Pop Side Soul Boy

🔴 This is extraordinary. Chancellor @JohnHealey_MP says that if Britain had invested its North Sea oil and gas revenues like Norway did, we could now have a sovereign wealth fund worth around £1 TRILLION. Norway turned its energy inheritance into national wealth for future generations. Britain privatised major energy assets, treated North Sea tax revenues as current income, and used the windfall to fund mass deindustrialisation, unemployment and redundancy costs. In 1984–85 alone, North Sea revenues were about £12bn. We had the same geological fortune as Norway. What differed was the political choice, Norway built a national asset and Britain spent the windfall and sold much of the inheritance. Now we face huge public debt, fragile energy security and another geopolitical shock. For long-term resilience, a country has strategic natural assets, the state has to think beyond the next Budget. Food security. Energy security. National wealth. All are about planning for the future rather than assuming tomorrow will look like today.