Secrets from the 70s (Part 1)
Black Gold. Remember when those crazy environmentalists said there'd even be 'resource wars' over oil and water? Sheesh! Anyway the Scotsman had a great piece the other day (MPs 'denied Scots rightful wealth'), here it is if you missed it.
A previously secret document which stated how North Sea oil might enable an independent Scotland to prosper has been released by the National Archives.The advice by economist Gavin McCrone and prepared for ministers in 1974 said an independent Scotland could be transformed by oil revenues and become a leading power in Europe.
Scottish Nationalists obtained a copy of the document last month which they claim showed Labour and Tory ministers in the 1970s were "conspiring to deny" Scots their "rightful" wealth.
The paper, The Economics of Nationalism Re-examined, said the significance of North Sea oil finds remained "in large measure disguised from the Scottish public".
It said that "all that was wrong" with estimates by the SNP that North Sea oil could yield a revenue of £800 million by 1980 was that "it is far too low".
Dr McCrone, now a professor, added that the economy of an independent Scotland, properly managed, would "tend to be in chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree". More here….
The Government documents, and others dealing with the issue of Scottish independence, are available for the public to view at the National Archives in Kew, south-west London. Go here to do your own digging…
Iain McGillivray (from Scotpol, the Scottish Politics Discussion Forum) wrote:
“Now forced to admit that an independent Scotland would have been more prosperous given our oil wealth, unionist politicians like Brian Wilson are now reduced to arguing that would amount to selfishness on Scotland's part. Maybe he is right. Maybe the unselfish thing to do would be give most of the oil wealth away to plug the South East of England's fiscal black hole. As a result in Scotland, 1 in 3 children will grow up in poverty, people in the most run down housing schemes in Western Europe will continue to live in fear of drug dealers and gangs, elderly people will die of hypothermia in the winter because they cannot afford heating. We will at least have the inner satisfaction of the huge, selfless charitable sacrifice we will make. Oh! Apparently we've done that already. Why then don't I feel good about it? Maybe I've not given enough charity. Oh well I'm off to give most of my pay cheque to my next door neighbour, his alloy wheels need polishing.”
And there’s been a few churlish politicians saying this wouldn’t have been very “green”. Well ho hum quite so, but I reckon we might have been able to invest into a conversion strategy if we hadn’t been propping up the discredited Thatcher Junta and her efforts to give away the publically-owned assets of the whole of the UK throughout the 80s and 90s. Anyway the oil infrastructure can have a life in post-fossil fuel economy through carbon sequestration and offshore wind farms on old rigs.
