Posts by cheeryAllyjspurs

The portion of the continental shelf which may be exploited is clearly laid down in international law. Around 92-95% of current known oil reserves lie in Scottish waters, and thus belong to Scotland. So, England would get between 5 and 8% of the oil.

The equidistant principal is only a starting point for negotiations. In international law, other factors are taken into account in order to give an “equitable” share of oil to each country. So, essentially because British resources have been used to develop the fields (e.g. HMRC have a specific division for oil and gas revenues) rUK could very easily argue that they should receive a greater share than the 5%-10% the SNP would be willing to agree to. These argument would stand up in the international court as international law often encourages parties to agree to an “equitable” conclusion

There is also a principal in international law which means maritime boundaries follow the land boundary. The current line boundary follows Berwick on Tweed in a north-easterly direction, not an east-west line that the SNP like to imagine. Project the current boundary into the North Sea and Scotland’s share drops closer to 60%. There are precedents in international law for this too.

The Shetland and Orkneys are believed to hold around 25%-30% of the UK’s oil. If they wished to stay in the UK they would take “their” oil with them, substantially deteriorating Scotland’s fiscal position.

There is no reason to believe these negotiations would be resolved quickly. The International Court took 4 years to decide on a row over boundaries between the Danish, Dutch and German parts of the North Sea.

Taken from Oil and Gas journal 2012.(tm)

Another complication here is the fact that the Orkney and Shetland islands have both indicated they would want to stay with the UK, if Scotland were to separate. These islands were seen as an extension of the UK mainland in UK-Norway negotiations about the borders for the North Sea, and so it is reasonable to assume the islands would have a similar effect if they wanted to stay with the UK, all be it they would be geographically located closer to a foreign country (Scotland).

I hear the term Little Englanders used a lot and oddly by Scots...Irony is a trait not lost on Scots eh.

Unfortunatly everyone loses here, we get stiffed for used games. Reason this is being done? because modded boxes and rampant piracy of games. Endless spiral, consumers rip off the software, software companies in turn protect their investment, now we all lose because of millions/billions lost in piracy. The honest gamers now paying through the nose due to the thieves.

Im sorry but if people are so morally outraged about a company's perceived tax arrangements then dont buy their products, that will affect them more than any hot air from politicians.

Its so easy nowadays to vote with your hard earned. There are plenty of UK based online retailers that can compete with Amazon on price and pay all their taxes here, just do some searching about instead and hurt these big companies where they take real notice on their balance sheet.

'But I agree, China is doing its best to add CO2 to the atmosphere as fast as it can. Although it's still way behind the USA, in per capita CO2 output.'

and there be our real problem....'per capita' i.e too many Human beings on the planet.. we have a 1900s birth rate and a 21st century death rate. Unless there is a global plan to control mass over population its either a global war or environmental destruction. Either way I/most here wont be around thankfully by then but our kids and grand kids are completely screwed.