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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 22, 2026, 5:45 AM
After years of speculation & complaint, the Treasury has put a figure on the loss represents by the UK's failure to establish the sort of oil-revenue fed sovereign wealth fund the Norwegians have built.
The estimate is that that fund would likely be worth around a £1 trillion, but instead the funds from peak earning in the North Sea were deployed by Margaret Thatcher to fund tax cuts....
One more reason to see Margaret Thatcher as a wrecker of the UK!
#Oil #politics
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm4g1zrl2nrqo
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Replies

Ben Fultonbenfulton@mastodon.london
Oct 22, 2026, 6:02 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 Maybe they could build one anyway via a tax on billionaires.
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Bruno Nicolettibjn@mstdn.social
Oct 22, 2026, 6:11 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 And the little money her government did receive for the North Sea oil and gas she wasted on tax cuts.
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Andii אַנדִֽיAndii@mas.to
Oct 22, 2026, 6:16 AM
@ChrisMayLA6
The British curse: we nearly always have the worse people in charge at key inflection points.
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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 22, 2026, 7:50 AM
@Andii
You could remove 'at key inflection points' & still have a largely valid point
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jdbjdb@birdon.social
Oct 22, 2026, 12:52 PM
@Andii @ChrisMayLA6
Well ! You can also remove british, 'cause I'm feeling the same for my country
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Ted ReTedre123@mastodon.nz
Oct 22, 2026, 6:25 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 This is exactly the same story in Australia. We give our resources away.
"Australia and Qatar are two of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas, each exporting
around 80 million tonnes in 2023, worth $85 billion.
From these exports, the Qatari Government received
$A56 billion, while Australian governments received
just $11 billion."
https://cdn.australiainstitute.org.au/2026/01/18022225/P1816-Government-revenue-from-LNG-Qatar-vs-Aus-Web.pdf?t=1769493243
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John_LoaderJohn_Loader@ohai.social
Oct 22, 2026, 9:18 AM
@Tedre123 @ChrisMayLA6 Didn’t Wetern Australia do a deal to guarantee a supply at a low price?
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dodedode
Oct 22, 2026, 6:51 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 TINA is probably her biggest lasting impact and most negative by locking out any new or existing alternative economic ideas.
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RegReggieHere@mastodon.social
Oct 22, 2026, 8:06 AM
@dode
Agree with this. Between them, Thatcher and Blair embedded a financial monoculture that the country is still strangled by.
@ChrisMayLA6
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Scottscottearle@poorlyrendered.com
Oct 22, 2026, 7:02 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 Like we needed another reason!
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HerefordrobHerefordrob@mindly.social
Oct 22, 2026, 8:36 AM
@ChrisMayLA6
Whilst I absolutely agree in principle its a 'giant "What if?" asked often by economists critical of the Margaret Thatcher era.' as for creating as Healey says a temporary arrangement on the road to self sufficiency and a greener britain, which I would probably agree with, it is unlikely to accrue much.
I would second @benfulton and tax the ultra rich.
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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 22, 2026, 8:47 AM
@Herefordrob @benfulton
Oh yes, I agree; the new version is a poor substitute for a major policy error made forty years ago
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BashStKidBashStKid@mastodon.online
Oct 22, 2026, 8:48 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 No point looking to the past, look to the future and how to extract as much present value as possible from the companies, with a ban on any subsidies, tax breaks, or allowances, and including the true costs of carbon production.
One of those answers might well be to expropriate the industry today and use the money as a transition booster.
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Felichsfelichsdakatze@mastodon.social
Oct 22, 2026, 8:52 AM
@ChrisMayLA6
You see it as a failure, but I'd say it did exactly what it was supposed to do...
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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 22, 2026, 11:59 AM
@felichsdakatze
Ha ha, yes 'failure' was a political opposition; judgement; for those that engineered it, yes it was what they wanted to happen
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Epistatacadamepistatacadam@toot.wales
Oct 22, 2026, 9:02 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 I think part of her legacy will be the break up of the UK, and perhaps even England.
Her disdain for the other nations in the UK was only matched by her hatred of the industrial hrartland of England. A view entrenched in the treasury and continued to this day. I note the current incumbents of Downing street have talked about changing that but no evidence of action, rather speeding up the sell off of the UK to the financiers.
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John_LoaderJohn_Loader@ohai.social
Oct 22, 2026, 9:12 AM
@epistatacadam @ChrisMayLA6 Wedgewood Benn set one up
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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 22, 2026, 12:00 PM
@epistatacadam
Yes, her malign shadow is long & we've yet to escape it
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Ravensrod 🫖 🍰 🏳️‍⚧️🍉ravensrod@mstdn.social
Oct 22, 2026, 12:06 PM
@ChrisMayLA6 @epistatacadam
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RastalRastal@mastodon.social
Oct 22, 2026, 12:14 PM
@ravensrod @ChrisMayLA6 @epistatacadam
Name it for what it really is: Neoliberalism.
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Alexa Devreux-Swiftalexadeswift@lgbtqia.space
Oct 22, 2026, 12:36 PM
@ravensrod
The only good Thatcher is a Thatcher who uses high quality British reeds.
Or the one who is now dead and upon whose grave dogs piss.
@ChrisMayLA6 @epistatacadam @ChrisMayLA6
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Claire McNab2legged@mastodon.ie
Oct 22, 2026, 10:15 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 I am often amazed by how little effort is given by the political and media class to challenging the Tory #BigLie of "sound finances".
The ecinomic reality of #Thatcher's regime was of huge-scale, systematic asset-strippimg. 30 years later, #GeorgeOsborne sold off the small stuff.
#HaroldMacmillan called it out, aged 91: selling the silver, and "using of these huge sums as if they were income."
That speech on 8 November 1985 should not still be an isolated landmark.
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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 22, 2026, 12:02 PM
@2legged
Agreed; I used to use the family silver quote on a powerpoint slide in my introduction to political economy (during the wider introduction. politics course)
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Claire McNab2legged@mastodon.ie
Oct 22, 2026, 12:10 PM
Excellent, @ChrisMayLA6! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
But what an utter scandal that you didn't have many hundreds of similar quotes to choose from. Hundreds of people have served as cabinet ministers since the Macmillan era. But only one has a memorable quote on the looting. 😡
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ExistenialistTraineeExistentialistTrainee@mastodon.social
Oct 22, 2026, 10:52 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 That was then (the 1980's)! What do you recommend for now (2026)?
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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 22, 2026, 12:05 PM
@ExistentialistTrainee
Green Transition as a full-on industrial strategy
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Alan T Perry 🇨🇦alantperry@mstdn.ca
Oct 22, 2026, 11:05 AM
@ChrisMayLA6
Ironically, the idea of a fossil fuel sovereign wealth fund may have originated in Alberta, which set up its Heritage Fund (like Norway) then within a few years stopped feeding it and began using oil royalties to fund tax cuts (like Thatcher).
They sold their inheritance for a mess of pottage.
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@issue_blessyou☑️ChrisW1@mstdn.social
Oct 22, 2026, 1:04 PM
@ChrisMayLA6 Spaffer Johnson would have blown through that lot in a year or two anyway!
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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 22, 2026, 1:28 PM
@ChrisW1
true enough
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GhostOnTheHalfShellGhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai
Oct 22, 2026, 8:40 PM
@ChrisMayLA6
Neoliberalism was always a con man ask that people surrender their sovereignty to totalitarian rule by wealth.
What could possibly go wrong with selling off not for-profit public services financed by a zero interest infinite credit line with no obligation to pay anything back from the central bank to the private sector, and have them dictate the terms to the customers?
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Paitpait@mastodon.social
Oct 23, 2026, 9:47 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 What is the value of what people did with the tax refund?
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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 23, 2026, 9:58 AM
@pait
Well, they build some nice home extensions, I'm sure
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Paitpait@mastodon.social
Oct 23, 2026, 11:56 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 Can’t judge every personal expense, but looking at aggregate statistics Britain seemed to have been doing fairly well until Brexit.
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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 23, 2026, 12:42 PM
@pait
Well it was certainly doing better than it now is
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Paitpait@mastodon.social
Oct 25, 2026, 10:24 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 Then again, it’s not doing badly recently either. It’s in the nature of some young and some old people to complain, but like in the United Kingdom is good, as it is in Europe.
Less so for many people in Brazil where I am writing from, though way better than a generation or 2 ago. Here all the whining about how bad things are when they really are not may put a fascist in the presidency. I don’t like that.
I hope it doesn’t happen here, nor in Europe.
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Emeritus Prof. Christopher MayChrisMayLA6@mastodon.me.uk
Oct 25, 2026, 10:29 AM
@pait
Yes, fair comment; as always, depends on your comparator
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Steve Holdenholdenweb@freeradical.zone
Oct 25, 2026, 9:00 AM
@ChrisMayLA6 The good news being that at least she’s still dead. Unfortunately her outmoded thinking lives on in today’s economically illiterate politicians.
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