SSP Research, Policy & Media Unit
Press Release: 15/08/05
Scottish Socialist Party national convenor Colin Fox MSP today called for the estimated £1.6 billion windfall in tax revenues that the Treasury will receive because of the high price of oil to be returned to Scotland for a massive programme of investment in public transport.
Colin said;
“The Scottish Socialist Party campaigns for an independent socialist Scotland which would nationalise North Sea oil to allow the Scottish people to benefit from a resource which is theirs by rights, enabling a complete transformation of Scotland through an end to poverty and a massive programme of public works.
“With oil selling at over £36 a barrel, the Treasury in London is set for a windfall of some £1.6 billion of which Scotland will receive just 10 percent.
“This is theft on a scale which the Enron directors could only dream of; Scotland’s oil resources are being pillaged by the Westminster government while millions of Scots are forced daily to contend with a public transport system that is just not up to the mark.
“While we are regularly told that we must use the car less, for hundreds of thousands of Scots there is absolutely no alternative because of the hopeless inadequacy of the public transport system.
“We live in a country that produces over two million barrels of oil a day and yet we have some of the most expensive petrol prices in Europe and a public transport system that leaves no option for people in areas outwith the central belt to do anything other than run cars that are increasingly expensive to keep on the road.
“The £1.6 billion windfall the Treasury gets from the high price of oil must be returned to Scotland and invested in public transport, allowing Scots to travel cheaply and safely and making a real difference to the environment.”
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