New volatility blow for Salmond
Posted on
September 01, 2014 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
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A tall tale
Wee Books
Video
Probably a robbery
Transphobia
Oil sure is one helluva burden.
Shameless plug…
I wrote a novel about the independence referendum. It’s free to download till polling day…
http://www.portraitofthenation.com
Yep, looks like that pesky oil just won’t run out quick enough.
Brown: social justice?
Don’t make me laugh.
Any chance this will be reported by the Scottish msm or the bbc?.
Anyone want to start a book? I’ve got a fiver on no.
Bwahahahahahaha. 😀
One narrative for those and such as those and another for the tabloids.
Who knew?
They simply can’t stop business from talking to business at the end of the day. Utter financial carnage would ensue otherwise. No they keep the burden and volatility bollocks for the commoners.
Can you fry eggs in North Sea oil? Just asking.
With all this new investment Scotland will be able to reintroduce the ‘Gold-Standard’…… what’s the OBR’s view on this latest nugget?.
My and he’s still using the line that the £2.9bn in 2016/7 wont pay the pension that he used in Lochgelly last year. Deep thought 0 Soundbite 1
Goodness me the broad shoulders of the uk must be sagging under the weight of this burden.
I can feel the trembling of shoulders dry heaving in Westminster.
Major B,
Don’t see why not.
I wouldn’t fancy eating it though.
NB. Do NOT use the omelette pan.
I might lust be weird 🙂 but does anyone else spot a likeness? 🙂
link to tinyurl.com
I hate all this scaremongering.
Wonder what Sir Woodgroup has to say? Any chance an ‘actual’ journalist asking him?
“North Sea” is a bit misleaading when talking about Scotland’s oil and gas. It ignores the vast new fields to the west of Shetland and the Atlantic fields. Check out all the exploration activity in Irish Atlantic waters and ask yourself why there has been no published activity in the adjacent Scottish waters.
@MajorBloodnok Even after a WBB delivery, I’ve still got some spare room in the garage. I’m sure I could store some of that volatile oil stuff to help smooth out the market fluctuations.
Willing to help in any way.
And if you have too much oil, please don’t put the excess in the food recycling bin. The local council has guidelines y’know.
There’s black gold in them thar waters.
Its interesting how neither the groveling Graun dude nor Crash can bring themselves to even mention facts like Gordon becoming PM without an actual election and then when they had to have one…
Westminster’s like a parallel universe to Scotland.
Also and wtf
“We retire to a conference room that could not be more Brown-like – austere, impersonal, a framed photograph of IT-training classes on the wall.”
Crash showers over £2 million a year of monies taken from the charity he set up, on himself, worldwide first class flights for him and Mrs Crash just the tip of a very juicy iceberg, if icebergs can be juicy:D
Just remember that the price of an ever decreasing resource that is more in demand now than ever before may go down….lol
Cursed oil!
nah, there’s nothing out there, i’ve checked with the man on the telly, so there!
I dont know if Guidofawks is acurate or not but this is a long long way from Graun liggers spinning of “Brown-like – austere, impersonal,”
link to order-order.com
“the company was set up by Sarah. Brown has declared to parliament that the total amount paid to the company since 2010 is £3,605,197. According to a recent announcement on the company’s website, only £912,702 has so far been given to charity after three years. Leaving over £2 million to be accounted for when according to the latest available records the company had only £160,978 in cash at the bank.”
Each day just seems to hammer another nail into the coffin of Better Together arguments.
According to NO there’s only a few paifuls of oil left.
Gordon Brown inc.
“The company admits it budgets £550,000-a-year for expenses to meet salaries, accommodation costs and staff expenses. Gordon can be paid as much as $100,000 for a single speech in America to investors at finance conferences”
A hundred grand for a speech to US investors?! “How not to go bust like what I did to teamGB,” “How to look broke when really you’re rolling in it” “Money fight” “I didn’t get where I am today by being elected”
Yet another interesting FT article that the MSM decide is not for the likes of us proles.
Nevertheless, the article makes me wonder whether this record Private Equity investment is a result of much increased faith in the Scottish oil industry, or much reduced faith in the City of London?
We know the smart money is on Scotland.
@Mealer,
They’re mighty big pails, probably last a century or more, depending on new finds. That’s what they never talk about, ‘new finds’
I see Carmichael is slavering utter mince again in todays Scotsman
He also said further devolution would mean ceding power from Holyrood to local communities. He said one of the failings of devolution since 1999 was that Edinburgh had “sucked up powers” from other parts of Scotland and they needed to be returned.
He said “enough certainty” had been provided to voters in Scotland that a No vote will mean more powers for Holyrood from Westminster.
He added: “In the event of a No vote I want to move on this quickly because the way we have done this in the past has been about building the broadest possible consensus across Scottish public life so you bring in business, you bring in the voice of local authorities, churches, trade unions and society in general.”
So, he wants to hand power to the councils, that way, circumventing the SNP Government in Holyrood. In the same breath, he says that Holyrood has sucked up all the powers in Scotland (is this guys for real …is he actually saying that Holyrood is now the equivalent of Westminster).
And he then says (which I can only assume is with relish) that he he’s going to get these new powers implemented as quickly as possible …which just raise one question. If he is going to implement them asap, then WHAT THE F*** ARE THEY??? IF YOU KNOW!!! TELL US !!!!
Jenny Marra,MSP.
Why do you want to squander the oil money on nuclear bombs?
Duality of a nutcase so on the one hand
“I wouldn’t come back to making speeches or doing these events were it not for my children. This is a vote where you have to take into account what’s going to happen 50 and 100 years down the line. You can’t just vote for yourself”
But on the t’other on his kids views, or make your bloody mind up Crash
” Slightly suspiciously. “No, they’re eight and 10. They’re interested in football, in computers. If you don’t mind, I don’t want to draw them into this. It’s not fair. They’re not wanting to express their opinion on it.”
All this oil boom sounds like more bad news for Scotland. Good job Engerland is generously taking the burden off our hands. Thank you master. Grovel. Grovel.
JLT
You aren’t genetically programmed to understand political matters. Now shut up and eat your cereal. 😉
@ JLT
Carmichael will have had his arse kicked after his blunder of saying he will be batting for Scotland if we vote Yes.
This admission that a Yes is even possible, is not part of the BT narrative, so I’m sure they got some backroom servant to write this piece and demanded that he release it in his name…to show he has not gone native.
The thing is, I don’t think anything they now say in the MSM will have an impact on the outcome of the referendum.
Only the very low information voters believe a thing that the MSM prints about politics now.
One of Salmond’s arguments that I didn’t like was his insistence on suggesting that the No campaign was considering the oil to be a burden.
They’ve said that Scotland could be misled by it, and make inaccurate predictions for future spending, but I’ve not seen anything where they state or imply that having the oil is a burden.
@Jlt,
He just wants to make sure Holyrood never has the power again to set another referendum in place. Democracy in action. Another union divedend.
Can we not just give this black stuff away to someone? Considering it’s such a burden. Oh, we did that in the 70s didn’t we 🙁
Did naebody tell Comical Carmichael that its all change on the 19th Sept & at the Scottish general Elections in 2016, more power to the cooncils NAW.
So in precis, former unelected PM and austere expenses millionaire Gordon Brown’s giving speeches in Scotland trying to convince and frightener voters that there’s less than £3bn per year Scots oil revenue to pay for near £40bn public expenditure and he says he’s doing this for his son’s future but he doesn’t want to “draw them into it” Another teamGB day ticks by.
Heedtracker, his juicy iceberg is probably starting to melt a bit – global informing perhaps? Or maybe all this bloody oil lapping round my ankles up here in Caithness. I’ll maybe send it down to Whitehall, to see if they can burn it off as quickly as they did all the other stuff we sent them since the 70s.
I thought I would try the egg-frying thing, but can’t get hold of enough eggs, because Scottish Labour seems to have cornered the market.
I read about this in the Energy P&J,also in todays paper we have two very different articles,one positive from Dick Winchester and the arch enemy of the SNP Brian Wilson saying how Ian Wood was correct,how can this man be so negative about his own country,is he just a bitter ex Lab MP who has no ermine for his shoulders.
Brown and the NO campaign hate this kind of news.
They will do anything to stop Scotland becoming one of the most affluent independent countries in Europe.
Brown is a ("Quizmaster" - Ed) to the core and has done nothing to improve the welfare of ordinary people.
It’s just a matter of time before he enters the Lords after trying everything he knkows to deny Scots their independence.
The quicker we get rid of scumbags like him the better.
It’s interesting to compare the pro-brit blatts’ fetish obsessions with what turns them off.
The gold bars in the vaults of the Bank of England are a real mouth-watering prospect at a whopping £156 Billion in 2012 prices. They are something to fantasise about and drool over. Yet an estimated £1.5 trillion in Scottish North Sea oil assets over 50 years is a gloomy, dreary burden that isn’t in the least bit attractive. You can forget about Scotland’s ugly twin-sister, Norway’s national oil fund, too while you’re about it.
We’ve still got a few quid then! Bank of England’s glittering stash of £156BILLION in gold bars stored in former canteen under
Daily Mosley
03 Feb 2012
MajorBloodnok says:
Can you fry eggs in North Sea oil? Just asking.
Lightly tossed with a drizzle of Clair Ridge oil.
sorry to go OT but I’m not sure where would be best to post this.
Appalling lead article in the Herald today: “Warning of Polling Street Clashes…”. The assault on the pregnant Yes camopaigner is incorporated into the article in such a misleading manner as to imply that the assualt was carried out by a yes campaigner on a pregnant No campaigner. This in order to add weight to the narrative that the No camp are under threat of intimidation and possibly violence from Yes.
I have definitely bought the Herald for the last time (today was the first time I’d bought a copy in ages).
link to article here
link to heraldscotland.com
Chris
It is now so painfully clear that Scottish Labour and LibDem politicians form the human shield for the BT-Tories in Scotland.
A modern parcel of rogues, despicable Uncle Toms, willing to sell their country short (of billions in oil revenue) all for the sake of a few personal pieces of silver.
“I’m all right, Jock!”
Calgacus MacAndrews says: Lightly tossed with a drizzle of Clair Ridge oil.
Highly prized for its zesty lemongrass aroma and evocative hints of benthic ooze, mechanic’s overalls and garage sumps.
URGENT Please could we have an update on the distribution of the Wee Blue Book?
For anyone who hasn’t watched it here’s Sir Ian Wood extolling Scotland’s Oil and Gas industry prospects in an interview with the BBC’s Douglas Fraser in 2012 contradicting his recent “warnings” :link to bbc.co.uk
and no little irony in his comment at 5:54 “my plea to both sides would be please,please don’t have this debate in such a way that you cause a whole lot of uncertainty, or it will damage…(the Oil and Gas industry) (!)
then at 6:18
Douglas Fraser : Will you be saying which way you will vote?
Sir Ian Wood : If I think I can make a useful contribution to the debate, then I will at the right time.
So no doubt now that Sir Ian Wood’s recent “contribution” both in content and timing was entirely politically motivated.
No doubt either, that the BBC’S “amnesia” with regard to this previous interview was entirely politically motivated also.
Footsoldier,
think the discussion regarding the WBB are here
link to wingsoverscotland.com
pitchfork
Quote from deomoneggy on reddit
“Nasty Nationalist hits innocent No campaigner on the foot with a Fetus. Salmond forced to apologise..”
pitchfork
it’s nothing new.
link to open.ac.uk
“At one time, each polling station had a police officer present throughout the day, but some relaxation was allowed by the late 1960s and it was normal for one officer to be responsible for a group of stations. On one such duty in 1968, I met my future wife at a polling station, where she was working as a poll clerk – this changed my perception of the democratic process for ever.”
@Donald Anderson,
One more ‘grovel’ and I think you nailed the attitude.
@Donald Anderson,
One more ‘grovel’ and I think you nailed the attitude. We’re not genetically programmed, don’t you know:)
@ Pam McMahon, everyone in Scotland knows whats out there in the British North Sea? UKOK Prime Minister’s are always rewarded for all their work in protecting big money teamGB.
St Thatch died in her £3500 a night suit at the Ritz. Ted Heath’s Mayfair georgian town house has a blue plaque on it, as does his mansion house over looking Salisbury Cathedral.
Only in Scotland do we endure this absurd UKOK vote NO propaganda that Crash Gordon is somehow going round Scotland sackcloth and ashes style, a true socialist worker, thrifty son of the manse etc and just not one more money grubbing trougher on the make, just like Jim Murphy only 100x more so.
Poor Jim. What will Jim Murphy do after politics? Bus driver, shelf stacker, journalist, memoires? He’ll need to do something as teamGB establishment does not reward failure. You need to do a Kinnock and head for that huge EU trough.
Patrick Roden / IheartScotland / Cameron B
Oh, we all know what Carmichael is really saying in that first passage. If you’re clued up (thanks to sites like this), you know exactly what Carmichael is saying. Even being a Lib-Dem, he is quite happy for power to be devolved to councils …Labour councils, if it shatters the SNP.
But as you say Patrick, is anyone really paying attention to this guy now. You could hold a picture up of him while canvassing and most folk will shake their heads when asked to identify him.
Cameron …love your comment. Brilliant. I forgot that I’m not genetically engineered to question the system. How dare I …So, please Westminster, scourge me one more time (which sounds like it could be quite a catchy tune! Where’s Britney when you need her? …which now that I think about it …sounds like Britain …stop …just stop!!!)
O/T
Union dividend deeply flawed.
link to opendemocracy.net
Newsnet cheekily find a BBC video of Sir Ian stating quite confidently that there are £25 b barrels left.
link to tinyurl.com
I can’t stand any more. Will no one save us from this increasing burden of OIL!
In the 1960’s Westminster said there was no North Sea oil.
But seismic surveys indicated there was.
Then they said it was too far from shore.
So we brought over jack-ups, supply boats and helicopters.
Then they said the water was too deep and the weather too rough.
So we developed and improved semi-subs.
Then they said it couldn’t be extracted.
In 1971 Hamilton Brothers discovered the Argyle field.
But, they said, there wasn’t enough to be commercially viable.
Then the Saudis held everyone to ransom.
And, lo and behold, BP Forties came on stream.
But they said it wold all soon run out.
So we developed deep well drilling, and oil based mud.
Then they said that would run out.
So we developed directional drilling.
Then they said the North Sea was running out.
OK. We went north and west of the Shetlands.
But they said that was too deep and way too rough.
So we improvised tension leg platforms and floating production.
But they said most of the oil couldn’t be got at.
So we developed horizontal drilling.
But they said this oil was like tar and too heavy.
So we improved salt water injection and gas lift techniques.
40 odd years later they’re still telling us it’s running out.
But Sullom Voe is being refurbished and a new gas- sweetening plant constructed.
The Clair Ridge could be a monster.
P.S. Argyle (renamed Alma) is still on the go.
This time, wake up.
What a burden,good job we have Westminster to unburden us what with all that volatility.
Oh naw, naw mair piggin oil!
The Japanese video on NO voters in Helensburgh is really shocking. How do these numpties sleep at night.
Just a wee bit of uplifting feedback… Of the begged and borrowed WBB’s I got…
I have given them to a dozen or so undecideds / Not sure / Maybes, including my Garage mechanic and parcel delivery lady. I tell them please read and pass on.
The feedback is fantastic. The WBB has given a number of them the confidence they needed to do the right thing.
The WBB – Conquerer of fear, and antidote to Westminster and BT poisonous lies.
Further, I have posted the WBB Website on a variety of media including the Guardian.
The Unionists are apoplectic. It is the most fun I have had in months without taking my clothes off.
wingman 2020
Or singing pirate shanties? 😉
Footsoldier
WBB going down well with my customers and anyone else I can corner, I just ask them ” do you think you’ve got enough information” then hand it over.
Inspired work Rev, absolutely inspired, I’ve even got customers organising coffee mornings to talk about it and use google to reference it.
Brown’s interview via the link, gives me a different idea of the man than the interviewer seems t have gathered.
This man has principles??
He would not accept any criticism at all, would not talk about his life in government eh? Nothing on his pension raids, nor his stealth taxes, of which there were many.
Loves Scotland BUT! Even in his own backyard he knew about the radioactive elements at Dalgety Bay, 10 years previously but did, nor said anything about it, until it leaked out.
Sorry Mr Brown, for me, you have no principles at all. I will use the name I always used for you “Brown aka the PICKPOCKET!”
Private equity companies in the NS are getting away with murder. Helicopters are falling from the sky because of lack of proper UK Health & Safety regulation and guidelines not being followed. Robert Goodwill UK Transport Minister has been on a helicopter once. Tricia Haynes, transport civil servant ‘everything is honky dory’. Goodwill has an estate in Yorkshire and the family have a renewable funeral business. Life is not renewable.
Hammond spent £1Billion (NS oil revenues?) upgrading Army helicopters. NS helicopters are 30/40 years old.
Blame the workers. They have been issued with breathing survival kits, to survive the crash and hazardous, freezing North Sea.
Crash and Cameron not elected. Appointed.
Wee Blue Book, thanks for one or two comments but I know all that. We are a large group holding up the distribution of our own material to avoid duplication with limited manpower and we are awaiting 1000 WBB for distribution. We know who the don’t knows are in our area based on recent and earlier canvassing results.
There was an initial contact from Wings by email but all emails now go unanswered and there is no generic update on the website whilst I appreciate the logistics are massive.
Footsoldier, say where you are and you might find out there are some near you. The books are on pallets and being shipped over the weekend and next few days.
Footsoldier – Stu’s tweeted that he knows there are thousands of WBBs on their way but not sure where they are.
Are you using the contact form at the top of the page to contact him? He’s also said today that the site’s being bombarded by spam, so he’ll be even busier than usual, HOWEVER, when he knows where the pick up points are he will TELL us. As well as the WOS Twitter for updates, WBB also has
twitter.com/hashtag/weebluebook?src=hash
Thanks Alan Mackintosh. We are West Stirlingshire and meant to be on the list as a distributor.
We cannot hold our own material up any longer as we have a delivery team assembled for tomorrow and the WBB will have to wait until our next delivery before the end of the campaign.
Footsoldier – you don’t say where you are and whether you’ve checked out your local YES shop for copies. Anyhoo, Grahame Case has tweeted WOS that he has just taken delivery of several boxes of WBBs. He’s in West Lothian, you could contact him if he’s anywhere near you.
Thanks TJenny and yes the contact form has been used several times.
I know it is a gargantuan effort but one post on this website would have clarified. Will just wait and see.
Footsoldier, Kinivie has been posting updates but with so many posts it is difficult to catch them. If you acting as hub then wait til you contacted. If you’re not a hub then ask about to see who is in your area. Sending loads of emails just adds to the deluge. They are on their way
@Chris Baxter says: 1 September, 2014 at 11:50 am:
“One of Salmond’s arguments that I didn’t like was his insistence on suggesting that the No campaign was considering the oil to be a burden”.
Aye!
Richt!
@iheartScotland
Your wish is my command – viola …
Sir Ian Wood meets a BBC journalist.
This is worth watching for a laugh especially the fist couple of minutes.
link to bbc.co.uk
it really is brilliant – “staggering” even. Should go viral.
@”heedtracker says: 1 September, 2014 at 11:55 am:
“So in precis, former unelected PM and austere expenses millionaire Gordon Brown’s giving speeches in Scotland trying to convince and frightener voters that there’s less than £3bn per year Scots oil revenue to pay for near £40bn public expenditure”
Now look here, heedtracker, You should be exceedingly grateful to that nice Mr. Brown. After all he is giving the people of Scotland his great ability for making speeches for free. He charges others a great deal of money to listen to them. Are you not ashamed of yourself?
Oil be damned AND they’re now dispatching weasel Rifkind into the fray – Diddy Dode Robertson was right, wir aw doomed, doomed…
@pitchfork
I emailed The Herald and received the response with this:
”
You are not the only person to have raised this particular issue but I’m afraid I believe the story was valid.
As the alleged assailant was charged yesterday the Contempt of Court Act has prevented us from going into the detail you feel was missing. I will, however, ensure the relevant detail is made crystal clear once the case is dealt with.
”
I’m sure that is nonsense. They would not be punished for leaving specific detail, rather than formulating their paragraph to read that it was an assault from a Yes campaigner, rather than the other way round.
Disgusting.
To return to the topic. Bluewater are a Dutch company specialising in FPSO build and operation. I worked on the design of the Aoku Mizu ( ?? ? or Japanese for Blue Water). This at their headquarters at Hoofddorp in the Netherlands.
link to bluewater.com
An independent Scotland could have had an equivalent company… if only!
When I hear of Ian Wood I despair. Wood Group is second rate!.
The BBC’s subliminal (not) messages continue – this mornings BBC World papers review invite – A N Oil Investment Expert, on the headline that BP are reducing investment in the N Sea in favor of Russia, which is very likely true, but the “expert” review goes on to the main message “there are no companies now interested in investing in the N Sea where production has diminished over the last 15 years and are no longer an attractive investment. Will be interesting to see over next 2 weeks how many opportunities auntie beeb seizes to air BT slanted pieces.
@ Chris Baxter. The Herald is correct; the case of the alleged assault on the pregnant Yes supporter (we have to say alleged – innocent until proven guilty and all that) is now, what is referred to in the newspaper business as: “live” – the Scottish papers are now extremely hamstrung as to what they can say about it.
No complaint was forthcoming from Murphy, therefore, we are free to speculate all we like about it. That’s Scots Law for you – much better than English Law by the way.
Even more oil? Ah, just the typical yes tactics as usual. Do they really believe that telling the truth will sway the vote towards independence? People aren’t THAT stupid…
http://en.ria.ru/analysis/20140901/192542028/North-Sea-Oil-to-Benefit-UK-Economy-Beyond-2060–Oil-Expert.html
The volatility of oil as Darling put it hasn’t bothered the Westminster government when they took £300bn into their exchequer from Scottish oil over the years, but he thinks it will be a problem for an independent Scotland. Only the brain dead would believe that. Scotland can create a national oil company and then benefit from the sale of oil not just the taxes like Norway has done with Statoil. That is where the real money is to be made. the future will be bright for an independent Scotland.
Chris Baxter,
“They’ve said that Scotland could be misled by it, and make inaccurate predictions for future spending, but I’ve not seen anything where they state or imply that having the oil is a burden.”
They very much imply that oil is a ‘problem’ if not a ‘burden’ and they are extremely negative about it. Darling is on record from grossly understating reserves.
Salmond has said that oil is a bonus and makes up a smaller proportion of Scotland’s economy compared to Norway. Even without oil, Scotland’s GDP would be almost equal to rUK GDP and there are many years’ of oil left during which an oil fund will be built up.
So in that context, Salmond’s taunt that Better Together, Labour and Tories are the only ones who think oil is a curse is very valid.
Why did Scotland blow the opportunity to be an independent nation?
I am English but have always admired Scotland, and Wales and thought of both as independent countries.If I lived there I would have definitely voted Yes. Northern Ireland I’m not so sure about purely because of politics and religion.I feel Scotland has been conned, not so much by the tories, but by the likes of Gordon Brown and the weakling Ed Milliband both should have stood up for independence and freedom, which if anything is what should define a left of centre viewpoint. In some ways I hope we get a real right wing tory government in 2015 just to prove Brown and Milliband’s poor judgement over this issue.