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by smcl
1471 days ago
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> very very poor and depressed country Scotland suffered greatly from the decline of a few key industries in the 70s and 80s so and parts of it are indeed poor and in decline. But if you're to categorise a country by its very poorest areas, you'll end up saying the USA, France, England are very very poor and depressed. Scotland isn't Norway - that ship has long sailed and we should discard any ideas that oil wealth can still take us there. But it's not, no offense intended, Moldova and it's wrong to think of it that way. |
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The oil situation is definitely worth talking about. Not because I think the English should give the oil back, but because it's an example of what the problem is. There will be other oils in the future. The way the oil wealth has been extracted is how England plays the game. English companies and english investors take the lion's share with tax revenue and even oil flowing south of the border to be refined. I would be willing to wager that London did better out of North Sea oil than Edinburgh ever did. Of course they spend money on social services in Scotland all the while claiming that the Scots are lazy and tight fisted and could never manage their own affairs. If England wasn't running things up there the whole place would fall apart. It's the same story they have used everywhere, from Ireland (lazy drunken Micks) to India, the Caribbean etc etc. I just found out yesterday that the term "welch" as in to renege on a promise just means Welsh as in to be from Wales. Slightly ironic given how the English are welching on their international commitments in Northern Ireland.