Rachel Reeves fails to recognise that it’s still Scotland’s oil

THE Chancellor’s Budget was neither respite for Scots under the financial cosh nor relief for a beleaguered North Sea sector.

Low and middle earners will see their taxes rise and the token changes in oil offer no salvation. Compounding that, Rachel Reeves’s comments that there would be no independence referendum were indicative of Labour’s intention to ignore Scotland’s needs and to summarily reject any future requests for one.

It shows why independence is needed quickly to ensure that not just our oil industry, but our industrial base is protected. It also discloses the futility of John Swinney’s strategy of pursuing a second referendum. “No” might not mean “No” with regard to tax rises but it certainly does when it applies to Scotland’s right to decide. Any suggestion that she or Starmer are going to change their mind is as delusional as those who said that “Boris was bound to blink”.

It’s now more than 50 years since the SNP launched the “It’s Scotland’s Oil” campaign. Black and white posters displayed poor and disadvantaged Scots, both young and old, with the strap lines “It’s His Oil” or “It’s Her Oil”. And it was their oil, just as it should have been life-changing for both them and Scotland. Across the North Sea, Norway – a country which had historically been poorer and far less industrialised than Scotland – was the recipient of a similar bounty and showed what could be done.

Today, Norway has a trillion-dollar “Sovereign Wealth Fund” providing not just for those alive then and now but also for future generations. Meanwhile, Scotland has seen its resource used to fight illegal wars and smash trade unions. There’s no legacy for future generations, indeed quite the opposite, as closures at the Grangemouth refinery and Mossmorran not only impact on those currently working but on youngsters who would have received a training and skill there.

Norway is building up its oil sector industry and expertise with the proposed Rosebank field to be operated by Equinor – which is the Norwegian state company, for those who might not be aware – and who also are involved in Scotland’s offshore wind. At the same time, Norway is divesting into other sectors, as Scotland knows through its investment here, which includes renewables and fish farming, as well as in other industries in their own land and across the globe. Meanwhile, Scotland is seeing industry after industry contract and entire sectors shut down.

It just shouldn’t be this way. It wasn’t the fault of Gordon Wilson and others who sought to raise aspiration and showed what should have been the birthright of so many. Their only mistake, as was admitted by Gordon, being that they ended it too soon. They should have kept hammering home that it was our oil and things just shouldn’t be this way for our people.

But there’s still oil there and plenty of it. The fibs in the 80s that it would soon all be gone were followed by lies that it would be away by the millennium. Yet still it flowed, even if not for the benefit of our people. Then by the referendum in 2014, senior Jeremiahs were rolled out to assure all and sundry that it surely was all just about gone.

And still, it’s there even if the sector is on its knees and much at the present moment will remain embedded under the strata if Miliband has his way. Sadly, and shamefully, he was aided and abetted in that by the SNP/Green government with their presumption against further exploration. Hopefully that idiocy has ended and the Scottish Government will instead speak up for Scotland’s oil.

Of course, global warming needs addressed and Scotland must play its part. But oil will be required for decades to come. There can be no transition, just or otherwise, without it. Servicing machinery on land and on sea which are essential for the renewable sector requires it, along with the plastics which are core to many parts of that new technology.

As with Grangemouth refinery, the arguments are about economics, the environment and fuel security. It’s madness not to use or benefit from your own resource and then require to pay top dollar for someone else’s, just as it is insane to be claiming to protect the environment yet worsening it by a massive hike in supertanker usage. Similarly, in an increasingly dangerous world, having easy access to your own resource off your shores is a huge advantage.

It’s why there should be a relaunch of the “It’s Scotland’s Oil” campaign. Two generations have missed out on what should have been both their birthright and transformatory for citizens and the country. But it’s still there and we can and should benefit from it, not just the existing oil and gas sector but in renewables, where skills can be transferred into over years to come.

There’ll be no Just Transition for Scotland and few job opportunities for Scots if skilled workers leave and youngsters are denied a training. For it’s not just “It’s Scotland’s oil” but also “use it or lose it”, as our industrial base will be further decimated. It’ll be more than just Grangemouth or Mossmorran no more.

Future generations of Scots shouldn’t miss out, as those shown in the 70s’ campaign photographs shamefully did. The need is now and urgent. It’s also why with the referendum road closed down by Reeves, it’s essential that next May’s Holyrood poll is a plebiscite election.