SWF Radar Scotland

The Scotsman writes that, “Alex Salmond, the [Scottish] First Minister, has been accused of going cap in hand to the Middle East for money because his schemes to pay for Scotland’s infrastructure have failed. It has been revealed that Mr Salmond will visit Qatar to ask for loans for projects such as the new Forth Road Bridge.”

The Press and Journal reports that, “Scots could be helped out of fuel poverty if the country had an oil fund like Norway - which is predicted to be worth $1trillion by 2020. Martin Skancke, director general at the country's ministry of finance, revealed that the country's sovereign wealth fund will be worth about $600billion by 2011. The SNP [The Scottish National Party] said the revelations illustrated why a similar oil fund was even more important for Scotland.”

The Independent reports that, “The Scottish government is in talks with two Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to provide the cash for a £4.8bn offshore energy grid, to be built off the east coast of the UK.”

The Times reports that, “Alex Salmond’s [the Scottish first minister] latest attempt to squeeze money out of the [UK] Treasury for a Scottish oil fund has backfired after the Norwegian government criticised the plan, claiming that Scotland's subsidy-dependent economy cannot support one.”

BBC News writes that, “A former [UK] senior civil servant said he wrote a report in the 1970s about the pros and cons of setting up an oil fund for the UK. The undisclosed paper by Professor Gavin McCrone was produced for a Westminster committee. The revelation comes in light of First Minister Alex Salmond reiterating calls for Scotland to have its own long term oil fund. ”