Help Talking-up Scotland keep going

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By Mark E. Saunders of “The Scottish Minuteman” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61575625542197

There is something very revealing about the way Scotland’s resources are discussed and pumped into our living rooms via our television screens.

During the 2014 independence referendum, North Sea oil was presented as nothing but a risk to everyone living in Scotland.

We were warned about falling production, volatile prices and the dangers of over-relying on oil revenues.

Alistair Darling described relying on oil as “gambling with our children’s future.”

On Sky News, June 2014, Gordon Brown ‘England’s Lord Protector of Scotland’ dismissed the idea that oil could form any part of Scotland’s economic future as “simply fantasy”.

Fast-forward to 2026 and that message has altered somewhat.

Now we are being told that North Sea oil and gas are important to the UK’s energy security. There are calls for more drilling and to make greater use of its ‘own’ resources rather than relying on imports.

But Scotland’s story doesn’t end there.

Scotland has become a major producer of renewable energy from its wind, water and coastline — producing far more than it currently consumes.

That surplus electricity is fast becoming an increasingly valuable resource — particularly attractive to industries that require enormous amounts of power.

Enter the data centres.

There are perfectly legitimate questions about the environmental impact of hyperscale data centres. They can require huge amounts of electricity, land and water. Those impacts must be properly assessed and local communities must have a say.

But if Scotland is providing the land, the infrastructure and the renewable electricity, then Scotland should also expect to capture a substantial share of the economic benefit.

Not simply an 8% share of UK government spending, dressed up as Scotland’s share while the resulting “paper deficit” is used to tell us that Scotland cannot afford to become a normal independent country.

We should be demanding that all benefits from these centres must be captured here:

Jobs. Investment. Skills. Tax revenue. Infrastructure. Research. And where technically possible, even waste heat for surrounding communities.

Just as with oil extraction in the past and wind farms in more recent times, the questions remain the same:

Who carries the environmental cost? Who gets the economic benefit? And who gets to decide?

That is the connection between oil, electricity and data centres.

Different resources. Different industries. Different environmental challenges.

But ultimately the same question.

In 2014, we were asked: Can Scotland afford the risk of controlling its oil?

Perhaps we should have been asking: Why should Scotland take the risks without controlling the rewards?

And today, as Scotland’s renewable electricity attracts industries hungry for power, we should be asking exactly the same thing.

Who takes the risks?

Who gets the benefits?

And who gets to decide?

Oil.

Electricity.

Data centres.

The resources change.

The question doesn’t.

Perhaps Scotland’s problem was never that we lacked the wealth of an independent state. Perhaps it was that we were never allowed to control enough of it to become one.

And perhaps it really is time that we are stopped being told:

“It’s shite being Scotland!”

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going

Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going

Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421