An oil fund? That’s just like taking money out with a credit card then putting it into your savings account
ALEX Salmond’s plans for independence are ‘like borrowing money from your credit card to put into your savings account,’ Alistair Darling said yesterday.
The Better Together chairman derided the First Minister’s plans to fund Scottish independence with North Sea oil.
Mr Salmond wants to create a giant savings scheme from the proceeds of North Sea oil revenues.
But Mr Darling said there would not be enough money to cover Scotland’s public services bill, let alone create an oil fund. As a result, an independent Scotland would have to borrow hundreds of millions of pounds just to set up the fund.
He said: ‘It is like borrowing money on your credit card to put into your savings account.’
In attacking the SNP’s oil fund plans, Mr Darling signalled a new phase in the referendum debate. It is now clear the Unionists intend to make oil a central part of their campaign, believing the SNP vulnerable.
This latest row over oil started when Finance Secretary John Swinney said yesterday that an independent Scotland would have the potential to start an oil fund on ‘day one’ of independence.
He added: ‘If we pursue the policies only an independent Scotland will be able to pursue, then we can deliver an oil fund from the point of independence and secure an economic bonus that can only be delivered by independence.’
The SNP actually wants to create two funds: one for money that could be put aside in the good years to allow for the years when oil revenues decline; and a longer-term fund to help prepare for the days when the oil runs out.
But it would take hundreds of millions to set up these funds, money that Mr Darling insisted last night simply would not exist.
Mr Darling said: ‘In 22 of the past 23 years, Scotland has spent more than it has raised in taxes. All the money that was raised has been spent on public services in Scotland. The Scottish Government wants to set up an oil fund but, from their own figures, in order to set up a fund they would have to borrow that money to establish that fund. It makes no sense to borrow money to set up a fund. You would not be setting up an oil fund, but a borrowing fund.’
UK Government ministers will launch a paper this week which they claim will show once and for all how much Scotland benefits financially from being in the Union. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander will publish the paper, which will bring together facts and figures from different sectors and show how much each Scots stands to lose from leaving the United Kingdom.
Mr Alexander described this yesterday as ‘the UK dividend’ and said he would continue pushing this point until the referendum.