Here's the strategy for the next aspiring Prime Minister of UK to win the next election, and to keep Scotland within UK.
The Scottish government pushing for an independence referendum has promised an oil fund, but it is not a people's fund. They have not mentioned a word about any citizen dividend. This is in total contrast to the Alaska Permanent Fund, which is really a people's fund. The Alaska Permanent Fund pays dividends to Alaskans. The fund is not used for anything else. Not for grand sounding projects. Just pure citizen dividend.
This is where the next aspiring Prime Minister of UK can pull back the Scottish people, and at the same time get the other UK citizens excited. Promise a citizen dividend fund. Money in the people's pocket is a lot more reassuring than money is some general purpose wealth fund.
The Scottish government pushing for an independence referendum has promised an oil fund, but it is not a people's fund. They have not mentioned a word about any citizen dividend. This is in total contrast to the Alaska Permanent Fund, which is really a people's fund. The Alaska Permanent Fund pays dividends to Alaskans. The fund is not used for anything else. Not for grand sounding projects. Just pure citizen dividend.
This is where the next aspiring Prime Minister of UK can pull back the Scottish people, and at the same time get the other UK citizens excited. Promise a citizen dividend fund. Money in the people's pocket is a lot more reassuring than money is some general purpose wealth fund.
Will Scotland have a sovereign wealth fund?
We propose that, and as recommended by the Fiscal Commission, an independent Scotland should establish a Scottish Energy Fund to stabilise revenues in the short-term and to ensure that a proportion of oil and gas tax receipts are invested for the long-term benefit of the people of Scotland.
The decisions of successive Westminster governments to spend Scottish oil revenues rather than investing a proportion of them represent a major lost opportunity. Norway began transferring money into its oil fund in 1996. The fund is now worth £470 billion, equivalent to around £90,000 per person in Norway, and is the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world.
Analysis by the Fiscal Commission concluded that, had it used its oil wealth to establish an oil fund in 1980, Scotland could have eliminated its share of UK public sector net debt by 1982/83. By 2011/12 Scotland could have accumulated financial assets of between £82 billion and £116 billion. That would be equivalent to between 55 per cent and 78 per cent of GDP.
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