Scotland to become richest nation in Europe?

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/47465.html

22 September 2005.

According to Robbie Dinwoodie, chief Scottish Political Correspondent at The Herald, Scotland's oil wealth is flowing south.

This year, at least £700 for every person in Scotland will flow to Treasury coffers in England, according to a report from the SNP, 'Scotland In Surplus'.

See also:
Scotland's true oil wealth was hidden to stop independence.

Stewart Hosie, the Dundee East MP, told SNP delegates at the party's conference in Aviemore:

"Oil is back on the agenda."

According to The Herald:

Mr Hosie launched a detailed document on the state of Scotland's finances, based on official statistics and information provided by the Commons library. Using the average oil price for the first half of the financial year – $56 – this puts Scotland more than £3.5bn in the black, £700 for every adult and child in the country.

If Scotland's share of UK debt is factored in, there is still a surplus of about £660m – or more than £130 per person.

The conference unanimously passed a motion noting that "Scottish independence was not only theoretically possible but economically desirable" and condemned "the actions of successive Labour and Tory governments for concealing Scotland's true economic position from the Scottish people."

The SNP makes clear that oil is set to flow for another 30 years.

"This new document blows the lid off the argument that the union is economically beneficial," said Mr Salmond. "Only independence can allow Scotland to meet our full economic potential. Last week the unionist parties reacted to the bombshell of the oil documents by decrying them as historical. Now we have brought the issue up-to-date and proved that Scotland is in surplus."

SNP delegates have committed the SNP to ambitious targets on greenhouse gas emissions, including the "transformation of Scotland into one of the world's first all-renewable nations by developing our enormous renewable energy resources." A commission will examine how emissions can be cut by up to 80% by 2050.Richard Lochhead, the party's Holyrood energy and environment spokesman, said climate change was a greater threat than terrorism, as shown by Hurricane Katrina. "If that has not acted as a wake-up call, bringing the most powerful country in the world to its knees, then nothing will," he said.




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