Taxi Driver Online

That reality the same as the past reality?

THEY say age brings wisdom but we should also add honesty.

There’s nothing to lose once you’re past 90, so you might as well tell it like it is. That’s why the interview with former UK Labour chancellor Denis Healey is so important.

The man whose bushy eyebrows once entertained millions courtesy of the impressionist Mike Yarwood is now aged 96 and still very sharp.

He says the Treasury covered up the extent of Scotland’s oil wealth because they were terrified the truth would give us the confidence to become an independent country.

This says a lot about the present, as well as the past.

The British state will go to any lengths to preserve itself and the privileges of the people who run it.

That includes Westminster MPs and Treasury mandarins.

If the Treasury told lies for decades about the oil, are they likely to change their habits now, with a referendum on independence next year?

The Treasury is a branch of the No campaign run by the Tory-led Government at Westminster – with Labour’s Alistair Darling as a frontman.

Nothing it says can be considered impartial. This week it published yet another “report” claiming this time that savings will be jeopardised if we take control of our own affairs.

A first draft seen by the Scottish Government was based on scaremongering about an independent Scotland losing its triple-A credit rating and paying more for mortgages.

Then the UK lost its triple-A credit rating because of London’s economic mismanagement – so the paper was quickly rewritten to focus on savings.

In fact, world bank reforms mean that deposits will be protected across national boundaries.

And Scotland is less dependent on financial services than the rest of the UK – they contribute 8.3 per cent to our national wealth compared with 9.6 per cent in the UK.

We are perfectly capable of guaranteeing savings. The Treasury paper is pure fiction – just like their lies that under-value massive oil reserves.

In the 1970s, a government economist called Gavin McCrone wrote a report saying an independent Scotland would be as rich as Switzerland – but it was kept secret for 30 years.

Now Healey, who was chancellor during the “It’s Scotland’s Oil” campaign of the 1970s, says: “I think we did underplay the value of the oil because of the threat of nationalism.”

He says it was Margaret Thatcher who reaped the benefits and used oil wealth to fund her destructive policies that threw millions out of work. Healey doesn’t think much has changed: “I think they [Westminister politicians] are concerned about Scotland taking the oil, I think they are worried stiff about it.

“We would suffer enormously if the income from Scottish oil stopped but if the Scots wanted it (independence) they should have it and we would just need to adjust. I would think Scotland would survive perfectly well, economically.”

Lord Healey adds that accusations Scotland is subsidised by the rest of the UK are wrong and that we pay our fair share. He thinks keeping the pound as the currency of an independent Scotland would benefit England too.

Healey is of Irish descent and considers independence a “natural desire”. He might have also added that it was the “natural desire” of the privileged British establishment to stop the Scots. And there is nothing they will not do, no lies they will not tell, to achieve their ambition.

JOAN McAlpine

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/opinion/ne ... es-1901410

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Yet another long winded response plucked from obscurity and with little relevance to what people are actually wanting and will in reality vote for...

Nothing obscure about it. Unionsts have been lying for the last 40 years, and Healey has said so.
Now why should anyone believe that has changed?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

And now your believing the very people you distrust, old Healeys memory is probably playing tricks with him, he wasnt a very good Chancellor of the Exchequer it was he who got us into so much Debt in the first place, why would anyone in their right mind listen to his inane utterings now?

Shame what he said is backed up by Gavin McCrone's report

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/