New Oil & Gas Industry Long-Term Plans.

The First Minister, Alex Salmond, has today revealed that he plans to put forward a long-term plan for Scotland's oil and gas industry, which to date is the largest industry sector in the UK. The industry contributes a fifth of UK corporation tax, and supports 440'000 UK-wide jobs. So it is vital that a long-term strategy is made to secure its future so it is a viable industry for Scotland, especially in the case of independence.

Although much speculation has been drawn to the viability of Scotland's oil industry by our unionist friends, there is still no doubt that the industry is a thriving one and has contributed much more to the Scottish economy than anything else has in recent years.

The industry has been functioning for the best part of 40 years now and has pumped an estimated 40 billion BOE (barrels of oil equivalent) worth approximately £300 billion in terms of revenue, into the London exchequer. Whilst some may think the oil fields are drying up, there is still an estimated £1.5 trillion value of revenue still to be found in Scotland's geographical share of the oil fields. That figure has risen since the last estimate of £1.2 trillion. The UK-wide debt stands at £1 trillion, to which our share of the debt would be £100 billion.

Out-with the UK, the government is also investing heavily in securing investment from foreign markets. The organisation Scottish Development International (SDI) is to be expected to invest in growing markets in such areas as, Norway, Brasil & West Africa. The investment in those areas is to be built on the success of the establishment of an SDI base in Calgary, Canada.

What this proves is that Scotland, as a whole. Does have the potential to be an international leader in the markets we pursue, forget the arguments that we are too wee and too poor to possibly compete with larger nations around the world. All it takes is motivation and ingenuity, a trait which the Scottish people have shown their fair share of throughout history.

Under the current status quo however, Scotland is very limited in its ability to invest in our industries, with our constantly shrinking budget provided by Westminster. Some may say that it is the budget we receive which keeps our economy afloat. The reality however is the complete opposite, Scotland contributes £50 billion a year into the exchequer in terms of tax and revenues, yet we only receive on average, £23 billion back each year. 

The plan aims to further the astronomical success delivered by our North Sea oil revenues, and to secure a future for the industry when new fields are discovered. The plan draws up six main points that need to be addressed:

* Strengthen domestic supply chain - with greater focus on resource recovery and targeting £30 billion in total annual sales by 2020;

* Increase proportion of sales from exports - so international activity, having risen from 31 to 46 per cent from 2002 to 2010, reaches 60 per cent (£18 billion) by 2020;

* Identify clear priorities for innovation and accelerating technology deployment - including long-term research & development plan and greater co-ordination of public funds to support rise in recovery rates with a minimum long-term target of 50 per cent;

* Promote new and emerging opportunities for supply chain companies - for example in offshore wind, carbon capture & storage (CCS) and decommissioning;

* Ensure sector attracts young people and supports increase in skills availability - emphasising long-term nature of industry and, through closer liaison between sector employers and with education institutions, better-identify specific needs for provision;

* Continue to promote Scotland as key location for O&G investment - through communications and support for key infrastructure projects.

BBC bias demonstration - Pacific Quay, Glasgow.

For those of you who of not know, and that may be quite a few due to the media blackout, there was a BBC bias demonstration on Saturday. The purpose of the demonstration was to highlight the blatant, but subtlety done, anti - independence bias which gets thrown out by the BBC on a daily basis. I for one, attended the demonstration. And although there was not it was only a small first time event, it surely shows that the people of Scotland are starting to take notice of the bias at the BBC, and are no longer willing to tolerate it.

You might think this is a rather odd claim that the BBC are politically partisan. After all, they are publicly funded (£3 billion from us a year) and are always championing their impartiality. That sadly however, is not the case. For however great the BBC's shows and documentaries are (especially Sherlock), their news coverage is not as fair as it always claims to be.

The part of the BBC news reporting that is usually seen to be most prevalently biased is the slanted coverage often given by their reporters and presenters, were looking at you Paxman. usually whenever an interview comes up with a pro independence supporter comes up, the BBC almost always wheels out their. presenters who are most famously anti-independence.

Now, I do not need to go into every instance about BBC bias, you can check that out on this brilliant website here: http://biased-bbc.blogspot.co.uk/

Picture of the demonstration I took. 

Without going on too much a rant about the BBC (believe me I could), I would just like to encourage every Scot to attend these demonstrations, as it sends a strong message to the BBC that, we the people who fund their existence, will no longer tolerate bias coverage on our nations issues.

Economic awareness for Scotland.

It has became increasingly apparent to me, and I am sure many other Nat, that the vast majority of the Scottish population do not actually know the state of their own economy. 

This is very detrimental to the success of the YES campaign, as Scots who will not vote yes in 2014, could of very well otherwise been swayed by learning about the truth about their own economy.

As you know, it is money which is at the back of everyone's minds when they make decisions about their future, and perhaps the biggest question which is on everyone's minds concerning the independence debate is, will we have enough money to survive? 

Despite what rhetoric and scaremongering we are told on a daily basis by Westminster and the London-centric British media, the Scottish economy is actually thriving as we speak and we could do far more without the current economic constraints imposed by Westminster which we live under day by day.

I was just wondering if any Nat's who are interested in the economic side of the debate like I am, would like to collaborate to produce a report on the Scottish economy. Detailing such aspects as; how we are doing now, and what we could do with independence. 

I have already made a 3000 word report for the monthly independence newsletter which will be coming out in June, but I think if we all pull together we could produce something which would shoot down any unionist economic scaremongering on sight. And hey, you never know it might get somewhere. 

Reply on this post of email me at: robertboy1@hotmail.co.uk , if you're interested.

 thanks. 

"YES Scotland" campaign kick off this Friday!

Today it has been announced that the YES campaign for Scottish independence will take place in Edinburgh on Friday (25th May) in Edinburgh in the Cineworld complex. The campaign is entitled "YES Scotland." and the campaign will try to put across the positive case for Scottish independence.

The campaign will include a host of notable Scottish celebrities (Sean Connery to not just one), musicians and of course politicians, and will attempt to connect with the Scottish people on a personal level by introducing people to the debate who are recognisable to the every-day Scot.

The main focus of the campaign however is not to appeal to those who are already in support of independence, but to swing those 20% something per cent of Scots who are undecided. The campaign will also have an anthem written by Dougie McLean, famous for his "Caledonia".

A wide-range of pro-independence parties will join alongside the SNP in the campaign, these include the Greens and the SSP, but more parties are believed to join up once the campaign gets rolling. One of the visions of the campaign which I personally agree with most is the slogan "vision versus scares".

 This is a vital aspect of the campaign as it is know all too well by pro-independence supporters the extent to which pro-unionist parties & media broadcast effectively scaremongering claims on a daily basis. The problem with the scare-stories is that the vast majority of the Scots watching the mainstream media do not know any better, as anything on mainstream media is taken as gospel effectively.

Angus Robertson who is the campaign leader for all of the SNP's elections, commented on how effective the campaign could be at winning over the undecided Scot through positivity:

“These are exciting times for Scotland as we work to build a better nation.  The Yes Scotland campaign will be about the people of Scotland, and how being independent can make life better for families and individuals across our country.

“It will be the biggest community-based campaign in our history and will take the case for Scotland being independent into every community across our country.

“Yes Scotland stands in stark contrast to the anti-independence parties' emerging No campaign, which we are led to believe will put the politicians front and centre.

“The people of Scotland are open to voting yes as never before and that is a great starting point for the Yes Campaign.  This campaign will be about the positive benefits of being independent, enabling us to build a Scotland that will be fairer and more prosperous than today.”

As to be expected, there has been a major backlash from the unionist parties, downplaying the campaigns effectiveness and credibility. One Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw said that the campaign was a "Braveheart cry for 'yes' to separation". There's a few problems with this: First of all, he automatically loses the debate by mentioning Braveheart as a case for independence. Secondly, I woonder if Mr. Carlaw would apply the term 'separation' to any other country which sought independence from Westminster. 

Newsletter article

Just a quick update here, I have just finished writing an article for a monthly independence newsletter which should be coming out around the middle of June. It amounted to a little over 3000 words and covers every aspect of the Scottish economy, even the McCrone report ;)

Be sure to check it out.

Self-Determination is vested in the people, not a party.

Nowadays when anyone thinks of Scottish nationalism/independence it automatically brings up connotations of the Scottish National Party (SNP). Whilst they may be the main advocates of the independence movement and have by far made the most progress for independence, it is wrong to assume the value of self-determination belongs solely to the SNP.

It should be vested in the population of Scotland, that we all have a common goal to be independent. Although Scotland itself has many divisions politically, socially and culturally, we can come together to bring to reality the right to self-determination that deep down all Scottish people desire. Many Scottish people nowadays are either too ignorant or scared of nationalism to appreciate what it could truly do for our nation.

By definition the meaning of nationalism is expressed as follows

"The desire for a strongly linked group of individuals for self-governance"

Now those definitions seem a far cry from the common ideas associated with the word nationalism. Truthfully, most people associate nationalism with the Nazi’s. That regime was utterly un-human in every way; there is no doubt about that. It should not however be associated with the nationalistic movement of the Scottish people. We are fighting for the right to control our own currency, elect our own government, assure all our revenues go directly to the Scottish people and not Westminster, and to fulfil our aspirations to become of modern nation which clearly has the potential to become a world competitor. The nationalism we pursue is the right to self-determination, something all humans desire to have, a chance to stand on your own two feet and show the world what you can do.

As such notions as the Nazi’s are associated with fear, so does the British media try to associate nationalism with fear. You do not need to go far to find evidence; just look at the front page of the Scottish Sun 2007 election edition. In bold letters on the front it says “VOTE SNP AND YOU PUT SCOTLAND’S HEAD IN THE NOOSE”. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think we have descended quite into the hell-hole the Scottish Sun had prophesised since the SNP had been elected then.  

There are in fact many other political parties within Scotland that support independence. Such as the Scottish Green party, Socialist Party and Solidarity and many Union advocates (at one point the Scottish Lib Dems also supported independence). These parties however are rarely associated with the independence movement, sometimes not at all and the example in the afore-mentioned paragraph is an example of the dangers that one party association with independence brings. It gives the unionist a chance to alienate the SNP as being the party that is trying to ‘tear this country apart’ as they are seen as the only advocates of independence, not with the common interests of the whole nation.

To bring this to a close, it is vital that the independence movement as a whole does not pledge allegiance to one party, but instead to the nation of Scotland itself. As that is what we are all fighting for, that one chance for Scotland to be its own nation again, a nation that we can shape for the future and call our own, a nation which can voice its opinions on the international stage, not in a minority position in a government which is far out of touch from the real people of Scotland.

The BBC state?

Pretty much any independence supporter, such as myself, will have noticed to continuing outcry from Scotland concerning the questionable impartiality of the (publicly funded, by us) BBC when it comes to Westminster government stories, and most importantly any story surrounding the independence referendum. One might say, surely enough a world-renowned corporation such as the BBC with decades of broadcasting heritage would not possibly harbour bias opinions! Wrong.

It has become increasingly apparent to me, and other supporters/ advocates of the independence movement that any coverage on the independence referendum has been given the bare minimum coverage, and even when it does a seemingly bias coverage. Now, it is a well-known fact that the majority of the Scottish population are extremely ignorant when it comes to the understanding of their own country. The real state of the Scottish economy, our history with the union and the swathes of benefits that would come with independence are forlorn to the knowledge of most of the Scottish population.

I do not need to go into the overwhelming sea of facts about Scottish independence; there are countless resources available, if you search for them. Just look at my previous blog posts/ articles and you should have a rough understanding of my ‘beef’ with the British government/media (hint: McCrone report – check it out).

Over the past say, two years since the independence referendum became a real issue following the SNP’s landslide victory during the 2010 election, I have seen at most, half a dozen full stories on the independence referendum debate(on the BBC television news). Even though, as everyone will admit, it is the most important decision in our constitutional history in the past 300 years.  Even when there is coverage and interviews it is done by extremely evidently bias reporters such as the man himself, Jeremy Paxman.

Watching interviews a while back between Jeremy Paxman & Alex Salmond it became increasingly obvious that Paxman was not the man for the job. Everything he said had contempt written all over it, the way he seemed to view himself aloof the Scottish people and claims that Scotland would be better off following independence. He seemed as though he felt the Scottish population were personally robbing his personal bank account every time Mr Salmond mentioned the 8% assets that Scotland would inherit if we became independent. Dismissing any claim that Scotland would be better off and swiftly moving onto a new question every time he was countered. I recall incidents such as when Paxman related Alex Salmond to Robert Mugabe and referred to Burns poetry as ‘sentimental doggerel’. You make your own mind up.

Whilst it is in human nature to put our own agenda’s in front of the real issue (we just cannot help it) the bias of the BBC is made increasingly worse by the fact that there is no mainstream media outlet for pro-independence views, apart from the  collective group of on-line independence supporters known as “Cyber-Nat’s”.  There are various websites that provide us with some form of an outlet, such as Newsnet Scotland, Radio Free Scotland and Bella Caledonia. They are extremely limited in their audience however, with only one finding them after personally searching for them, happening to stumble upon them or having a pro-independence friend. Whilst the BBC and other mainstream news corporations pump out nationwide news 24/7.

Although the conflicting views have not yet been broadcast by British media. There have been numerous reports done by foreign news companies, concerning the impartiality of the BBC.  Russia Today is a prime example.  The link can be found here:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG3XtCmqI64

The report highlights the BBC being far too pro-government in its reports. A prime example being the NHS reform bill being proposed by the Con-Dem coalition. The report claims that the BBC gave far too little coverage on the issue, as it was highly controversial and not many people knew the facts about it. As a result the British public were unable to make any grounded opposition on the bill. It even prompted the opposition party Labour, to post an official complaint about their opposing views not being properly represented. This incident is also reflected when it comes to Scottish independence as the report claims. There was a video posted on You Tube which was a training conference by the BBC about reporting. The training video seemed to devote a lot of time to slandering the independence debate. Although the BBC claim it was impartiality, it is clear that they will always pander to who is in power, as it is from the population and government that the BBC receives it £3 billion a year, paid by us.

The incidents of bias reporting is not limited to the television, oh no. On the Scottish politics blogs and forums on the BBC Scotland website, comments sections seemed to be disabled altogether, especially those blogs made by official BBC reporters. It is no secret that in a democracy opposing views are vital to the overall breadth of knowledge of the population, and it is through having opposing views that people truly get the full picture and are able to articulate their views in a well thought out way and are less likely to spout opinions based on unfounded evidence.

This issue wouldn’t be so noticeable if the same rules applied for the rest of the UK political blogs but it is the fact that it was only the Scottish political blogs & forums that were blocked from comments. This once again harks back to the point that, the BBC know just as well as independence supporters do that the majority of the Scottish population are ignorant to the facts about independence. By blocking out opposing views, they ensure that the opposing views are never heard and the opinions never change.

To bring this to a conclusion, what can be done to change the status quo concerning the British media? Well, it is our duty as Nats to inform the Scottish population on matters about independence that they might never hear whilst just hearing mainstream news. Through any means possible, whether that be an internet blog, articles, letters to newspapers, radio shows, or heck even just letting your friends know. Eventually the word will get out there and the population will know, we have to keep the pressure on the British media to change, even though our voice may be small, it will be heard. 

The Results Are In.

The votes have been counted, and the results are in. All across Scotland people have voted for who they want to elected into, or remain in power. This time though, the elections seem to be different than expected. Anyone prior to the results being published would have thought that the SNP would gain another landslide victory, and in some areas that may be true, it is not true however in the main target that the SNP had its sights sets indefinitely on, Glasgow.

In the build-up to the elections, the SNP had been gaining major victories all across Scotland, in areas previously thought unchangeable. Most notably the die-hard Labour city of Glasgow. It seemed as though the SNP would have toppled the Labour administration in Glasgow, or at the least shifted the city to an NOC (No Overall Control) status. To some people’s surprise however, that was not the case. The city still remains a Labour controlled area, with four constituencies remaining purely in labour control (every other area is NOC).

Despite their hiccup in Glasgow, the SNP have enjoyed a relatively major boost across the board. Gaining 57 seats, this increases their total number of councillors to 424, making them the clear winners of the Scottish council elections. Labour trails closely behind by 30 councillors. What could be taken from this is that the SNP have reached the arc of their success and Labour is creeping back up to take power. That however, would be an incredibly short-sighted view.

What one has to take in mind is that these are the mid-term elections, the SNP are only halfway through their term. Mid-term elections are notorious for knocking down the power of the party in power. Just look at the elections south of the border, the Conservative & Liberal Democrat coalition has suffered heavy losses to the hands of Labour, something which is clearly mirrored up here in Scotland. These two correlating sets of results are reflective of the general feeling across the whole of the United Kingdom.

Following the banking crisis, the recession and the recent double-dip recession. The public has lost faith in the Westminster government. They are seen to be in favour of the bankers who caused the crisis in the first place, as they are generally regarded as the two parties most in favour of the wealthier echelons of society. This has caused the votes previously for the Con-Dem coalition to shift over to Labour’s hands as the public has lost faith in current government.

This has also happened in Scotland (to begin with we were never particularly fond of the Conservatives r the Liberal Democrats). Both the aforementioned parties have suffered heavy losses across the board, both losing a significant amount of votes to SNP & labour. The SNP however have heavily increased their support, gaining in more areas than any other party has. This clearly shows that Scotland is rejecting Westminster politics. Both the Conservative and Lib-Dem votes have shifted off to the SNP and Labour seemingly randomly.

The reason Labour has gained so many seats in correspondence to the SNP however is clearly not through their own efforts. Most people in Scotland are still ignorant to the real state of our nation and the SNP, and are still not ready to shift over to a nationalist government. Where is the next logical step for defective Lib-Dem and Conservative voters?  The next available Westminster party, Labour.

This is not a defeat for the SNP and the independence movement. It is a sign of our need to work harder to secure our right to self-determination. It is only through hard work and the constant efforts of individuals that Scotland will truly be shown the benefits of independence. Although that may be a large task, we’ve got the best of two years to make it happen.