Don't get fooled again!

 

© Daily Telegraph

Would you buy a used windmill from either of these men?

Thir's nae mony fa ken aboot thon

 Early in the summer of 1975 the semi-submersible drilling rig Ocean Kokuei was working in the East Shetland Basin off the coast of Scotland. Whilst drilling it found signs of a hydrocarbon deposit and ran electric logs to confirm this. This well or borehole was the second on the Ninian Field which had been discovered in 1974.

Ocean Kokuei

          The purpose of these appraisal wells was to give an indication of the physical extent of the oilfield and help in the tricky business of estimating how much oil could be produced. The Ninian Field had three pay-zones or sandstone areas containing oil; one above the other. Instead of drilling through the three areas of interest Burmah Oil suspended the operation. The well was left in a condition where it could be re-entered at a later date. Burmah Oil with a 21 per cent share were the largest contributor to a consortium which included British Petroleum (B.P.) with 9 per cent.¹ Murphy Oil also had a small stake; Murphy Oil owned Ocean Drilling and Exploration Company (ODECO); who owned and operated the Ocean Kokuei.

The rig was then moved to a location off Aberdeen, probably in May 1975 where it drilled another borehole that was not related to Burmah’s financial woes. Denis Thatcher retired from his post as an Executive Director responsible for organization and planning with Burmah Oil around that time.² While the rig was still off Aberdeen, Burmah, on behalf of the consortium, released a downgraded estimate of the size of the Ninian Field’s recoverable reserves: down from 1,200 – 1,500 million barrels to 1,000 million barrels.³ It is my contention that this information was deliberately misleading. The article in The Times went on to say: “It is obvious that the field will continue to be developed but it will no longer be a bonanza to the participants, …” Burmah shares were worth £4.98 at one point in 1974; by June 1975 they were trading around 30p each.⁴ The Burmah shareholders had lost (or been defrauded from) a lot of money.

During the summer of 1975 Burmah experienced serious financial difficulties. Their share in the Ninian Field was sold to Chevron. Chevron became the operator on behalf of the consortium. In August/September the Ocean Kokuei returned to the suspended borehole and completed the work. With all three pay-zones drilled, Chevron were able to conduct a very successful well-test. During all these imperial machinations an expensive pipe-laying-barge had continued to lay a pipeline to the Ninian Field.⁵

It is nearly fifty years since I was a teenage Roustabout on the Ocean Kokuei. I am still puzzled by the Burmah Phenomenon: how an established, successful enterprise in a developed country became the only company ever to discover oil and become insolvent.

 

© Louis Mair 2024 (text only)

 

References

1 “Another N Sea firm in deal with state …The two major participants in the Ninian project – Burmah with a 21 per cent holding and British Petroleum, with 9 per cent - …” The Scotsman August 6^th 1975, p3.

2 “Mr Thatcher retiring from Burmah Oil Mr Denis Thatcher, … is to retire at the end of the month from the Burmah Oil Co in Swindon. He is an executive director responsible for organization and planning of Burmah Oil Trading, a post said to have a salary of £15,000 a year.” The Times May 3^rd 1975, p17.

3 “Brokers’ report downgrades Ninian oil field Ninian, the North Sea oil field in which Burmah Oil, British Petroleum and ICI are the main participants must be regarded as a “marginal” proposition on the basis of the latest reserve estimates and cash flow forecasts, say stockbrokers Wood, Mackenzie, … After appraisal … of wells 3/3-4 and 3/3-5, … it appears that the reserve estimate has been downgraded to around 1,000m barrels from around 1,200m barrels to 1,500m barrels.” The Times July 17^th 1975, p17.

4 The Times October 28^th 1975, p20.

5 “BP and Iranian Oil make North Sea find … Meanwhile, through a statement released by Ranger Oil, Canada in Calgary. BP said that more than one third of the pipeline from the Ninian field - … - has been laid." The Times October 28^th 1975, p15.

 

Salvo's North-East Hub or The Brian Allan Show

 My purpose in writing this piece is not to cause distress to the Alec Salmond Fan Club. My reservations about Mr. Salmond are clearly expressed in Settler Watch Lynn and the Road to Devolunion; https://troostories.blogspot.com/. My purpose in this piece is to tell of a well-intentioned attempt to support the pro-independence claims of Salvo.

          By trying to make something work you find out more about it. After five months of frustrated effort I complained to the High-Heid Yins of Salvo about their organisational structure and the way in which it worked to waste the energy of anyone who genuinely believed that Scotland should return to the fold of sovereign nation states.

On the 7^th May 2023 the Salvo Secretary, Jan Hendry sent an electronic document to those who had joined Salvo in an area from Dundee to Forres. This document was a call to form Salvo’s North-East Hub at a Meeting in Aberdeen. The document of 7^th May had a draft constitution attached and a list of positions to be filled by willing Members.

          The Meeting was organised and overseen by Brian Allan who introduced himself as an activist with Aye Aberdeen. The Meeting duly appointed four office-bearers. Leigh Dubbels took responsibility for the Convener/Coordinator role; Wilma Bruce, Treasurer; Brian Allan, Membership Secretary; Louis Mair (author), Minutes Secretary.

          A few days later I looked in my in-box for the document of the 7^th May as an aid to writing a draft minute. I found a similarly styled document dated 8^th May. This document also purported to have come from Jan Hendry. The 8^th May document had a significantly different list of office-bearers. No-one at the 9^th May Meeting had mentioned these alternative posts. I wrote to the Salvo Secretary asking for clarity.

          Some days passed before Jan Hendry replied. I was told that my query had caused the Salvo secretary some confusion; the document had been composed and sent by someone else. My next attempt at writing the draft minute involved a more careful look at my electronic in-box. I found the 7^th May document but when I opened it the list of Hub positions was not as I remembered it. My rough notes agreed with my memory. I asked a friend if you could alter an e-mail once it was in the recipient’s in-box. I was assured that this could not be done. I then wrote to Jan Hendry to ask for clarity. The Salvo secretary told me that the document had been edited. Jan Hendry was exceedingly vague about who had edited the document which looked like an e-mail but was not an e-mail.

          I cannot say with certainty who forged the 8^th May document. I can however speak five languages and everything I know about literary criticism suggests that Brian Allan is the prime suspect. I cannot say with certainty who edited the 7^th May document; once again I suspect that it was Brian Allan. My draft minute contains Hub posts that cannot be traced in the paperwork.

In June 2023 the North-East Hub’s Membership Secretary organised an admin-team meeting. Three of the four Hub Officers were present with a fourth figure by video conference. It was not clear what the Membership Secretary wished to discuss. The Convener/Coordinator was keen to tell me that she had given up the Convener’s duties and was now a Coordinator. It seemed probable that Leigh Dubbels had been schooled in this confused piece of thinking. I suggested that Miss Dubbels should resign from her post if she no longer wished to take the responsibility. I then asked Brian Allan what post he held with Salvo’s central organisation. Mr. Allan said, reluctantly, that he was a member of the “Core Group”. I had to leave to catch a bus, forgetting to ask the name of the lady on the video-link.

          Not long afterwards I learned that a Researcher had been appointed and her name was Dot Jessiman. This appointment was clearly not a Hub appointment. The name sounded familiar and I found it in a circa November 1993 newspaper cutting. A Dot Jessiman had been involved in a publicity stunt which benefitted Alec Salmond. In 1993 Alec Salmond had achieved favourable press reports in both the Scotsman and the Press and Journal over his association with New Scots for Independence. This hollow sham was fronted by Dot Jessiman. New Scots for Independence was never heard of again. Alec Salmond claimed to be leading the SNP towards Scottish independence. The Scotsman and the Press and Journal are virulently empire-loyalist newspapers. Dot Jessiman is currently a member of Alec Salmond’s Alba Party.

I was unable to attend the July “Admin Team Meeting”. It was around this time that Brian Allan claimed that he had become the ‘Chair’, presumably of the Admin Team.

           For the August Meeting the entire Hub was invited and an agenda was sent out by Leigh Dubbels. Item 1 on the agenda was the appointment of a Chair and a Secretary. This was achieved very promptly and the Meeting moved on to the kind of chaotic discussion that had been a feature of the May Meeting. The agenda was completely forgotten. Brian Allan gave the Meeting a long ramble about the need to copy leaflets given him by the central organisation. This led to the rapid appointment of two people who seemed to have known that this was coming. They were designated Chief and Deputy Clerk. It looked to me as though Brian Allan had created non-jobs for two of his cronies.

          In September there was a “Bonfire of the Vanities” night on the 18th. The Aberdeen clique around Brian Allan organised a bonfire on a river bank near the beach. It is a spot where people often light fires and no-one who saw it would have thought it unusual. I am not sure how many bonfires were lit between Dundee and Forres by the 400 Members of Salvo’s North-East Hub. I organised a bonfire on Tap o Noth, a prominent hill near Rhynie. I took a photograph of this fire and on the 19th September I shared my picture with the North-East Hub’s facebook page. My photo was approved for others to see by Brian Allan (Admin); on the 29th September. If you wanted to minimise the impact of a campaign that is how you would do it.

          In August I had attended a North-East Hub Meeting. The Hub appointed Dave Greig to the position of Chair. The new Chair was enthusiastic about his role which he saw as that of a secretary, much in the way that Brian Allan understood the structure of organisations.

          As far as I can re-construct the story of my exclusion from the September Hub Meeting it runs as follows: the Chair, Dave Greig, wrote an invitation to all Members to attend a Meeting on the 14th September. As he did not have access to the Hub’s mailing-list he entrusted his mailing to Brian Allan to send out. Dave Greig would have been pleased to receive a copy of his own mailing on the 11th, he would have had good reason to assume that Brian Allan had sent the mailing to all the Members.

           However Brian Allan had deleted my name from the mailing-list before informing everyone else about the Meeting. On the afternoon of the 14th September Brian Allan seems to have phoned Dave Greig to ask him to contact me by telephone to ensure that I knew about the Meeting. Brian Allan had my telephone number, Dave Greig did not. Brian Allan knew that I lived 25 miles away from Aberdeen, Dave Greig did not. Dave Greig sent me a text-message telling me about the Meeting, three hours before it began.

          I then phoned Dave Greig and was assured that I had been told about the Meeting by e-mail on the 11th September. I had been looking for something else on the 12th and knew this to be untrue. Ten minutes after the end of my call to Dave Greig I missed a call from Brian Allan. When I called him back he had nothing to tell me.

          By these Machiavellian manoeuvres Brian Allan could claim that I had been informed about the Meeting but I had chosen not to attend. To his lasting credit Dave Greig resigned from the position of Chair shortly thereafter. I have previously been involved with organisations which degenerated into cults of personality. They were always unable to pursue their stated aims.

          Salvo has a constitution which mentions a Core Group, two Guardians and a number of Stewards. How these people are appointed and the relationships between them are not available in writing. In practice without some unseen power in the background the organisation could not work. In pursuing the constitutional path towards independence, Salvo does not work.

          Salvo’s published material does not challenge the great lie about the Holyrood Assembly. There is no constitutional link between the colonial assembly at Holyrood and our 1706 Parliament. There is no link between the Holyrood Assembly and Scotland’s constitution. Tony Blair was being honest (for a politician) when he likened the Holyrood Assembly to a Parish Council. Mr Blair did not say ‘English Parish Council’ but his audience would have understood him; hopefully at lest one hundred Scots will also understand him.

          The people I interacted with and learned about during my five months with Salvo’s North-East Hub were mostly supporters of Alec Salmond. The money to pay for Salvo’s expensive glossy leaflets may well be coming from the generous pension that a grateful Emperor of London pays to Mr Salmond. Like Aye Aberdeen, Salvo seems, to me, to be a hollow sham that will attempt to divert our energy into constitutional cul-de-sacs. Other similar new, improved and allegedly pro-independence organisations are springing up at an alarming rate. If you want to take part in a just struggle you should find out about them and be quietly and politely sceptical.

A Cross for Saint Andrew

 

Settler Watch Lynn and the Road to Devolunion

In late February or early March of 1993 a small poster appeared at the foot of Mairs Street in Portknockie on Scotland’s Moray Firth coast. This was the first of many Settler Watch posters that would be attached with wallpaper paste to suitable surfaces; mostly in Strathmore and the North-East of Scotland. Putting up these posters was a breach of the law on fly-posting; an offence which was seldom prosecuted. Settler Watch did not breach the Race Relations Act because “We aa all Bwittish” was the imperial line; at that time. Settler Watch did not breach the rules for membership of the Scottish National Party; it had been designed with the SNP’s constitution in mind. Settler Watch put pressure on a shady organisation called Siol-nan-gaidheal to take action rather than making threats. I know the above to be true because I was that SNP Brechin Branch Secretary; I stuck up that first poster.

Warning by The Colonial Office: 

The Race Relations Act has changed since 1993

          The detail from the first paragraph that is important to an understanding of a long, involved tale is the date. Settler Watch was an active, campaigning organisation in March 1993. Late in March Settler Watch made its press debut. On the 25^th March 1993 the front page of the Kirriemuir Herald carried a story about Settler Watch. Two subsequent editions (April) of this weekly newspaper published letters on the subject of Settler Watch.

          By May the empire had begun to strike back. Three imperial stooges in the South-West of Scotland founded Scottish Watch. The empire, acting through auxiliaries, had chosen to create a bogus organisation with a name that was designed to create confusion in the ranks of any potentially “webbelious” inhabitants of the rich Jockinese colony. This is a standard practice of the London Empire. Scottish Watch’s first action was to distribute leaflets at an SNP event. This was designed to provoke the leader of the SNP. A leader who was unaware that the SNP had a constitution. A leader whose loyalty to the SNP’s talk of Scottish independence needs to be questioned.

          Settler Watch had not been idle during this period. We were recruiting activists and distributing posters, sponges and tubs of wallpaper paste. We acquired an old photocopier and had it repaired by a Brechin patriot. This was a self-contained, low-budget response to the concerns that the voters of North Angus had been expressing on their doorsteps. Our activists were told that they should not target individuals and that publicly-owned items like road-signs and telegraph-poles were ideal places to stick posters. For the most part our activists were disciplined and genuinely risked their reputations to pursue the goal of re-asserting Scotland’s sovereignty.

          During March and April our recruits were usually SNP Members who had been or were members of Siol-nan-gaidheal. An Aberdeen Branch of Siol-nan-Gaidheal had fallen out with the Central Belt leadership. In defiance of the leadership they had given their entire funds to Gaelic-medium education. Siol-nan-gaidheal is probably still making hollow boasts about this modest transaction. Andy McIntosh was one of these ex-Siol Members. He was atypical as a Settler Watch activist as he was not an SNP Member. Andy McIntosh was a former territorial army (imperial) soldier who was involved in the macho (but legal) world of gun clubs.

          In March 1993 Andy McIntosh told us he had a collection of letters written to the press about the potential problems for Scotland of a colonial settlement modelled on the Irish Plantation. In those far-off days there was a time-honoured tradition of publishing the names and addresses of anyone whose letter was printed in a newspaper. Settler Watch would change that. Andy McIntosh proposed and Settler Watch accepted that he would send out starter-packs of Settler Watch posters with a covering-letter. These packs invited potential sympathisers to copy and stick up Settler Watch posters.

          It was Andy McIntosh who introduced Sonja Cameron to Settler Watch. Sonja was a recent graduate of Aberdeen University, like her friend Lynn Conway. By May Andy McIntosh had lost interest in Settler Watch’s moderate and broad-based approach. However he lent his car to Sonja and Lynn and they went out on the 2nd May to break the law on fly-posting. The two young ladies were apprehended by officers of Grampian Police. They were charged with the misdemeanour of fly-posting.

          The case was called before Stonehaven Sherriff Court on September 10^th 1993. Much had happened in the intervening months. From April until the 23rd of July there had been a complete silence in the imperial media on the subject of Settler Watch. It is reasonable to assume that this press censorship was imposed by means of a ‘D’ notice to newspaper editors. Lynn had quietly resigned from her job to spare her employer any embarrassment; Sonja continued to work as a television presenter. Persons unknown had acquired Andy McIntosh’s starter-packs and re-directed them to people who were not potential Settler Watch sympathisers.

          Stonehaven Sherriff Court found both Sonja and Lynn guilty of fly-posting. Sonja was fined £50 and the unemployed Lynn was fined £30. This is where the story becomes a little strange and the power of imperial spin trumps rational thinking.

          The imperial press unleashed a diatribe of racist abuse on Sonja. Lynn was so completely forgotten that one newspaper editor referred to her as “the other woman”. Yet in reality it was Settler Watch Lynn who should have been the big story. In May of 1993 Lynn Conway worked as a full-time Research Assistant for a prominent North-East politician. When Lynn Conway was apprehended over Settler Watch posters she worked for Alec Salmond.

          Although Alec Salmond knew nothing about Lynn’s nocturnal activities it is strange that not one editor ever mentioned his name. If the imperial power had wished to end Alec Salmond’s political career in September 1993 they had everything they needed to do so. Instead they chose to end Sonja’s career as a newsreader. If Alec Salmond had been any kind of a threat to imperial control of the rich  Jockinese colony things would have been different.

          Alec Salmond went on to lead most of the Scottish National Party into the constitutional cul-de-sac of devolunion. Alec Salmond continues to get a good press in the empire’s latest project to split the pro-independence vote. Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation.  

Edward Bruce; Will ye no cum bak again?

     As the dust has settled on Alec Salmond's 2014 independence referendum it is clear that we shall be held in colonial servitude for at least one more generation. Under the constitution of Unitedkingdomland a generation can be as long as they want it to be. It is time to re-appraise our strengths and weaknesses. A time to mull over historical episodes from our collective past and see if they might help us towards a future.

    On the road between Turriff and Banff there is a small village called King Edward. This was once a strategically important area. Robert Bruce captured and destroyed a Comyn castle in the vicinity. Edward Bruce was Robert's stronger and healthier brother. He claimed to be King of Ireland as part of a proxy war with the imperial power on our doorstep. Edward Bruce died in Ireland and Robert's daughter Margaret founded the Stewart dynasty. King Edward is a memorial to a man who could have been King of Scots.

Edward Bruce's coat-of-arms
By MyChevalier - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98554076

    Scottish diplomacy has been involved in Ireland in the past; it may be that Ireland is the stepping-stone to the survival of one of Europe's oldest nations. It is our clearly expressed collective will to have a closed trading relationship with the European Union. Any diplomatic and economic moves that strengthen our relationship with Dublin will be to our advantage. If we could contribute to un-doing some of the imperial mischiefs in Northern Ireland we would have achieved something worthwhile.

    By a happy coincidence, the collective will of the people of Northern Ireland is to have a closer trading relationship with the European Union. Much of Scotland's seafood exports go to the Spanish market, via France. If they could be re-routed through Ireland they would enjoy a less congested road network. Many other products might also find that the advantages of a Celtic route justified the cost of an extra sea crossing.

    It might also be possible for a confederal union between Scotland and Northern Ireland to work jointly towards an independence based on the 1689 Claim of Right. That is a single state under Scottish constitutional law. This might seem to be anathema to Dublin but the diplomacy is in the detail.

    For it to work such a regulatory union between Scotland and Northern Ireland would have to address the thorny problem of Irish unity. Scotland did have a try at being an imperial power but we were not greedy enough for that. Any extension of Scottish sovereignty into Ireland would need to be in a context that recognised the good sense and inevitability of Irish unity. Whether it takes 70 or 700 years the important thing would be to do the job to the best of our ability.

    It would not be unthinkable for the Scots to allow Stormont representatives to sit in a re-constituted 1706 Parliament. The Holyrood annex of the English House of Peasants might find it more difficult to gain permission from their imperial masters for such a move. If we are to have a future, the cul-de-sac of devolunion will have to be abandoned, at a time of our choosing. I would imagine that the Dahl, in Dublin, would be favourable to allowing Stormont representatives to take seats in their independent assembly.

    There is a possible scenario where Scotland and Northern Ireland move jointly towards a closer integration with the European Union; fully supported by the Republic of Ireland. The first steps would be to try to replicate as much of the Norwegian arrangement as we can.

    If we are to re-establish our sovereignty in our land we need to build alliances and cultivate friendships. We should be trying to enfranchise those Scots who are currently in exile for economic reasons. We also need to plan for a fully independent Head of State.

Edward Bruce will not come back again.

"But we can still rise now

And be a nation again"

Louis Mair 2023

What Really Brought the Greenwash Gang tae Glaesgae?

Mr. Johnson and his puppet-masters could have associated climate-failure with almost any of the cities in their control. Belfast and Derry were not considered but why pick on Glasgow? The detail that catches my attention is the sub-letting of Scotland’s sovereignty to the U.N. London has made an internationally witnessed claim to having complete and unquestioned mastery of the Scots and the land that once was once their’s.

Since our talk-a-good-independence representatives began their march into the cul-de-sac called devolunion we have:

had our representation at Wastemonster reduced;

had our legal system subjugated to English imperial law;

had a serious challenge to any claim that the 1707 Union did not surrender our sovereignty.

All Under One Banner and similar organisations have been doing a good job. It is not enough to stop the rot. Constitutional affairs cannot be entrusted to politicians.

What constitutional insult are the neighbours planning next? Charles III of Greater England is currently having his media profile air-brushed and enhanced. In 1993 we briefly held the initiative and they were confused. We cannot just react to their provocations or accept their manipulations. There can be no nation without leadership.