Letter: Scotland too subservient to oil giants

The anger described by Jenny Fyall (your report, 16 Aug) about Shell being slow to answer questions about the oil spill and its extent should surprise no one.

Keeping the Scottish Government and people in the dark is the way oil companies work if they can get away with it.

And in the UK sector of the North Sea they know they can get away with just about anything.

The UK regulator and Scotland's justice system set down a marker following the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988 when 167 men died.

Then, despite the overwhelming evidence of poor working conditions and defective safety procedures, no corporate culpability was established by the Cullen Inquiry, which instead focused on supposed and highly speculative failures attributed to two dead workmen who could not defend themselves.

Contrast Scotland's subservient treatment of multinational companies working in our waters to the US government's reaction to those same companies in US waters and one can only come to the conclusion that we are treated like a banana republic because we behave like one.

Tom Minogue

Victoria Terrace

Dunfermline

Alex Salmond's "monastic oath of silence" (Letters, 17 August), with regard to the North Sea oil spill reeks of predictable hypocrisy.

After his priggish comments on the "English riots", has he complained to any media organisation which has referred to the leak as being in the UK or British waters?

The SNP has maintained "It's Scotland's oil" since the 1970s.

Lawrence Fraser

Mayne Road

Elgin, Moray