The SNP’s energy spokesman in Westminster recently criticised the Scottish Conservatives for “staying silent” on the issue of the North Sea.
It’s pretty clear to me that Callum McCaig had decided on this line in his head before bothering to read any of the evidence.
No government has done more for the north east than the current UK one, and so much of that is down to the persuasion and lobbying by Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson.
Her championing of oil and gas led to former chancellor George Osborne making significant tax breaks for the sector in March last year.
As requested by the industry in meetings with Ruth, he cut petroleum revenue tax from 50 per cent to 35 per cent, and reduced oil supplementary tax from 30 per cent to 20 per cent.
That was welcomed at the time, and last month we saw the impact of these changes.
For the first time since 2001, oil production in the North Sea increased with more than 70 million tonnes extracted, a 13.3 million rise on the previous year.
And while that was low in comparison to the boom years, it was the first indication in some time that the industry was beginning to turn the corner.
What’s more, in subsequent budgets both those rates have been cut further.
So when Mr McCaig wants to make accusations like this in future, perhaps he could run a simple facts-check before launching into the perennial SNP script.
Of course there is more work to do, and no-one is fooled into thinking the globally low oil price will be anything other than a huge struggle for the industry.
As we have been doing for a number of years now, we will keep speaking to the UK Government and lobbying on behalf of the North Sea, and the tens of thousands of jobs it supports.
We’ve shown that constructive approach works in the past, and will do so again in the future.
Perhaps the Scottish Government should outline what it’s going to do to help, rather than dispatch nationalist MPs to launch vacuous attacks.
Ross Thomson is a North East MSP for the Scottish Conservatives
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