Our oil wealth should be flowing back north

Stick in a quick Google search of April 15 and it will list off all the anniversaries that took place on this day down through the years.

It was the date the Titanic sank, it is, of course, the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, it’s the day when fire broke out in Notre Dame a few years back and, apparently, it’s the date when Leonardo da Vinci was born.

What that Google search probably won’t tell you, though, is it’s also the date Westminster first handed itself powers over energy drilling off Scotland’s coast.

You have to search the internet pretty hard to discover that today is the 60th anniversary of the Continental Shelf Act.

Mightn’t sound very exciting but trust me, it’s important. Because that’s the law which gave Westminster control over “exploration and exploitation” of Scotland’s vast energy resources in the North Sea.

It’s not an anniversary you hear much about – no prizes for guessing why – but it’s about time that we finally did. After all, it’s that very law that has resulted in over £300billion flowing down to the UK Treasury in oil and gas taxation since the 1970s.

You think Scotland has got value for money from that deal? Me neither.

Instead of investing that £300billion in North Sea revenue to build infrastructure, to grow the economy, cut energy bills, tackle poverty or invest in public services, I think it’s pretty fair to say that money has been well and truly squandered by successive Westminster governments.

And it’s fair to say that is as true today as it was 60 years ago.

The bigger point about this anniversary though is that it is as much about our future as it is about the past.

The latest UK Budget set it out in black and white – Westminster will rake in an extra £20.6billion from Scotland’s natural resources in the next five years.

So here’s an idea. Instead of those billions making their merry way down to the Treasury in London, every penny of the taxation that is still to come from the North Sea should be reinvested into growing the green economy and cutting energy bills in Scotland.

That’s what the SNP will be fighting for. Will the other Westminster parties do the same? I wouldn’t be holding my breath. And that’s exactly why Scotland’s energy has to be front and centre of the general election campaign. A vote for the SNP is a vote to put powers over energy in Scotland’s hands, not Westminster’s.

With energy independence, we will do what Labour and the Tories can’t and won’t offer – we’ll make Scotland’s energy work for Scotland, not for Westminster. After 60 years, it shouldn’t and can’t be controversial to say clearly this is Scotland’s energy and must first and foremost benefit the people of Scotland.

That means that in energy-rich Scotland, people shouldn’t be paying some of the highest energy bills in Europe during this cost-of-living crisis.

It means reinvesting Scotland’s energy wealth back into our communities, rather than seeing it flow to Westminster. It means that we can grow the economy, cut energy bills and tackle climate change all at the same time.

The future of our energy goes to the heart of the choice that will come at the general election.

After 60 years, after all that energy and all those billions, who can really argue against the fact that Westminster isn’t working for Scotland. After 60 years, it’s finally time that Scotland’s energy came back into Scotland’s hands.

Climate Change is no joke, especially if you’re Dundee FC. On one side of the road sits a football ground baked in tangerine sunshine, palm trees for corner flags with a league flag soon to be unfurled. in a shadowy land just a matter of yards away lies another stadium. the faded blue colouring does the old ground justice – with typhoon rain bursting through every nook and cranny. if you can still move among the mud don’t celebrate as you’ll soon find yourself trapped in a puddle. On a brighter note, they’ve been searching for national coverage for years and finally got their wish.