TottsJan 22
Some of you are too young to remember when we found the 'black gold' in the North Sea ....
Show threadPeter BrownJan 23
@Geri no debt? Before the oil started to flow the UK had to go for a bailout to the IMF.
The UK was bankrupt.
No wonder Westminster doesn’t want to shut the oil off because they realise the UK will be bankrupt once again because they’ve pissed it all up against the wall wall, unlike Norway.
Show threadTottsJan 23

@peterbrown

The sterling crisis was in 1976

My post references

Ekofisk field (1969) in the Norwegian sector and the massive Forties field (1970)

Show threadPeter BrownJan 23

@Geri yes those discoveries were gamechangers. But they only actually started to flow just after Denis Healy and the labour government lost the election.
Margaret Thatcher’s golden handshake was the oil flowing into her coffers. Denis Healy was quoted as saying that if the oil had started to flow six months earlier, they would not have lost the election.

People thought “Thatcherism” was the source of the UK‘s improving economy. It wasn’t.
It was oil.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/3/newsid_2538000/2538155.stm

BBC ON THIS DAY | 3 | 1975: North Sea oil begins to flow

The Queen has formally begun the operation of the UK's first oil pipeline at a £500,000 ceremony in Scotland.

Show threadTottsJan 23

@peterbrown yes, you are not wrong, Peter. The early 70s is a period that should be looked into more. The majority of historical research concerns itself with the latter half of the decade.

Xx

Show threadPeter Brown
@Geri it was pure chance that I happen to remember listening to an interview with Denis Healy before he died and that was what he said. If he’d had the oil six months earlier, he wouldn’t have lost the next election to Margaret Thatcher. It was a comment that stuck with me because it has a massive impact on Scottish independence.
Jan 23 at 9:48pmWeb
Show threadTottsJan 23
@peterbrown I am so sorry for not following you before now as you write interesting stuff.
Show threadPeter BrownJan 23
@Geri how kind of you to say so ☺️
Thank you! 🙏