SNP’s 1978 challenge over oil fund was met with a cheap insult

Margaret Bain (SNP) to Prime Minister (James Callaghan):

“....does he accept that there will be bitter disappointment in Scotland that no special oil fund is to be set up as promised in the Labour Party’s manifesto? Many people will feel that, while he himself may have been piped into the Labour Party conference at Dunoon, Scotland’s oil resources are being piped very quickly from Scotland? There will be no control under which we can monitor the way in which the Scottish Exchequer spends the oil revenues in Scotland.”

The Prime Minister:

“...I hope that the Hon Lady will read the White Paper objectively and apply her mind to whether it would be possible to set up an oil fund that would be meaningful. It would be wrong to deceive the Scottish electors into believing that it would be possible to do this. I hope that the Hon Lady will not allow her party to do so.”

Mr Robert Hughes (Labour):

“Does my Right Hon Friend accept that there will be a great welcome in Scotland, as well as in the whole of the country, for the emphasis which he has put on the need to use North Sea oil revenues for investment in future prospects and future industry? Is that not in stark contrast to the attitude of both Hon Ladies who have asked questions – the Leader of the Opposition (Margaret Thatcher) and the Hon Member for Dunbartonshire East (Mrs Bain) – whose only concern seemed to be to get their snouts in the trough quickly and early?”

The Prime Minister:

“I believe that the country wants us to look ahead on these matters and would not accept the view of the Conservative opposition that the proceeds should be spent solely on tax reductions. That was the only thing that I heard mentioned. I did not hear anything else. If the Opposition are saying that they agree that money must be applied to the regeneration of industry, for the investigation of new energy sources and for the rehabilitation of our great cities, they agree with us entirely and I do not know what all the noise was about during my statement.”

So already back in 1978 the SNP challenged Labour to keep its promise to set up an oil fund and the Labour response was a cheap insult about snouts and troughs.

The Prime Minister’s jibe about the Tory proposal of (no surprise here!) tax cuts being the only other suggestion he had heard mentioned proves that for over 40 years the UK Government has been ostentatiously ignoring the existence of the SNP MPs in hopes they would go away.

They didn’t.

Mary McCabe
Glasgow

READ MORE: Ex-Scottish Office chief statistician says Scots should be paid back for oil revenues

ALTHOUGH I am English and have lived in Scotland only for the last 12 years, I was persuaded to vote Yes in 2014 in the hope of achieving a fairer society than that which sadly England seems to have become. I am now an active member of my local Yes group working for an independent Scotland.

Any country or state that discovers natural resources should use the wealth from that discovery wisely and equitably for the benefit of the whole country/state, not use it only for the benefit of that area in which the resources are discovered. Preference would be to support the most impoverished areas, not least since improving these areas improves the well-being of the whole country/state.

Your front page yesterday asserts that “Scots should be paid back for missing oil fund” and the inside article that “UK should pay Scotland back for squandered oil revenues”. This argument is morally flawed. When the oil was discovered and the revenue generated Scotland was part of the UK, hence it was a UK resource, not an exclusively Scottish resource. That Westminster failed to use the oil revenues wisely or equitably is certainly true, but the UK Government would have been right to use the money to benefit the whole of the UK in an equitable manner. The revenue should have been spent by setting up a UK Wealth Fund and/or investing in infrastructure across the UK, ideally concentrating on the poorer areas.

Had the UK Government used the money to improve the prosperity of the more disadvantaged areas, particularly parts of England, then it is quite likely that people in those areas would not have voted Leave to register discontent with the establishment, leading to the disaster of Brexit. Not having Brexit would have been a great benefit to all parts of the UK, including Scotland, and indeed to other EU members.

It is unreasonable, greedy even, to have expected all the oil revenue to have been spent exclusively (or mostly) in Scotland simply because the oil was discovered off the Scottish coast.

Consider how Scots would feel if the oil had instead been discovered off the coast of Cornwall. Would Scots have refused any benefit from the oil revenue then because it was not Scottish oil? Or would they have expected Westminster to use a share of the money for the benefit of Scottish regions?

How would Scots in other parts of Scotland feel if Aberdeen and the Shetlands took the same selfish attitude and tried to keep all the oil wealth for their exclusive benefit because it was discovered nearest to them?

When Scotland becomes an independent country then the oil wealth in Scotland’s waters (defined by international law, not Westminster’s 1999 fix) becomes a Scottish resource. In the meantime Westminster should manage the oil to maximise revenues and Scotland should receive a fair share based on population and need.

I look forward an independent Scotland which uses the wealth from all of its natural resources (not just oil) to improve the lives of everyone in Scotland, based not their geographical proximity to the resources, but on their needs, thus producing a fairer and happier society.

Geoff Hobson
Kirriemuir, Angus

JIM Cuthbert summed up what many independence supporters must be thinking: why are we listening to the nonsense about the mythical deficit and paying our share of the UK’s debts when it is clear – through the McCrone Report – that a generation of Scots were robbed of our oil and gas resources?

That money would have transformed Scotland but instead was wasted by successive UK Governments to shore up their tax-cutting agenda for the rich. We should, as Mr Cuthbert says, be asking for some of that money back. It was taken from us through the lies, deceit and connivance of the British political parties. Even if we don’t get that much back, it’s still a great bargaining chip to hold and one that will reinforce the truth that the UK Government steals Scottish resources to suit its own ends.

Finally, Bob Harper in today's letters is absolutely correct, let’s get the information about the McCrone Report into a party political broadcast – let’s see how many people will move to supporting Yes when they realise they’ve been duped over our oil wealth.

Cllr Kenny MacLaren
Paisley

READ MORE: Letters, March 18