In 1707 the landed Gentry in Scotland latched on to a get richer, quicker project called the Darien Scheme. Turned out this was a scam and the greedy baskets lost around 25% of the county’s wealth.
That bit many of us know. But here’s the rub. There’s a farmer in the lowlands scraping a living from potatoes. There’s a shepherd in the north doing a wee trade in sheep and wool products. Off the coast there are a lot of fishermen risking their lives in the North Sea and off the perilous west coast. The women folks are bringing up the weans, running the households, gutting the fish, ploughing the land etc. They really were all in it together.
There was a knock on every door in Scotland. The Laird dropped by to demand a quarter of all their savings. Actually, he didn’t. These people, lived hand to mouth with every morsel counting. They did not have 25% slack. But Scottish history tells us that Scotland lost 25% of its wealth. Of course, that is a big fat lie, the landed Gentry lost 25% of their overall wealth.
The common folk had no part in this. Actually, they had no part in this …. yet!
Some say there was a bit of a conspiracy and the Scottish Gentry were set up – perhaps they were. Even a light skim of English history reveals a health dose of treachery and deceit – so perhaps they were. Perhaps England or rather the English ruling classes were keen to expand their horizons. Perhaps they saw some value in Scotland that has managed to allude the history books, because there wasn’t a battle to pinpoint it.
If there was a bit of double dealing, a bit of treachery, then the English ruling classes would have been on hand when the news broke of the Darien swindle to offer the Scottish Gentry a bit of a bail out – to see them through. So consider the deal. The Scottish Gentry have panned out. They are offer a loan to see them through. All they want in return is to run the country, subjugate it if you will. The Scottish Gentry were on their uppers anyway and had nothing to lose. Giving away something you don’t really have is a pretty easy proposition.
So this is where the common folk come in. They didn’t invest in the Darien Scheme. They didn’t lose their shirts. But, guess what, they picked up the tab. They woke up to discover they were not British, not Scots. Later that day a full set of Union Jacks arrived in the post. We Scots had bailed out our landed Gentry because of their stupidity, gullibility and treachery and now we’ve got a new set of masters, yeah!!
So, here’s the thing about history. The only thing I learned about history, and this wasn’t even in class, was that it has a nasty habit of repeating itself – like a bad curry.
Fast forward to the 1970’s. 1975 and oil begins to come ashore off the coast of Scotland. Masses of it – so much we can scarcely imagine.
After all these centuries of deprivation and struggle, Scotland has found oil, a bonanza, we are rich beyond belief. This time we don’t have the landed Gentry, so we’re safe. But wait, we have ‘sonny boy’ Jim Callaghan the Labour PM. He’s not landed Gentry? No, but he is even more stupid than that lot back in 1707.
Of course we don’t have the skills or the resources to exploit the oil. What are we to do? Callaghan came up with a great scheme, one that would make Darien look like a safe bet. He flogged of the rights to American moguls who gave us a return of pennies on the barrel. Still a lot of money, but Callaghan had already helped run the country into the bog so every penny as they say.
Over the next couple of years, Callaghan squandered the lot, brought about the infamous ‘winter of discontent’ (or to be more accurate – winter of discontent with Labour) and heralded the arrival of Maggie Thatcher. We all know her form – and turns out the oil was just a pipe dream (very poor pun).
But what else could Callaghan have done? Well actually, there is a big line across the middle of the North Sea and Norway has as much if not slightly more oil than Scotland. They had no experience either about oil exploration and extraction. But they did have something we didn’t have? a lack of Jim Callaghan. Without Jim Callaghan, the Norwegians brought in the moguls, but they kept a tight rein on the control of their asset. They put an oil fund provision into law, controlled oil spending and sort of ended up the richest country in the world – and Scotland was supposed to be the brainy one??? Ah, but I forgot, we had Callaghan!
Fast forward to the present time. The UK has a total debt, that’s national, structural and budget debt of over £1.7 Trillion. That is serious money. The national and structural debts we will never ever pay off. All we are focused on is the budget. This is the money we need to run the country. We are currently running at a deficit of £90 Billion. In other words, we borrow money, we run the country, we crunch the numbers and shazzam, £90 Billion light. we transfer that to the national debt black hole where, proportionately it disappears and we start again.
But how can we start again. we ended up £90 Billion light so who the hell is going to lend us money and at what kind of rate. Could it be Quick Quid? Perhaps not. So who?
Turns out, we have a great credit rating and have no trouble raising the money. But how can that be? We are £1.7 Trillion in the red and growing every minutes. The answer is very simple. The liquidity we, that is Westminster, needed was North Sea oil. It is still a massively value asset and lenders are queuing up to lend us money.
But what is that that I spotted in the GERS report. Scotland is paying a contribution of $4 Billion per annum for the privilege of the Westminster debt – and this is despite the fact that it is our asset that is underwriting the debt??
My mind flies back 308 years to 1707 and I think,
‘ CHRIST, WE HAVE LEARNT NOTHING – THESE B*STARDS HAVE STITCHED US UP AGAIN. THEY HAD OUR LAND LAST TIME AND THIS TIME THEY HAVE HAD OUR BIGGEST ASSET’.
I daren’t roll forward any more in case I discover that they are making money out of melting us down and making us into candles – tartan bloody candles!