We still don’t get it
If you were wondering why we hadn’t written about today’s oil-industry shenanigans yet, it’s because we’ve been scratching our heads for hours trying to work out what the heck David Cameron thought it was he was proving on the Cabinet’s trip to Aberdeen.
Sadly, we’re still none the wiser.
The headline is the coalition’s plans to implement proposals by Sir Ian Wood which he claims will add £200bn of value to the industry over the next 20 years. We referenced the proposals last November, noting that such a bounty would be enough to cover the entire budget deficit of an independent Scotland (assuming it had taken on a full share of UK debt) with billions to spare.
Now that the UK government has ostensibly ruled out a Sterling currency union, meaning Scotland doesn’t have to take on any debt at all, that money turns into a vast bonanza, landing a notional independent Scottish Treasury with more cash than it would know what to do with.
What we haven’t yet managed to figure out is why that’s meant to be a bad thing.
So far as we can see, none of the plans particularly require a UK government to carry them out. The No campaign, which has spent the last two years telling Scots that their oil is volatile and running out and an awful burden has just told them that in fact it’s worth an extra £200bn – an amount so vast as to easily neutralise every last bit of that volatility for decades to come.
(At an average of £10bn a year, it would in fact more than double the average annual revenue from oil taxation.)
Cameron didn’t specify why an independent Scotland wouldn’t be able to implement Sir Ian’s proposals, instead just waffling a load of vague nonsense about “broad shoulders”. We’re still combing through his comments looking for the catch, but so far the UK government just seems to be telling Scotland that it’s about to be in line for a huge cash windfall, but Westminster would really rather we gave it to them instead.
(The oil industry itself doesn’t seem overly keen on that plan, with an opinion poll published today revealing that 70% of oil workers plan to vote Yes.)
We’re stumped. If we get any more, you’ll be the first to hear.
Maybe he was just proving that he knows where Aberdeen is!
“Broad Shoulder”…
Translation – “Brass Neck”
I think Adam Ant had it about right:
“Stand and deliver, your money or your life!”
A wee gem from Stan Dundas (thanks Stan) commenting on the herald website about DCs play on the oil: Better Together have attempted to trick Scottish voters into believing that, post a yes vote, their biggest asset is a liability.
Brilliant, isn’t it? Read, think about and fully consider the consequences. A nice wee and to the point message for the front line!
Great news about 70% of oil workers backing independence. But then we get a P & J poll [of 500] saying only 17% back Yes campaign. What’s happening, Rev?
Even stranger according to STV News Cameron would support our membership of the EU ?
That kinda makes the Barroso comments last week even more ridiculous than they originally were.
As it’s hard to now see how Westminister could argue against Scotlands continued membership…..which was ‘apparently’ the problem Spain and other had with it.
He’s here to reinforce the lie that an independent Scotland would be reliant on oil revenue.
Could he have playing to the gallery in soggy Surrey. You know, along the lines of don’t worry I’m keeping these stupid teuchters under the thumb, so the money for your drying out will be safe. Or maybe he just thinks that we will be soo overwhelmed that all these important people from London have come to our wee toon that we just vote No in awe inspired gratitude.
It really is bizarre. They’re like a pack of pathetic little puppies – they have literally ran around in circles, got themselves all tangled up in their own leads, and are now falling down spectacularly.
Looks like the comments system might be affected by the DDoS again but here goes anyway.
I am convinced that the real reason behind all of the apparent No side shooting-self-in-footery of the last couple of weeks is because they are unnerved by being consistently ahead in the polls and fear a resultant lack of motivation among No-voters who might think the result is in the bag.
Mindful of the events of May 2011 they want to become the underdogs from now until early September when they snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
I note on the STV site –
http://tinyurl.com/no426yg –
Cameron is quoted as saying “the EU have said very clearly that Scotland would have to join the queue of other countries in order to rejoin.”- that surely has to be challenged.
@ ronald alexander mcdonald He will be one of the first, a friend of mine was asked to hand in a letter to a colleague in Aberdeen on the way home to Edinburgh.
Was that photo real? I assumed it was photoshopped?
Should the extra oil be worth 1 trillion to 2 trillion $?
That would make it 1,000 million to 2,000 million $
That is if a billion is a thousand million and thus be a thousand, thousand millions?
of course would haha what a ‘stupid’ man,telling us what we already know,he’s just confirmed it now, more good stories for the grandkids ,thank you mr cameron 🙂 🙂
I’m sure I heard that on the BBC this morning, when I was still reasonably sober.
Dan Huil; without wishing to get in the way of the Rev, what’s happening there is that the P & J is bereft of that journalistic principle of impartiality and their poll is no more likely to be impartial than their journalism is. It’s full of that stuff you find in farmyards. Looks like it, smells like it; yep, it is it. Bullsh*t.
Perhaps this is just another thing which will be denied to people living or working in Scotland if we vote yes: the pound, our euro-membership and the memory of how to extract oil from beneath the sea.
This article sets the situation out correctly. The oil is valuable. Give it to London, then maybe just maybe Scots will get a wee tiny share, or vote YES and with independence, 96% of the oil revenue comes to Scotland. It is possibly, the biggest most freaking obvious ‘no-brainer’ in the history of mankind.
Incidentally, just watching SKY news, where one of their exceptionally ill-informed reporters was debating about how much of the oil would actually belong to Scotland, suggesting a per capita share would be very small. Seriously, FFS! How many times, do these London based journalists need told, it is based upon a geographic share (within Scottish maritime boundaries, as set out in international precedent and law – something which even Westminster now accepts.
Why are people, especially journalists, in London so ill-informed about these things?? Do they just gullibly swallow everything the NO campaign has told them??
My favourite twitter comment of the day (thanks John Hamill) was
Why did the Tory cabinet fly into Aberdeen today to talk about oil, instead of flying into Glasgow to talk about poverty?
Nail, hammer, head
I didn’t see the point of this either. They are a desperately unpopular Government coming to a country that never voted for them in the first place. I think it is safe to say that the Coalition would stuggle to muster the seats it has now if there were an election tomorrow.
Having the likes of Osborne, Hammond, Hague and Co joining Dave to tell us we couldn’t manage alone isn’t likely to endear them to many. I can’t imagine many ordinary Labour members and activists are thrilled, no matter how excited Darling and MacDougall might feel.
Dan Huil says:
“Great news about 70% of oil workers backing independence. But then we get a P & J poll [of 500] saying only 17% back Yes campaign. What’s happening, Rev?”
I don’t think many pro-indy people buy/read the P&J Dan. They’ll always get a skewed result for any poll, plus I don’t think it would be beyond them to just ‘massage’ the figures if they didn’t suit their pro-uk message!
Maybe he really does want shot of us?
Robert
I stopped watching Sky News a long time ago. It isn’t exactly designed for those in possession of more than one brain cell. The reporters seem to be less informed than the average newt regardless of topic. A kind of Fox News but with fewer silly noises to accompany the graphics and less religious indignation.
Peter Macbeastie Agree about the unionist P & J. And 500 is too small a poll. Easily skewed, I imagine.
I can only guess that he was here to terrorise …errr …tell us that we potentially might lose £200 Billion pounds worth of oil revenues from the UK if we vote ‘Yes’.
If we do vote ‘Yes’ …then what a b*****d it’s going to be to try and work with only £1.5 Trillion pounds worth of oil in the North Sea, and potentially a crappy £3 Trillion on the Atlantic side.
What are we going to do with such rubbishy amounts of wealth? How will we survive?
It’s a burden being the most oil rich nation in Western Europe. Oh, the calamity of having potentially £4.5 Trillion pounds worth of oil revenues to play with…
What I find laughable is that he will give us £200 Billion with one hand, and take it all back of us with the other hand, due to those wonderful UK ‘Better Together’ austerity measures! Pennies ….that’s what we’ll be left with in the end …pennies…
I’m sorry but it’s quite clear. Good cop time again. Bad cop will come later in week.
It’s funny he didn’t quote from this article
uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/24/uk-norway-oilwealth-idUKBRE92N07Q20130324
As well as being a burden it’ll make you miserable as sin just like these Norwegians.
I keep asking myself why these politicians insist on treating everyone like illiterate morons
…because we’ve been scratching our heads for hours trying to work out what the heck David Cameron thought he was proving on the Cabinet’s trip to Aberdeen today.
Aye, me too.
Are they of the opinion that if they pay us a flying visit we’ll all think they actually give a feck about us and our country?
I find the wholly patronising.
we’ve been scratching our heads
Now we know how you manage! But 3 heads are even better because then they can each do an 8 hour shift and you won’t need to sleep at all.
A hurl in a helicopter?
Got a doozy on SKY news getting his knickers in a twist suggesting a fair share of the oil would be done as a percentage of population which means Scotland would inherit 8%, good luck with that one pal.
@MD 4.11
He’s here to reinforce the lie that an independent Scotland would be reliant on oil revenue.
thanks for this MD. I was looking at the clip of the Ivan Mackee interview on the BBC. Ivan was explaining that Scotland has a mixed economy and that the Scottish GDP without oil was roughly in the line the UK’s. The oil revenue was an added bonus. The very next question from the interviewer was about Scotland’s over-reliance on oil. I wondered at the complete disconnect between the question and what Ivan had just said. It makes sense if the interview was to reinforce the lie not provide clarification.
“At an average of £10bn a year, it would in fact more than double the average annual revenue from oil taxation”
I think the ‘£200bn over 20 years’ refers to the wholesale value (at todays price of £66 or $110 per barrel, 3 to 4bn barrels additional actually equates to £198bn to £264bn).
So depending on investments, extraction costs and tax rates the additional revenues while still potentially huge will be quite a bit below £10bn/year.
Setting several hares running, spreading the confusion, shoveling the muck, digging a hole.
They have even got Stu scratching his head!
Mission accomplished.
Maybe there is no agenda, he just wanted a shot on an oil rig before he can’t get to play on them anymore.
And Ian Wood was pressed by an eager BBC interviewer on the BBC England news channel today to reveal which government would best serve his energy plan.
He basically said that he wasn’t going to make a political recommendation but was very specific when he said that as long as his proposals were followed, then the oil & gas sector would benefit & that it didn’t actually matter which government was in charge.
And that the investment he was expecting was to come from the operators, not the British or Scottish Government anyway.
I’m no body language expert, but I got the impression from Mr. Wood that as long as the proper regulatory framework was in place, his energy sector would just get on doing what they’ve become rather good at; finding oil & gas in challenging conditions then getting it out at a reasonable cost.
If anything, it’s Westminster who have raised the cost of extraction as the data I provided in chart form today to Rev. Campbell clearly demonstrated.
I just wish there was a way to post these things just like some folks can post YouTube videos.
“It really is bizarre. They’re like a pack of pathetic little puppies – they have literally ran around in circles, got themselves all tangled up in their own leads, and are now falling down spectacularly.”
Not really getting the “wings is a cybernat hatefest are we Alexandria
now all I can think about is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR4NDVg18sA
When I should be thinking
Now look Jock (may I call you Jock? call me Dave) We down in Westminster are terribly worried about you chaps. I’ve come up here to show you types that all this nonsense about Independence is scaring the horses. We have broad shoulders dontcha know and very deep pockets to keep all the money in. No, no, not for ourselves no, no, it’s just that you are so feckless (can I say feck?) what with your spending cash on silly things like the sick and the elderly and not realising what a jolly good show we have made of things. There, does that explain it? Good o, must fly now.
(The oil industry itself doesn’t seem overly keen on that plan, with an opinion poll published today revealing that 70% of oil workers plan to vote Yes.)
As if literally everything else wasn’t enough, surely the fact that no less than 70% of people who actually WORK within this “volatile” industry are voting Yes should tell undecideds something?
It’s like not listening to scientists on matters of science.
OOPS a wee slip by Dave should have stuck to telling lies.
And before you ask
yes he IS my son.
The only reason for this was to allow the Media to spin it into a big worry for Scots. What it does tell you is that they are shaking in their boots at the very thought of losing our resources.
It will be spun, and spun, and sp………!
We need to rise above it, despite every available media being complicit. They were probably stupid to mention how much the UK would benefit, that might create a big negative for NO, we are canny Scots after all. Best scenario is what the Rev, rightly point out.
They have well overplayed their cards by digging a hole for themselves over the currency,where they now have the whole rUK clamouring for us to be taught a lesson.
Hard call, now, to sell it to middle England if they want to turn around at the last minute.
We should gratefully accept their verdict,”oh well we really tried!”, and let them pay their own debt, they cannot say that we did not warn them.
The hole they are digging with all this stuff is deepening, and hardening our resolve.
I would take the oil workers poll with a pinch of salt, If its the same one I voted in last night anybody can vote. in fact I would take any online poll with a pinch of salt. However having said that and I worked in the oil industry for 30 odd years so know quite a few guys, I would say that the majority are for YES, but lets not get to carried away with ourselves. There is a bunch of work to be done.
The British Establishment are the most practised and probably best at propaganda in the world, they will have a cunning plan, just hope our cunning plan is better than there’s.
The very first British Cabinet meeting outside London took place at Inverness Town House in 1921. At the meeting, Lloyd George chaired the creation of the ‘Inverness Formula’, which created the basis of the discussions at the seminar where the Treaty creating the Irish Free State was agreed.
Perhaps the secret Cabinet meeting in Edinburgh was actually a discussion about how to deal with Scotland achieving independence.
Otherwise, all Cameron did was reinforce how much wealth was still under the North Sea.
I translate it as – Ok we’ll admit you’re not too poor…. but you’re still too wee and too stupid!
“Why did the Tory cabinet fly into Aberdeen today to talk about oil, ”
Maybe twenty miles out to sea on an oil rig was the only place they felt safe in Scotland?
The trip was designed to show that puny Scotland is too poor and too stupid to look after our own oil industry.
We can’t do it without the broad shoulders and deep pockets of the UK (that’s the one with £1.4 trillion worth of debt).
Meanwhile everyone in Norway has become a theoretical millionaire, in a milestone for the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund that has ballooned thanks to high oil and gas prices.
Set up in 1990, the fund owns around 1 per cent of the world’s stocks, as well as bonds and real estate from London to Boston, making the Nordic nation an exception when others are struggling under a mountain of debts.
A preliminary counter on the website of the central bank, which manages the fund, rose to 5.11 trillion crowns ($931.87 billion), fractionally more than a million times Norway’s most recent official population estimate of 5,096,300.
The choice is clear for undecided voters an additional £200 billions to the UK Treasury or up to £2500 billions of revenues for an independent Scotland. A tough choice.
They, unionists, can be generous when they like, it’s only a few weeks since they told us that they are thinking of dumping at least some of their nuclear waste in Scotland.
Aw the nice!
Slightly O/T – the usual (and many unusual) suspects are out in force on The Guardian’s CIF as regards Cameron’s visitation today. It’s the usual comments about Salmond, and Scotland not being able to take advantage of the oil and/or the disadvantages of having an oil-based economy.
One poster even suggested that England annex Shetland so they can keep the oil – I just mentioned that Tony Blair had already made a stab at annexing a chunk of sea in 1999 🙂
Although I’ve had my Guardian account for about 10 years, I rarely post comments – but I got so mad I think I matched the same number of comments for this one article that I’ve made over he past decade.
However, with information gained from Wings (and other sites)it’s so easy to counter most “No” posters – they are so uninformed you just don’t really know where to start.
… and yes, I kept to the golden rule – breathe in slowly, calm down and edit the post again before pressing send!
The trouble is it was getting addictive and I have other things to do…
Why does Cameron pontificate on the UK’s “broad shoulders” ability to stabilise volatility of oil production, but has no ability to utilise same shoulders to help out with the bedroom tax ?
To be honest, I don’t think there is any real confusion about the UK cabinet being here today. Simply…
1. To noise up the local natives once more
2. To try and make it look like they actually give a damn about Scotland
3. They like the black shiny stuff. They likeeee a lot!
4. In liking oil, they just wanted to see if the oil sector will back them.
5. the oil sector shrugs its shoulders. They don’t care.
6. He tosses the natives some money figures like change at a wedding
7. Which riles the natives as they are meant to feel grateful at such offerings
8. Cameron contemptuously laughs merrily at the thought of debating with Salmond.
9. Which infuriates the natives as they feel dismissed
10. Mockingly, they declare to have a cabinet meeting in Aberdeen
11. Which is about the 2nd one held in Scotland in a 100 years!
12. Which leaves the natives seething at being made to feel cheap
13. They fly back to London, first class, drinking champagne, and laughing at their day out in foreign climes.
14. Which pushes some more natives towards voting ‘Yes’
15. David says ‘Job Done’ as he settles down with Samantha to watch Deadenders.
I believe it was W.C. fields who said “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”
GDP
UK = 6th largest
Net Public debt as % of GDP
UK (including Scotland) = 13th largest
After independence
Net Public debt as % of GDP
Scotland = zero
As if literally everything else wasn’t enough, surely the fact that no less than 70% of people who actually WORK within this “volatile” industry are voting Yes should tell undecideds something?
Waves.
(office 100% Yes)
Cameron says it would need the UK’s deep pockets for future investments in oil but Sir Ian Wood says .. no..!! investment would come from external investors.. UK government would have to create confidence and criteria.. not funds!! pants on fire Davy boy!!!
Does Norman Smith work for the BBC or the British Government?
He’s on right now & listening to him, it’s as if he’s reciting an argument written on his behalf by the British Cabinet.
Message – you chaps can’t manage this volatile commodity on your own, you need Great Britain to help you overcome this terrible burden.
Aye right. We’ll just see about that sunshine – we may be 40 years behind Norway in securing the future of our citizens but starting now is infinitely preferable to letting WM squeeze the last drop of reserves to make sure the rich get richer whilst our food banks are so inundated by desperately poor folk that they run out of supplies.
I take it the carbon capture project they ‘announced’ for Peterhead is the same commitment they reneged on previously.
http://news.stv.tv/politics/265247-david-cameron-would-support-an-independent-scotlands-eu-membership/
I still have never managed to get past the idea that a £1.6 billion oil and gas asset is good if Westminster controls it but volatile and a disaster for Scotland if they do not.
It is a bit like them forgetting the pound Scots was legal currency before the Union Treaty saw light of day – and if, somehow, though completely disastrous for Sterling, the new Chancellor of England and Wales can some how stop Scotland from tracking an internationally traded currency like sterling we get around £4 billion back from the Bank of England for starters and have a pound Scots worth £1.20p Sterling according to the UK Treasury paper of July 2013.
Rev Stu – could you make use of your massive intelligence to explain to me how an independent Scotland outside a sterling currency union, running a projected £15 billion a year current account surplus and a debt to gdp ratio of between 45 and 50% will be such a basket case economy that no one will lend to it?
O/T A good perspective from the Orkneys via New York
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/opinion/the-disunited-kingdom.html?_r=0
Oh! Those “Broad Shoulder” how will Scotland get by without them.
http://youtu.be/hKWkW4GX4Qk
What I take away from what I have watched on the News channels regarding North Sea oil is David Cameron more or less saying, vote ‘no’ and we will take as much oil as we can for the benefit of the South, vote ‘Yes’ and you will be too wee and stupid to reach the oil.
I am not sure that will do down too well with many people.
As for Norman Smith, if he was anymore biased towards the Westminster government, he would be in danger of being head hunted by the BBC. That is, if he did not already work for them.
I reckon both polls were hokum.
The P&J one is so far off other polling companies it’s not worth the bother (I know it was limited to the NE, but that would make it so out of step with the rest of the country that would need a much better explanation).
The oil and gas poll was a survey they ran on their facebook page. Not much else to say there
Cameron really does seem to have scored a huge own goal today. Every ‘Yes’ activist in the known universe needs to pick this one up and ram it home. Unless I’m missing something the silly man has given us as potential game changer !
Andy Nimmo says: “I keep asking myself why these politicians insist on treating everyone like illiterate morons”
Because they are illiterate morons and think everyone is the same as them
Malcolm Webb, UK Oil & Gas Chief Executive comes across as balanced & reasonable man & took the same position as Ian Wood when he pressed by BBC England to pick a political side.
He said it was Scots to decide if they wanted independence & Mr. Woods plan can be implemented regardless of who is in government anyway.
As far as the oil & gas sector is concerned then, they don’t really care who is in charge, just so long as they get the regulatory framework they are asking for.
And that is easily deliverable in an independent Scotland. Hardly the response BBC England was looking for.
I wonder though if Alistair “Flipper” Darling still thinks the oil will run out by 2017 as he claimed back in November. He never was good at numbers though except when they are written in red ink.
@Gaavster.
Spot on with that comment, David Cameron and his cabinet, couldn’t give a monkeys about poverty in Glasgow. The Glasgow city mission foodbank the biggest in Scotland, ran out of food and had to close its doors yesterday.
In one month alone (January) the foodbank fed 7000 people.
The message of today was the one you give to an inexperienced child: you don’t know how to manage money, so let me and other grown-ups do it for you.
It’s to Scotland’s shame that we actually have no small number of people who believe the above to be true.
@Kendo
He really must think we’re all terminally thick.
Didn’t an oil boss recently, when asked what difference independence would make, simply reply “None.”?
How do personel offensive remarks help the cause?
**** *** dishface
If this story is true, then I feel sorry for the people of Liverpool and Sheffield, if indeed Westminster is trying to bribe Scots, at the cost of people south of the border, its despicable, and shows just what Westminster is capable of.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/461574/EXCLUSIVE-Government-redirecting-EU-millions-to-top-up-Scottish-economy-claims-MP
Cameron had another disaster today. He thought the oil industry would fawn all over him but they know too well that Salmond is more savvy than the silly Chancellor who killed investment two years ago.
BTW please knock the “s” off Orkney above as a courtesy to us north of Inverness!
I’m not sure if this is off-topic or not.
Someone today in the Herald comments has stated the following (sorry I tried to archive the comment but it only archived the main article):
“The Poll from the north supports the work we have been doing in Glasgow daily for the last two weeks our team of up to 500 NO campaigners have called on many thousands of voters in the city with the returns in the order of yes 15% NO 70% undecided 15%”
Now I saw a similar comment last week. It could have been from the same poster. Leaving aside the claims about the number of No voters (either lies, exaggeration and totally dependent on the areas being canvassed) – the most unbelievable point is the claim that the No campaign have had 500 people out canvassing in Glasgow for two weeks!
I just wondered if anyone’s seen any evidence of this? – I’m not holding my breath though 🙂
OK I’ve just seen the “up to” so I guess that’s the let-out!
@Steve B
The real possibility of Scotland becoming independent has exposed the Guardian for what it is – just another member of the UK’s right-wing press. Their assertion of being “left-leaning” has been shown up to be the sham that it is: fully behind every other nation or people who strive for independence – but Scotland? ‘Oh no, we can’t have that. This is the ‘great’ UK, after all, dear boy!’
Their editorial conduct has been disgraceful, allowing their writers to be, basically, nothing more than outspoken Better Together propagandists. After Osborne’s threat-speech about the currency union they had an editorial eulogising his work FFS! – and this from a so-called ‘left-leaning’ organisation!
The comments BTL on CiF articles on Scottish independence is now a truly horrible place to be, infested with scurrilous, offensive and defamatory posts from trolls, UKIPpers and various swivel-eyed loons, most of which are left impeded by the moderators.
There are some terrific pro-Scottish independence posters there – more than a few who are regulars here – who continue to leave excellent, truthful, factual and honest comments without resorting to the abuse spewed out by those who purport to be pro-Union. Hats off to them.
The Guardian left me when they showed their true Rule-Brittania-face to the world. Deceitful hypocrites and phonies.
Here in Aberdeen the Press and Journal really let their hair down with front page headline “Huge Slump for YES vote” and a photo’s of Salmond fading away into the clouds. So quite a welcome for Cameron from the Press and Journal which got even more hysterical on the inside with hardest yet hard core fearmomngering. So something is going very wrong at BetterTogether. The P&J has gone completely crazy for a No win now with “Its their oil, so vote YES Aberdeen/North East and its blasphemy.” Hope BetterTogether fundamentalists like this can keep it together throughout the summer.
Dan Huil says:
“Great news about 70% of oil workers backing independence. But then we get a P & J poll [of 500] saying only 17% back Yes campaign. What’s happening, Rev?”
Dan I’m sitting offshore now and had the chance to read the P&J.
Of course it’s going out hell for leather with its YES vote slumps in the headline, clearly design to coincide with the great leaders visit.
The poll was conducted over Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire Inverness and the Highlands and Islands.
In this vast area the P&J managed to poll 500 people, yes 500. I had a glimpse of some of the data and what stuck out was that 80% of the 500 had not changed their minds in the last 6 months.
Now I don’t go for polls much, but even I could smell a rigged poll a mile away.
@Mutley.
DC backing Scotland’s entry into the EU is reminiscent of the battered partner syndrome where the assailant comforts the victim after with flowers and chocolates, thinking everything will be alright.
Not going to work.
At my work about 50-50, but I’m working on that.
Just though I’d share that Wales has had two cabinet meetings in the last few years.
Brown’s gang in 2009
http://www.millenniumstadium.com/news/21901.php#.UwuJf87wr4M
Cameron’s gang in 2011
http://www.royalmint.com/aboutus/news/prime-ministers-first-cabinet-meeting-in-wales
And I hear this is your second one in like, forever? That’s a bit strange.
All the great minds on here and we still cannot figure out the positive for Cameron visiting!
My personal opinion is that the next tory party election broadcast will be an indy special presented as a modern version of “boys from the black stuff” featuring Cam(in a class twist)as yosser hughes,catchphrase being”gies one a few barrels old chaps”
Ok,bit dodgy patter but since we are struggling for reasons Cameron thought this visit helped his case I just threw it out there!
Apologies in advance if in poor taste.
@alexicon
I have no doubt polls depicting static of lowered support for autonomy will spur people to ensure their vote is cast resolved to beat the crooked system and endorse hope.
Currently …
Haig pontificating to Ukrainians the EU is unable to help until there is a stable government, blah, blah, blah … you can hear ever word is really aimed at Scotland.
I thought that anyone who flew in a helicopter to the rigs had to go through survival training not just for their benefit but everyone on the flight.
Another reporter with the same 2nd name as an ex tory cabinet minister tells us we’re done for ‘cos production is down,no mention of the previous tax raid that curtailed said production.
What makes me grue: you couldnae get a fag paper between “broad shoulders” and “white man’s burden”
David Cameron speaking on a rig saying they can afford to make a big investment in the North Sea. He said and I quote ” We are one of the top ten Wealthy countries” unquote.
Selective memory to the extreme ie debts of £1.4 trillion, no mention of that though.
Did Norway not start their oil fund in the mid 90`s?
Just for a laugh, the Scottish Cabinet should hold a meeting in London. AS could be filmed on a pleasure cruiser on the Thames.
@Famous 15. Sorry, did know that, just forgot.
Steve B yes nice to see so many wingers on the Guardian etc. spreading the gospel and quoting ,cutting and pasting Wing’s articles. Gives one a nice glow.
It looks like the debate on the oil has now moved on from the usual Westminster scare tactic of ‘it will run out tomorrow, to ‘there’s loads of it but it’s best if you let us deal with it’.
I really do think Cameron and his cabinet are being given political advice from the Chuckle brothers. To me, to you
BREAKING NEWS:
All this time Cameron and Alex have been ONE AND THE SAME PERSON! In one statement this explains why they can’t be in the same room together for a debate and why Cameron seems to be working as a sleeper agent in favour of Yes campaign, letting us all know we’re billions better off and the “too poor” was rubbish all along.
Travelling to Aberdeen was a demonstration of Westminster efficient travel organisation. A projection of power.
The people who fall for the oil is a risky, volatile liability, etc remind me of the Native American’s who sold the island of Manhattan in return fro cloth and trinkets worth $24.
In the event of a ‘Yes’ vote and the involvement of some former Naysayers in our negotiating team, we have to ensure a complete ban on shiny beads being in the room.
The Malcolm Webb interview on the BBC will not be shown again, even when prodded by the BBC guy he would not declare his preference for one side over the other.
“In the event of a ‘Yes’ vote and the involvement of some former Naysayers in our negotiating team, we have to ensure a complete ban on shiny beads being in the room.”
I take it mirrors and firewater are ok then?
Anyone got any info on the content of the Shell meeting or are we going to have to wait 30 years, as in the McCrone report?
Any flies on the Wellington Road wall?
Martin geissler on ITV news asked who was winning the oil argument,apparently both sides made a good case!
This was preceded by the commentary “with as little as 12 million barrels left”
Seriously!!
As long as international law applies to Scotland then the oil argument will be won with a Yes vote.
It will also be won with a No vote,but Scotland will not see any value in a No vote.
That “F**k off Dishface” image is so brilliant, sadly it looks photoshopped. It would make me SO happy if it turned out to be real…
David Bowie (via Kate Moss) says, “Scotland, stay with us”.
David Cameron says, “when I saw Kate Moss leap to the stage and utter those words I have to say I did let out a little cry of joy”.
CalumCarr says, “Heaven help us”.
Scotland says, “Yes!”
Anyone on here going to the YES Barrhead Meeting tonight?
“I take it mirrors and firewater are ok then?”
Good points John. There could be a long list of banned items, but firewater is OK, one way or the other, once all negotiations over.
John King
“Not really getting the “wings is a cybernat hatefest are we Alexandria”
Haha! I really do hate them John, but they really are pathetic. They can’t come up with a single reason why Scotland should stay that will actually benefit Scotland, so they’re all panicking and opening their mouths and letting their over-filled-on-rich-food bellies rumble*
*by rumble I mean lie from the darkest depths of their digestive system.
STV news tonight managed to lose the First Minister’s interview but of course had a full interview with the PM . I have contacted them to suggest they make up for their error on Scotland Tonight at 10.30 by broadcasting the whole of the FM response to Cameron. I intend to time the respective exposures and will be contacting STV should they slip again.
@Dal Riata
Eloquently put – but we know the Unionist press, if moved to offer an open platform to discuss autonomy, will always revert to type.
Self-governance won, we can write their next day editorial now and barely put a wrong word in it.
The No’s have media and the British establishment on their side. We have the world’s Internet, but above all, grass routes support and attendant campaign.
“How do personel offensive remarks help the cause?”
You can say that after the previous blog? (A developing theme)
nothing we can say even comes close to the vilification dished out by the the bitter mob
there’s being gentlemen and there’s being footballs
I am not a football
HOW ABOUT YOU?
O/T http://new.livestream.com/IndependenceLive/events/2791665
About
Jim Sillars, Bruce Morton, Donald Reid plus MD Michelle Thomson & Ivan McKee from Business for Scotland on panel.
Meanwhile back at the ranch…
Who was the orator of this truly fantabulous contribution to the Scottish independence debate?:
“Oil is great for Scotland. Nobody would suggest otherwise. However, betting a country’s economic future on such a volatile and declining resource just isn’t credible. It is time that the nationalists were straight on this.”
Was it:
a) Pricess Diana’s hairdresser Nicky Clarke?
c) David Bowie?
d) A man with an odd eyebrows/hair combo?
e) All of the above?
Another wee oil-related snippet is that there is potentially a lot of oil under the Firth of Clyde which is currently inaccessible because the Trident subs hide out there. After YES they’ll be gone so we can exploit what’s there, Ivan McKee managed a mention of this in his interview last night.
“And I hear this is your second one in like, forever? That’s a bit strange.”
Showoff 🙂
Sounds like the P&J has had a premature ejaculation in the excitement of having Cameron visit Aberdeen.
If Glasgow has so many Better Together workers how come there was only one person dishing out leaflets at Central Station at 8.30am during the busiest period of the day for the station? It is all very well making crap up but we have eyes and we are pretty much everywhere…as we demonstrated when we showed up at more stations than they did.
I see Cameron’s rather feeble carrot/visiting present is the Peterhead Carbon Capture project being tested with a decision between Peterhead and Drax next year. So pie in the sky if we vote No only to be told oh dear Drax won.
Very good.
One of the problems with oil politics is that a huge percentage of people just don’t understand the numbers involved.
If you say Norway has built up an oil fund worth £470 billion, it’s just meaningless to many people, who have no idea of the size of, say, Scotlands current budget for comparison.
I notice Alex Salmond makes a point of talking in terms of ‘thousands of millions’, for this reason.
We need some simple infographics on the oil issue when the poster campaign starts.
The size of Scotland’s current oil fund should be easy to show.
And the size of the proposed oil fund if we vote no.
I watched the STV news tonight – always a mistake because if I catch the drivellings of that wee snit Clare Stewart I end up assaulting the TV.
Tonight’s offering was the comment on Mr Salmonds “well orchestrated” walk around Portlethen chatting to locals.
I do wonder if it occurred to her that the real
” orchestration” was taking place on an oil rig and some hotel in Aberdeen where the Westminster cabinet were busily pretending interest in Scots and Scotland while fearfully watching the clock in case they missed their connections to Londinium.
“Was it:
a) Pricess Diana’s hairdresser Nicky Clarke?
c) David Bowie?
d) A man with an odd eyebrows/hair combo?
e) All of the above?”
Do you get to phone a friend?
hmm I want to say Nicky Clarke but oh Im not sure 🙁
Alexicon – How many of the 50/50 can vote in the referendum?
Have you asked them what they think will happen to some of the 100,000 Oil and insurance jobs around London after a yes? Then ask why those jobs are currently based so far away from the UK oil Capital and in the most expensive office space in the UK?
The impact of Scottish independence will be far higher and better for Scotland than the raw numbers suggest, especially over oil. My fear is that it may create a housing boom and inflation that will negatively impact people in other sectors.
At least Scotland will not place/centralise all key sectors in Edinburgh, but there is a danger of a greater East West split.
@ 7.01 pm
Aaaargh! The letter ‘b’ normally follows ‘a’ in the English alphabet: this is an indisputable fact. But for some reason that a) to d) thing went, um, wrong, dropping a ‘b’ and adding an ‘e’! Damn DoS attacks…(Cough! Cough!)
Re the guardian – I’m beginning to think that newspapers pick a section of society to appeal to.
This gives people the feeling that they can express their views to like-minded people and with an editor who also has similar leanings.
But when the crunch comes, they all become establishment supporters.
I ocasionally dip into the guardian now but even though you post links – they just keep repeating the same guff.
The herald also has some new names and one Kevin Kelly from Ireland has been allowed to get away with some outrageous comments – suggesting that the SG were deliberatly failing to support food banks so they could improve them after indy.
We can only rely now on sites such as WoS.
If Cameron is saying he will support Scotland’s entry into the EU – this will be in exchange for something he wants.
Also I do think there will be arguments put forward for % population share of the oil and this will be the next big ‘story’.
@Appleby says:
All this time Cameron and Alex have been ONE AND THE SAME PERSON!
It all makes sense now!
Foolishly I thought for a long time that Nick Clegg and David Cameron were ONE AND THE SAME PERSON.
(and that the Rose Garden civil-partnership thing was done with a mirror).
Anyone else noticed the increasing number of paid posters popping up on the various comments boards?
They jump fresh into the debate and start firing off without realising that these discussions have been going on for a few years now.
Its a bit like lambs to the slaughter… interns or call centre types being sent to the Referendum front lines.
This is a message to anyone who has been employed to post unionist propaganda. “Keep your heads down and don’t take the third light” at least until you know where the cybersnipers are.
Whatever they are paying you, it is not enough.
New OPEC report says North Sea production continuing to decline, or at best flatlining.
Salmond has been promising “second oil boom”. Not great for confidence in his judgement, is it?
.
This morning he let slip the currency “plan B” is informal sterlingisation.
No central bank = no lender of last resort = no major bank can be based in Scotland.
Brilliant.
The Union 5hanks you for your help, Agent Salmond.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01qzx4s Picked up this from Rev’s twitter but if your brow is sore from vote no hysterics from oor noble media, here’s a cold pack to numb the pain. dear christ
This morning he let slip the currency “plan B” is informal sterlingisation. FFS read the white paper before posting shite
@JLT says:
15. David says ‘Job Done’ as he settles down with Samantha to watch Deadenders.
Can I get Deadenders on Netflix?
I love watching Zombie Government movies.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01qzx4s There’s a great guy at approx 24 mins who may well be a top BBC Bristol exec, “they wont have the pound, no NHS, they’re (Scots) taking so money out of our economy” and so on. It’s better than any English comedy show but how many times do they all say Scotland cannot?
I think that’s it – they were up to provide the first samples of hot air for the carbon capture project! And if Eric Pickles was there, they could also test it for methane too.
Didn’t catch any news today other than R4 as usual. They barely mentioned the trip other than to say that it took place. This comforted me as it tells me that nothing happened.
In fact it was a bit of a bonus that Mr Wood in fact ruined the trip by telling Dave that he was in fact talking sh yte.
He could have picked up the phone to do that. Perhaps he wanted to make Dave look a tool.
Perhaps he is well aware of the feelings of the oil workers.
BTW, the P and J poll. We all know that before any new of hysteria is unleashed, a poll of some description is required in order to back up statements of utter untruths.
This week it was the turn of P&J. Lets face it, if the establishment as able to control ALL of the media then P&J can easily be instructed to ahem”make a poll”.
Having said that, the good old Dundee Courier had a decent set of results but they weren’t establishment generated so thats alright then.
Didn’t realise that I had in fact included three in facts in the same sentence there.
ah well at least it was factual.
Gary Gibbon on Channel4 News – Cameron and the No camp say they are taking a calculated risk with their triple prong attack ie Osborne, Europe, Oil, in the belief that while there will be a wee boost for the Yes camp (you can’t come here and tell us what to do), it will subside in a week or two and the Scots will stick with the safe status quo route.
Don’t believe it myself.
Just read this excellent news via twitter
Great #indyref result for Yes at Queen Margaret University:
Poll before: Yes 59/No 41.
Poll after: Yes 71/No 29.
@ LIz
I think the oil should be divided on population share – 100% of the Scottish public should share 100% of the oil revenue!
Did anything happen today? I was kind of hoping for a West Side Story-like dénouement…. but would it be Nicola Sturgeon or Teresa May as Maria…?
New OPEC report says North Sea production continuing to decline, or at best flatlining.
They would say that wouldn’t they.
Salmond has been promising “second oil boom”.
Err … 2nd Oil-Boom-Sized investment by oil Companies is happening.
Please don’t give Eck too much credit.
This morning he let slip the currency “plan B” is informal sterlingisation.
Waken up at the back there.
No central bank = no lender of last resort = no major bank can be based in Scotland.
Translation: No toxic zombie vampire-squid banks will be based in Scotland.
Wee, we’ll just have a boring nationalised one, that doesn’t think that the deposits they hold are “their money”.
Roll on 18th September.
@ cynical highlander
Not getting the livestream event from Shettleston. Anyone else having trouble?
Cameron still maintains that Scotland is too we too poor and too stupid to look after the oil industry and that it is the DEEP pockets and the BROAD shoulders of the rest of the UK that keeps oil flowing.HOW ARROGANT is that.
@ scaredy and cynical
me neither
Just checked their facebook page. Apparently live
streaming doesn’t start until 8pm.
Ah Lindsay
You have your Ra Ra skirt on to cheer lead that lovely duo Cameron and Osborne…just like a Labour MP might even.
Do you deny that there is major investment about to be undertaken in the Scottish Oil sector? FFS! Why would Cameron drag his entire fucking cabinet here if it was an industry in its death throes?
As to a Scottish pound pegged to Sterling with no Central Bank, are you aware that there are economists that actually favour this solution? That Central Banks are a subject of debate in the world of economics? Also can you explain why big banks would not like having no LoLR but smaller ones wouldn’t mind?
We keep being told that an independent Scotland will not cope with the next banking crisis. However, we will if these dodgy banks have moved their HQs to London. Of course if the banks are comfortable and there is no impending crisis then there will be no need to call on a LoLR and it will be well down their corporate risk register of probabilities.
In short your piece is another bit of Better Together froth. Half a story and more PR than reasoned discussion.
Does anyone know how to see the ‘live event”? I cannot get in.
@scaredy cat
@Macandroid
Nothing for me either so I gave up.
You and I both – it’s an extra £200 Billion for Scotland. Yipee.
@cynicalHighlander.
No you can get an exemption for a 1 day trip.
@EphemeralDeception
I’m only talking about people who reside and can vote in Scotland. They’re mainly young, recent, apprentices who are influenced by their, sometime English, peers. Don’t worry there is time to either change their voting intentions or put them off voting altogether 😉
It’s running now.
D.C. Possibly needing to calm the markets?
I have had an ongoing chat on FB. With a former colleague who insists that Osborne and Barrosso were only firing across the bow, range finding as he put it, that the markets and international global markets would have a field day if we vote for independence and that ‘normal’ people would lose their mortgages, savings and pensions in this scenario. He also insists that we ain’t seen nothing yet and that a huge advertising campaign is about to be launched.
I think the international markets are looking for reassurance, that DC and GO haven’t lost control and have a cunning plan to be implemented?
So today might be a bit of a show not unlike Daniel and the lions den. Show that no area is a no go for them and attempt to deflate the idea that AS is truly a political Titon.
Guess we will see over the next few days what it was really all about.
OT, does Blair McDonut have a permanent seat on BBC Scot Good Morning show, he always seems to be on at the start so that he can take some questions, almost like a right of reply.
It’s like your dad has told you that you are going to win the lottery on Saturday and the family is really pleased for you. You know there is a catch but you just can’t figure it out. Does dad hold the ticket or do you have a half brother they haven’t told you about that’s intitled to half the windfall??
Aye, the P&J….
Edited by the guy who married the marketing manageress at Trump international shortly after they humped the SG over planning.
Aye, no mention nor record in the marriages section of same P&J.
@Elizabeth “…in the belief that while there will be a wee boost for the Yes camp (you can’t come here and tell us what to do), it will subside in a week or two and the Scots will stick with the safe status quo route.”
I guess there is some logic there. The idea being that the likes of Osborne sticking their oar in creates some initial outrage about Westminster meddling in the campaign, but by the time of the vote that will be forgotten about and the substance of his intervention will remain – i.e. doubts over the currency union.
While that might make sense in principle, though, I’m not sure that’s actually why they did it. There’s a tendency in political campaigns to always assume politicians know exactly what they’re doing, when in reality they frequently blunder their way through and succeed despite their best efforts.
Ivan McKee “Westminster position on oil is ridiculous”:
http://youtu.be/hPqGHerXmAg
@Lanarkists
So today might be a bit of a show not unlike Daniel and the lions den. Show that no area is a no go for them and attempt to deflate the idea that AS is truly a political Titon.
For sure, another initiative by the Westminster SPIN team who gave us the Currency Union guerrilla tactics (get in, fire and out again)
This tactic is called “Marking your terri-tory” Big Dogs do it to let small dogs know they are in charge.
We need to remind Cameron that he is not pissing on our Independence parade. We will vote YES no matter what.
Besides, he has cried “Big Dog” too often in the past.
The herald’s headline quite beautifully explains everything… “cameron: Yes vote will put oil and gas bonanza at risk”
You don’t say- a very candid, honest admission from mr cameron. Might have to frame it
>Lindsay
The problems for RBS is if they moved completely to London, then I don’t think we would see a bigger public campaign than for Scots to move their accounts and mortgages to a ‘new’ bank of Scotland.
It couldn’t with all credibility keep its name either.
Perhaps they would willingly lose a big chunk of business, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
When the Westminster government can tell me what taxes they will make up next year,what the tax rate will be next year,if the Tories win the next election will they hold an in out referendum,and take all of us out of the EU? these are some more of the uncertainties.
Now let me ask this if oil is $100. per barrel shared between 65 million,or shared between 5 million how well it works out for Scotland as 100 divided by 65=1.538,and 100 divided by 5 =20,but as oil is volatile the price may fall so OK suppose it may even fall by 50% thus oil is $50 per barrel that means 50 divided by 5 =10 so in either case Scotland has more of her own oil wealth to use,its either 1.538 in the union if you believe they will be fair and honest (not so far) or $20 or even $10 way out in front.
Just remember oil is a bonus we do still export lots of things and are the only part of the UK with a food surplus! so how come we have hungry citizens? something is very wrong.
@Onwards
I know of two new Scottish banks under development, one fairly well advanced.
In addition, the Adam Bank, once autonomous until RBS bought shares, might demand to be released from their association and stay in Scotland.
As for the corrupt and predatory RBS, how will it explain to our capital city getting a large chunk of greenbelt to build their folly of a palace and then abandoning it?
A lot of interest in visiting the oil industry capital. A pity he couldn’t spare more time visiting food banks and their cause.
Carbon capture and storage will help UK meet it’s climate change targets, right okay, but would the rUK kindly care to dump it’s excess carbons and other pollutants in it’s own sector of doggerland or wherever? Thank you.
O/T Ed Davey spotted at 8.30 this morning giving TV interview @ Aberdeen Castlegate, which sits at the end of? Yep, Union Street…
Lanarkist
That might have been the intent but they flew in on an RAF jet to avoid the plebs and hide away in a corporate HQ with a couple of photo ops for Dave on a rig.
Meanwhile Salmond has a public meeting and he and the Cabinet stroll around Portlethen.
Only one of then demonstrated that they are at ease with the public. Cameron behaved like he was flying into Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. I’m surprised they weren’t wearing flak jackets.
@HandandShrimp,
It is not just Drax power station which is in the Carbon Capture consortium , add,Don Valley, and Killingholme, also Ferrybridge and Eggburgh are also in the same catchment area of Yorkshire , check the plan out via Wikipedia, I have retired from that industry now, but am still aware of the background thinking of where the contract will end up, and it is not in Scotland!!.
Andy-B:
Regarding the EU money Westminster is diverting from the north of England in order to sweeten Scotland, it is probably the EU money they stole from Scotland’s farmers. Beware Geeks bearing gift’s.
http://www.arc2020.eu/front/2013/11/has-westminster-taken-e230-million-of-scottish-farmers-money/
Rev,There is a lot of head scratching, here,s a question for you to ponder. How much money has the Uk gov invested in the Nth Sea to date. Where is the £200billion new investment money coming from,as Cameron said, time to call upon Ivan.
“Do you deny that there is major investment about to be undertaken in the Scottish Oil sector?”
No. But Salmond, Swinney and the rest of them were shouting to the skies that oil *production* was about to go soaring back up again. If they were wrong or lying about that, how can they be trusted about anything else?
“Also can you explain why big banks would not like having no LoLR but smaller ones wouldn’t mind?”
Well, I look forward to you explaining to the thousands working for big banks (and insurers, fund managers, fund administrators and all the rest) in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee how “independence” is a good thing even if it directly causes them to get sacked.
Brilliant, Ivan.
That is the best analysis on the oil sector, and Scotland’s industrial potential yet! You absolutely annihilated the BBC spokesman’s questioning and debunked his theories.
Ivan …you Sir, are another, whose analysis is doing great things in convincing people that the alternative future of independence is not just the correct one, but also an extremely positive one.
Well done, Ivan. Just brilliant!
Have we worked out what the cabinet were up to today then?
I reckon they weren’t up to anything referendum-wise, they were just taking care of business as usual, getting on with managing our oil as if the referendum isn’t even happening. They just threw in a wee bit of anti-independence commentary while they were at it but it was just an aside, not their main concern. I still think they believe that they will win this referendum.
“Well, I look forward to you explaining to the thousands working for big banks (and insurers, fund managers, fund administrators and all the rest) in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee how “independence” is a good thing even if it directly causes them to get sacked.”
It won’t, of course. Don’t be ridiculous. If banks do move, they’ll move their nameplates, nothing else. Why would they go to all that trouble and expense?
@Lindsay
May I politely refer you to the previous posts responding to your original comments, you will find the majority of the answers you are looking for amongst them.
As fas as your last comment on your latest post, voters will be deciding on the future for generations to come not simply what it means for themselves right now.
Ok some may vote Yes or No based on immediate self interest but anyone I have spoken to talks about the bigger picture.
Think of it this way, if our children benefit from our decision to vote Yes then it means our children are in a better position to help look after their parents, repeat that down the generations and you can see the benefits for the future.
Throw in a massive “future fund” from the oil revenue to help take care of the vulnerable in society and a picture emerges of a more progressive and socially caring society.
No. But Salmond, Swinney and the rest of them were shouting to the skies that oil *production* was about to go soaring back up again. If they were wrong or lying about that, how can they be trusted about anything else?
The investment is taking place and the oil industry expects returns on that investment unless you consider they are doing it for shits and giggles. It is not unreasonable to deduce that increased production is part of that return.
The banks have offices and skilled staff. While it may be that there is talk of moving nameplates why move people? Better Together are so convinced that we will become a third world country that the danger would be less job losses and rather job influx as rUK seeks to take advantage of the fact that Sterling would go much further here against our wee baw bee.
Of course in the mutually exclusive arguments of Better Together we will no doubt have the worst of every possible world including all the things that can go wrong in all the Earths of the multi-verse.
I’m just hoping that, come Independence, Hadrian’s Wall becomes the new border and we can claim some new oil fields and, of course, the ones that were stolen.
We could also welcome Northumbrians into the fold 🙂
Ronnie @9:34
I’m guessing that was a rhetorical question about UK investment. Only ‘investment’ I can think of would be in Britoil, how many remember them, and they were sold off cheaply as usual so I suppose the loss to the UK Treasury could count as an ‘investment’. Compare the Westminster approach with Norway’s Statoil who have invested in and reaped benefit from many oil fields, a good few of them in the UK Sector! How politicians from Westminster can lecture anyone about the oil industry with a straight face beggars belief.
They will move the water border in a way which leaves Scotland with a coast line that reach no more then 50 miles out, the other 150+ miles will be claimed to be british and therefor all oil and gas will be stolen. Last time this was done is some 300 years ago where they where using the navy to blockade Scotland from food, weapons and any supplies needed for a reasonably normal life, this was done to quell the Scottish claims to the throne and therefor it became UK instead of the british kingdom. George never had the right to the throne, not even according to the Union Agreement. He was to far down the lineage, however, he was the closest protestant on the list, need I say more?
So can somebody put this thick jock right. Is there any oil left or is it all gone. Or is there none left for the thick jocks only for our mastas in the big smoke.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10659609/Alex-Salmond-warned-of-jobs-exodus-over-currency-Plan-B.html
According to the last paragraph, the UK cabinet were expecting red carpet treatment in Aberdeen.
@Papadox
I presume you’re being sarcastic, and with justification.
The UK government now argues there are decades of oil left but it is better controlled by them, an argument entirely counter to their previous one in which the oil was running out, hardly worth anybody bothering about.
The also say oil demand has slackened, well yes, the world is in recession, what else would happen when people are driving less, and goods are shifted less by truck?
In fifty years time as oil reserves dwindle the price will shoot up, that’s the reality.
I have absolutely no idea why anyone can imagine that oil would be better managed by the UK.
So far as I can tell Ian Wood’s report is a damning condemnation of the record to date. All of what he recommends should, of course, have been in place from the outset. Stable door, anyone
As to “tough regulation” – regulation never works in the UK. All of the regulators are chocolate fireguards and that is inevitable since the plutocrats believe (or pretend to believe) that government intervention makes things worse, always and everywhere.
A Scottish government can manage oil resources in the interests of Scotland, if this report is to be believed (because government can, according to Wood). A UK government can do it too. But nobody in the UK has got any benefit from the oil (except for a few very wealthy people and corporations. And that is by design. Does anyone seriously believe that the aim has suddenly changed? That this UK government is suddenly interested in the welfare of the people who elect them?
The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour, we are frequently told.