SNP

While the Shetland Council was standing up to the oil companies, on the Scottish mainland, as the oil industry developed, the Scottish National Party was harnessing support. In this source, one SNP politician, who later became a Member of Parliament for a north east of Scotland constituency and leader of the party, explains why people began to vote SNP. It claimed that the wealth from oil belonged to Scotland and that Scotland would be economically better off as an independent country. However, it is worth mentioning that the campaign to persuade Scots that 'It's Scotland's Oil' did not attract many Shetlanders. Many of them thought that the SNP were trying to take advantage of the gains made by exploiting Shetland's resources to win the votes of people who lived hundreds of miles away in central Scotland.

BBC Radio 'The Story of North Sea Oil' (1999)

Alex Salmond

Alex Salmond MP. (SNP)

"I think in the 70s the impetus it gave to the political scene was it turned on it's head the argument about Scottish viability. The SNP were able to argue with conviction, and absolutely rightly, that Scotland would be self sufficient in oil. It's very interesting, if you go back to the 1970s when Gordon Wilson was pioneering the 'It's Scotland's oil' campaign, and he was saying things like that oil might reach a million barrels a day. The Tories were saying of course this is ridiculous. And the London Treasury, as always, underestimated the strength of the resource Scotland's potential by trying to play it down but of course as things become a reality it becomes very difficult to play it down. Therefore the SNP gained credibility and the case for independence gained credibility, so it was oil fired surge from the SNP in the 1970s."