By Jim Mennie
That the Tories are posing as eternal champions of the oil and gas industry should come as a surprise to voters in Aberdeen South considering their history of husbanding this resource.
Most brazenly hypocritical is their promise to abolish the Energy Profits Levy – a tax they introduced in 2022 and which Kemi Badenoch and Andrew Bowie voted for!
And then we have this from sitting Tory MSP Alexander Burnett in a March 2017 edition of the P&J’s Energy Voice showing how they put being in government at Westminster before their own constituents:
Tory MSP dismisses call for more oil and gas sector cash
…The oil and gas industry doesn’t need further tax breaks in this week’s Westminster budget, according to Scottish Conservative energy spokesman Alexander Burnett…
…He said: “People in Aberdeen are not asking for more at the moment…”
But there’s more to show the hypocritical history of the Tories when it comes to Scotland’s oil.
“…I think they [Westminster politicians] are concerned about Scotland taking the oil, I think they are worried stiff about it. … but if the Scots want it [independence] they should have it and we would just need to adjust but I would think Scotland could survive perfectly well, economically, if it was independent. Yes, I would think so… with the oil.” Dennis Healey
GAVIN McCRONE’S LETTER TO CABINET OFFICE
Gavin McCrone’s report on how North Sea oil could benefit Scotland is a well known example of how Westminster parties cannot be trusted with Scotland’s resources.
But often missed is a letter Gavin McCrone wrote to J Garlcik of the Cabinet Office on 23 April 1975 as a covering letter about his report.
He said it was presented to the then Tory government of Edward Heath – by April 1975 Harold Wilson’s Labour party were in government:
The Paper was written in the weeks immediately before the February 1974 Election…
In his letter he strongly suggested successive policies of Westminster government have failed Scotland:
“…My paper may give an SNP Government the benefit of too many doubts, but I was anxious to see whether a credible economic strategy could be put together which would appear to be more convincing in terms of solving Scotland’s traditional economic problems than the regional policies of the Unionist Governments have been up until now…”
And, finally, he impresses that “it’s contents were made “secret”:
“…When my paper was written it was classified “secret” and given only a most restricted circulation in the Scottish Office because of the extreme sensitivity of the subject…”
OSBORNE’S 2011 TAX CHANGES
It’s not just Rishi Sunak’s 2022 Energy Profits Levy which the Tories should be called out for. Tax changes by George Osborne in 2011 were described as “riskier than Egypt“, ‘unstable“, and would give the UK’s offshore sector a “terrible reputation“.
- Confidence in the North Sea has collapsed following Chancellor George Osborne’s shock £2 billion a year tax raid, according to new industry figures out today. Statistics collected by Oil and Gas UK among exploration and production companies has plunged from an index level of 71 at the end of last year to 46 just after the budget. (BBC News 4/5/11)
- On BBC GM Malcolm Webb, the chief executive of Oil and Gas UK said: “We’ve had three massive tax hits in the last nine years; that just cannot go on, and it’s given this country a terrible reputation for fiscal instability.” (Good Morning Scotland, 28 February 2012)
- Chevron chief executive, John Watson: …criticised the tax rise, saying the move made the UK “one of the more unstable investment climates for our business” (Independent 2/5/11)
- Andrew Moorfield, global head of oil and gas at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “…that the UK North Sea had become a riskier bet than Egypt. That is despite this ancient North African country being in a state of social and political flux.” (Offshore Technology 10th August 2011)
- Nigel Wilson, regional manager for the North Sea and West Africa for Premier Oil, also criticised the Chancellor’s controversial tax grab. The North Sea, he said, had become an oil province facing an “increasing costs base and very unstable tax regime.” And he warned: “We have other places in which to invest our money.” (Scotsman 28th Feb 2012)
TORIES COMMENTING ON HOW LONG OIL WILL LAST
In the 2014 independence referendum Scots were told that North Sea oil was “
dwindling” and the BBC ran a report headlining that the oil would run out in five years
This tactic is nothing new whenever the opportunity of Scottish independence arises. It has a long history starting almost immediately oil was discovered in the North Sea.
Just as the 2014 arguments say the oil has ran out the following quotes show Tory MPs arguing it ran out even earlier … if we are to believe them …
The oil ran out in 2006 –
The late Iain Sproat – then Conservative MP for Aberdeen South:…Oil will last only 20 to 30 years….
A warning that the oil would only last 30 years at most … 50 years ago! –
The late Iain Sproat – then Conservative MP for Aberdeen South:…If the fishing industry in the North-East of Scotland is put at risk, there is a grave danger of unbalancing an economy which will become overly dependent on oil which, as we all know, will last for only 20 or 30 years at the most.
The oil ran out in 2008 –
The late Iain Sproat – then Conservative MP for Aberdeen South:…I point out that North Seaoil will last for 30 years. The coal beneath Yorkshire will last for 300 years…
The late David Renton – then Conservative MP for Huntingdonshire:… because it is an accepted fact that the oil may last only 30 years, and that is a shorter time than I have been in the House….
The oil ran out in 1998 –
The late Nicholas Budgen – then Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West:… The best that can be hoped for the Scottish people, if they were to have a short-lived independence based upon those transitory and small revenues from the oil is 10, 15 or 20 years of sovereignty.
A warning that the oil would only last 30 years at most … 48 years ago! –
The late Alick Buchanan-Smith – then Conservative MP for North Angus and Mearns:…When we consider our resources of non-renewable fuels, it is clear that Scotland in 20 or 30 years’ time may have to look to oil coming from other parts of the United Kingdom…
… The Norwegians have had to face problems of the environment, of the depletion rate, of revenue, and the rest, just as we have. It has been no easy time for Norway. The mere fact of Norway’s being a small nation on its own has not made any easier the solution of the great problems of oil development. It has certainly not made it any easier than in other countries. The Norwegians may have tackled the problems in a different way, but it has not been any easier or better for them.
Again the oil would run out eighteen years ago –
William Benyon – then Conservative MP for Buckingham: …We have had the discovery of a major natural resource in the British Isles—and I emphasise “British Isles”—in oil. We are told that it will last for 25 to 30 years.
The oil would run out 23 years ago –
The late Iain Sproat – then Conservative MP for Aberdeen South:…We heard rantings from the SNP earlier about the wealth of Scotland, but apart from mentioning North Sea oil, which will last for only 25 years and belongs to the United Kingdom anyway, they have not said what that wealth consists of.
The late Iain Sproat – then Conservative MP for Aberdeen South:…oil, it will run out in 25 years anyway….
The oil ran out about 26 years ago –
John Hannam – then Conservative MP for Exeter:…I believe that as oil begins to run out at the end of the century and as coal becomes more and more the resource from which we shall want to replace our diminishing resources of gas and oil…
In 2008 the oil would run out –
Peter Viggers – still Conservative MP for Gosport: …The oil and gas reserves will last about 30 years at the present rate of extraction, dependent upon price, technical matters and other factors. About 30 years is the right period.
BERNARD INGHAM
Bernard Ingham became well-known as Margaret Thatcher’s official spokesperson during her tenure in power.
Less well known was that he was a career civil servant in the 1970s working for the Labour government.
As the following article by Douglas Fraser in the Herald of 28 October 2005 shows, he wasn’t professional when it came to his role regarding North Sea oil:
Whitehall officials broke the rules in the 1970s by knowingly providing party political ammunition for Labour against the SNP, it was revealed yesterday…
…The energy department’s director of information said undermining the SNP and its claims about North Sea oil belonging to Scotland was “part of my standard ‘sales patter'”. This was Bernard Ingham when he was meant to be an impartial civil servant, and before he took on the overtly political role as Margaret Thatcher’s spokesman.
Full quote as follows
“`Information Division has sought for a long time in briefing to undermine SNP claims to North Sea oil; in the process it has played on the Shetland/Orkney uncertainty as well as the uncertainty about the angle of any dividing line between England and a hypothetically independent Scotland. Indeed it is part of my standard “sales patter”.’ Bernard Ingham, January 1977
DENNIS HEALEY
And let’s not forget the role of Labour in misinforming Scots about the potential of Scotland’s North Sea oil revenues as these candid comments by a retired Dennis Healey from the Holyrood Magazine 19 May 2013 show …
On Underplaying Oil
“I think we did underplay the value of the oil to the country because of the threat of nationalism but that was mainly down to Thatcher. We didn’t actually see the rewards from oil in my period in office because we were investing in the infrastructure rather than getting the returns and really, Thatcher wouldn’t have been able to carry out any of her policies without that additional 5 per cent on GDP from oil. Incredible good luck she had from that.”
On an Oil Fund
“It’s true that we should have invested the money in things we needed in Britain and I had thought about an oil fund, like in Norway but it wasn’t my responsibility by then.”
On Westminster Losing Oil
“…I think they [Westminster politicians] are concerned about Scotland taking the oil, I think they are worried stiff about it. … but if the Scots want it [independence] they should have it and we would just need to adjust but I would think Scotland could survive perfectly well, economically, if it was independent. Yes, I would think so… with the oil.”
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Talking-up Scotland 
It’s depressing reading this long catalogue of self serving lies and mendacity from our Westminster masters. What’s more depressing is how easily Scots are persuaded to hand over their wealth and power to those thieves.
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