Let’s make our oil wealth work for the future
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IN April Fools’ Day week you might be forgiven for thinking poor old Scotland just can’t hack it. As the UK’s millionaires get a tax cut and the UK welfare reforms start to hit the poorest hardest it’s no joke.
Yet in ‘early’ spring a huge debate rages over the quantity and value of oil under the territorial waters of Scotland. Unionists try to fool us into believing we are too poor, too wee and too stupid to notice that most countries with oil have oil funds. Yet nations like Nigeria, Gabon, Algeria and Angola have no problem setting up and running their own.
The UK stands alone as the only country with major oil and gas reserves with no oil fund highlighted in a table of countries with sovereign wealth funds, demonstrating just how badly wrong Westminster has got it.
There are 35 sovereign wealth funds based on oil and gas resources. It is the norm for countries with major oil and gas resources to create a fund for long-term benefit.
Quotes from past UK energy ministers, such as Tony Benn and the late Malcolm Wicks, underline that Westminster made a mistake in not setting up an oil fund. Tony Benn has said the oil wealth was "wasted" while former Labour chancellor Denis Healey wrote in his memoirs that the UK "would have been bankrupt without North Sea oil".
Westminster failed to invest in an oil fund in the 1970s and unfortunately for Scots we aren’t on that table – but there is still more value to come from the North Sea than has been extracted to date and with a Yes vote in next September’s referendum we can make our oil wealth work for Scotland’s long-term benefit.
The No camp is relentlessly negative about the worth of Scotland controlling our own resources but praise the levels of investment and value of the North Sea industry to the Westminster exchequer for decades to come.
Last week the UK Government had to admit that North Sea oil and gas is on the up with UK Business Secretary Vince Cable MP conceding that ‘Oil and Gas UK expect production to expand’.
There is a real sense of déjà vu when we think back to the 1970s when Westminster buried the McCrone report which said oil and gas would turn Scotland into one of the wealthiest and most financially secure nations on the planet. At the same time as PMs Wilson, Callaghan and Thatcher told us that revenues would be lower than expected and would soon run out.
Oil and gas has brought jobs and prosperity to Scotland but not nearly as much as when Scotland can access the tax revenues. There is still huge potential to be unlocked in North Sea and west of Shetland oil and gas but, as history has taught us, this can only be done when Scotland is in charge. We cannot trust Westminster again.
Scotland’s finances are consistently stronger than the UK’s and our oil and gas assets are worth up to £1.5 trillion. The SNP Government estimates of oil revenue are consistent with those of the industry and there is now no doubt that there is a renewed North Sea oil and gas boom under way and Scrabster can play its part.
Those who scaremonger about an independent Scotland and oil always ignore Norway’s oil fund that has grown 13.4% to $670 billion in just the last year and is expected to grow 49% to $1,000bn by 2019. Scotland with London management has a fund of zero, nothing for the future!
I WAS delighted to add my satchel to a collection of Mary’s Meals backpacks initiated at the Scottish Parliament with MSPs and parliamentary staff helping out. The Argyll-based Mary’s Meals project provides a daily meal in a place of education to chronically poor children in countries such as Malawi, Liberia and Haiti. In 2002 the project fed 200 children but now feeds over 600,000 providing a lifeline to the very poorest families.
It also provides small backpacks filled with basic school equipment – pencils, pens, paper etc – and some personal items such as a T-shirt, towel and toothpaste. African children need help in their education and daily lives. The initiative at the Scottish Parliament resulted in 111 backpacks being donated by MSPs, their staff, parliament staff and members of the press.
Last Thursday was a hectic one before recess. I attended the Referendum Franchise Bill committee and questioning Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on the arrangements for schools to encourage 16 and 17-year-olds to vote for the first time.
Later I met Thurso High School students of Modern Studies who were in Parliament to quiz MSPs and attend a chamber debate. I had to collect a new iPad.
Then I asked Paul Wheelhouse, MSP Minister for Environment (and crofting), a question on decrofting problems for owner-occupied crofters that needs a short bill likely to be taken in my rural affairs committee.
Then I sat in on the High Hedges Bill State 3 as part of our party rota on chamber duty. So I missed the main cross-party Mary’s Meals photo. However, some of my colleagues met the previous day and my photo with them is published here.
My Wick office assistant, Councillor Gail Ross, tried to send some of her son’s clothes to Mary’s Meals but, alas, they don’t collect as far north as Wick. I’ll turn to transport issues next time. Meanwhile, have a Happy Easter.
rob.gibson.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
