Sir, Could there ever be a clearer sign of desperation (indeed possibly panic) in the coalition section of the Better Together Campaign, than the decision of the UK Cabinet to meet north of the border for only the third time in more than 90 years to talk about Scottish oil?
And each time a government minister speaks about the UK’s plans to exploit the oil, could there be a more eloquent version of the insulting “we are big and competent, Scotland is too small, too stupid” mantra we are so often treated to?
It is a matter of simple arithmetic that oil employment and taxation amount to a, relatively, small element of the greater mass of UK commerce, but add up to a much larger source of wealth and income in the smaller Scottish economy.
Do the unionist parties not realise we can now see through all their rhetoric, and conclude that they are clearly desperate to continue hoovering up this resource and wasting it on Trident etc, while Scottish governments would put it to good use, for the improvement of people’s lives?
If David Cameron really did admit in Aberdeen that the North Sea oil and gas industry will be vital “to the UK’s international future”, then he has let an enormous cat out of the bag. No wonder he and his cohorts have to spend their time alternately love-bombing and threatening us!
Michael F Troon. 15 Crawford Avenue, Gauldry.
Not a great track record
Sir, How touching it is to learn that the UK Government is going to look after the oil industry!
Our oilmen will be heaving sighs of relief and perhaps daring to hope for the same level of skilled managerial preservation as that enjoyed by our fishermen.
Perhaps David Cameron will enjoy the same success as his predecessors had with shipbuilding, reducing the output of the Clyde from one- third of the world’s shipping, to about one-third of a ship!
On the other hand, he may go even further, as we witnessed with steel and coal production where they have been completely obliterated.
What is crystal clear is that they do not run Scotland for nothing.
They will asset strip, and bleed us white, in pursuit of their ingrained megalomania, imagining Britain to be a world power and pumping billions into Trident, whilst our citizens seek the crumbs of food banks.
He and his cronies are divorced from reality and we should not miss this opportunity to show them the door once and for all. Don’t vote Tory, vote “Yes”.
Joseph G Miller. 44 Gardeners Street, Dunfermline.
Project prices covered . . .
Sir, If there are any Courier readers wondering what that laughing sound coming across the North Sea is, then I can reveal it’s the Norwegians having a right old chuckle at David Cameron.
The idea that Scots are simpletons unable to run an oil industry for themselves, and need another country to show them how to spend their money, is probably one of the most insulting things levelled at Scotland these last 40 years.
Mr Cameron talks about another oil bonanza of around £200 billion for the UK. By that, he means he’s got the cost of Trident (£100 billion) and the high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham (£42 billion and rising) well and truly covered.
I’d be surprised if Scotland benefited from a single penny of this cash splurge.
RMF Brown. Hill Terrace, Markinch.
An interesting time ahead?
Sir, I do not believe for a minute that the independence debate should or will focus on oil exclusively. But, unarguably, the Scottish Nationalists have based the future prosperity of Scotland on our oil reserves hopefully lasting 20-30 years which of course, in the life of a nation, is but a blink of the eye.
However, Scotland remaining within the UK will benefit from an estimated 70-100 years’ worth of shale gas, valued in £billions, quietly lying beneath the green and pleasant land of England.
To be truthful I can’t see our UK Sassenach brithers being so vile as to say: “It’s our shale, Old Boy, we’re having it and we’re off!” which of course is exactly what the Scottish Nationalists have always wanted to do with oil.
Interestingly, it would appear that the Bowland field shale gas deposits (said to be the largest in the world) could come on tap in just 10-15 years as Scotland’s volatile oil income steadily diminishes.
This vast resource has the potential to boost the UK’s economy significantly in the same way as it has done for America. An independent Scotland, of course, would not be able to share in this bonanza and with its reserves of oil gone or going and requiring massive investment from Scottish taxpayers, economic life may become challenging to say the least.
No oil would represent a loss of 20% of national income and with the Nationalist’s insane decision to rely on wind energy . . . well, it should prove an interesting time!
Iain G Richmond. Guildy House, Monikie.
Should have remained here
Sir, I, and no doubt many others, think that Vitas Plytnykas who murdered Jolanta Bledaite in Brechin then dismembered her body before dumping it in the sea should not have been allowed to return home to Lithuania to serve his sentence.
And if indeed he was on hunger strike then the authorities should have let nature take its course.
George Aimer. 82 Kinghorne Road, Dundee.
It’s only common sense
Sir, Legal highs, as they are called, are causing problems. A number of deaths and brain injuries have been attributed to them recently. The difficulty is that thrill-seeking youngsters will turn to almost anything.
Apparently, manufacturers of legal highs often put “not for human consumption” on the containers to be able to claim that they are innocent of any crime and that they cannot control what customers do with their products after purchase. They, and shops selling legal highs, might find life more difficult if they were not permitted by law to sell any drug which was not fit for human consumption and therefore could not label their goods as such. If such labels were found on their drug containers, they could then be prosecuted and closed down.
As for the dodge used by legal high manufacturers of changing slightly the formula of a drug banned by the authorities to enable them to sell it legally, this could be stopped by insisting no new drug of any kind could be sold without first obtaining a licence from a government laboratory. I cannot see why such common sense measures have not already been introduced.
George K McMillan. 5 Mount Tabor Avenue, Perth.
Bond would be a disincentive
Sir, It was with considerable interest that I read your front page headline on Friday, £100k bond threat to developers, relating to proposals for Perth City Hall.
The mere suggestion that a potential investor in Scotland’s latest city should lodge a bond of £100,000 strikes me as a disincentive. Any city whether large, small, new or, as in the case of Perth reborn, should encourage development rather than ask potential developers for a security bond.
It also crossed my mind that the plan favoured by the council, and also Mr Pete Wishart’s pet idea to demolish the hall is not backed by such a bond.
Willie Robertson. Grianan, Lynton, Stanley.
Door opened for Big Brother
Sir, The Scottish Parliament’s redefinition of marriage has been accomplished. This was done in the face of unprecedented opposition. The Scottish National Party achieved it in an unholy alliance with a majority of the other main parties, aided and abetted by weakness and division in the so-called national church.
Not content with this erosion of legal and biblical protection for the family unit, the SNP family-phobic bandwagon rolls on. The appointment of a state- appointed guardian for every child and teenager in Scotland is a direct challenge to parental authority and a grave attack on civil liberty.
This crass legislation, which has passed its first parliamentary hurdle is no benign oversight of Scottish family life. An SNP spokesperson, speaking on television assured us that most families will never even be aware of any effect of this legislation. What, then, is its purpose?
Once such a legal framework has been put in place the door for Big Brother style interference within any family has been irrevocably opened. Political parties, by the very nature of their arrogant “we know best” attitude will be unable to resist the temptation to pry into private family life.
A government that refuses to acknowledge the right of individuals and families to deny the righteousness of anti-biblical legislation clearly demonstrates a phobia of Christianity and those who live by its teaching. They will be the first targets of such a government that excludes God from its calculations.
A legal challenge by the Christian Institute against this legislation is being raised and its outcome will be interesting.
John Miller. Kettlebridge.
Whenever the experts agree . . .
Sir, Whenever all the experts are in agreement on some controversial issue one can rest assured that whatever opinion or solution they proffer is almost certainly wrong.
The day a letter from the academic establishment was published claiming that Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies were ruining the country, the economy turned round.
No sooner had “every scientist in the world” agreed some 15 years ago that global warming was out of control than the warming stopped and has yet to restart.
Now we have serried ranks of Christian bishops alleging that the government’s welfare reforms have precipitated a “national crisis” of starvation and homelessness.
Iain Duncan Smith should take heart because their dodgy “facts” are less troubling than their belief that leaving generations languishing on benefits is a moral policy.
Rev Dr John Cameron. 10 Howard Place, St Andrews.