Alex Salmond uses New Year Message to Urge Scots to act to claim independence in 2023 The Former First Minister and Alba Party Leader warned that without independence Scotland would fail to see the benefit of the renewables boom, with the resources instead going to Westminster like the North Sea's Oil and Gas did. Former First Minister and Alba Party Leader Alex Salmond has released a New Year's message that urges Scots to act to claim independence in 2023. Mr Salmond's Alba Party enter the new year in high spirits on the back of a poll published before Christmas that showed that many Scots would opt to back Alba to help return more pro independence members of the Scottish Parliament. Speaking from his home in the North East of Scotland, Salmond highlighted the vast resources of Oil and Gas of the past 50 years as he urged Scotland not to allow Westminster to squander Scotland's renewable potential. The Alba Party leader contrasted Scotland's benefits from North Sea Oil and Gas to that of Norway which is one of the richest countries in the world. Salmond said that "Over the next half century there shall be developed offshore Scotland's coast a huge array of clean, green renewables, enough to fuel our country ten times over with affordable planet saving power. "The question is who will get the benefit. Will it be like the last fifty years of oil exploitation - making multinationals even richer and keeping the London Treasury solvent. Or will the resources this time be used to benefit their ultimate owners - the people of Scotland."

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