Oil fund fantasies
We all agree that if we had had all the oil revenues for the last 40 years we would now have a sizeable holding, but we didn’t.
The UK as a whole bolstered its economy instead – and much was spent wisely, not just frittered away.
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Hide AdTrying to set up a fund now doesn’t seem to do much in the short term, and, as has been established previously, even £30,000 million built up over the next 30 years gives us individually maybe a future one-off £6,000 each, or maybe £240 per year ongoing. Better to spend the yearly revenue on infrastructure and welfare improvements as we go, surely.
Again, there is not a thousand thousand million pounds of revenue to come from the oil; that sum is in fact some people’s idea of total residual value.
Revenues will be a small fraction of it per annum, profits mainly going to non-Scottish enterprises.
Further, as the recent GERS figures showed, we have ongoing debt to pay off, plus interest. Even with all the oil revenues, a shortfall remains, cutting back still further any possibility of setting monies aside.
Joe Darby
Dingwall
Ross-shire