I recall the days when Harold Wilson, a Merseyside MP, would pull together the hacks in Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel for a chat. And you could walk up to Jim Callaghan on an official visit somewhere and – would you believe! – ask questions. Ditto Margaret Thatcher sometimes.

The 1970s produced some fine Scottish journalism. And journalists. Ray Perman’s piece on data centre mania has stirred other memories worth sharing in our own time of deliberately concocted false news and increasingly shackled reporters.

As the FT’s Scottish correspondent in the 1970s, Ray was covering the ‘Scottish story’ at a time of political, social and economic excitement. The lead up to the devolution referendum coincided with the North Sea oil rush.

Sound familiar? Up to a point. Half a century ago, in a world before social media, serious journalists were given the freedom to explore and report serious issues in depth without the confusing froth of often misinformed ‘freedom’ of speech.

Among an impressive team of national reporters was Peter Hetherington then the Guardian Scottish correspondent. After reading Sceptical Scot last week, Peter sent us a cutting to produce evidence of the ‘oil boom that never was’ on the West coast.

In Data Centre Mania: Scotland Should Learn From the Past, Ray had written: “In the 1970s millions were poured into developing fabrication sites around the coasts to build oil drilling and production platforms. One – Portavadie in Argyll, built with Government money – failed to win a single contract. Most of the others got one, some built several, but none managed to establish a lasting business.”

Peter’s story dated 1979 gives the details.

The yard which cost the taxpayer £14m never received a single order.

No sooner had the yard been completed than serious doubts were raised about its future.

The department of Energy has abandoned attempts to get a contractor to take over a state-owned oil platform yard on the west coast of Scotland without an order since being completed four years ago.

The yard which cost the tax payer £14 millions is considered a virtual write-off although a consultant’s report suggesting alternative uses for the 10-acre site at Portavadie Argyll is now in the hands of the Department and the Scottish Office.

It could be considered by the Commons public accounts committee which is due to meet the Department’s accounting officer to discuss Government spending on onshore oil installations next month. Already Sir Douglas Henley Auditor General has reported that a specially equipped village on the site, built to house 500 workers a cost of £3.3m has suffered serious deterioration and may no longer be fit for use.

Suggestions for the yard’s huge dry dock have been made by Argyll and Bute District Council and local residents. The Council’s planning officer says it c ould be turned into a naval base. Local businessmen have suggested a fish farm, while yachtsmen and hoteliers think it would make an ideal marina-cum-holiday village.

But many in the oil industry seem resigned to the fact that portavadie will probably remain an expensive decaying monument to the haphazard preparation for North Sea operations – the ‘boom that never was on the west coast’ according tog to the chairman of a large construction company.

The yard and its accompanying village with canteen, recreation halls and bars, was built in just over six months to meet an ancipated demand for huge, concrete oil platforms. 

The story continues and concludes with Department of Energy dodging questions about the costs and over-estimates of demands for platforms amid declining oil company interest. 

Peter, however, adds a 2026 observation. “Well at least it’s now a (kind of) resort!” [See Portavadie...]

Thanks for the memories

Like many journalists, Peter regrets not keeping a well-maintained cuttings file. But he remembers being on the front row when Thatcher made Scotland her first visit after the 1979 election.

“Must have asked a question on industrial policy, and well remember her reply after she consulted Fred Corbett, then Scottish Office head of comms:

Thatcher: “Mr Hetherington, would you be in a job if your paper was losing money?”

Me: “It’s just lost millions…”

Reaction? All round laughter.

And there’s more. Well worth sharing with today’s Scottish press corps, recently ‘caged’ at the Scottish Parliament to prevent inconvenient truths revealed in close questioning of ministers and MSPs

Peter: I recall the days when Harold Wilson, a Merseyside MP, would pull together the hacks in Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel for a chat. And you could walk up to Jim Callaghan on an official visit somewhere and – would you believe! – ask questions. Ditto Margaret Thatcher sometimes. Think A Burnham might – just might, given understandable heavy security – be more receptive.

There are still fine journalists covering the increasingly volatile Scottish story – but they probably find it harder to reach the same breadth of readership then enjoyed by their elders.

It also imposed a levy on every barrel of oil landed, which went into a fund to benefit the community long after the oil boom had passed. Today that fund is worth £475 million.

The memory