A bedtime story for unionists

Published in The Scotsman, December 19th, 2024.

According to Jill Stephenson and Hugh Pennington (letters, Dec 18), Scots are poor, badly educated, prone to obesity and survive on handouts from the colonial overlord. Their contempt for Scotland is palpable.

Here’s a bedtime story which may make them reflect a wee bit. Once upon a time, there was a country of five million people that was ruled over by its larger neighbour. This bigger neighbour stole its natural resources and kept the people subjugated and poor. Then one day, the people decided that they’d had enough and declared their independence. They took pride in their language and culture and controlled their economy and resources. They forged a strong and proud national identity.

Then something wonderful happened fifty years after independence - they discovered oil in their waters. They decided that this good fortune should be shared by all the people. So they created a fund to ensure prosperity not just for themselves but for future generations. Today that fund is worth $1.8 trillion, $200,000 for each person, and is 4 times the size of the nation’s GDP. This small nation is the world’s richest and is using its vast renewable resources for the people, too.

There’s another nation of five million that’s been ruled by its larger neighbour for over 300 years. It, too, found oil in its waters but it was stolen by the ruler who, rather than keeping it for the people, sold it to private companies and foreign governments. It used the £67bn from the sale to cut taxes for the wealthiest while cutting public investment. The people grew poorer. The rich grew richer. The small nation’s people pay the highest electricity prices in the world and are dying from the cold. Their culture and language are denigrated by their ruler and their renewables are being sold to the same foreign interests.

The highly educated Ms Stephenson and Professor Pennington should be able to understand this story’s moral.