.
It is very UKOK mad out there.
One one hand unionist The Graun community welcomes Fluffie Mundell for coming out, being all UKOK commanding etc.
But not a peep out of the Scottish tory unionist community?
https://twitter.com/davidtorrance
Maybe David’s busy compiling another best seller biog of a blue tory boy like Fluffie, the last ever UKOK toryboy in Scotland:D
‘it is an interesting piece of conjectural history to ask what would have happened if the UK had created a (sovereign wealth) fund in 1968 and spent only the real return…The accumulated fund would be very considerable…the net worth of the state in 2012 would have been positive rather than negative’ Anthony Atkinson ‘Inequality’ – reflecting on Norway setting up its oil fund to benefit future generations- evidently Norway is not too poor or stupid.
‘Instead of taxing extracted oil highly, as they did in Norway, and so conserve the stock and raise far more money for public goods, even to create a Sovereign wealth fund, the British introduced the lowest oil extraction taxes in the North Sea so that businesses could make a large immediate profit…Corporate thinking is short-term thinking’ Danny Dorling ‘Injustice’.
Norway again- not too stupid to think about its future.
On the other hand UKOK has inherited…Thatcher’s Plan X-(‘the method is economic but the object is to change the soul’) and Mr Osborne’s (failing) austerity experiment.
Almannysbunnet says:
FFS Woolard and Hendry mak Dandy Rolls – things that put water marks on paper at the “Wire” on a paper machine so as a biddy kens the paper cost a fortune an usually comes frae solicitors. (Michty is that nae a rare term SOLICITORS. It’s got a richt whoremongerin soond tae it.)
Fit wye wid ‘ee need tae come tae the “Toon’ tae spik tae ony cheil an paye an airm an a leg fan ‘ee culd hae ane o” yon video conferences. Ane o’ ee warst times tae hae a mishanter o’ ony kind is fan traivilin. Ony gowk even iyle companies kens ‘at bit mybees nay BBC slappers.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/david-mundell-comes-out-as-the-first-openly-gay-tory-cabinet-minister-so-what/
There is ofcourse some blue toryboy welcome to the new out and proud and British only Fluffie, and Torrance does tweet, “so what.”
Torrance didn’t add a question mark but why then has likes of Graun’s Rupert Carrell suddenly found Fluffie all commanding and British?
Cant be arsed reading Massie’s “Fluffie’s an all new British commander of men” bleh, but if Massie came out, I might.
@Heedtracker @2.39pm
OT
Don’t mean to have a go, some people love their Audi’s.
They were cool, like, in the 80’s ;).
A lot of people up here feel compelled to buy them due to their perceived status.
I get a hard time in work from some of the boys – when you getting rid of that Jap rubbish and getting a decent car?
Why don’t you buy an Audi?
Why don’t you get a BMW?
Get yourself a Mercedes.
F off I love my Scooby.
Would like a BRZ as a nice companion….
Could probably get two cars for the price of some premium German auto.
Noticed changes round me, A5’s and A3’s gone – now replaced by 10 year old Golf’s and Toyotas.
I stay near quite and extensive development of flats.
Usual Aberdeen shite, 200 grand for a glorified cupboard.
Couple of folk round about here that lived in the flats were running about in Audi R8’s and Q7’s. FFS they could have been living in a nice hoose, paying for the car must have been like a second bloody mortgage.
Those cars are gone now.
I do like the 3dr A5 though 😉 Contradictory.
Re the 600 BP job losses by 2017. Remember that there is the small matter of BP taking over BG. So job losses are inevitable.
Jesus- when that price of oil starts creeping up they’ll be wearing black armbands in pacific quay. Thelma seemed to be getting off on it- that Merryn Somerset too. Weird times.
@Gary45% says: 13 January, 2016 at 6:20 pm:
” … rather than the paltry amount we get from Westminster.”
What paltry sum might that be, Garry?
All Scotland’s funding is via the Scottish Block Grant and that does not include even a penny of oil & gas revenue.
There is no elements of any form of direct revenues of any sort included in the Block grants to either Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
In point of fact the highest per capita funding goes to Northern Ireland, Scotland’s per capita funding is next highest and the Welsh block grant is lowest. England has no block grant as England still gets its entire funds via the, “UK”, ministries.
The reason the three devolved administrations gets a different level of per capita funding is because Barnett’s formula is based entirely upon the funding for the devolved functions it has. Westminster not only devolved the functions but must, of course, also devolve the funds from the UK ministries to fund them.
How else could the devolved administrations fund running devolved services when none of them have revenue raising powers?
Which explains how very stupid the vast majority of English MPs and voters are with their constant bleating that Scots get a higher per capita funding than the English. It is obvious that to work out the funding for the functions devolved from the UK Ministries that the base figure the formula has to start from is the total per capita figure that each English person gets via the UK ministries.
As The Englanders get every penny via those UK Ministries, (and then some), then the figures for the devolved functions must be higher for it is only after the devolved administrations get their Block grant funds that they can allocate it to the equivalent to the UK ministries.
Thus if you take the figures for the funds going to the UK ministries and divide it by the population of England you would expect it to be equal to each devolved administrations per capita funding. However, the English get lots of extras such as the London Cross-rail, the New London Sewerage System, funding for the, “National”, Galleries, Museums, Ballet, Opera, Theatres. Et Al.
Not to mention the Channel Tunnel, Heathrow, HSS rail links, and much, much more.
However, what Scotland, Wales and N.I DO NOT get is any direct form of revenue whatsoever. All of which is the property of HM Treasury. Even the Whisky duty does not come to Scotland.
Ok read Massie Spectator welcome to the new tory Fluffie thing but right off
The reaction to Mundell’s announcement will be interesting chiefly because there will be next to no reaction. There will instead, I fancy, be a collective shoulder shrug, a nod of the head, and a general agreement that it doesn’t matter at all.”
It clearly does matter, but only to UKOK hackdom, who have piled in to try and make the new Fluffie look commanding/electable and trying to save the last ever tory MP in their Scotland region, but making even bigger journalistic fools of themselves, as usual.
What a bunch of UKOK hacks they are.
If my mind serves me correctly Aberdeen/NE chose to stick with Westminster to “protect” the oil industry by “pulling and sharing”. HOW DID THAT GO THEN?
DC will be up in Eberdeen shortly tae gi ye a wee pat on the heed. Efter him and George coont yer contribution to LONDINIUM renewal.
re: galamcennalsth@10.39pm
says, … “and they are absolutely crapping it! All the tactics so far have done nothing to the polls and SNP support. Clearly they are not quite sure what to try next!”
Oh I think we can be pretty certain the establishment’s boys will have something up their dirty, underhand, corrupt sleeves. Just a wee blip right now, they are thinking about what to do.
Let’s hope they are not so desperate as to try violent tactics, but anything goes when your livelihood, ie gravy train, is at risk of hitting the buffers with no brakes.
@ Craig MachAonghais
It’s Scotland’s oil when prices are low and UK oil when high…at least according to the BBC in Scotland…strange lot those unionists!
And they’re at it tonight trumpeting Scotland’s anaemic growth of a paltry 0.1% – way behind the “strong growth” of the rest of the UK.
All down to the oil price and the failing industry so it seems. So rather than the UKCS being “extra-regio territory”, it’s all lumped in with Scotland’s GDP, to confirm how hopeless we are, dragging down the UK powerhouse economy.
How much more of this can we take? Little digs here and there, a steady trickle of downheartening disinformation.
Why do I keep watching the Beeb? It’s like an OCD, I know it’s bad for me but I just can’t help it…
John from Fife says:
13 January, 2016 at 11:14 pm
Re the 600 BP job losses by 2017.
Exactly right. Another consequence of low oil prices. It happens every time. There is more than one way to save money. Companies slim down or sell departments. Companies amalgamate. Duplicate jobs go. Examples? Schlumberger just bought a competitor division of Cameron which will be amalgamated resulting in “cost benefits”. The Cameron guys have already been given 3 months notice of redundancies. Halliburton and Baker Hughes merging, one of the biggest mergers in the history of the oilfield. They have multiple duplication of departments. A lot of people will lose out. Divisions may have to be sold if the amalgamation breaks the US antitrust laws (monopoly). It’s business as usual in the oil patch.
Can you imagine if we did vote yes in 2014? The global collapse in the oil price, the devaluation of the Yuan and the global financial meltdown would be all our fault. The navy would be sailing up the Clyde to take their colony back, to save the world. 🙂
Surely Westminster won’t mind giving us all the oil revenues now?
What would you do without the oil revenues if you were Independent said the Yoons You’re whole economy is oil said the Yoons
Ah there’s hardly any oil revenues the Yoons say, cannae go Independent now eh? where would you be say the Yoons
Scotland would be broke say the Yoons
Anybody noticing much difference then, because I’m not, except it’s a wee bitty cheaper to put petrol in the car, but not really much though
And why is that says me
Because Scotland never had all the tax receipts for UK Feckin oil, Westminster had it and spent it all on, well could have been sweeties for all we know
What I do know is, Scotland Independent or not could have %100 of all of it, whether that was more then or less now
instead of what is it called
The Consequentials which is what I believe they renamed “The leftovers after the big government has had what it wants”
I love the BBC they’re such Feckin Tw.ts
Papadox says:
13 January, 2016 at 11:22 pm
If my mind serves me correctly Aberdeen/NE chose to stick with Westminster to “protect” the oil industry by “pulling and sharing”.
Aye that’s right it’s all Aberdeen’s fault, bollocks. These divisive comments are music to the ears of unionists.
Much as it pains me to be reminded, out of 32 regions, only 4 voted yes. Dundee City, West Dunbartonshire, Glasgow City and North Lanarkshire.
80,000 people voted yes in Aberdeen city. A hell of a lot of them work in the oil industry.
Forgot to mention 2016 stupid nonsensical sh.te programme
with that idiot Tom Gordon and a dead woman talking to Shelly Jofre
I’ve expected more from Ms Jofre even though she’s only a learner amateur at the Telly game I thought she had a little more up top but she’s turned into another drone too easily
Maybe this is where all the missing BBC millions are going paying people to find the worst most brainless presenters available who’ll repeat the script verbatim
SNPx2
Petra,
“I keep hearing on the corrupt unionist media that hundreds / thousands of jobs have been lost re. the collapse of the oil industry in Scotland. Not trying to downplay the impact of this overall but does anyone have any idea how many Scots have lost their jobs?”
But surely you heard the truth in The National?
Or have they also been going on about hundreds / thousands of jobs lost?
@Hobbit 8.32
Funny, I saw someone on a post on Facebook saying that they had posted that question on an Independence site and was ridiculed and called names and now they would never vote for Independence.
It wasn’t you, was it?
Almannysbunnet
Papadox
people in the oil industry voted yes and no in Aberdeen same as the rest of Scotland
(eg I voted yes)
the first causualty of a down turn, all day raters and contractors get the hoof, nothing personal, just business.
next all expats will get repatriated, many foreign nationals will leave Aberdeen, (including many English) and many more scots will return to Scotland from all over the world. (many scots in high positions around the world)
when indyref2 comes, (if the eu ref is OUT in England about 18 months max) Aberdonians may be less inclined to vote to stay with the status quo. Nicola needs to start pushing remedial actions that should be done, with the help of the eu
Hobbit says:
13 January, 2016 at 8:32 pm
“…yeh right. I’m just like you grown up cybernats curious about oil”
Of course you are and hobbit and troll go so well together 😀
How about an Oil fund over 40 years…once upon a time Norway like Scotland discovered Oil offshore…unlike Norway poor old Scotland had an evil…etc….etc….
@rock
any idea how many Scots have lost their jobs? exparts around the world are being laid off and returning home. (myself included) im not sure how to gather such stats but it is no small number, there are many many scots expats working overseas, indeed, it is aberdeen’s oil industry’s biggest export. its people and its expertise.
as I said, its nothing personal. just business
I see Rock is off again…another Troll with one line..”national bad”
We heard you the first 50 times!
Strange how the wee ginger dug and every other respected independence champion gets article space but it is still bad according to Rock.
For any insomniac wingers needing another laugh at claims of bbc objectivity.
http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2016/810-our-only-fear-was-that-he-might-pull-his-punches-bbc-caught-manipulating-the-news.html
Going back to the good (bad) old days. Tax concessions for the use of the self-employed ‘rent boys’.
mike cassidy,
Thanks for that link. I particularly liked;
‘Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Glenn Greenwald can see clearly what has been going on:
‘Ever since members of the U.K. Labour Party in September elected Jeremy Corbyn as party leader by a landslide, British political and media elites have acted as though their stately manors have been invaded by hordes of gauche, marauding serfs. They have waged a relentless and undisguised war to undermine Corbyn in every way possible, and that includes — first and foremost — the Blairite wing of his party, who have viciously maligned him in ways they would never dare for David Cameron and his Tory followers.’
Hopefully, the monstering of Corbyn will open the eyes of some of the no-voters to how much the beeb lied to them.
Here is the archive link to the ‘New Act of Union’ bollocks on the front page of the Herald.
https://archive.is/pxDvQ
I’d think the reason Mundell waited to come out (stupid expression), is because although Scotland / UK becomes less homophobic month by month as people squash theur homophobic friends more and more, he’d have to have waited until his sons were stable in their life, especially the younger student one.
Mundell being a public figure, it could have been difficult for them. He seems to have acted very responsibly, as a parent should.
You know those shows that are on late at night, ” a retrospective of the 80s, 90s etc.
I wish I could be alive around 2045 and see the ones they do for the first two decades of the 21st century.
Can you picture an aged Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling et al saying how all they spouted in 2013/14/15 was complete pish and they were amazed that the majority bought into it.
“We always knew we had auntie beeb on board but never could have imagined that she would have held such sway”
Hey ho it held the union for ten years longer than would otherwise been possible, we managed to get another few billion out of the sweaties before the end, and thats the name of the game innit.
I wonder if now their doing so well they might send us a wee sub, cos you know it was all just good fun,right.. right??
Interesting the Fraser of Allander backing what many of us have said, especially the so-called Unionist Ashcroft (I have my doubts).
Late commenting, one of those days a half-hour job takes about 11 hours, consumes 24 hours, and still has a half-hour to go now in the morning. Ah well, that’s what you get for earning the big bucks.
Sadly the small bucks as well, or in this case, none.
@Almannysbunnet
Completely forensic assassination of Sarah Smith’s news skills. Great research, thanks. Why is it none of the established media can do the same? They’re useless, totally bloody useless, never mind the bias.
@cearc & @mike cassidy
Mike: Insomniac yes, I seem to be getting by on 4 or 5 hrs sleep since the start of the year. Even reading the Unionist articles don’t work like they used to in making me nod off! 🙁
Cearc: Aye read it earlier. Lord Salisbury rules eh!
“We have made very considerable progress in a first attempt at a draft bill, which we hope to have at least three-quarters cooked within the next relatively few days.”
(I thing he meant half-baked)…
Labour peer Baroness Taylor pointed out how it might become clear in the consultation that the Scottish Government would not “buy in” to the proposed new Act of Union.
———————————————————-
There is a “horrible probability” that she is right 🙂
@Yesindyref2
Heh, Ms Smith and the beeb have come in for a pasting on thread tonight.
Good piece here from Paul Kavanagh.
https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2016/01/12/the-tony-and-ken-show/
As for the oil? You remember the rinse and repeat tactics of the Graun dads? Seeing a familiar pattern in the type and frequency of articles as a ballot approaches.
I’m just waiting for some bod to pipe up with ‘what’s yer plab b on currency’. 😀
Its the only thing that’s missing from the recent glut.
@ John from Fife at 11.14
BG is being taken over by Shell, not BP.
It saddens me to see quite a few comments above from people who believe ‘the folk in Aberdeenshire deserve everything they get’
I was born in the area, I have lived there all my life. Am I now to be blamed for the natural selection of place and time?
I think I have heard this sort of argument before and it certainly wasn’t from the left leaning, welcoming society that I have become a part of.
The Oil Industry in the NE inflates the economy yes but it also spreads to every other aspect of the local economy from tradesmen to office workers, the shop assistants, the taxi drivers. Everyone benefits because the majority of Oil Workers spend their cash.
If you think everyone is living in million pound houses and driving Audi R8s then you are sorely mistaken!!!
I had to move further from Aberdeen and my hometown of Stonehaven for the simple fact that I couldn’t afford the type of house that I needed for my family.
Buy my house in the Central Belt and you could whip a 100k off no problem, buy it in Aberdeen and you could add 150k on top.
Yes there are plenty of rich kids flying around that don’t have a clue but they are slowly but surely finding out as the trust funds start to go bear.
To those of you here who understand that we are talking about a minority of people in the NE like this then I’m sure you understand the plight of a number of people.
To the ones who think we all have hot tubs full of champagne and a summer home in the south of France, 2 Range Rovers and a 7 bedroom Kirkwood Monstrosity, you can GTF.
Aberdeen and the NE is an SNP stronghold and as been for years. People there knew the value of the Oil industry and the mismanagement by Westminster. There would not be an SNP government in Holyrood if it wasn’t for the NE SNP support. Aberdeen & Edinburghvoted No because there are more incomers on the East. Aberdeen & Edinburgh. Oil, the Financial sector Uni etc. There should have been a 3 yr?residential qualification in the Ref. The support for the SNPand Independence is Increasing. Voters realise they have duped by empty promises. Voters voted No because lies were told. Purdah was broken and their was total Press manipulation.
The Tories are trying to destroy tthe Scottish economy, just like Thatcher secretly and illegally did. They have less chance of getting away with it with the SNP in control. They will try anyway. The downturn in the Oil industry in Scotland and lose of jobs is not because of the price. It is because of the 60% Westminster tax/take. If they decreased the 60% take, less people would be losing their jobs. Less Oil and Gas would have to be imported. This puts up the balance of payment deficit and the debt. It is the toal mismanagement of the industry by Cameron/Osbourne. They are totally devastating the Scottish/UK economy. Sanctioning and starving vulnerable people. Aided by the sythopath lying Press. It doesn’t have to be like that with different policies,
Cameron/Osbourne are incompetent and inexperience. Along with most of the crooks at Westminster, only in it for the money. They are trying to ruin the Scottish economy to stop Scotland becoming Independent. Unless Scotland becomes Independent, it’s economy will no grow as much. Westminster are taking £10Billion+ out of Scotland a year with policies, for which Scotland did not vote. Trident/illegal wars, tax evasion throughth City of London and banking fraud. HMRC is not fit for purpose.
Unless Scotland gets Independent little will change. The Tory/Unionists will always try to ruin the Scottsh economy for spite. The SNP will do their best to mitigate the disasterous Westminster polices but only Independence will give Scotland the Goverment and policies for which the majority votes. Democracy. Everything bad in Scotland was caused by Thatcher/Westminster policies. Brown/Blair should be in jail.
Poor health, people drying younger, people drinking too much and a poor diet because Scotland’s wealth is going to London S/E, to the detriment of the Scottish economy. Cold, worried, hungry people get sick and do not sleep. It affects people’s mental health and increases unemployment. Westminster are sanctioning and starving vulnerable people. More equal countries are healthier and happier. Cameron elected to protect the NHS and decrease the debt has cut NHS funding and the debt is increasing.
@ mike Cassidy 1:21am Just want to say thanks for the link. Cheers.
Aberdeen’s house prices were always on par with Edinburgh’s even before the Oil. Less people owned a house and mortgages were hard to get. Only professional people could own a house.
Less people were highly educated and went to University. Only 10% ofbth population went to Uni. Now 40% of the population go to Unimand further education. There was higher unemployment the further North. 4% in London S/E, 7% in the North of England 10% in Scotland. Many people had to emigrate to get a job. The 40Million diaspora.
In the winter the weather was so cold there was a high fall of snow. Tradesmen were laid off for two months of the winter. December and January. It was so cold people could not work outside. Less food was produced. There was more manuel labour and less women worked. Workers had to rely on the burro for sustainence money. The economy came to a halt in the winter which caused disruption on the roads and transport links. Less people had cars and had to rely on public transport, steam trains and ships. There were less air flights. No Internet.
The 11WW caused tension and devastated the world economy. The European Royals caused the 1WW. Inbred cousins and Interdependent Treaties. Cousins married cousins and their parents were cousins. Victoria’s grandsons. The Tsar, Kaiser and King. ‘The Divine Right to rule.’ Nicholas 11. The Tsar invaded Germany. 1917 the Russian revolution. The Balfour Agreement 1917. 1930’s The Wall Street crash and the Great Depression.
I have just read Caltonjock’s blog on his website regarding a synopsis on David Mundell’s record in politics. I urge you all to read it.
I live by my motto, TTR – TRUTH,TRUST,RESPECT, & generally, give anyone whom I don’t know the aforsaid, apart from those who have no respect for themselves or others.
Mundell appears to belong to this catagory. How shall I put it. He seems to be a sleekit, lying, cheating, thieving, excuse for a human being, not fit to be in a toilet in the filthiest ghetto you can think of, let alone the public eye.
I apologise for what might be construed as a bit over the top, however, the sooner he goes back into the closet & locks the door from the inside, the better – and someone does the same on the outside.
Are their any more politicans who might fit this catagory?
For over 30 years the Aberdeen/shire councils received 30% less of every council authority in Scotland due to Labour /dominated Cosla. The Health Board received less pro rata. There was no money for infrastructure. Despite it being the (only) growth ares in Scotland. it was the onky City in Europe without a by-pass road and a pedestrianise City Centre. Edinburgh Trams £3/4Billion and subsidised public transport. The Trams are cheaper than the Airport bus. Glasgow £1/2Billion Commonwealth Games etc. Aberdeen/shire totally neglected by comparison. Edinburgh/Glasow are much (pro rata) wealthier Cities. All the oil revenues went south and Aberdeen/shire, the N/E were neglected by Unionists. Aberdeen/shire doesn’t want handouts or subsidies, It needs the 60% Oil tax/take to be reduced by Westminster now.
The Unionist politicans were completely useless and still remain the same. A grotesque, appalling carbuncle is destroying the City Centre. There has never been such a mess. How the plans got through planning is a mystery. It is costing £Milllions. A total waste of public money. It was better the way it was before, and that was bad enough.There is still time for the Scottish Gov to call it in. The UTG project was abandoned by the Unionist/Greens. To spite the SNP. That’s the mentality. It doesn’t do them any good. The majority supported the UTG Project and it was funded (£80Million gift). It would have pedestrianised and improved the City centre. A walkway throughout the City centre. People would have left their cars and walked throughout the City centre. Reducing congestion, traffic and high emission levels.
At the Airport the DeoartureArrival building is at the other side of the runway from the Station. Only in Aberdeen. On arrival/departure people face a long journey in congested traffic into the City (60mins) when they could get a train (20 mins). There is still time to move/build the terminal building at the other side of the runway before traffic gets much busier. Instead of building another ‘white elephant’ exhibition and Conference centre beside the congested Airport. No business case. Totally unaffordable. Costing £Millions and it will be totally subsidised, like the present one with £Millions of public money. £26Million of debts paid off. It would be better to develop the new Football stadium and community facilities at Cove. (Incorporate ECC?) The plans were abandoned by the Unionists. Two applications for facilities and totally funded.South of the City with less through traffic coming into the City.
The Council complains there is no money for essential services. No wonder. The nonsensical way they spend publiic money. Against the majority wishes and the public interest. There is no overnight stay facilities for homeless people and the Councillor Finance Officer wants to imprison beggars. Blames the SNP for not having by-laws to put the vulnerable in prison. They also illegally persecute and harrass the Travellers. ‘The right to roam’ They don’t bother most people at all. D.C. Thompson Press have a lot to answer for causing trouble. Along with the MSM.
Phronesis
“‘it is an interesting piece of conjectural history to ask what would have happened if the UK had created a (sovereign wealth) fund in 1968 and spent only the real return”
They had a very short time to decide what to do with all that new-found wealth in 1973 and considering stacking up a wealth fund with all the money coming out of the North sea would have been impossible to hide, the whole world and his granny knows just how gigantic the sovereign wealth fund is in Norway, but in 1973 we didn’t have the internet it would have been like an open invitation (which some Scots would STILL have refused) to tell them to FUCK OFF we’ll take it from here,
So they spent it on Veuve Cliquot and infrastructures such as the m25 and the channel tunnel, things far enough away from Scotland for us not to see them from our bedroom windows,
And that folks is WHY we have the situation now where the money is all being spent in the south-east, “we can’t have the sweaties seeing what their loot is buy for us can we.
A few thoughts on recent developments in Mr Mundell’s day job.
https://weegingerdug.wordpress.com/2016/01/13/bill-of-goods/
@jdman
Nutshell John.
That wealth has funded infrastructure, tax breaks, government manifesto pledges, you name it. What it hasn’t done, what the whole story of that resource has failed miserably at, is being put to use for those to whom it belongs.
As a member of the UK, why weren’t the Scottish electorate informed of the breadth and depth of the wealth, when government were pretty clued up early doors on same. Answer – Greed and fear, nothing else.
The UK government of the time and successive governments thereafter jointly decided that what WE, the public, didn’t know, wouldn’t harm THEM. In short the establishment couldn’t believe their good fortune and decided, for our own good (cough), to spend our wealth wisely for us. It didn’t occur to these people for a second to trust us as nation partners, offer full disclosure and let people decide for themselves how the resource should be best stewarded, they simply took and took and took, all the while lying their faces off to the public.
They haven’t stopped and they haven’t looked back.
cearc says:
14 January, 2016 at 2:08 am
Here is the archive link to the ‘New Act of Union’ bollocks on the front page of the Herald.
https://archive.is/pxDvQ
Good luck with that one! I give it a 1% chance of happening in the next 50 years, and that;s being generous. Geez, these numpties cant even agree on a Smith commission in reasonable time. 🙂
Good try, Mr Hain, but far too little too late. Scotland will be long gone before you lot get your act together.
And, just for arguments sake, suppose a new act of union is formulated. Well, I expect we will all get to vote it’s acceptance. The days that WM can impose it’s will on Scotland are long gone. Without a referendum on this new act of union, you can GTF. Thanks, but no thanks. 🙂
jdman
Well said John. I see now why it would have been insane for Westminster to start a sovereign wealth fund- it would turn into the mother of all trust funds for Scotland once she grew up.
Having said that, a confident Westminster who wasn’t trying to rob us blind while calling us subsidy junkies, who was planning for the future and was acting in the long term interests of the ENTIRE UK might just have been something we could have lived with.
We shall never know
@Luigi
Oh jeez that article was a car crash from choice of vocab on down. Lord Hain appears to be a wee bit on the disingenuous side when describing the existing and the proposed. Not to mention he’s a minute late and a mile short on any proposal. His own system of government and successive parties of government have seen to that. Oh and their good, good buds in the media.
Brand Scotland is now so toxic in the metro set media bubble and the racist, economic basket case narrative so ingrained, he’d have a bit of a job now convincing England’s electorate of what ‘good folks’ we are and how worthwhile it would be to ‘keep us’ around.
Just DANG! 😀 LOL
Tory councillor from Moray on GMS at 7.45 or sotrying to claim proposed Council Tax rise nowt to do with them despite all his colleagues supporting it.
Did we have have daily BBC / MSM items featuring oil price when it was over $100 a barrel?
Whilst the Corrupt Unionist Media focus on falling oil prices there’s little mention of Osborne destroying the economy and sacking people to cover his back.
George Kerevan’s article, ‘Financial house of Cards ready to Collapse about our ears’, in The National is well worth a read (if you haven’t read it already).
”Osborne wants a return to a more light-touch regulation of the banks, particularly so he can attract Chinese financial institutions to London. Proof: in July, Osborne fired Martin Wheatley, head of the main City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Wheatley famously quipped that he would “shoot first and ask questions later” when dealing with financial misconduct. His tough stance led to calls for his removal …
Wheatley’s acting replacement was Tracey McDermott. Under her direction, the FCA has drawn its claws. Just before Christmas, it cancelled a long-scheduled public inquiry into bank culture. The public outcry resulting from this craven move led the powerful Commons Treasury Select Committee to demand McDermott appear before it for questioning. At which point, George Osborne suddenly took to the airwaves to reveal that Ms McDermott had decided to withdraw from the contest to become permanent boss of the FAC. That leaves the watchdog effectively rudderless.”
”So what really gives in the UK economy? Back in 2010, and fresh into Number 11, Chancellor Osborne promised two things: to rebalance the economy away from banking towards manufacturing exports, and to reduce borrowing to zero by 2015. He’s done neither.
Far from rebalancing the economy, Osborne has presided over Britain yet more dependent on services. Gross Value Added in UK manufacturing – which nets out stuff companies buy-in as materials, often imported – has flat-lined since 2008.
Even if you look simply at total production data (ignoring imported sub components), UK manufacturing output is less than in 2000. Yet in Germany between 2000 and 2013, manufacturing output rose from $545bn to $663bn, or 22 per cent. UK manufacturing output is barely ahead of where it was in 1990 – a full generation of stagnation.
On the trade front, things are worse. The latest statistics reveal that a total of 310,800 firms in the non-financial sector in Great Britain were engaged in international trade during 2014. This is actually a decrease of 4,300 businesses compared with the number of businesses that traded internationally in 2013 (315,100).
http://www.thenational.scot/comment/george-kerevan-osbornes-financial-house-of-cards-ready-to-collapse-about-our-ears.12157
Have we ever had this daily high profile focus on the oil price whether high or low, to this level of intensity or frequency…ever?
Huv we fuck.
Keeping the last vestiges of the ragaband unionist rump in Scotland on side…it’s aw they’ve left…full fear ahead.
O/T
‘Lord Hall moots Scottish six o’clock TV news for BBC’ .. The National (13/01/2016)
‘THE BBC’s director general yesterday admitted to MSPs it was time for the broadcaster to “look very carefully” at how it portrays Scotland as he raised the possibility of a “Scottish six” news programme.’
‘Broadcasting was excluded from a package of new powers agreed by an all-party commission in the wake of the independence referendum but for the first time SNP ministers have a formal role in the BBC’s charter renewal process which is currently ongoing. The current charter, effectively the constitution by which the corporation is run, expires at the end of this year.’
‘The Scottish Government wants a new federal BBC which would allow BBC Scotland to control budgets and decision-making. It has also called for the creation of a new Scottish television channel and radio station.’
http://www.thenational.scot/news/lord-hall-moots-scottish-six-oclock-tv-news-for-bbc.12283
http://www.thenational.scot/comment/the-national-view-bbc-must-do-better-for-scots.12306
‘FundliyMundelly’, Jim, is there something your not telling us.
‘the creation of a new Scottish television channel and radio station.’
In the best interests of Scotland, that cannot happen soon enough for me.
O/T links
https://seagullnic.wordpress.com/2016/01/08/the-crippled-estate-of-bbc-spin/
http://www.alexsalmond.scot/press-releases/2016/1/13/alex-salmond-calls-for-north-sea-initiative
http://www.scottishenergynews.com/why-cancelling-the-peterhead-project-has-put-uk-behind-norway-canada-and-us-in-commercial-scale-carbon-capture/
http://www.todayonline.com/world/scotlands-sturgeon-says-britain-could-be-heading-eu-exit-report
http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Transparency-of-land-ownership-214f.aspx
“Luigi at 0739″ , no doubt this is ” the vow ” mark 2
in an attempt to ” head us off at the pass”
Did I not read something that the current low oil price is a situation artificially manufactured by the Saudis, who have upped production to make like difficult for Iran which is trying to up its oil production, and the US trying to wean itself of Middle Eastern oil by fracking for shale gas. It’s all politics and price manipulation, lowering the price when these markets need money to invest. It’s a price war. That’s not to say a manufactured problem is less difficult to cope with, but it isn’t a permanent situation.
If we had diligent journalism in Scotland, the perpetual story should be the absolute insanity of not setting up an oil fund. I understand the annual interest on Norways oil fund earns more for Norway than their economy. Norway has already sailed through the credit crunch, and won’t be touched by the current low oil price. They have protected themselves.
Our friends in Westminster should no be able to look Scotland straight in the eye if they had anything at all to resemble a conscience.
The McCrone Report proves beyond doubt this was a catastrophic policy for Scottish interests, and quite, quite, deliberate. Rather than quietly nurturing our own industry properly, the UK’s contribution to oil prices has been to destabilise the Middle East and manipulate who sells what to whom.
It isn’t too late. Our oil and renewables revenue could generate enough surplus to start building our own oil fund, so ourselves but most importantly our kids benefit from Scotland’s natural resources. It just isn’t on Westminster’s agenda to have Scotland flourishing and prosperous. It might reflect well on the SNP government, and that just won’t do.
‘ABZ & Big Oil’ Jeremy Cresswell.
‘In December 2005, the average spot price for Brent was $ 56. Applying the BoE calculator and that equates to around $73, today. Brent is now around $35. Why hasn’t the Treasury abolished SCT (Selective Corporporation Tax). That has been asked before, Brent is below both of Gordon Brown notional SCT thresholds. The Treasury in being downright dishonest by not abolishing SCT totally. The small reduction of the past year etc. are an insult.
The Treasury must now align the taxation of oil & gas companies extracting and trading North Sea barrels with other industries in Britain and do so without further undue delay.
There is no fat left, the companies are eating into their own muscle. They must be allowed to keep more of whatever profit they make simply to stem the decline of that muscle, and/or set off against allowances. – This is a fight for survival. The fact is the industry appears to be, misguidedly, horse-trading production efficiency improvements for fiscal concessions.
Chancellor Osbourne must wake up before it is too late. The UKCS is living on borrowed time.’
Instead of paying 4Billion a year to Westminster for debt repayment for monies borrowed and spent in the rest of the UK. Scotland wants it’s £220Billion Oil Fund back. Westminster policies which the majority in Scotland do not support. Trident/illegal Wars, tax evasion and banking fraud. Brown/Blair should be in jail. They do not want Scotland to be Independrnt in case they end up at the Court in the Hague.
Rev Stu I tried posting earlier, got a message saying I’d already posted so if these links may be caught up in moderation.
O/T links
http://www.alexsalmond.scot/press-releases/2016/1/13/alex-salmond-calls-for-north-sea-initiative
http://www.scottishenergynews.com/why-cancelling-the-peterhead-project-has-put-uk-behind-norway-canada-and-us-in-commercial-scale-carbon-capture/
http://www.todayonline.com/world/scotlands-sturgeon-says-britain-could-be-heading-eu-exit-report
http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Transparency-of-land-ownership-214f.aspx
The Unionists politicians in Scotland are complaining about the BBC in Scotland, but they voted NO. They are part of the problem.
“Our only fear was that he might pull his punches – BBC caught manipulating the news”
Interesting read
http://tinyurl.com/zh4286e
It’s all politics and price manipulation, lowering the price when these markets need money to invest. It’s a price war. That’s not to say a manufactured problem is less difficult to cope with, but it isn’t a permanent situation.
OPEC’s keeping prices low enough to break the US fracking capital investment cycle.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-10-13/time-is-running-out-on-u-s-frackers
If it works and it probably will, US fracking will stall/end and prices will shoot back up next year. OPEC, like Norway built up giant oil funds, UKOK ofcourse didn’t.
Despite The Vow, all Scotland can do is sit and watch another country decide our socio-economics.
Four months on and still no news about Michelle Thomson. People like Derek Bateman reckoned the issue could have been resolved with one phone call. Seems not!
The Natalie McGarry situation drags on too with ‘REPEAT’ articles being published in the newspapers on the back of so-called further ‘snippets’ of information. From whom?
This is a copy of a letter posted in The National a few days ago from reader Isobel Lindsay (from Biggar). She says ”As a member of Women for Independence I requested factual information last year in relation to the accusations against Natalie McGarry. I was told that absolutely no information could be given since this was now in the hands of the Police. This appears to apply to members but not to journalists since there has been a steady stream of information getting into the media, yet again in the Sunday Herald. This is information that could only have come from sources closely involved in the central organisation. I take it there will be an investigation into who leaked this information and that the person or persons guilty will be named. Members deserve an apology about how this has been handled.”
It’s now Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh turn.
‘Questions need answered over SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh’s charity.’
Wee Jackie Baillie was on the news last night spouting her usual venom and stating that TAS should return the £16,000 donation awarded to her charity by the SG. Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh says that ”Sawa did not receive Scottish government funding.”
‘Conservatives and Labour believe SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh has “serious questions” to answer over criticism of a charity she founded ……..The Herald said £700 of that was spent on donations, although there was no suggestion the MP was involved in any wrongdoing.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-35302852
WHO’S NEXT?
O/T links
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/06/oil-prices-have-hit-a-10-year-low-theyre-not-going-to-stay-there/
https://seagullnic.wordpress.com/2016/01/08/the-crippled-estate-of-bbc-spin/
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160113/1033081133/uk-gov-caat-legal-action-saudi-arms-trade.html
https://leftfootforward.org/2016/01/spending-on-government-staff-is-rising-at-an-alarming-rate/
Petra @09.12
Thanks for that petra, I swear if they give us our “Scottish six” I’ll start paying my licence fine again, AS LONG AS they take off the gag online!
It seems that the Herald’s ‘exclusive’ about a couple of ‘lords’ pontificating on federalism,
https://archive.is/pxDvQ
was first published by WalesOnline at 15.56, yesterday.
https://archive.is/68p5e
O/T links
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/3239/potential-buyer-found-for-tata-steel-works-in-scotland
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/iran-saudi-clash-tide-turns-against-riyadh-97090470
http://www.citizen.org/documents/analysis-tpp-text-november-2015.pdf
https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/concealment-and-trickery-thats-g4s-childrens-homes
@ Ken500
Would you explain how the UK Gov taxes oil at 60% please. Is it per barrel, or 60% of profits or something else? I agree with most of what you say but I don’t understand the oil tax figures.
Thanks
In Part 2 of their “Secret of the Seven Sisters”, they discuss Africa and the exploitation of African oil (while the African children die in famines – no food banks obviously). Part 2 starts 47 mins in on the youtube version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtYOjMmEMeg
At 52 mins they show UK and US puppet Idris al Senussi being installed on Libya’s throne. It was a “paradise for the oil majors…Libya received just 12 cents per barrel”.
Thanks for the links Nanna. This is taken from your Alex Salmond … North Sea initiative link.
”Speaking today in the House of Commons during the Scottish National Party debate on trade, exports, innovation and productivity , Alex Salmond MP for Gordon argued for a Norwegian-style exploration credit scheme to stimulate jobs in the North Sea oil industry. He said after £300 billion of revenue flowing to successive Chancellors in Westminster in should now be “PAYBACK TIME” to support workers in the North East of Scotland.”
http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/7a2964d4-28fc-4e9b-a3e6-7a1af46f84c5?in=13:09:15&out=13:10:00
‘Similar challenges are being experienced by health systems and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-3530331
Still waiting on the fragrant Ms Bradford putting her colleague right…
@Petra
Here’s another one which will make you see red.
http://www.clydebankpost.co.uk/news/14201890.Furious_councillors_demand_meeting_with_council_chief_executive_after_fat_cat_pay_blunder/?ref=twtrec
While we’re on about oil funds, heres a wee live display of what Scotlands oil fund could have looked like if more of us had voted SNP in 1974
http://www.nbim.no/
Show people at your work! Norway has similar population and oil reserves to Scotland.
Nice to see you back, Nana. I hope all is well.
Thanks for the links.
Here’s another Tory article/lucky Scots voted NO,oil price
http://www.hl.co.uk/news/2016/1/14/bp-cuts-prove-scotland-should-not-be-independent?utm_source=Silverpop&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EONRM_Newsroom%20daily%20(223)&utm_content=www_hl_co_uk_news_2016_1_14_bp&theSource=EONRM&Override=1&sp_mid=50458764&sp_rid=c3R1bG5nc3RAbmV0c2NhcGUubmV0S0#
I thought I had posted this already but it does not appear to be here.
Venezuela has the World’s highest oil reserves, more than Saudi.
However they have been extracting them at a relatively low rate of around 2.5 billion barrels a year which, unless changed, would mean they have well over 200 years of oil left, many times longer than Saudi. That extraction rate may change in the new post Chavist era.
I have also uploaded an oil price graph covering 1970-2011
Note it is not specifically for North Sea Brent Crude which typically runs around 5% higher.
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/4ikyrmse0zdbog0/AABYbr8cFzEPz6u4-0_94Mfua
O/T…this new act of union B@ll@cks
The UK parliament has no power whatsoever to revise/review or ammend the act of union…..(McCormack vs The Lord Avocate 1953 – Lord Cooper) and because of that Scotland has protection..
Legal rulings have stated that the UK parliament and the UK courts do not have the ability to “…set aside bill, statute or act of the Parliament of Scotland where that bill expressed the clear will of the (sovereign) people of Scotland.” (Axa vs.Scottish Government 2009). This covers any majority decision by the Scottish Government. This is also why the government had to go back and amend the Scotland act three times because the Scottish Government said it was not acceptable and also why the First Minister has stated The Scottish Government will not accept it if the Fiscal framework is bad for Scotland – Westminster cannot impose it – despite what they say
This is what Westminster are terrified of and are now attempting to circumvent as more Scots are becoming aware of the power we actually have.
This is a direct attempt to get Scottish voters to vote away the protections of the original act and have a loaded/skewed new version that will wrest power back to Westminster……If we ever vote for this we will hand Westminster our heads on a plate…with a Tory Government in charge
Westminster take 50% of production. Then adds on tax. That is manageable when prices are high but when they plummet, the Oil industry is working at a loss. The tax should reflect the price. Westminster have totally mismanaged the Oil industry. Osbourner/Alexander are culpable. Thatcher used the Official Secrets Act to cover up the secret and illegal mismanagement of the Oil industry and the Scottish economy. Some of the Official papers are just coming out now. (30 year rule). Although people knew (worked it out). The Official Papers were kept secret to cover up. Some of the details have only come out because of the SNP. ‘Freedom of Information’ requests.
Look up oil tax information on UK Gov Official website. Will posted it later do not have time now. Can’t link. Device. Have posted it before.
@ken500
I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said with one exception.
The Union Terrace Gardens “vote” was a joke, far more bias and crooked than the independence referendum.
The proposal was just another project supported by private investors wanting to make a killing off what they could build beside and under the thin coating of a new garden.
@ Ken500
Thanks. I’ve now got a link to the Gov oil and gas taxation page so will search there:
https://www.gov.uk/topic/oil-and-gas/finance-and-taxation
O/T
GREAT news about TATA Nana.
Fat cat pay blunder? One wonders how much money is being ‘sequestered’ or squandered by Councils in Scotland? I was talking to a few people recently who were regaling us with stories about ‘missing materials’ being used for ‘homers’, holiday jaunts by councillors and so on …. and all in it together …. covering each others backs (been going on for decades now).
Real concern, SCARY, about G4 involvement in childrens homes. Westminster’s guff about protecting and caring for vulnerable children, especially from potential paedophiles, is a bl**dy farce.
When you all get some time check out the Chief Executives / key members of staff employed at leading childrens charities, their links with politicians (put them in place), astronomical wages paid but more than anything their backgrounds. Start with Peter Mandelson Chief Trustee of the NSPCC AND friends.
A $10 price for Barrel of oil comes out at less than ¢7 per l. Around 5p!
It is insane to think that would be the long term price as it would barely cover extraction and transport costs, never mind taxes and other levies.
The current price is a standoff between vested Russian, Saudi and US interests. Who will blink first?
@Flower of Scotland
Funny, I saw someone on a post on Facebook saying that they had posted that question on an Independence site and was ridiculed and called names and now they would never vote for Independence.
It wasn’t you, was it?
No, not me. Otherwise, thanx to people who did provide their views to my question.
@cearc
Thanks cearc, been looking after family with coughs and sneezes. Running around like a headless chook some days.
Good stuff from Robin Mcalpine…
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/3240/robin-mcalpine-this-is-the-empire-striking-back
The Union Terrace Gardens “vote” was a joke, far more bias and crooked than the independence referendum.
After what unionist ACC did to the beach boulevard, Union Square, uptown baths, the Capitol cinema, HM theatre, Union street looks like nuke war aftermath, all absolute planning and architectural horrors, the UT gardens and Aberdeen were saved from the exact same charming vote NO or elsers.
Then they did this
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen/468991/hundreds-protest-controversial-aberdeen-development/
Another huge hotel, but only yesterday, BBC vote SLab Scotland’s Sarah Smith was explaining how hotels in Aberdeen are now empty and the cabbies hate the SNP too, because its all so much better being reigned over by SLabour.
yesindyref2 says:
14 January, 2016 at 2:21 am
Mundell being a public figure, it could have been difficult for them. He seems to have acted very responsibly, as a parent should.
Ruby replies
I admit I could be a bit biased re Mundell because QFMD I really don’t like him.
Looking at this from a woman’s point of view unless his marriage was a marriage of convenience then he has been cheating on his wife for his entire married life. Was his wife aware that he was gay did she enter into the marriage knowing he was gay?
Why did he get married & have children was this to help his political career con his constituents into thinking he was a happily married family man?
Why do we need to know that he is gay is he going to get divorced and start seeing other men or will he continue with his sham marriage?
I have a feeling there is something that forced him into ‘coming out’ at this late date!
Could it be that the press have a story about David Mundell & David Coburn doing a Gordon Matheson or something similar?
Slightly off-topic, but:
I noticed a wee exchange between jdman and heedtracker at 11.03pm last night, concerning Laura Bicker.
The reason Laura got the Washington gig is quite simple, the lassie has talent, whereas the talent-free zone which is Sarah Smith got where she is because of who her father was.
Glamaig said at 10:34am:-
“While we’re on about oil funds, heres a wee live display of what Scotlands oil fund could have looked like if more of us had voted SNP in 1974
http://www.nbim.no/
Show people at your work! Norway has similar population and oil reserves to Scotland.”
Thanks for that revealing link and the 6 minute video attached. 🙂
C’mon Cameron and Gordon Broon——EXPLAIN !!!
Ruby
Enough woman – your final paragraph about Fluffy and the odious Coburn, quite put me off my coffee and biscuit. A horrible thought.
Ruby at 11.43
I have known of and worked with many of have done this. It has usually been in human terms a very unhappy course of action. And an indictment I’m afraid of long held public intolerance that provided the pressures to incline pepole to indulge in such unhappy dishonesty.
Still wondering about why now. I hope it was a brave and generous choice and not forced by some other issue.
Socrates MacSporran says:
14 January, 2016 at 11:49 am
Ruby
Enough woman – your final paragraph about Fluffy and the odious Coburn, quite put me off my coffee and biscuit. A horrible thought.
Ruby replies
Just think of the number of papers the story would sell!
You must admit the story about David Mundell being gay is pretty boring especially when everyone thought he was gay. It would have been more newsworthy if he had said he was straight!
What about David Mundell & Gordon Matheson does that seem like a better match?
Ruby,
Yuk, after that last comment can I suggest that you stick to tasty soup!
Petra says:
14 January, 2016 at 10:05 am
Four months on and still no news about Michelle Thomson. People like Derek Bateman reckoned the issue could have been resolved with one phone call. Seems not!
The Natalie McGarry situation drags on too with ‘REPEAT’ articles being published in the newspapers on the back of so-called further ‘snippets’ of information. From whom?
Don’t worry, Petra, these little misunderstandings will all be sorted out – immediately after May 2016. Another convenient coincidence, of course. 🙂
councils are stepping up to the plate and challenging the snp.This is what is behind their defiance of the SG wrt increasing council tax
hardly surprising, all unionist mp’s wiped out, all unionist msp’s useless and also about to be wiped out. Their very own sinicures also hanging by a thread.
if the eu ref is in Sept, and England votes out and Scotland votes in, any subsequent indyref2 would need to wait until after the council elections in 2017. Cameron wont agree to respect the result or even agree for indyref2 to be held (the Edinburgh agreement was a mistake, setting a precedent) and will instruct the unionists to veto, ignore and not participate.
the unionists councillors will be happy to oblige. it is the councils who are responsible for running all elections, organise the counts, polling stations, independent observers. the SNP need to take control of all councils in 2017 before they can even hold indyref2.
council elections are even more complicated that holyrood(vastly more) and very difficult for the snp to win a majority of seats. eg, in a 3 seat ward, it is unlikely the snp can even stand 3 candidates. the snp holyrood manifest needs to include the reform of the electoral process
eg, keep the same number of councillors but if a ward has 3 councillors, it should be divided into 3 and each sub ward should be a FPTP election, it would increase direct accountability of the councillor to his electorate and also facilitate a complete wipe out of unionist councillors.
the councils are the unionists last line of defence, this will become apparent after may’s holyrood election, but to have a mandate to reform the councillor electoral system, a commitment needs to be included in mays manifesto.
Why are you guys focusing on the last line of my post?
Any comments about the womans/wife role in all of this?
Surely for a gay man to enter into a marriage with a woman is disrespectful & misogynistic?
If my husband came out as gay I would feel used & abused.
@Ruby
I look at it this way. As a politician I don’t like him, as a person I don’t know him.
Same goes for just about all politicians, apart from the very few I do know a little.
cearc says:
14 January, 2016 at 12:13 pm
Ruby,
Yuk, after that last comment can I suggest that you stick to tasty soup!
Ruby replies
Soup today is Cauliflower & Camembert with a hint of fresh Tarragon.
It would probably have been better with Stilton or even cheddar but camembert was all I had.
The camembert didn’t give it much flavour but the few springs of fresh tarragon did the trick and gave it a very upmarket flavour.
Kezia Dugdale has reached an all time low at FMQs. She’s now putting on her pathetic ‘sad act’ and ‘dragged’ a dying man, Gordon Aikman suffering from motor neurone disease, into the fray. In comparison numpty Johann Lamont is beginning to look good now. Dugdale’s also come up with another way (4th) of using the APD (non) money … to help carers! I look forward to seeing some of the most hypocritical, ingnoramuses ever to grace Holyrood seats just fade away in May.
Nicola Sturgeon, in her usual extremely intelligent and professional way, TOTALLY humiliated Dugdale / Labour Party (and others). She’s also asked all other parties to produce their economic policies within the next two weeks. That should be a laugh!
People change. Over a lifetime people change. The older a couple marry the more likely the marriage will last. Less likely to change in outlook.
Mundell was courageous to come out. He could change his political stance and stop lying. There is still time.
Fred’s fabulous Haggis Curry. Take a haggis, chop it up & add to good hot curry sauce, heat through & serve with rice or nan breid. Delish!
Lang May yer Lavvy Reek.
Ken500 says:
14 January, 2016 at 12:44 pm
Mundell was courageous to come out.
Ruby replies
Tut! It would have been more courageous if he had ‘come out’ a decade ago. He’s left everyone else to do the hard work and now that it looks safe he has decided to ‘come out’.
What is this coming out stuff all about? Is it a bid to try to win the gay vote for the Tories in 2016 or is he looking for more dates?
Being that I thought David Mundell was gay all along this story isn’t very interesting what I would like is for him to ‘come out’ about his role in the Frenchgate affair!
jdman says:
13 January, 2016 at 11:03 pm
@Heedtracker
Any idea why Laura Bicker has been given a big promotion now she’s the BBC’s Wahington correspondent, it was said that she was one of us?
The won didn’t they, so to the BBC victors the spoils, just caught
https://twitter.com/bbcjamescook
reporting BBC 24 news from the Oscars.
This dude worked very hard for the BBC during their referendum campaign. He earned these treats. He’s also not that great either.
Whilst I’ve no opinion either way about Mundell being gay or not, it does pose the question as to why now. Was someone attempting to blackmail him and he decided to pre-empt them? Is he actively gay and did his wife know?
Install at 10 57
Union Terrace Gardens is part of the Common Good of Aberdeen ( see Andy Wightman paper on the subject ). Any development potential of the dead space above the gardens would have been an asset of the City to be used sensitively. Short sighted Labour councillors and their hangers on killed off something which if properly scoped and managed would have revitalised the City centre unlike the glass box nonsense emerging opposite Marischal College.
Ruby,
On your serious point. It is not possible judge without knowing the people. There may not have been deception.
In my teens I knew a lad (an only child) who was explaining to a mutual friend that his ‘cousin’ was in fact the daughter of his parents best friends. They grew up a few miles apart, they often holidayed together, their fathers shared a pied-a-terre in London during the week…
‘Oh. right,’ said the friend, ‘your dad’s gay?’.
The lad was quite shocked. it had never occurred to him. Although it was obvious to others that his dad and ‘uncle’ interacted like an old married couple. So he went to see his ‘uncle’ and ask.
His ‘uncle’ roared with laughter that he had only just realised it and said. Look, I love my wife. she’s is my best friend. I cherish our marriage, it is her friendship and trust that has enabled me to have a happy life and it is the same for your parents.
This was not uncommon when homosexuality was illegal. Such a marriage enabled a woman to have all the advantages and securities of marriage but freed her (we’re talking pre-pill here) from constantly trying not to get pregnant.
This sort of marriage would not have died out immediately after the decriminalisation.
However, making a public announcement and having it splashed all over the press would have been a massive and unthinkable betrayal of that trust!
Personally, it has no effect to my opinion of him as it couldn’t get much lower but yea, I should think pretty bad for her. She who so recently was making finger gestures to his loving constituents in his support.
schrodingers cat says 12:26
“the councils are the unionists last line of defence, this will become apparent after may’s Holyrood election,”
Well said labour think councils are their personal fiefdom, but they are only the last bastion of the scallywags in Scotland! and we know how to deal with scallywags!
the only reason they want to hike the council tax is to give big payoffs to their mates in local government!
Orri has just expressed the only points that are of any interest on the subject.
Socratese MacSporran
“The reason Laura got the Washington gig is quite simple, the lassie has talent, whereas the talent-free zone which is Sarah Smith got where she is because of who her father was.”
I have absolutely no doubt your right, I was just surprised by her appointment as someone (Tam I think) had met her at Charles Kennedys funeral and said she was a yesser.
cearc says:
14 January, 2016 at 2:25 pm
Ruby,
On your serious point. It is not possible judge without knowing the people. There may not have been deception.
Actually this guy has a sad story. He suffers from a rare condition known as Pneumonia Perfecta. When he was young, his mother told him he was worthless and abandoned him at a hospital. He grew up in an orphanage and was bullied for his looks but he always tried to stay positive. He told himself that he would always believe in himself and achieve his dreams, no matter what others said. When he got older, sorry, completely made this story up and you’ve wasted your time reading this.
There is so much red/blue tory bullshit flying around, I wanted to join in too:D
One of your more interesting spin jobs this one – comparing an article in January 2016 with a guesstimate made in March 2015.
Why not use the up-to-date figures? On the Scottish government figures, in the third quarter 2015, the Scottish economy was virtually flat with significant falls in production and manufacturing. Even John Swinney had to admit that the situation was “exacerbated by the continuing low price of oil and the effect this is having on the industry and its supply chain.”
As for Prof. Ashcroft’s worries, third-quarter growth in 2015 in the Eurozone outperformed the Scottish figures, deflation has largely been avoided, Greece is still in the Eurozone and the Euro has appreciated by more than 5% against the pound in the last month.
As for Prof. Ashcroft’s worries, third-quarter growth in 2015 in the Eurozone outperformed the Scottish figures, deflation has largely been avoided, Greece is still in the Eurozone and the Euro has appreciated by more than 5% against the pound in the last month.
It still hard to get a UKOK rules you right, then attack Holyrood Phil.
What’s the UKOK national debt and deficit Phil?
Does Hollyrood/Swinney have any say in UKOK economics?
How come low oil prices mean its Scots oil and high prices mean its all UKOK?
etc UKOK etc Phil.
heedtracker says:
14 January, 2016 at 5:53 pm
“It still hard to get a UKOK rules you right, then attack Holyrood Phil.”
No idea what this means!
In any event I was not “attacking” Holyrood. I was pointing out the flawed logic in this post which used an old press story, discredited by the passage of time, in an analysis of our current problems.
Phil Robertson says:
14 January, 2016 at 6:35 pm
heedtracker says:
14 January, 2016 at 5:53 pm
“It still hard to get a UKOK rules you right, then attack Holyrood Phil.”
No idea what this means!
OK. You’re attack this report which is comparing Scottish economic growth figures with say the farcical if routine BBC Project Fear headline on the “fragile” Scottish economy, despite Scotland’s oil price drop meaning job losses, Scotland still not in recession, UK debt is still going up, blue tory austerity for the poor still mean even bigger deficit borrowing, six years after the red tories failed.
And then you pull in Prof. Ashcroft’s worries, third-quarter growth in 2015 in the Eurozone outperformed the Scottish figures.
My point is that Swinney does not have fiscal controls. Osborne/UK.gov do all that. The Eurozone dont have Osborne/UK.gov controlling their fiscal policy and so on.
Do you see now Phil? Its just more UKOK bullshit really. Give Holyrood a bit of devo, if there’s not that much growth, monster SNP Scots.gov.
What will you be using to attack when the oil price goes back up Phil and it all becomes UKOK oil again?
Then there’s this Phil Robertson,
http://www.thenational.scot/politics/snp-mps-protest-as-evel-used-for-first-time-in-commons.12307?utm_medium=social&utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_term=Autofeed#link_time=1452685833
Which wasn’t even reported by the Pacific Quay outfit
Aye the Scotch-dire EBC sent their northern “talent” across the pond.
Bricker and Cook, Twa useless arseholes in Scotland , now Twa suntanned useless arseholes in the US and A.
It just shows how bad Smith is.
@ Phil Robertson
I don’t normally bother responding to “them fae aaneeth e brig” but al mak an exception here.
We are still under the Union , WM rules , they collect an distribute as they see fit.
45% and rising do not approve and intended a different form of collection & distribution with iScotland.
Good , bad or indifferent !
After 300 years under WM rules it been the same , and you confirm that WM rules leaves Scotland too poor , too stupid and too incapable.
Most on here see thro’ all the muddy Yoons crap , and many like me would be happier , even if we were worse off financially, with the too poor iScotland.
Perhalps that’s a position the selfish Yoons an Naw bags cannot understand.