This is not a spoof
We have not made this story up. It’s not the work of BBC Scotlandshire.
Just casually, there, beneath an unassuming, innocuous headline. No big deal.
We HAVE satirised the comedy claims that oil will run out by next Tuesday lunchtime on occasion. But this sort of guffswill is beyond mickey-taking.
“The report says Russia has more than 50 years of oil, more than 100 years of gas and more than 500 years of coal left, on current consumption.
By contrast, Britain has just 5.2 years of oil, 4.5 years of coal and three years of its own gas remaining.”
Bad news for the oil companies who’ve just invested record sums in the North Sea. But while we’re at least grateful the BBC has stuck this in the Environment section rather than Scotland News, our relief is tempered by our inability to shake the suspicion that any minute now “Better Together” or “Vote No Borders” will make it the subject of a press release or a ridiculous, wait-they-surely-can’t-be-serious cinema ad.
After all, they’ve already said it’s even worse than that.
Ahh, that explains this story:
link to wingsoverscotland.com
The oil must run out on the Tuesday, probably about 6am so it makes the breakfast news on BBC Miss reporting Scotland at 6.30 am and GMS.
Cue the knuckle dragging unionists citing the BBC as reliable source that Oil runs out by 2019, cripes!
What’s with Cambridge these days………….
Maybe they mean rUK will have run out by then and that’s why they need to hold on to Scottish hydro, wind and wave power…
Thank goodness for that I was due offshore next Thursday I will not bother going.
Will the BBC write my sicknote please.
Makes sense when you consider that 95% of the UK’s oil will be gone by March 2016.
Oh! That’s all right then. I’ve got enough in my frying pan to last me until Wednesday next. Maybe even Thursday if the bacon is a wee bit fatty.
I think the oil will have to run out on Thursday so that James Naughtie can deliver a sententious funeral oration.
Its in today’s Oil Capital of Europe Aberdeen’s ghastly vote no or else Press and Journal too.
What next? The P&J clownshow hid away an actual fact report over the latest Osborne Scots oil tax raid, 10%+ on North Sea drilling. This new Westminster raid’s turned big new drilling projects to rat shit. We are being bettertogether asset stripped by the Con/Dems with some serious fallout.
Seems no borders are first off the mark.
link to votenoborders.co.uk
and I thought when they said the oil was to run out in 20:50 the meant in 36 years time not 10 to 9!
CANDLES, GET YOUR CANDLES ERE, KINDLING FOR COOKING, GET YOU KINDLING ERE.
Is it just me or is Scotland just pissing itself laughing at these people now, they really are getting a bit silly.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck just read it again and it’s coal as well, I’m a bloody chimney sweep, I’ll have to retrain !
The Clair field alone will produce for the next 40 years..
This seems like a green pressure group, and the claims are challenged further down the story.
But the BBC has their story and sub-heading for those just taking a casual glance.
How can such a silly claim even make the news in the first place?
What’s next?
“Witch says End of the World is next Tuesday.”
I think I know what has happened here. They have taken the entire world consumption and divided that into the UK fossil fuel reserves.
It is the only rational explanation.
Why you’d want to do something like that is anyone’s guess as such an exercise is pointless.
So Vote No Borders are a new “grassroots” organisation. Yet have had time to produce cinema adverts and place massive billboards in Glasgow and Edinburgh within less than a month of their creation? How long does it realistically take to make an ad and book that type of advertising space? I think the No Borders rabbit hole is very very deep.
Yeah Oil is running out which is why the companies that exploit those resources are investing in the future.
Meanwhile, Scotland has lots and lots of energy.
Poor us!
Jings, Crivvens, Help ma Boab !
I need to sell my portfolio in firelighters and Scottish Bluebell matches forthwith.
What is it with research bodies at Anglia universities?
link to en.wikipedia.org
It unfortunately damages the serious issue of finite fossil fuels, climate change and may actually undermine the need for investment in renewables if specialist research institutes are publishing what would appear to be extreme scenarios.
Before Thatcher shut all the coal mines the UK used to crow that Britain was built on coal and we had 300 years supply.
Apparently not, it will all run out on 16/11/2018 precisely.
I believe this story. Please send me jerry cans to hoard petrol.
The co ordinated nature of this is pretty scary. The independent and the supposed academic report is producing a multi pronged attack on truth. A lot of this propaganda is insidious andanipulative.
I dunno…awfully volatile home grown energy.
If they could use scaremongering as a ne w fuel we’d
be sorted for millenia…
Britain has about 2 years of oil left, because in 2016 it will belong to the Scottish people.
We will have to have a bonfire of quangos to keep us warm after 2018.
the oil is to run out next week ?
well you know whose fault that is
that bloody Alex salmond !
OMS how can any respected journo allow this drivel ?
Oh thats right .THERE ARE NO RESPECTED JOURNOS
Now where’s that lighter ….?
@ Steve Bowers – Suggest retraining as a scrap metal merchant coz that is where the dosh will be.
Spose that means the Edinburgh Forth oil rig will be dismantled now ?
Yes, not only is Spring early this year but even the Silly Season is off to a rather premature commencement. Jolly ho!
Queues are already forming at petrol stations as panic buying takes hold.
Treat ALL the Unionists, come up with, as anti independence lies, then you will sleep better.
The ads are absolutely awful and hilariously bad. insulting too. They deserve to be treated with the most excessive derision that people can hurl at them.
Wonder how long it will be before NOB becomes a liability for the no campaign
Sorry Rev O/T
Regarding Wings night out at the Counting House Fri 30th May I’ve booked a VIP coach from Dundee and Angus which will start in Brechin with stops in Abroath, Dundee then Glasgow. All mod cons, toilet, sound system and 4 DVD screens, so better than the back of a van!
The approximate timings are leaving Brechin at around 17:00, Arbroath 17:20 and Dundee 17:45, this gets us into Glasgow at George Square at 19:15-19:30ish.
The bus can take 40 passengers, the price will be £15 return that will cover the whole cost which was £500 and leaves room for a few who may not be able to afford £15 but are keen to come. So all welcome and any shortfall will be taken care of by me.
Can I just ask that if you would like to come in what will be the must public display by supporters of Wings to Independence so far, then please show your interest by posting how many seats you want over in Off Topic and where you would like picked up from in the above towns.
It will be first come first served and I fully expect to fill all the seats, so please get your names down as soon as possible. The last thing I want is to have to leave someone behind because I was unaware they would be coming. I will regularly post over the next few days how many seats are still available.
It’s time now I think to take what we know off the internet and into the mainstream, let’s become visible and really take this fight against the MSM right into the open. That is the whole point of these events.
I believe Ian Brotherhood has a contact in the Sunday Herald who is keen to cover this REAL grassroots event. So lets show the Nob Orders crowd what we are about and that which money just can’t buy. Real belief and real passion for what WE believe in.
Double page spread the following Sunday in the Herald or a wee byline? That will be down to us.
“Maybe they mean rUK will have run out by then and that’s why they need to hold on to Scottish hydro, wind and wave power…”
All rainfall is due to end in 4.12 years, wind will stop no later than 3.8 years from now and the tides are due to stop due to the Moon being eaten by the giant stargoat on September 18th.
Well as long as there is one final turn of the tide before that happens we’ll be happy enough.
The argument is that if ALL global trade stopped and you had to rely on your own reserves they would only last 5 years.
Couple of problems:
1) You cant extract it that fast
2) Global trade hasn’t stopped
3) And from a Scottish perspective its doubly duff since we export 5/6th of our oil. If this hypothetical world existed then Scotland wouldn’t have the 50 years of production left, we’d have 6 times as we wouldn’t be exporting any – or put another way Scotland has 300 years of oil.
Same logic goes for coal and gas.
I might be mistaken, but I’m sure I saw this on the main news page at around five this morning. Quite often articles appear in the dead of night only to migrate to a less viewed page as if by magic.
Reporting Scotland never told us of this this devastating news about the oil.
Sally did interview Alex Salmond and she was determined to find out why the First Minister was so unpopular, according to the Daily Record poll.
Alex did manage to slip in two “Team Scotland” plugs. That’s the name of the team that will input ideas for the new constitution after a YES victory on 18th Sept.
BBC Scotland don’t like the term “Team Scotland”. The Commonwealth Games organisers also use it.
Those Nob Orders ads are a fucking disgrace, especially the passports one – if a Scot really did lose their passport in Brazil, they’d just go to any EU embassy, as that’s one of the protections the EU gives us (another thing to add to the list of ways the EU has made the UK redundant…)
Don’t you all know the oil runs out on 19th September this year immediately after the resounding YES vote!
I’m sitting offshore right now and when I show this claim to colleagues they laugh and give out a lot of expletives that couldn’t be repeated on here.
Today’s P&J covered this laughable claim and to be fair to them they had words like bizarre all the way through the article.
I’m sitting on a mature field, over 40 years old, that the operators have invested well over £1.5 billion on. They know there’s more oil down there.
We’ve had the “oil’s running out” pish, since it was discovered. As for gas ditto. There’s a good few hundred years, worth, of coal in Ayrshire alone. So: maybe, just maybe; we’ll be fine thank you very much.
You have a look round and you find something like this:
link to gov.uk
and then you see that the vast majority of discoveries in the 1960s and 1970s are still “FIP” which mean field in production.
Are we really expected to believe that these and all subsequent finds since then will turn to “FCP” or field ceased production?
What I meant was we are expected to believe they will turn to FCP within 5 years.
I’m wondering if it was the Mystic Meg Institute of Twaddle that came up with this tripe or just Better Together UKOK. Candlemakers, lumberjacks and hunters gatherers will be celebrating toooooo.
Ha ha ha, can’t you whats going on here ? Only this week Westminster gave the frackin companies a big tax relief ?
People will be up in arms about all this drilling going on near
where they have there homes. This is just little heads up that we need to frack because we are running out of oil and coal,
And slowly but surly trickle feed the people lies, thats why it
is not full on in the front page, but soon it will be…..
I wonder if Cameron, Milliband, Clegg, Davidson, Lamont and Rennie are all fully aware of the economic impact of this report and that all the recent good news over employment has just been sunk without trace with this report! More importantly is Aberdeen airport, railway station and the road network out of Aberdeen prepared for the imminent exodus from Aberdeen as a direct result of this very important report?
Do these *ahem* scientists who wrote this report have no idea what the consequences will be as a result of this report. I hope all the scientists are prepared to go in front of Ian ‘ I’ll gie ye a doin’ Davidson to explain themselves over this report.
I know I’m grasping at straws here, as is my speciality, but could the scientists have possibly got their figures erm…WRONG!
I have to admit I’m surprised that I have not heard a dickie bird from the BBC news tonight about this impending doom about to befall the energy industry on these islands. Funny that, it’s not April 1st by any chance?
@Robert Peffers
Get some chorizo. No fat necessary and the lovely orange stuff that will come out is great for frying other stuff in.
Scott
“The argument is that if ALL global trade stopped and you had to rely on your own reserves they would only last 5 years.”
If the argument is based on that then they also need to factor in the millions who would starve to death given the fact the -ehem- UK has to net import half its food and drink.
Good point Chic.
5.2 years for 63 million people. If we vote yes, is that not about 62 years 5.2 million people?
Apologies if this has been posted before:
link to marketingmagazine.co.uk
Talks about people booing the Bitters cinema advert.
O/T
Decided to run with alternative uses for campaign leaflets. This week – Lib Dems
“These Cranes say YES”:
link to dropbox.com
link to dropbox.com
link to dropbox.com
“The argument is that if ALL global trade stopped and you had to rely on your own reserves they would only last 5 years.”
Why do they publish this kind of stuff for wide consumption? It may be an interesting academic exercise, but it surely makes people highly suspicious of more serious work.
creag
Yup Scotland has more than done its bit for home grown energy.
rUK is going to run out of Oil on September the 19th… around 0001 am I predict.
Thank goodness for Business for Scotland to show us a happier scenario. link to businessforscotland.co.uk
For oil, Anglian Ruskin Uni (ARU) have used data from US Energy Information Administration here – link to eia.gov
Within the petroleum section are located data on production, consumption, reserves, imports, exports and more.
ARU then take the known reserves and divide by the consumption. The aim is to show self-reliant countries are for various natural resources.
For the UK for 2012 this gives:
Reserves = 2.9 billion barrels
Consumption = 1.5 million barrels/day
==> R/C = 5.4 years [Note ARU used 2010 data ==> 4.8 years]
UK production is shown as 836,000 barrels/day
UK imports as 678,000
UK exports as 694,000
Clearly if the reserves are 24 billion barrels then R/C = abt 40 years.
I’m no legal expert, but this smells very dodgy to me. A bit like Vote No Borders and the free advertising they received. Fees will have been paid for the production and the dissemination of this apparently ‘credible’ news.
P.S. The archive appeared blank to me on the latest Firefox.
Thanks for that detail CalumCarr at 7:48pm
Am worried,
how long before the wind and waves stop?
@CalumCarr
Excellent work there. Thanks.
Better Together ads appearing on Youtube before videos now too (thank the Lord for the skip in 4 seconds button).
They are spending might sums of money. The ads are pish though and seem to be annoying the young more than anything.
Someone in the office spoke to me today about QT, knowing that I am a wee bit Yes. He is on the fence but he said he really liked the young chap who was pro Yes (Humza by the description I’m guessing). He was unimpressed by the Labour chap and said he is being drawn to the Yes side…although mostly it would seem because No are so awful. I didn’t dissuade him from leaning to Yes obviousment
Blank for me too CameronB
HandinShrimp the Labour guy was actually Caroline Flint. The Tory McVey. The LibDem was Lord Ashdown and the other guy was from the Torygraph I think. You are right of course Humza Yousaf was the pro yes guy on the panel and he floored the panel, in my view, and won most of the audience over as well.
Luckily the Rt Hon Alistair Carmichael’s making a political address at next weeks All-Energy 2014 Conference in Aberdeen, I’m pretty sure he’ll be able to clear this up during his Keynote speech?
Surely these journalists are not just sponges who take every fable as fact without doing their own research? I am shocked!LOL…..
Someone quick – get on the phone to Norway and let them know they’ll be back at the ice hole fishing soon
Maybe just maybe they could con us over the oil n gas. Except the oil/gas companies reckon at least 40 yrs. But coal! At last count we have about 400 yrs worth still underground. Do these trainees they employ at EBC not even have the vestige of a brain that would force them to try and find the truth rather than make up whatever someone tells them to. God help us if the no,s keep us under Westminster
Better let these guys know they’re wasting their time:
link to bbc.co.uk
The wind will stop blowing, the tides will stop running.
The good old EBC the worlds most trusted and respected broadcaster?
They treat the unionist no voters as morons and the proud pseudo middle class Scots are very proud to be British.
Why does such a wonderful country (Britain) need to tell so many lies, is their product that bad?
This goes beyond UKIP idiocy.
This exceeds Tea Party lunacy.
This eclipses Young Earth Creationism.
This transcends even Flat Earth.
This is… This is Hollow Earth level madness.
That cinema ad, of course, is infuriating – but not because I’m worried people believe it, or even that it offends me. No, it offends me that talented, worthwhile people spent time and money and expertise and effort into creating what can only be described as a lie. Nothing more, nothing less. It is a lie.
Do those two young actors realise this is a lie? The director? The writer? Lighting technicians? Gaffer? Best Boy? Makeup artist? Are they so naive and cowed? Or are they complicit in the lie – knowing that what they’re doing is not true, yet still doing it anyway in the full knowledge that they are misleading people.
THAT is what gets me about Better Together. To think that the United Kingdom is a country and Scotland a mere region is one thing. To actually support the horrendous neo-liberal agenda of Westminster another. But if you claim to be a proud Scot, if you claim to be a socialist who desires equality and social justice, then how can you possibly justify lying to the people of Scotland?
BTW if the UK really needs more energy why doesn’t it scrap Trident and allow oil exploration in the Clyde basin?
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I posted tongue in cheek “I think the Londonistas think we’re really really thick – and our politicians are parochial wee par venues who only have to be presented with ” so what about defence then ” and they’ll slap their foreheads and say “Oh bugger we hadn’t thought of that better together then”
They really thought that they had all the cards, arguments etc etc.
Now it’s becoming surreal – I did think that they are believing their own propaganda – the sweaties havn’t a clue, they’ve got sod all to sustain them apart from subsidies either that or they think we are incredibibly stupid – however I’m not convinced – I’m beginning to think THEY zip up the back
The whole problem is that with cuts to journalistic resources, ordinary wee newsroom bods have to churn out a story or two for the website and pitch it for rasio and TV too every day. They don’t have time to worry about lots of fact-checking or digging into things. It’s not all their fault.
“five years, that’s all we’ve got” – David Bowie
This looks to me like the fingerprints of Nigel Lawson and Saatchi and Saatchi (or some other PR guru) are all over it. Nigel is a lackey of the Nuclear Industry and tirelessly cultivates rogue scientists who will concoct all sorts of figures to prove that we really really need to invest billions in nuclear. He gets a nice payoff, the nuclear industry gets taxpayers’ money for ever, Saatchi gets his fees. Win Win.
Somebody should drive around Aberdeen and take photos of the massive building and infrastructure developments all around it. Ivan McKee commented in a recent talk (I think in Kintore) that the last time he saw this much development was in China. Nobody has told the oil companies and their spin off industries that the oil is running out. But the Govt has been telling us for 40 years that it’s running out. If you believe this you’ll believe anything.
@muscleguy – shut the feck up
– you’ll be hired as the next Westminister Energy adviser and it will be described as a 10 year plan in the making
London shouldn’t have too much to worry about: should be enough hot air coming out of Westminster to heat the whole city for at least another 100 years.
Lesley-Anne
O/T
A wee Annan Question for you, if you are still about.
Tried to get you last night.
Capella, I was told that very thing 2 days ago, by an electrician, as I delivered papers. He Knew because he knew a guy on an oil rig who had told him.
I put 4 A4s through his l/box this morning with some scans from papers and our rev’s oil for dummies, in 600 words.
If a neighbour sees you wearing a Yes badge, or notices one on your car, that will focus their attention more than any party political broadcast, newspaper headline or BBC Big Debate.
From now until the eve of Sep 18th we can leave the professional liars to do what they do best, ’cause after Sep 18th? They’ll be nowhere to be seen, silently reviewing their CVs and checking the rental prices for London, Manchester and further afield.
Sorry O/T here, I was checking out the BBC ‘Vote 14’ page for the euro elections, and the main article entitled ‘At a glance: party by party guide’ has the SNP guide right below the BNP one, and the picture of Alex Salmond is definitely an interesting choice. Also interesting to see that they have Tory guide first, then UKIP, with Labour third down.
Anyone out there had a badge off women for independence. That was a perk for donating…I’m still waiting for mine.
Got thumbs up from two middle aged guys in the chippie earlier, not the one where Elvis works, had my badge on.
Mentioned NNS & WoS they are off to look it up they said.
Your dying to know… Haggis and chips.
Chill out at the tennis.. Murray v Nadal in second set
Link on off-topic. Murray takes first set 6:1
GAUN THE WARRIORS!
Sorry :-]
Really sorry to hear that about Britain,
on the other hand be good to sell some of independent Scotland’s to the Russians when theirs runs out
Well, I’ve just had a look at the I-player party election broadcasts. There are 23 of them, Plaid, TUV, you will know that one no doubt Traditional Unionist Voice, Lib/Dems, Scottish Greens Ukip. Dup, BNP.
Guess which one I could’nt, yup, SNP. Dontcha know.
IB – Aye, and talking about wee badges, Rev, any idea when we can expect to receive our wee crowdfunding pledge badges?
O/T
The “Doors” are on BBC4, if that’s your thing.
Didnt catch the news earlier with AS and Sally (Labour) Magnusson,
Is it worth watching or will it affect my blood pressure?
Had to laugh at Sally on Reporting Scotland earlier tonight. She gets an interview with the First Minister of Scotland and has the chance to ask him any question she wishes, she has the chance to ask him the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.
And what does she ask,
“Why are you not liked by every single person in Scotland?”
If anyone was not sure what side of the fence BBC Scotland sits on regarding Independence, you should be now.
Malcolm Gifford (or a designated VNB minion) is probably on a beach somewhere doing a Canute act so that VNB can claim that wave power will run out before gas, unless WM intervenes.
OK, that’s it decided. Sell the house & move to Bavaria.
Germany was giving electricity away FREE to Austria this winter. Surplus resulting from the success of their renewables.
@Westie7
Four times she called out AS as a hindrance to the YES or woman don’t like him, I was banished to the kitchen by she who must be obeyed.
She also asked him the Andy Murray question, a plant from yesterday’s bit of fun with Cameron, only this time it was an obvious trap.
Aye right.. She might as well have said “Mr Salmond have you stopped beating your wife”?
Good old Auntie!
Hope they got a short term lease..
link to uk.reuters.com
“The Aberdeen opening also suggests concerns that business may be put off by uncertainty over Scotland’s upcoming vote on independence could be overdone. Wells Fargo declined to comment on how the September vote might affect its plans.”
Just to indulge in a bit of anti-scaremongering, we (or rather our grandchildren) will not run out of energy.
Fossil fuel will, at some admittedly unknowable point, but definitely, will run out but there are other fires to heat the irons.
For example, SAFE nuclear is IMNSHO definitely at least a fall back position.
Full fusion, which is completely safe, will follow on from Cadarache, although quite possibly some intermediate era of reasonably safe hybrid nuclear will intercede to provide future energy requirements.
Of course, there may be other (short term on the civilization scale) options pursued for commercial reasons, like renewables, but you may rest assured knowing that there will be energy security.
Courtesy of course, of physicists and technologists rather than the politicians who will undoubtedly claim the plaudits whilst in actuality being the biggest practical obstacle scientists have to overcome.
Just thought I’d point this out because I often find people, due to the usual control shenanigans of politicians, are in fear for future generation’s energy needs.
That is complete nonsense, do not believe any of that manipulative crap.
There ARE pressing concerns, population pressure based ones, which are real, mainly nutritional and the related ecological/climate change ones, but that is a different area.
Energy security will not be the key issue.
BREAKING NEWS===OIL TO RUN OUT, BUT STREAM OF BULLSHIT WILL NEVER STOP.
The point is, the point is in the wrong place. Should be 52 years! Never trust a journalist with numbers!
@call me dave
That final question was evidently meant as a trip-up, but Alex Salmond’s answer was atrocious. Could he not just have said he hoped to enjoy the tournament, rather than sound false in praise of the England team and cringe-worthy in talking about Steven Gerrard?
I didn’t think he played the interview particularly well. If you’re trying to give a more openhearted interview, is political rival Sally Magnusson really the person to do it with?
On a different note, I’ve just been watching the Newsnight Euro debate from the other night. Why is it, that a Labour candidate can appear intelligent, composed and formidable for half an hour, then turn into a ranting nutjob when the issue turns to Scottish independence?
@Westie7
When she asked, “Do you ever admit to making a mistake?” my tablet nearly had it’s first flying lesson. It was nothing less than a series of personal attacks dressed up as an interview. Mr Salmond ran rings around her.
@ Ken Johnston
Last but one on this iPlayer page…
link to bbc.co.uk
The PEBs are also on this news page…
link to bbc.co.uk
@Chic McGregor
As every schoolboy knows, energy is always conserved; you can’t run out of it. (Mind you, that’s my O-Grade Physics from 1980!)
the subject of a press release or a ridiculous, wait-they-surely-can’t-be-serious cinema ad.
The Yes campaign’s ad has been in cinemas a good few days now but tonight the No bunch added their’s.
It’s a poverty-stricken, unimaginative effort.
Half-a-dozen poorly nourished teenagers yet to see the sun stand in front of a light and dark blue curtain badly in need of laundering and ironed, yoofs reciting straight to camera the mantra, “I want the best of both worlds.”
In the 19th century the papers were full of this sort of scarey stuff. It’s nothing new.
The big panic in the 1850’s was that oil was about to run out and the civilised world was shortly to be plunged into darkness. It would be chaos everywhere.
They were talking about whale oil; that’s what was used in lamps in those days and the panic was that too many whales were being killed.
Nothing ever changes.
Grant-M
I did a search and this is what I got
link to bbc.co.uk. I see they had run out of yellow for the logo after the UkIp one.
any help would be greatly appreciated – but is there any Country in the World that has voted NO to Independence – and does anyone have a figure/percentage of Countries that have voted No/YES
I found it a tad interesting to see an advert in the Newcastle Upon Tyne Sunday Sun paper from February 23rd 2014. Title, ‘Opportunities in Oil and Gas,: Newcastle recruitment event’. It says there is a skills shortage and this Aberdeen company are looking for high quality experienced workers, and says, ‘the oil and gas industry is currently experiencing high levels of activity and growth!. I found it fascinating as the message being that they are desperate for skilled workers for both onshore and offshore.
Also bought a second hand book recently called, Black and Green Gold, by the Balmoral Group for their 30th year celebration. Part three talks about Chris Huhnes visit to Aberdeen, er six days after the tory libs took power in 2010, he said, ‘there could be 20 million barrels of oil equivalent left to exploit’ saying they were ‘committed to to making sure of a licensing regime and investment environment’, bla bla ‘quality companies’ etc, as though quality companies are not already in business in the North Sea. The book is very interesting strange I know, and is I think available on amazon….great bedtime reading!
In the Herald,
Cameron: “Scots do not want to live or work in a foreign country after independence”.
link to heraldscotland.com
Oops re my post mentioning the book, Black and Green Gold, that was er, 20billion barrels even Huhne admitted that, probably a low estimate anyway, but definitely more than 20million…
@caz-m
Like many here, I work in a foreign country now, and I’ll be fine working on in a foreign country after independence.
What a bizarre statement for any person to make.
Sorry O/T
The YesMobile link to tinyurl.com will be at the BA VINTAGE COUNTRY FAIR Saturday/Sunday 17/18 May 2014 0930 – 4.30pm
link to tinyurl.com
at the BA Store, Dunecht AB32 7DA
Complete range of entertainment for all the family
Drop by for a #Yes cuppa
Seriously …I’m debating what to do…
Go into the Bookies and see what odds I get for Scottish oil to completely run out by the 16th of July 2019.
Or
Go into the Bookies and see what odds I get for any Better Together Campaigner who will ACTUALLY endorse this nonsense.
It’s a tough one…
@twenty14
A number of independence referenda have failed.
Puerto Rico have voted against on several occasions. Obviously, there’s Quebec in 80 and 95. The first Montenegrin referendum also failed, although was successful when it was voted on again in the last decade.
I seem to remember there was also an independence referendum among Dutch Caribbean island colonies, which was also unsuccessful, although that might have been for something short of independence.
There seems to be a fallacy often mentioned that no country has ever voted against independence, which simply isn’t true.
5.2 years? More like 52 years, and they cocked up the decimal point.
saw Godzilla tonight cinema 8/10
A.U.A
America under attack
was a YES advert,but none for NO campaign,wanted to hear the boos.
O/T a lot but the author of this Reverend on vote no Guardian thinks YES voters are little Scotlanders but google the charmer and holy shit, literally!
link to archive.today
link to swns.com
Poll by a company I’ve never heard of in the Daily Express tomorrow showing 51% Yes, 39% No. Trying not to get too excited!
There seems to be a fallacy often mentioned that no country has ever voted against independence, which simply isn’t true.
There have been many variations, but they vote tends to be positive when the nation is homogeneous and not a province or a series of island atolls.
I sometimes wish we didn’t use the label “independence.”
From all I see and hear I’m certain federalism with sovereignty is acceptable to the vast majority. But I know had we promoted that the gibes would come rushing back, “It’s not real federalism, you morons, it’s independence!”
The UK may only have 5.2 years of oil but Scotland, being only 8.4% of the UK population, will make it last much, much longer–around 62 years ((100/8.4) x 5.2 = 61.9 years).
I know, I know….. but if they can get away with printing mince like this, so can I?
Piemonteis
I bet Cameron just loves visiting Northern Britain.
They must draw straws in the Cabinet Office at Downing St to see which poor soul has to come up and lie to the natives.
The only sure thing that happens when one of these Tory Tadgers pays us a visit, is that the YES vote increases.
Harry
Sadly I would not get too excited, this is what I saw
“The survey canvassed 2,019 adults, including 180 people in Scotland, using the question: “Do you agree that Scotland should?be?an independent country?”.”
Only 180 Scots can not really be a reliable figure to base things on.
@Grouse Beater
That’s the thing: there’s many different types of independence, and many different types of territories. If we’re talking about “national independence”, what do we include? Scotland, yes. The Dutch Antilles, no.
But how about Quebec, which has never been an independent country, but is certainly distinct in cultural and linguistic terms (also Catalunya and the Basque Country). Or Kosovo, which is altogether even more complex.
And Montenegro would surely count as fairly “homogeneous”, despite the sizable Serb population, and they originally rejected independence.
I think you’re right though, in that the offer or provision of federalism can often work to satisfy the sovereignty desires of a homogeneous territory, when such an offer is a genuine attempt to maintain a trans-regional balance (like Germany or Mexico, for example.
However, I’m not sure how federalism with sovereignty works. As I understand it, when you’re under a federalist umbrella, your sovereignty ends at the “master state” (if I can call it that), as they ultimately have the final say over how much power you can have. Unless you’re referring to a more pan-European kind of sovereignty?
Harry
51% Yes, 39% No.
That poll is probably nearer the truth than any shit that the Daily Record comes out with.
Just received opinion survey request from EBC regarding Scottish news.
DID NOT MISS THEM AND HIT THE WALL.
think it will be binned.
Oh bugger. Do you think if I keep the central heating on full pelt that the house will absorb all the heat and I will survive a few weeks longer than all those sad buggers who will freeze in the dark?
actualy maybe Godzilla was the BT campaign
S.U.A
Scotland Under Attack
:Buckiebraes
“As every schoolboy knows, energy is always conserved; you can’t run out of it. (Mind you, that’s my O-Grade Physics from 1980!)”
Yes and no. Energy is conserved but what we mean by energy in practical terms, in usable terms, is the harnessing of localised energy potentials.
That definition, is I am afraid, running out. Not just for this, possibly, sentient species on this tiny spec orbiting a medium sized star one in a galaxy of a hundred billion but for a universe of hundreds of billions of such galaxies.
What I mean is that for foreseeable generations of humanity, science and technology will provide a means of harnessing those usable energy sources. Unless politicians manage to create a new and fatal dark age.
Said it before but I’ll say it again:
We’re DOOMED! DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMEDDDD!!!
@Chic McGregor –
‘Unless politicians manage to create a new and fatal dark age.’
Aye, e.g. Bush/Blair/Iraq.
@Piemonteis – thanks or that. Now based on – lets say the last 50 years – what percentage have voted against their own Independence. ( having a debate with an undecided )
Farage in car crash interview reports on Radio 5 live.
Hope so … Hey! Maybe Sally got to him as well.
They are going to discuss it in a minute.
@Piemonteis – sorry should have said ” thanks for that “
Doomed, to entropy, possibly, in a hundred billion years or so.
But for the foreseeable existence of life on this planet, there will be energy security.
And even before that seemingly ultimate end to our universe, who knows, perhaps by then some sentient beings, possibly even descendants of us, may have figured out how to get to new, younger universes.
Farage interview.
link to bbc.co.uk
Piemonteis
you’re referring to a more pan-European kind of sovereignty?
Yes. Correct.
Kosova felt threatened militarily, and with good reason Quebec did not. A strong feeling of self-preservation unites, it helps galvanise a vote for autonomy. Catalonia thinks itself more prosperous, culturally less corrupted by crass tourism, less politically tainted than Spain.
Scotland has held on to its identity almost since the 10th century, unquestionably since 1707 despite surreptitiously, gradually absorbed into, and infiltrated by, the culture and ambitions of its bigger neighbour. Quite a feat.
It remains to be seen whether the former adherence has the heart beat stronger than the latter.
@ Harry
“Poll by a company I’ve never heard of in the Daily Express tomorrow showing 51% Yes, 39% No. Trying not to get too excited!”
I hope you don’t mean the poll from 29/1/12
link to express.co.uk
I saw on twitter someone apologised for that poll
still 2012 51% is good
Hey firstly apologies for the off topic comment but wasn’t sure where else to post this. Would like to say I was initially a knee jerk no but then looking for more info a friend pointed me in the direction of this and a few other sites around a month ago and after looking into all the info provided I’m an absolute yes and I can’t believe this information isn’t widely available elsewhere or reported in the media, so thanks.
Anyway to the point I was trying to make, not sure if anyone has noticed but when watching some YouTube videos I was surprised tonight to be confronted with a better together advert! That must have cost a bit I would think!
Just one observation that Stu or the rest of you have not picked up.
Quite rightly in his article Stu links to the purveyors of doom in the past who have stated oil is running out. Christ it must be burned into the Scots psyche given the amount of times it’s been said over the years. And the one greatest carriers of this message, over the years, has been the BBC pushing this message across for the government of the day regardless of its colour.
This article, to me, is what I can loosely term a ‘Buy One Get One Free’ (BOGOF). It is aimed at two separate audiences one in Scotland and one in England. To illustrate; with regards energy in England can anyone here tell me what is currently at the top of the agenda there?
Can you give the man at the back, who has just shouted at me ‘Frack Off’, a pat on the back. Yes the BBC in its role of state propagandist is helping the establishment, of which they are demonstrably part off, are toeing the line to sell crap to England as well.
If you view the page this article is on it aptly illustrates this.
From that page note the following article: Fracking should get public support, says David Cameron
So what is new, many of us have known this for a long time. The point is that this is just another article in a long list that the BBC has used to stiff the UK citizens whichever country/part of the UK you live in.
Clarification of above:
‘This article, to me…’ That is the BBC one not Stu’s one.
@ Flooplepoop – do you think its reversed since then
You lot are like bats, come out and flap your wings when its dark!
IF the BBC article was true it would be THE BIGGEST NEWS EVER for years. We’d be talking top tier level disaster for the UK. Absolutely absurd though and doesn’t match with any measures or the developments in progress.
James McAvoy talking eloquent bollocks in Saturday’s fast disappearing Scotsman. You have to give Connery credit, he backs his country.
McAvoy is determined to show he rises above commitment.
@ twenty14
“what percentage have voted against their own Independence”
That’s one hell of a question! It depends how far you’re going back and what level of democracy you’re considering. I mean, did Scotland vote against its own independence in 1707? Not in a democratic sense anyway.
You could say that the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies voted against its independence in 1860 in a plebiscite for annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia. That was nominally a democratic decision, but fairly incomparable with the current Scottish situation.
If we look at the situation since the late 80s, the following voted for independence:
Slovenia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Nagorno-Karabakh (de-facto), Bosnia & Herzegovina, Eritrea, Moldova, East Timor, Kurdistan (consultative), Montenegro (2nd time), , South Sudan, and Kosovo (de facto).
I’m not including Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Transnistria and South Ossetia, because the extent of independence they vote for is unclear.
Those who have rejected independence:
Puerto Rico (3 times), Quebec (2 times), New Caledonia, Montenegro (1st time), Bermuda, Nevis (+50%, but below 2/3 threshold).
However, obviously many of those referendums were flawed with boycotts, etc., or came in the wake of a crumbling existing state (e.g. USSR, Yugoslavia).
Hope this gives you some indication.
@ Twenty14 “do you think its reversed since then”
I believe that the polls are using techniques that don’t take into account the groundswell that’s happening in Scotland at the moment.
I would think that it would be 50/50 just now with Yes rising and no falling away.
I would like it to be at least 60/40 for yes on the 18th Sep just so there can’t be any comeback for Unionist parties to bleat about the result.
Nana Smith, don’t know if you’ll see this. My girlfriend, Mhairi, is still waiting on her WFI badge from the fundraiser perk too.
She ordered some from their website in the end, she has a couple spare if you’d like one we could post it
Jim Marshall @6:45pm
“Please send me jerry cans to hoard petrol.”
I have to tell you the Jerry Cans is no longer available as he has been a very naughtie boy.
What were the Scotsman , Englishman and Welshman doing in brazil ? were they looking for the Northern Irishman?
Vote No and get Fracked fae behind
The oil might be running out, but the bull-shit is flowing at 2 billion barrels a day.
David Cameron: “London is an asset for Scotland”.
link to scotsman.com
Reporting Scotland Sally Magnusson interviews Alex Salmond.
link to bbc.co.uk
I think her personal feelings regarding the First Minister were very much on show. She is so anti-Scottish, you could feel the bias in her.
I wonder if she will do an interview on Monday with Johann Lamont asking her about how Scots would feel if she was First Minister and what her plans were for an Independent Scotland.
@ Chic McGregor and others interested in safe, cheap nuclear energy!
Have yourselves a wee google at ‘Thorium’ which seems to offer just such a economic source of power in a safe way with the bonus of it being a ‘normally’ inert material and no waste product for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
Piemonteis says (wow thats hard to spell)
“That final question was evidently meant as a trip-up, but Alex Salmond’s answer was atrocious. ”
Dont be daft, every right thinking Scot will be rooting for England to win the world cup, yes really,
can you imagine standing in the voting booth knowing that if you vote no your going to get a diet of we arra peepel (in cockney of course) for the next 50 years.
caz-m says
Cameron: “Scots do not want to live or work in a foreign country after independence”.
Wow that’s deep man
I’ll a foreigner in my OWN country?
what’s he smoking?
Hetty says
” but definitely more than 20million…”
Phew, you had me going there.
@ Boorach
What was thorium not chosen, all those years ago, at the start of the who nuclear power generation?
Thorium does not produce a waste which makes bombs.
Boorach
Thorium is difficult to access in reasonable usable quantity and costs so much to prepare for use you are looking at doubling in the price of electricity at least if you were to base your power production on its use. It a no go against the further expansion of renewable energy production which will cost less and less in real terms the further we proceed. The biggest problem we face is a devolved government without the financial powers to invest hugely in renewables against huge future benefits
“Poll by a company I’ve never heard of in the Daily Express tomorrow showing 51% Yes, 39% No. Trying not to get too excited!”
I hope you don’t mean the poll from 29/1/12”
Polls from 2011-12 are relevant, as are polls all the way back to pre-devolution. Independence is for the long term, as is general opinion on it. What people say when asked however, varies depending on perceived acceptability.
Incidentally, if you wanted to predict the outcome of the 2011 election, then it was polls in 2007-2009 – i.e. 2 years before – that told you what would most likely happen. Those taken in 2010-early 2011 were useless at doing so. Only in the last few weeks before voting day did they once again show the result that was all but set from 2009.
Sorry O/T Unashamed plug
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@bugger
Thorium reactors are a type of breeder reactor that uses a small amount of uranium to cause the thorium to break down.
The resultant material is usable for power generation but would cause the physics packages on nukes to fail to an unacceptable level. (no one buys a bomb that might not work)
Kilo for kilo thorium produces 200 times less waste & a thorium reactor can actually ‘burn’ nuclear waste.
The largest reserves of thorium are in Norway and India. These could last centuries.
India is spending a lot on developing the technology.
Listened to GMS and George Kerevan was introduced as the pro-independence economist whereas David Clegg was introduced simply as an editor at the Record. Quick as a flash George said “does that mean that David is the pro-union representative?”
David said “Pass”
The GMS presenter, I forget her name, repeated the accolades at the end…without a trace of humour. Kudos to George for challenging. There needs to be an increasing amount of firm, polite derails to keep them honest.
Clegg was a bit odd to be honest. Despite saying he didn’t want to see Cameron re-elected he spent all his time defending Cameron’s non debate with Salmond and the failure to put concrete devolution plans on the table. A Labour anti-devolutionist perhaps. A full blown Unionist?
Just wanted to say, from what I can tell, the BritNats seem to hate you as much as they hate Salmond – you must be doing something right.
How these people can argue the merits of the ‘union’ is beyond reason for normal people. If food banks, child poverty, nukes, fuel poverty, food poverty, child poverty, wars everywhere all the time, DWP sanctions, NHS privatisation, post office privatisation, nuclear power stations, fracking, radio active militaty waste on Scottish beaches, paying for education and a myriad of other horrors are defensible, then they are simply carpetbaggers who have no sense of decency and no sympathy or empathy for the human condition outside their own little self-centred right-wing existences.
Begone BritNats and that can only be accomplished with a YES.
Yes!!! England’s oil will run out after a YES vote..
A minor point, but that sign-offf at the end of the cinema ad sounds to me remarkably like someone pretending to do a Scottish accent.
The Daily Wail is headlining on Oil blow for Salmond and glorifying in what,if it was even remotely true, would be a blow for Scotland not Salmond.
On Team Scotland in Commonwealth Games, the BBC are not screening an evening highlights programme focussing on Scottish athletes.
It must be the first time the host nation or any national TV company does not focus on its own country’s athletes.
No doubt this internationalism will be extended to the World football Cup in Brazil with equal BBC coverage for all participating countries rather than focusing on “our boys”.
From my very limited understanding of it Thorium offers the least bad way to progress nuclear power stations..
It seems inherently the safest way of using nuclear fission with no possibility of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima type of accidents with long lasting consequences.
The lack of nuclear weapon grade waste must be the bonus of bonuses!
I am NOT a proponent of nuclear anything, however, if needs must in some parts of the world then a relatively benign Thorium is the route to explore.
They can’t get it round their heads that we don’t really give a wasps wank about the oil. All we want is our country back
A bit O/T, I see the Scotsman are running a story that an ‘Robert the Bruce heir says no to independence’
link to archive.today
In actual fact its very sloppy journalism as the person the article is on is the Tory peer the 11th Earl of Elgin, who IS the clan chief to the Bruce Clan. BUT is not actually descended from Robert The Bruce, in fact his connection with Robert the Bruce is tenuous at best.
The Earl of Elgin is actually descended from Thomas Bruce, who, after Bannockburn(1314) claimed ‘kinship’ (in 1334) to Robert The Bruce.
Thomas Bruce may have been an opportunist, Thomas’s descendent and heir, Earl of Elgin , certainly is
I am actually a genealogist so probably know more than the Scotsman hack
@Boorach
The other option is Travelling wave reactors that use a ‘cigar’ of depleted uranium (which is a byproduct of nuclear weapons manufacturing and which the usa has a large stockpile)
basically 2 streams of neutrons intersect 1 point on the cigar & ‘burn’ the material.
the wave then moves along the cigar until its finished – takes years. When finished whole cigar disposed intact- no need to handle waste directly.
its also intrinsically safe as if power stops, the wave stops & the reaction stops. This means zero possibility of fukushima style meltdowns.
This’ll be the BBC pushing the fracking agenda then.
@Niall This’ll be the BBC pushing the fracking agenda then
This will be them helping their ‘poor’ friends in the House of Lords. Makes you sick to see the British Establishment in action
” a wasps wank” ? Now there’s something to conjure with.
But I agree , there is more to life than oil.
This is truly incredible. The British Establishment propagandists at the EBC must think we are totally zipped up the back. It is crystal clear what they are up to – they are setting up their ‘mind control’ apparatus to condition us to accept fracking as unfortunate but necessary.
The quality of journalism on this site is currently the best around. I despair of the hell that the UK will descend into if we vote no. Prepare for District 12, Airstrip 1. YES is the only goddammed chance we have got.
Edward
Could you bring your self to write to the Scotsman and tell them they’re talking bollocks?
“I am actually more evolved than plankton so probably know more than the Scotsman hack”
Fixed your last para for you, Edward
“no possibility of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima type of accidents with long lasting consequences.”
just like to point out that before Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima type of accidents with long lasting consequences. we were told there was no possibility of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima type of accidents with long lasting consequences.
@Scott
Thanks for the info Scott. As I say I am no proponent of Nuclear but if it is a last resort and there are safer methods than currently in use then…
You couldn’t make it up, seeing as all the coal mines are shut they must be talking about the reserve supplies in people’s coal bunkers in their back gardens after converting to gas, oh wait
FOR boorach
The radioactive HALF-LIFE of Thorium 232 is 14.1 Billion years.