| Topic: | Now the oil price has crashed, their silence is deafening. | |
| Posted by: | Sam Hearn | |
| Date/Time: | 23/12/14 12:35:00 |
| Projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which take into account plummeting prices put oil revenues at £1.25 billion in 2016/17 - the first year of independence had Scotland voted Yes - instead of the £6.9 billion predicted by the Nationalists during the campaign. Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the country would have faced "financial meltdown" in the event of independence. She said: "The SNP told the people of Scotland that the oil price would rise, it would stay high and there would be so much surplus revenue, Scotland could afford an oil fund for the future as well as finance all of the Scottish Government's day-to-day spending commitments as well. "Expert after expert pointed out how fanciful this was - and yet Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney insisted a new oil boom was on the way. It was nonsense then and it is nonsense now. "It was the worst kind of deceit to try and bribe voters before the referendum and it is to Scotland's great credit that the majority voters saw through their fantasy economics. "Now the oil price has crashed, their silence is deafening. "It's time for them to acknowledge the deception they were trying to spread and to work to save the North Sea jobs now under threat from the hard realities of a volatile world oil market." Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: "Imagine if Scotland had voted Yes in September. The first days of creating a new nation would have been mayhem. As part of the UK we are able to protect the NHS and other public services and provide tax incentives to support jobs." |