UK industrial sabotage
Can only be stopped by ending the union
In January, Graham Stuart, UK Minister of Energy Security and Net Zero, refused to intervene to prevent Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos from closing Scotland’s only oil refinery, which posted profits of £107 million last year. He claimed saving Grangemouth wouldn’t be “a sensible use of British taxpayers’ money.” The plan is to turn it into an import and export oil terminal facility with the loss of 2500 jobs, making Scotland the only nation in the top 25 oil producing nations without a refinery.
Yet the UK Department for Business and Trade is offering hundreds of millions in “support funds” for Ineos’ new plant in Antwerp, Belgium to refine Scottish oil instead of doing it here. Just £60-80 million is needed to fix Grangemouth’s hydrocracker which would improve productivity and increase profitability three-fold.
During January’s parliamentary debate, Alba MP Kenny MacAskill revealed another absurdity - North Sea oil isn’t even refined at Grangemouth! This is “despite the pipleline for the Forties fields coming ashore at Cruden Bay and then being pipelined on to Grangemouth.” Nearly all the oil “refined at the plant is brought in on tanker from elsewhere… North Sea oil is transported to other refineries” in the UK or abroad.
Oil and gas will be needed for some time to come as we transition to renewables. And Westminster knows it. In 2022/23 the UK Treasury raked in £9 billion from Scottish oil and gas and is expected to take in over £10 billion this year. Over the next 5 years, North Sea oil will provide £50 billion to UK coffers.
The British State is committing industrial sabotage to weaken our economy and sap our will, a well-known colonial tactic. And the Scottish administration is passively letting it happen.
It’s up to the Scottish People to end this disastrous union.
Are you a member of Salvo/Liberation? If so, you should ask them what they are planning and how many people have signed the Edinburgh Proclamation.
For my part, I'm working with the Independence Forum Scotland (IFS). There are plans to organise a National Convention in November to chart a way ahead. Check out their website: https://independenceforum.scot
There's also a perfect opportunity to make our voices heard on 23 April at the Scottish Parliament's public debate on the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform Bill, aka the Juryless trial bill, that proposes two changes to the Scottish constitution - doing away with trial by jury in rape cases and abolishing the Not Proven verdict. ScotGov and the Criminal Justice Committee are ramming this through WITHOUT the consent of the Scottish People. We are demanding a referendum under the Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020.
Prior to April 23, you should send an email to your MSP. Here's what I sent to Daniel Johnson. (unfortunately he is my MSP). Feel free to use as much of this as you want. By the way, the various Salvo hubs should have organised or should currently be organising its members to do something like this and then to show up en masse on April 23rd at 2 pm:
Dear Daniel,
You may recall that I wrote to you last year about the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill (VWJR), requesting that it be subject to a national referendum.
Now that the VWJR Bill has progressed to Stage 1, I am following up to repeat my request that it be subject to a national referendum under the Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020. That's because VWJR proposes fundamental changes to Scotland’s constitution - juryless trials for rape cases and abolishing the not proven verdict.
As I'm sure you're aware, under Scotland’s system of Popular Sovereignty, constitutional changes must be subject to approval by the Scottish People. The Scottish Government endorsed this when it said, “A constitution … should not be vulnerable to change at the whim of the government of the day or of a simple majority in parliament.” I trust you agree with this.
Furthermore, Article 25 of the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the UK in 1976, states that direct political rights such as referenda are a fundamental right of all citizens. This fundamental right can already be applied to devolved matters, such as the VWJR Bill, as provided for by the Referendums (Scotland) Act 2020.
Please confirm that you acknowledge the foregoing and will therefore support a public referendum.
Furthermore, please let me know if you plan to attend the public parliamentary debate on the VWJR Bill to be held on 23rd April at 2 pm. I intend to be there.
In the meantime, I would be grateful if you would remind the Scottish Government and Criminal Justice Committee of their duty to consult the Scottish People by means of a referendum.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Leah Gunn Barrett
I fully agree with you that it is the people of Scotland who must end the corrupt Union with England and would like to see this happen soon.
I have been trying recently to get some traction for the idea, bed on Salvo research, that the people of Scotland have the right, now at this moment, to state that we are not subject to laws and policies imposed by Westminster which we do not agree with. However several attempts to post comments to this effect, for example on Iain Lawson's Yours for Scotland blog and on Barrhead Boy, despite that following a spirited discussion including contributions from Eva Comrie abd Lloyd Quinlan who were stating similar views. I did have some success commenting on this idea on Peter Bell but would like to see more discussion of how we can use our traditional Sovereignty of the people and the Scottish Right of Crown, also researched by Salvo, which means that the lzbd I'd Scotland and its resources belong to the people, and not to the Britisg government which has illegally used them for the benefit of England, and do impoverishing Scots.
How do we get sufficient Scottish people mobilised to tell Westminster to right this longstanding, illegal theft of our resources? Have Salvo and Liberation.scot signed up enough people for us to make a stand on this?
I feel the time is urgent if we are to succeed in saving the Grangemouth Refinery and prevent the imposition of 'Free Ports' which will further impoverish our land and people, as well,as reclaiming our energy assets, currently being used by England while Scots families suffer from fuel poverty and the highest electricity prices in Europe despite living close to where that power is generated.
I would very much like to know your thoughts and suggestions on this topic.
Arayner1936@gmail.com