Stunted Growth

This is frontpage on The Herald today.

That politicians would put their own jobs ahead of the wellbeing of those they rule over is hardly a revelation, but nonetheless appalling.

For 31 years, Westminster has trumpeted that Scotland would never survive on its own and that there was certainly not enough oil to tide it over. By 1980, Scotland should have been on-par with Norway and Stizerland - those are two of the best places to live in the world. By contrast, Scotland is one of the worst small states in Europe.

"Some countries discovered oil and made the desert bloom. We discovered oil and created, in too many places, an industrial desert." - Kenny MacAskill

The SNP, advocating a petrol-fund, puts the lost revenue at £200bn. Kenny MacAskill said that Scottish North Sea oil "would have transformed Scotland economically, socially and politically." What do we have now? Abandoned factories, ghettoid housing estates, and social decay.

"With oil at only $45 a barrel there is still at least a trillion pounds worth of oil left in the North Sea, at $62 a barrel there's 1.5 trillion pounds worth of oil."

Thank you Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Thatcho, John Major, and Tony Bliar.

As a sidenote to this political rant, like the schizophrenic I am: doesn't Yulia Tymoshenko have lovely hair?

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