I cannot believe the words I am about to type tonight. I have walked away from writing this several times. I have considered the implications over and over. I am shook.
So have many of you been, given our twitter retweets on the subject.
Today Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, has decided to follow the plan for an independent Scotland.
For years the independence movement has claimed if we stewarded our resources in a manner similar to Norway, we would have a ridiculously large oil fund.
The Norwegian Oil Fund Market Value today is $1,180,000,000,000.
Well… the UK in an effort to avoid being written off as a financial basket case, decided to copy the Yes movement homework and claims in todays Energy Taxes Factsheet:
Today [17th November] we are announcing that from the start of 2023 the Energy Profits Levy will increase by 10% points to 35%. This will bring the headline tax rate for the sector to 75% which is comparable to other North Sea tax regimes, including Norway.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-statement-2022-energy-taxes-factsheet/energy-taxes-factsheet
What does this mean? Well again from the same factsheet
This is expected to raise over £14 billion between 2023 and 2028 and will help pay for the more than £55 billion of support being provided for household and business energy bills.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-statement-2022-energy-taxes-factsheet/energy-taxes-factsheet
Did the Scottish Government write the factsheet?
The North Sea will continue to remain the foundation of the UK’s energy security during the transition to net zero and maintaining investment is key.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-statement-2022-energy-taxes-factsheet/energy-taxes-factsheet
Oh by the way, those resources in the North Sea that just raised £14 billion on demand for the UK Government, do you suppose they could bridge the gap that is the claimed Scottish deficit in the event of independence, how much was that again?
The UK Government using only Scotland’s current resources, just made the economic case for independence. They even made a factsheet. Literally called it the ‘Energy Taxes Factsheet’. They’ve demonstrated how we’d fill the deficit gap, using the Norwegian model.
It is now beyond any doubt that Scotland could handle its own economic affairs – given that the vast resources of Scotland’s North Sea just bailed out the entire UK (again).
This factsheet is so damn good for the independence cause, I’ve made it into a pdf for download incase the UK Government decide to pull it down, after realising how solid they have made the independence case.
Brava 😆🙌🏴❤️
It’s incredible how “useless” it would be for Scotland, but how “dependable” it is for the UK.
Grand – downloaded!
It’s an incredible little sheet!
Graeme…just to be clear on the 2x £14bn…Hunt’s are from 2023 to 2028, the Mail’s are an annual figure (and I’m not suggesting the Mail’s are bona fide but you used them ;-)). They’re not comparable. I’m not disagreeing with the sentiment…just think the case for indy doesn’t need figures which can be pulled apart.
Quite correct, neither the Mail or UK Govt deficits can be relied on at all. Our economy will only be stronger by diversifying away from oil/gas. However for a resource that was rated at zero for independence by the media, it suddenly seems able to rally £80bn over six years to help the UK in its time of need, while being quoted as “ol reliable”.
It’s the stewardship of resources that’s our real opportunity. Because once the oil and gas isn’t flowing – we’ve got some wind to sell!
You have taken the next step, well done. The key to success is communicating the economic strength of Scotland’s case for independence in messages simple enough for the least voter to understand.
The first part of that message is beginning to bite.
“We know what’s good for Scotland”
The constant attacks on the competence of our parliament demonstrates that the UK parties are worried. Labour have cottoned on and seem to be trying to claim every popular decision as their idea.
There is concerted action by councils and government agencies to delay the impact of our world leading land reform legislation. Community project timescales are measured in years because initial planning is made by volunteers, there is little investment in forcing through ground breaking ideas.
Where UK can’t stop a project they muscle in on the action to claim the credit. The objective is to prove Scotland can’t do the big projects alone.
We need to improve the access of community to government ministers. That one step could promote projects through local action in months rather than years .