Did North Sea oil make Thatcherism possible?
Some commentators think so. The money that flowed into the Treasury’s coffers was crucial to enabling the Government to bear the cost of rising unemployment. Some economists believe that, without North Sea oil, the Thatcher Government might have been forced to abandon the strict monetarist economic policies that caused interest rates to rise to punitive levels in the early 1980s, and to scale back Thatcher’s confrontation with the unions and privatisation programme, both of which contributed to soaring unemployment. On the other hand, Thatcher herself appears to attach very little significance to the role of North Sea oil in underwriting her economic reforms – in her autobiography, North Sea oil and gas merit just six passing references. Has North Sea oil production passed its peak? Yes. DTI figures show that oil production peaked in 1999 and has since fallen 23% below that level. Monument Securities says that, by 2010, production could be 50% below peak levels. According to the Bank o
