Will they be dancing in the streets of Aberdeen?

Not that we will be. That we “are” Present tense. Posted on 19 July: the people of Aberdeen are dancing in the streets, because the new Prime Minister has stated he will be opening up the North Sea all the way.

I set up my first recruitment business here in the heatwave of 1976. I have watched four cycles. Nobody is dancing.

Two fields. Jackdaw and Rosebank.

Jackdaw approved in 2022. Rosebank in 2023. The Court of Session quashed both in January 2025. Scope 3.

Eighteen months of redetermination since. The consultations close on 10 August and 17 August. £3 billion already sunk into two projects that are not legally permitted to produce.

We built it. We cannot switch it on.

Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce filed its submissions on 3 August. Days earlier, BP had put its North Sea business up for sale.

Russell Borthwick called it a wake-up call. He is being polite.

The lobbying and the exit arrived in the same week. That is not a coincidence. That is a verdict.

Now the file lands in Whitehall. Miatta Fahnbulleh has been Energy Secretary since 20 July. She has previously argued Britain should reach net zero fifteen years ahead of 2050. AGCC's read on the appointment was that it looks like more of the same.

That is the hand Aberdeen has been dealt. Again.

Now the part nobody in London or Mar-a-Lago will tell you.