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David Knight: How Westminster’s windfall tax madness risks killing the North Sea golden goose

7 1
yesterday

Donald Trump wasn’t the first “Don” to tilt at windmills, of course – Don Quixote got there ahead of him in the classic Cervantes’ novel.

To Quixote, the whirling windmills he encountered in La Mancha appeared to be “monstrous giants” which he felt had to be slain.

Trump’s loathing of wind energy, on the other hand, was fanned by a shoal of offshore turbines being positioned opposite his golf course north of Aberdeen.

Remember his “mad Alex” jibe at Salmond when the then first minister refused to move the “insane” wind farm out of Trump’s line of vision years ago?

In Quixote’s case, despite efforts by sidekick Sancho Panza to deter him, he made a disastrous charge on horseback at the windmills.

After being smashed off his horse he claimed that fake news about the “monsters” had conspired against him to cause his misfortune; sounds familiar?

It would be churlish not to welcome Trump flying the flag for North Sea oil and gas, as he has done so vigorously in recent times.

Particularly as there are billions of barrels of life left in the sector, which has been the bedrock of the UK economy for decades; yet now facing what appears to be its ultimate crisis.

Just like an old stately institution........

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