Labour as culpable as anyone for giving away Scotland’s oil and gas wealth

William Ballantine is telling a whopper when he says the SNP was deceitful by quoting North Sea oil at $113 a barrel (“Pair of whoppers”, Letters, 8 July) when in fact Brent crude was at $114 in July 2014 and the White Paper on Scotland’s future was predicated on an oil price of $110 at a time when the UK’S department of energy and climate change predicted it could hit $130 a barrel by 2017.

Since 1971 Norway and the UK have extracted roughly the same amount of oil and gas from the North Sea, but Norway has raised almost three times more in direct taxation before any sovereign wealth fund profits.

Norway didn’t set up its oil fund until 1990 and that is now worth around US$1,000 billion.

While Brian Wilson is right to blame the Tories for getting rid of BNOC (The Scotsman, 7 July), Labour had 13 years to renationalise Scotland’s oil industry or at least ensure all new fields were under state control, particularly when 12 months after Labour came to office in 1997 Brent crude fell to as low as $10 a barrel. Therefore Labour is just as culpable of giving away Scotland’s massive oil and gas wealth.

Despite the loss of 100,000 energy jobs, Scottish unemployment is at a 40-year low, and below that of the UK, while the number of people employed in Scotland is at an all-time high.

Under the SNP, the number of modern apprenticeships has doubled and the number of university graduates finding employment or in further courses is at a record high, plus Scotland, with a GDP four times higher than the UK, is the most successful place for inward investment outside London and the south-east.

FRASER GRANT Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh In his letter on SNP projections on the price of oil, William Ballantine (8 July) quotes Brian Wilson and accuses the SNP of deceit.

This is hardly unusual, as we know that Messrs Wilson and Ballantine have never knowingly uttered a good word about the SNP. This perhaps also explains why both choose to ignore the fact that UK government projections for oil prices at the time were higher than the SNP’S.

However, Mr Ballantine cannot mention this because that would entail a Unionist accusing the UK government of deceit. The reality is that everyone, including the Office for Budget Responsibility and the Treasury, failed to foresee the oil crash and got the projected revenues badly wrong.

Singular among them is the SNP, who are accused of a conspiracy to deceive.

GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburgh