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1. Embed this notice
   Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Monday, 16-Mar-2026 00:44:12 JST Ian Betteridge

   I am VERY tempted to write another long post about how the decision in the 1970s not to establish a Norway-style sovereign wealth fund in favour of simply using the oil money to prop up finances at the time, has done more damage to the UK than any other decision in history. LONG THREAD, SORRY.

   • Embed this notice
     Human after all (humanhorseshoes@mastodon.world)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:48:58 JST Human after all

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • BashStKid
     • Highlands & Islands Greens

     @HI_Greens @peterbrown @ianbetteridge @BashStKid Well the lessons are there from Irish independence, they forced us into WW1 with the promise of Home Rule if we fought one last time for the crown and Churchill double crossed us and denied it.

   • Embed this notice
     Highlands & Islands Greens (hi_greens@mastodon.scot)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:48:59 JST Highlands & Islands Greens

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • BashStKid
     • Human after all

     @humanhorseshoes It's a different world now.

     @peterbrown @ianbetteridge @BashStKid

     Kermode repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Human after all (humanhorseshoes@mastodon.world)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:00 JST Human after all

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • BashStKid
     • Highlands & Islands Greens

     @HI_Greens @peterbrown @ianbetteridge @BashStKid I will point you to 1969 Northern Ireland

   • Embed this notice
     Highlands & Islands Greens (hi_greens@mastodon.scot)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:01 JST Highlands & Islands Greens

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • BashStKid
     • Human after all

     @humanhorseshoes If England tried putting uniformed troops on Scottish streets, I GUARANTEE you that would end the union for good.

     @peterbrown @ianbetteridge @BashStKid

   • Embed this notice
     Human after all (humanhorseshoes@mastodon.world)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:02 JST Human after all

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • BashStKid

     @peterbrown @ianbetteridge @BashStKid Given what happened in Ireland would the UK government put troops on the street to maintain the Union? Unequivocally yes.

   • Embed this notice
     Human after all (humanhorseshoes@mastodon.world)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:03 JST Human after all

     in reply to

     • Peter Brown
     • BashStKid

     @peterbrown @ianbetteridge @BashStKid Waves in Ireland

   • Embed this notice
     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:05 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     • BashStKid

     @BashStKid It was for the greater good of the smaller number.

   • Embed this notice
     Peter Brown (peterbrown@mastodon.scot)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:05 JST Peter Brown

     in reply to

     • BashStKid

     @ianbetteridge @BashStKid What is often forgotten is that before the oil started to flow the British government went cap in hand to the IMF for a bailout.
     The UK was bankrupt.
     And as we see oil diminishing both in supply and demand the economy has not changed significantly, so we can expect the UK to be bankrupt again when the oil and gas is finished.

     And that is why they will do everything legal & illegal, moral and immoral to prevent Scotland becoming independent.

   • Embed this notice
     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:06 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     Labour built the institutional architecture to capture public value from a public resource; Thatcher dismantled it, took a short-term cash payment, and handed the long-term revenue stream to private shareholders.

   • Embed this notice
     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:06 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     Norway kept its equivalent. And that is why Norway has the money to subsidise EVs to the point where it barely needs oil for cars, and we do not.

   • Embed this notice
     BashStKid (bashstkid@mastodon.online)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:06 JST BashStKid

     in reply to

     @ianbetteridge If you look at the detail, Thatcher was even more unnecessarily generous to the companies than that. Never been able to work out why.

   • Embed this notice
     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:07 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     BNOC was created by Harold Wilson's government in 1975, specifically to give the British state a direct stake in North Sea extraction rather than leaving it entirely to private multinationals like BP and Shell. It was our equivalent of Norway's Statoil, established around the same time.

   • Embed this notice
     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:07 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     And of course the government freed itself in stages from all its equity in BP: 51% state ownership in 1977, down to 46% in 1981, 31.5% in 1983, and fully privatised in 1987.

   • Embed this notice
     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:08 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     Oil revenues were used to cut taxes for business and the wealthy and to fund benefits during a wave of industrial closures. The oil money paid for tax cuts at the top and the benefits at the bottom. Despite Thatcher’s reputation as a prudent manager of finance, no money was set aside for the future.

   • Embed this notice
     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:08 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     The government could afford a long confrontation with the miners because it had both the fiscal cushion and an alternative energy supply. Without North Sea gas, a miners' strike long enough to threaten power generation would have been genuinely dangerous to the government's survival.

   • Embed this notice
     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:08 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     And then, to complete the insanity, Thatcher privatised the industry generating the revenues that were funding the whole operation. The British National Oil Company (BNOC) was privatised in two phases in 1982 and 1985.

   • Embed this notice
     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:09 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     Without it, Thatcherism would have been impossible. No oil money, and the welfare bill for mass unemployment would have been unsustainable. Without that unemployment, union power couldn’t have been broken, and privatisation would have been far harder.

   • Embed this notice
     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Mar-2026 07:49:09 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     It was oil revenues that bankrolled the unemployment, the destruction of manufacturing, the high exchange rate, the termination of British coal mining, and the big bang that turned London into arguably THE capital of global neoliberalism.