Scotland's Oil and Unionist Lies

Anyone who has been reading the Scottish newspapers in recent days cannot fail to have noticed the headlines about Scotland's Oil. According to a report written in 1975 by a government economist R G L McCrone and released to Kenny MacAskill MSP of the SNP under the Freedom of Information Act, far from struggling financially under Independence and having a fiscal deficit, Scotland "would tend to be in chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree and its currency would become the hardest in Europe, with the exception perhaps of the Norwegian kroner. Just as deposed monarchs and African leaders have in the past used the Swiss franc as a haven of security, so now would the Scottish pound be seen as a good hedge against inflation and devaluation and the Scottish banks could expect to find themselves inundated with a speculative inflow of foreign funds."

The significance of the existence of this report and the timeframe surrounding it is that it was written at a time when the SNP was dramatically on the up, riding the success of the "It's Scotland's Oil" campaign. It shows the government of the day running scared of constitutional change but most of all, it shows that the Labour and Conservative parties have consistently lied to the Scottish people for a generation. They have denied Scotland had the ability to stand on her own two feet economically. The release of this report has put the lie to everything they have said against independence for the last thirty years or so.

Some telling quotes from the paper:

"Even after its discovery the full significance of North Sea oil...still remains in large measure disguised from the Scottish public..."

"Thus, all that is wrong now with the SNP estimate is that it is far too low; there is a prospect of Government oil revenues in 1980 which could greatly exceed the present Government revenue in Scotland from all sources and could even be comparable in size to the whole of the Scottish national income in 1970."

"North Sea oil could have far-reaching consequences for Scottish membership
of EEC because of the tremendously increased political power it would confer.
As the major producer of oil in Western Europe, however, Scotland would be in a key
position and other countries would be extremely foolish if they did not seek to
do all they could to accommodate Scottish interests."

"This paper has shown that the advent of North Sea oil has completely
overturned the traditional economic arguments used against Scottish
nationalism. An independent Scotland could now expect to have massive
surpluses both on its budget and on its balance of payments and with the
proper husbanding of resources this situation could last for a very long time
into the future."

To those involved in the campaign for Scottish Independence it has come as no surprise whatsoever to have their long held suspicions confirmed in writing.

Gordon Wilson who led the "It's Scotland's Oil" campaign in the late 1970s wrote a letter to the Herald newspaper on this subject. He wrote: "What is now clear is the extent to which Scottish Labour condemned two generations of the poor and current pensioners in Scotland to life on the margins by their complicity in the oil cover-up when the party sided with England rather than Scotland. That is a betrayal without comparison and ought to be punished at the polls."

It's hard to disagree with those sentiments and Labour should be looking at the forthcoming by-elections and Scottish Parliament elections with some trepidation.

Civil Liberties in the UK

According to Sky News [link] there was an Al Qaeda plot to assassinate Tony Blair and his wife in public during Queen's the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002. The allegation is made in the memoirs of Sir John Stevens, recently retired chief of the Metropolitan Police.

The timing of these allegations is very apt for a government facing opposition to proposals to crack down on our civil liberties on the pretext of greater "homeland security". It is no secret of course that the gentleman making these allegations about a terrorist plot was given a life peerage on the day he retired from his job at the Met. [link] It is hard to imagine papers about any supposed threat being in the public domain so there is no way to show conclusively whether this is something that was genuinely considered to be a serious threat or whether it is another false alarm designed to bolster the public image of Tony Blair. Long range weapons which can hit the UK and can be deployed within 30 minutes, anyone? Downing Street, as expected, refuse to give any comment about the allegations.

The release of this information also comes in the wake of a speech from Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, which states that civil liberties in the UK will have to be "eroded" to protect the UK citizens from terrorists. [link]

Draw your own conclusions but it is surely food for thought.

The Scottish Socialist Party

The SSP are in the news once again. BBC News reports that Rosie Kane has been arrested for non payment of a £150 fine imposed after a faslane anti-nuclear demo. Apparently she fully expects to be jailed. It seems that this is what the Scottish Socialist Party live for. Above all else, they seem to like spending time in prison. Like a one trick pony this soon gets tiring and like their antics in the Chamber which resulted in the Hep C sufferers being denied compensation it becomes boring and predictable. Rosie Kane said she was going to make the Parliament "like Big Brother". Well in this respect she has far exceeded everyone's expectations.

The Scottish Socialist Party are also in the news for dropping their threats of legal action against the Scottish Parliament over the suspension of four of their MSPs for the month of September. Mr Fox, the SSP Leader claimed this was because in order to proceed with a judiciall review, they would be required to apologise for their actions. The cynical among us may suspect it is rather the prospect of having to pay up to £100,000 in the event of losing the case.

There has been a general malaise about the SSP since Tommy Sheridan stepped aside as leader. Colin Fox often appears to be out of his depth and there are widely rumoured fallings out amongst the SSP parliamentary group. This was always likely, given the make up of the Scottish Socialist Party and the diverse and opinionated groups that gave rise to it. It would be no surprise if the SSP imploded before the next Scottish Parliament election and Tommy Sheridan stood for Respect, the party started by George Galloway MP.