{"id":497,"date":"2015-04-09T16:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T16:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=497"},"modified":"2015-04-09T16:03:46","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T16:03:46","slug":"found-hidden-and-squandered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/?p=497","title":{"rendered":"Found, hidden and squandered"},"content":{"rendered":"

As some readers might know I joined the SNP in 1966, 49 years ago.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I joined because I was sure that we could run Scotland from up here a lot better that they could from down there.\u00a0 My view then was that we produced more food than we could eat, and more drink that we could drink, although we have always had those who by their actions tried to disprove the latter.\u00a0 We had an abundance of energy with a thousand years of coal , water \u2013 a scarce commodity, and a skilled inventive people.<\/p>\n

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\"img291<\/a>We knew that the mismanagement of Scotland by Westminster and Whitehall meant that we would need a few years to put things right.\u00a0 Independence would not mean instant wealth and good health\u00a0 but by spending Scotland\u2019s money on Scotland we could have had it sorted in a few years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then in the early Seventies oil was discovered, but \u201cnot in much quantity\u201d we were told.\u00a0 This bonus would enable us to speed up the process of restoring Scotland but our thoughts were pooh-poohed by Westminster.\u00a0\u00a0 Hardly any,\u00a0 they said, don\u2019t be daft.\u00a0 The SNP researcher Donald Bain, (later one of the Flag\u2019s earlier contributors), made some rough estimates on the sketchy information available, and was laughed out of court for suggesting we could benefit to the tune of \u00a3800 million a year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thirty years later, the Cabinet papers of that period were released, quietly, and we discovered that Donald was wrong \u2013 there was not \u00a3800 million a year \u2013 there were billions upon billions.\u00a0 They hid this by creating a Continental Shelf and allocating all revenues under that heading, effectively concealing it from the electorate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The main Cabinet paper was known as the McCrone Report and included the statement : \u201cfor the first time since the Act of Union was passed it can now be credibly argued that Scotland\u2019s economic interest lies in its repeal\u201d.\u00a0 In the papers there were proposals to change the sea boundaries out\u00a0 to the Norwegian line and to create a Shetland box, so that if Scotland became independent Shetland would stay with the UK.\u00a0\u00a0 This went on under Tory and Labour governments.\u00a0 In any event the answer to the above was just to hide the report for 30 years, when it would be someone else\u2019s problem.<\/p>\n

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In 1999 just before the Scottish Parliament was elected Westminster slipped through\u00a0 the Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundaries Order , which altered the Continental Shelf(Jurisdiction)\u00a0 Order\u00a0 1968 , and transferred 6000 square miles of\u00a0 Scottish sea\u00a0 to England.\u00a0 This included 6 oilfields –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fulmar, Auk, Clyde, Janice, Angus and Fife..\u00a0 According to the Herald\u00a0 this Order \u201cwas passed by the House of Lords and the Committee on Delegated Legislation in 23rd<\/sup> March 1999 but was not openly debated in the Commons\u201d.<\/p>\n

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And we still do not know how the profligate Treasury managed to squander billion of Scottish money.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Having ripped us off in the days when oil prices were high they now jeer at an \u201cindependent\u201d Scotland who will be bankrupted by these prices.\u00a0 Word to the wise: \u00a0Westminster and Whitehall are terrified at the prospect of losing the oil money, because they would be insolvent.\u00a0 We do not have any of it and never had.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As some readers might know I joined the SNP in 1966, 49 years ago.   I joined because I was sure that we could run Scotland from up here a lot better that they could from down there.\u00a0 My view then was that we produced more food than we could eat, and more drink that we could drink, although we have always had those who by their actions tried to disprove the latter.\u00a0 We had an abundance of energy with a thousand years of coal , water \u2013 a scarce commodity, and a skilled inventive people.   We knew that the mismanagement of Scotland byRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":505,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scotsindependent.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}