If Scotland Declares UDI..........
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Another example of where Scotland's needs are not being served by the centralised Westminster party policies. Scotland needs immigration and those who come do tend to have little of the problems reported elsewhere re integration. We are all Jock Tamsons bairns as they say.
Last edited by TomJoad; 8th Jun 2013 at 10:16.
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Originally Posted by tonker:7883247
Maybe the other half of the town that can't find work will vote for him.
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Talking of retirement in Scotland,
BBC News - Scottish referendum: New independence pension schemes 'like building an NHS'
Two sides to this political coin of course, but lots of worries about affordability.
BBC News - Scottish referendum: New independence pension schemes 'like building an NHS'
Two sides to this political coin of course, but lots of worries about affordability.
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One of the big problems in Aberdeen has always been the split between the oil patch & the rest - the shortages Outlaw Pete is talking about are mainly in jobs & professions that require high qualifications and experience like Petroleum Engineering and Process Engineering
The days when it was all muscle and few brains are long gone even on the drill floor
When the oil price is up the city is full of well-paid incomers who help support (service industries and transport) the local population much of which is not well qualified. Places like Torry and Northfield are like Blackbird Leys, Drumchapel or parts of SE London - poor people with a lot of social problems
The days when it was all muscle and few brains are long gone even on the drill floor
When the oil price is up the city is full of well-paid incomers who help support (service industries and transport) the local population much of which is not well qualified. Places like Torry and Northfield are like Blackbird Leys, Drumchapel or parts of SE London - poor people with a lot of social problems
Last edited by Heathrow Harry; 9th Jun 2013 at 10:06.
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One of the big problems in Aberdeen has always been the split between the oil patch & the rest - the shortages Outlaw Pete is talking about are mainly in jobs & professions that require high qualifications and experience like Petroleum Engineering and Process Engineering
The days when it was all muscle and few brains are long gone even on the( sic shop floor) drill floor
When the oil price is up the city is full of well-paid incomers who help support (service industries and transport) the local population much of which is not well qualified. Places like Torry and Northfield are like Blackbird Leys, Drumchapel or parts of SE London - poor people with a lot of social problems
The days when it was all muscle and few brains are long gone even on the( sic shop floor) drill floor
When the oil price is up the city is full of well-paid incomers who help support (service industries and transport) the local population much of which is not well qualified. Places like Torry and Northfield are like Blackbird Leys, Drumchapel or parts of SE London - poor people with a lot of social problems
Indeed a pattern that is no different from any other conurbation in the UK or elsewhere for that matter. The disparity between affluent and poor most markedly exemplified as you say in London. Aberdeen has weathered the financial storm well; I believe it was the only area in the UK outside of London to reflect positive growth in the last quarter.
Last edited by TomJoad; 9th Jun 2013 at 10:43.
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Originally Posted by Heathrow Harry:7884512
One of the big problems in Aberdeen has always been the split between the oil patch & the rest - the shortages Outlaw Pete is talking about are mainly in jobs & professions that require high qualifications and experience like Petroleum Engineering and Process Engineering
The days when it was all muscle and few brains are long gone even on the drill floor
When the oil price is up the city is full of well-paid incomers who help support (service industries and transport) the local population much of which is not well qualified. Places like Torry and Northfield are like Blackbird Leys, Drumchapel or parts of SE London - poor people with a lot of social problems
The days when it was all muscle and few brains are long gone even on the drill floor
When the oil price is up the city is full of well-paid incomers who help support (service industries and transport) the local population much of which is not well qualified. Places like Torry and Northfield are like Blackbird Leys, Drumchapel or parts of SE London - poor people with a lot of social problems
Companies are now so concerned about those skills shortages that many have taken to training newcomers to the industry who have little or no experience, even from older age groups (40-55). There's a new industrial estate being built in Dyce and that will offer many skilled and unskilled positions too.
Service leavers have a huge amount to offer and are being snapped up. Not just engineers either, I know of a highly experienced pilot who now delivers technical training. Very good at it he is too.
An interesting development is the emergence of an industrial estate in Forres which appears to be attracting oil and gas companies to that area. It's early days but a good sign for Morayshire.
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Aberdeen is probably the last "single industry" city in the UK - when the oil price is up the place booms and when it drops the place is like a ghost town
Certainly the price of things like houses bear little relationship to what affects them elsewhere in the UK
A mate of mine who was born in Aberdeenshire reckons that the families who ran Aberdeen before the oil are still the ones who run it largely today
Certainly the price of things like houses bear little relationship to what affects them elsewhere in the UK
A mate of mine who was born in Aberdeenshire reckons that the families who ran Aberdeen before the oil are still the ones who run it largely today
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Old families?
Yup, whilst one would not like to use the 'Cartel' word - it is more or less the same families from 150 years ago who says what goes in industry. They ran the whaling fleets, then the fishing and bought up property like crazy.
Sent their kids off to be lawyers since they started to make serious loot, then later along an oil industry arrived throwing loot around like it was going out of fashion.........
Sent their kids off to be lawyers since they started to make serious loot, then later along an oil industry arrived throwing loot around like it was going out of fashion.........
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Aberdeen is probably the last "single industry" city in the UK - when the oil price is up the place booms and when it drops the place is like a ghost town
Certainly the price of things like houses bear little relationship to what affects them elsewhere in the UK
A mate of mine who was born in Aberdeenshire reckons that the families who ran Aberdeen before the oil are still the ones who run it largely today
Certainly the price of things like houses bear little relationship to what affects them elsewhere in the UK
A mate of mine who was born in Aberdeenshire reckons that the families who ran Aberdeen before the oil are still the ones who run it largely today
Last edited by TomJoad; 10th Jun 2013 at 20:15.
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Yup, whilst one would not like to use the 'Cartel' word - it is more or less the same families from 150 years ago who says what goes in industry. They ran the whaling fleets, then the fishing and bought up property like crazy.
Sent their kids off to be lawyers since they started to make serious loot, then later along an oil industry arrived throwing loot around like it was going out of fashion.........
Sent their kids off to be lawyers since they started to make serious loot, then later along an oil industry arrived throwing loot around like it was going out of fashion.........
- BBC News - Bilderberg: Protesters and conspiracy theory in WatfordThis was another take on the family, apparently the BBC were co founders of the euro inspired by Nazi doctrine!! - 4.48 gets interesting but watch it all the way through if you have some time to spare. That dude needs to wear a tin foil hat.
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Originally Posted by Heathrow Harry:7885902
Aberdeen is probably the last "single industry" city in the UK - when the oil price is up the place booms and when it drops the place is like a ghost town
Certainly the price of things like houses bear little relationship to what affects them elsewhere in the UK
A mate of mine who was born in Aberdeenshire reckons that the families who ran Aberdeen before the oil are still the ones who run it largely today
Certainly the price of things like houses bear little relationship to what affects them elsewhere in the UK
A mate of mine who was born in Aberdeenshire reckons that the families who ran Aberdeen before the oil are still the ones who run it largely today
OutlawPete
Perhaps you weren't there in the late 1980s when whole streets were up for sale in the Bridge of Don with no takers. I was working on the 40s in the 1990s when the oil price dropped to $14 a barrel and there was a real sense of doom as it was costing $11 a barrel to uplift.
Recent history has been good for the N Sea. I started in 1990 and in the first five years there seemed to be new rigs going in all the time but recently, apart from West of Shetland there haven't been any major new rigs in the N sea - partly because drilling technology is more advanced so smaller fields can be picked off from existing rigs.
Don't believe, however, that the bad times of the late 1980s can't return.
HF
Aberdeen is never like a ghost town
Recent history has been good for the N Sea. I started in 1990 and in the first five years there seemed to be new rigs going in all the time but recently, apart from West of Shetland there haven't been any major new rigs in the N sea - partly because drilling technology is more advanced so smaller fields can be picked off from existing rigs.
Don't believe, however, that the bad times of the late 1980s can't return.
HF
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OutlawPete
Perhaps you weren't there in the late 1980s when whole streets were up for sale in the Bridge of Don with no takers. I was working on the 40s in the 1990s when the oil price dropped to $14 a barrel and there was a real sense of doom as it was costing $11 a barrel to uplift.
Recent history has been good for the N Sea. I started in 1990 and in the first five years there seemed to be new rigs going in all the time but recently, apart from West of Shetland there haven't been any major new rigs in the N sea - partly because drilling technology is more advanced so smaller fields can be picked off from existing rigs.
Don't believe, however, that the bad times of the late 1980s can't return.
HF
Perhaps you weren't there in the late 1980s when whole streets were up for sale in the Bridge of Don with no takers. I was working on the 40s in the 1990s when the oil price dropped to $14 a barrel and there was a real sense of doom as it was costing $11 a barrel to uplift.
Recent history has been good for the N Sea. I started in 1990 and in the first five years there seemed to be new rigs going in all the time but recently, apart from West of Shetland there haven't been any major new rigs in the N sea - partly because drilling technology is more advanced so smaller fields can be picked off from existing rigs.
Don't believe, however, that the bad times of the late 1980s can't return.
HF
Last edited by TomJoad; 10th Jun 2013 at 23:31.
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Tom
I think the 1986 and 1999 price collapses really did hit Aberdeen very badly - I remember tales of people just upping sticks and going back to the USA and leaving the house keys in the door
The oil companies might be well versed in riding out cycles but they normally do it be laying waste to the workforce - management can't do anything about the price, nor the large lumps of steel they have building so to show their skills they fire a herd of people - and that goes in spades for the contractors and people like chopper operators
In 1986-88 the rest of the UK economy was booming but the oil patch was a disaster IIRC - a lot or people went into the City and never came back
I think the 1986 and 1999 price collapses really did hit Aberdeen very badly - I remember tales of people just upping sticks and going back to the USA and leaving the house keys in the door
The oil companies might be well versed in riding out cycles but they normally do it be laying waste to the workforce - management can't do anything about the price, nor the large lumps of steel they have building so to show their skills they fire a herd of people - and that goes in spades for the contractors and people like chopper operators
In 1986-88 the rest of the UK economy was booming but the oil patch was a disaster IIRC - a lot or people went into the City and never came back
I was around in the eighties and HH is dead right. House owners were leaving thier keys on the building society's counter. We had offshore pilots leaving the industry for the airlines by the dozen. Bristow trained co-pilots were spending their leave in Florida building up their fixed wind hours economically to as ease their transition to BA and Virgin. Should a permanent economic subsistute for oil ever materialise then Aberdeen will be dead; and if it can out perform wind farms so will all of Scotland's economic forcasts.
But that will never happen; will it?
But that will never happen; will it?
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Should a permanent economic subsistute for oil ever materialise then Aberdeen will be dead
Issues of no wind and/or slack water could of course be solved through energy storage - an interesting concept being developed for such here.
Scotland should be well placed for renewables. With the political will and suitable economic framework the eventual downturn in oil production/revenues can be (partly) mitigated.
It'd be nice to think that in 25 years the numbers of these could be reduced through increased generation from tidal energy...
Bit of an eyesore IMHO.
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Tom
I think the 1986 and 1999 price collapses really did hit Aberdeen very badly - I remember tales of people just upping sticks and going back to the USA and leaving the house keys in the door
The oil companies might be well versed in riding out cycles but they normally do it be laying waste to the workforce - management can't do anything about the price, nor the large lumps of steel they have building so to show their skills they fire a herd of people - and that goes in spades for the contractors and people like chopper operators
In 1986-88 the rest of the UK economy was booming but the oil patch was a disaster IIRC - a lot or people went into the City and never came back
I think the 1986 and 1999 price collapses really did hit Aberdeen very badly - I remember tales of people just upping sticks and going back to the USA and leaving the house keys in the door
The oil companies might be well versed in riding out cycles but they normally do it be laying waste to the workforce - management can't do anything about the price, nor the large lumps of steel they have building so to show their skills they fire a herd of people - and that goes in spades for the contractors and people like chopper operators
In 1986-88 the rest of the UK economy was booming but the oil patch was a disaster IIRC - a lot or people went into the City and never came back
Yup you are absolutely right - there are upturns in the oil industry and down turns, and Aberdeen has seen them both. But like I said before, this is the nature of our economy; unless of course you still believe Gordon Brown when he said he has eliminated boom and bust
My personal experience of the housing situation in Aberdeen was somewhat different than yours. I do remember however that home repossessions went through the roof across the UK as Mr Lawson and the Tories made a mess of the ERM membership (1992 in-out shake it all about). My own experience of the engineering sector, specifically within Shell Esso, and it was representative of the industry, was that we actually weathered it all pretty well. I honestly do not remember anyone having to post keys through letterboxes etc as you have said. As for contractors, well hey, contractors will always be vulnerable that goes without saying - it's in the nature of contract work and is the same in every sector. No, all-in-all Aberdeen and the engineering skills and expertise it as developed has been incredibly good for Scotland and the UK. Sure, oil will continue to fluctuate in price, and yes the oil industry will eventually decline just as jam and jute declined, steel and coal and of course the great Melton Mowbray pie industry. But for the time being our glass is definitely half full.
Last edited by TomJoad; 11th Jun 2013 at 22:03.
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Yup maybe just maybe a transition plan would surface that oh lets take a punt at this would say capatalise on the expertise built on deep see exploration and fabrication to say renewable energy installations. I don't know maybe that wouldn't work. Tell you what how about we be optimistic for the future of our country eh