• Contact
  • About
  • Authors
DONATE TO BYLINES SCOTLAND
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
Bylines Scotland
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Bylines Scotland Breaking News
    • Europe
    • King Charles III
    • Queen Elizabeth II
    • Scotland
    • War in Ukraine
    • World
    Scotland's Pro-EU

    Scotland’s leading pro-EU organisation will be in good spirits when it meets in Edinburgh on Rejoin Day 

    Front cover of Scottish Currency Q&A booklet

    Priorities for the SNP and the Scottish Government on currency

    Portrait of Humza Yousaf

    Humza Yousaf’s plans if he becomes the SNP leader

    Media distortion

    Truth and Trust

    Kate Forbes, candidate for the SNP membership, official portrait

    Kate Forbes campaign for the SNP leadership contest 

    Health service

    Funding the Scottish Health Service 

    Sunflower in watercolour for the one year anniversary of the war in Ukraine 2022

    Euromove Scotland Campaign Raises Donations for Ukraine’s Frontline Communities.

    Nicola Sturgeon portraiture

    Nicola Sturgeon and Jacinda Ardern – what two shock resignations tell us about good leadership

    BBC Scotland in dismantling letters

    The three minute read. Scotland must seek to reform its media

    Trending Tags

    • Democracy
    • Devolution
    • Brexit
    • Ukraine
  • Politics
    • All
    • Council Areas
    • Europe
    • Holyrood
    • Liz Truss
    • Rest of UK
    • Tories
    • United Kingdom
    • Westminster
    • World
    Demonstrator on the streets of London

    Eggs, black shirts and unsettled Britain

    Scottish flag with SYP (Scottish Youth Parliament)

    Scottish Youth Parliament in 2023: Facing the Future

    Kate Forbes, candidate for the SNP membership, official portrait

    Kate Forbes campaign for the SNP leadership contest 

    Ash Regan and Tim Rideout Currency launch

    Ash Regan backs Scottish currency

    blue background, A younf woman holding a large black sign that says VOTE ! in white letters

    Scottish elections: young people more likely to vote if they started at 16 – new study

    A scene of people demonstrating, holding Scotland flags. One man wears a tartan cap and holds a blue flag with both the Scottish cross and the EU stars on it.

    Is Alister Jack sane?

    Image Malcom Laverty

    The Brown plan

    The climate change impacts of Russia’s war with Ukraine

    Britain wastes £1bn on drones to monitor English Channel

    Trending Tags

    • Equality
    • Johnson
    • Scottish National Party
  • Business
    • All
    • Agriculture
    • Aviation
    • Corporations
    • Energy
    • Finance
    • Fishing
    • Natural Resources
    • Shipbuilding
    • Trade
    • Transport
    • Workers
    Bakkafrost Barge

    The Story of the Bakkafrost Barge Sinking

    Fish farm in Scotland

    A deeper dive into the history of Scottish fish farming

    Fish farms in a Scottish Loch

    How farmed salmon is produced – stage one

    Dead salmons

    Death in our waters

    Fish farming, Isle of Sky, Loch Ainort

    Fish Farming in Scotland 

    Offshore wind farm

    How will local communities get a fair share of record investment from offshore wind farms?

    Broadband optic fibres

    Scotland fulfilling its commitment to enable access to superfast broadband

    A row of tall houses on the left, with parked cars in front on the side of the street

    Saving Scotland’s tenements

    A large red researcgh vessel in the sea with ice sheets all around it on the water.

    Rosyth shipyard attracts UK Government contract to maintain fleet of scientific research vessels

    Trending Tags

    • Health
      • All
      • Assisted dying
      • Covid
      • Influenza
      • Polio virus
      • Respiratory
      • Scientific Research
      Slogan Still Home from Clinically Vulnerable Families group

      COVID-19 lockdown continues for many in the UK

      Tree representing lungs

      Where are the areas in Scotland most affected by lung conditions?

      Health service

      Funding the Scottish Health Service 

      A goose surrounded by avian flu

      Who is knocking our doors? A putative new pandemic?

      A woman walking in a field with a jerrycan of water on her back, spraying water on the vegetation

      The Ethiopia Medical Project

      Healthcare word seen in a scrabble

      “Leave no one behind” – the Health Foundation’s report into health inequalities in Scotland 2023.

      Sign saying NHS Greater Galsgow & Clyde in front of a hospital building

      Concern over patients waiting in corridors for free beds at Glasgow Superhospital

      A hospital corridor with trolleys on the sides.

      Glasgow hospitals halt non-urgent operations due to pressure

      Two more unions reject Scottish Government NHS pay offer

      Trending Tags

      • Environment
        • All
        • Air Pollution
        • Biology
        • Climate Change
        • Wildfires
        Ardnish wildfire by Leslie Barrie, CC BY-SA 2.0 Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons'

        Fire threats in the Scottish countryside

        Wood stove at the foot of the bed in the Danish Blue room at Pig Hill Inn, Cold Spring, New York. Printed with permission and confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

        When smoke gets in your eyes

        Opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 in Egypt. Photo courtesy of the UNFCCC

        COP27 and the inconvenient truth

        Viscum album in trees

        Night of the strangling figs: a biological horror story

        Out & about with Charlie Mac: Cycling to the heart of Scotland – the National Cycle Network 7

        Scotland's mountain footpaths

        How do we care for Scotland’s mountain footpath network?

        climate science

        PM to be chosen by people with little grasp of climate science

        Trending Tags

        • Opinion
        No Result
        View All Result
        • Home
        • News
          • All
          • Bylines Scotland Breaking News
          • Europe
          • King Charles III
          • Queen Elizabeth II
          • Scotland
          • War in Ukraine
          • World
          Scotland's Pro-EU

          Scotland’s leading pro-EU organisation will be in good spirits when it meets in Edinburgh on Rejoin Day 

          Front cover of Scottish Currency Q&A booklet

          Priorities for the SNP and the Scottish Government on currency

          Portrait of Humza Yousaf

          Humza Yousaf’s plans if he becomes the SNP leader

          Media distortion

          Truth and Trust

          Kate Forbes, candidate for the SNP membership, official portrait

          Kate Forbes campaign for the SNP leadership contest 

          Health service

          Funding the Scottish Health Service 

          Sunflower in watercolour for the one year anniversary of the war in Ukraine 2022

          Euromove Scotland Campaign Raises Donations for Ukraine’s Frontline Communities.

          Nicola Sturgeon portraiture

          Nicola Sturgeon and Jacinda Ardern – what two shock resignations tell us about good leadership

          BBC Scotland in dismantling letters

          The three minute read. Scotland must seek to reform its media

          Trending Tags

          • Democracy
          • Devolution
          • Brexit
          • Ukraine
        • Politics
          • All
          • Council Areas
          • Europe
          • Holyrood
          • Liz Truss
          • Rest of UK
          • Tories
          • United Kingdom
          • Westminster
          • World
          Demonstrator on the streets of London

          Eggs, black shirts and unsettled Britain

          Scottish flag with SYP (Scottish Youth Parliament)

          Scottish Youth Parliament in 2023: Facing the Future

          Kate Forbes, candidate for the SNP membership, official portrait

          Kate Forbes campaign for the SNP leadership contest 

          Ash Regan and Tim Rideout Currency launch

          Ash Regan backs Scottish currency

          blue background, A younf woman holding a large black sign that says VOTE ! in white letters

          Scottish elections: young people more likely to vote if they started at 16 – new study

          A scene of people demonstrating, holding Scotland flags. One man wears a tartan cap and holds a blue flag with both the Scottish cross and the EU stars on it.

          Is Alister Jack sane?

          Image Malcom Laverty

          The Brown plan

          The climate change impacts of Russia’s war with Ukraine

          Britain wastes £1bn on drones to monitor English Channel

          Trending Tags

          • Equality
          • Johnson
          • Scottish National Party
        • Business
          • All
          • Agriculture
          • Aviation
          • Corporations
          • Energy
          • Finance
          • Fishing
          • Natural Resources
          • Shipbuilding
          • Trade
          • Transport
          • Workers
          Bakkafrost Barge

          The Story of the Bakkafrost Barge Sinking

          Fish farm in Scotland

          A deeper dive into the history of Scottish fish farming

          Fish farms in a Scottish Loch

          How farmed salmon is produced – stage one

          Dead salmons

          Death in our waters

          Fish farming, Isle of Sky, Loch Ainort

          Fish Farming in Scotland 

          Offshore wind farm

          How will local communities get a fair share of record investment from offshore wind farms?

          Broadband optic fibres

          Scotland fulfilling its commitment to enable access to superfast broadband

          A row of tall houses on the left, with parked cars in front on the side of the street

          Saving Scotland’s tenements

          A large red researcgh vessel in the sea with ice sheets all around it on the water.

          Rosyth shipyard attracts UK Government contract to maintain fleet of scientific research vessels

          Trending Tags

          • Health
            • All
            • Assisted dying
            • Covid
            • Influenza
            • Polio virus
            • Respiratory
            • Scientific Research
            Slogan Still Home from Clinically Vulnerable Families group

            COVID-19 lockdown continues for many in the UK

            Tree representing lungs

            Where are the areas in Scotland most affected by lung conditions?

            Health service

            Funding the Scottish Health Service 

            A goose surrounded by avian flu

            Who is knocking our doors? A putative new pandemic?

            A woman walking in a field with a jerrycan of water on her back, spraying water on the vegetation

            The Ethiopia Medical Project

            Healthcare word seen in a scrabble

            “Leave no one behind” – the Health Foundation’s report into health inequalities in Scotland 2023.

            Sign saying NHS Greater Galsgow & Clyde in front of a hospital building

            Concern over patients waiting in corridors for free beds at Glasgow Superhospital

            A hospital corridor with trolleys on the sides.

            Glasgow hospitals halt non-urgent operations due to pressure

            Two more unions reject Scottish Government NHS pay offer

            Trending Tags

            • Environment
              • All
              • Air Pollution
              • Biology
              • Climate Change
              • Wildfires
              Ardnish wildfire by Leslie Barrie, CC BY-SA 2.0 Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons'

              Fire threats in the Scottish countryside

              Wood stove at the foot of the bed in the Danish Blue room at Pig Hill Inn, Cold Spring, New York. Printed with permission and confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

              When smoke gets in your eyes

              Opening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 in Egypt. Photo courtesy of the UNFCCC

              COP27 and the inconvenient truth

              Viscum album in trees

              Night of the strangling figs: a biological horror story

              Out & about with Charlie Mac: Cycling to the heart of Scotland – the National Cycle Network 7

              Scotland's mountain footpaths

              How do we care for Scotland’s mountain footpath network?

              climate science

              PM to be chosen by people with little grasp of climate science

              Trending Tags

              • Opinion
              No Result
              View All Result
              Bylines Scotland
              No Result
              View All Result
              Home Lifestyle In memoriam

              Ian Jack – an appreciation

              Martin Roche reflects on the life of journalist Ian Jack, who has died aged 77

              Martin RochebyMartin Roche
              01-11-2022 14:12
              in In memoriam
              Ian Jack and Brigid Keenan at PalFest 2008

              Ian Jack and Brigid Keenan at PalFest 2008

              Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

              The journalist Ian Jack was a Scotsman. Like many a good Scot before him he was born in England. He was also a Fifer, a county his Fife parents brought him to when aged 7. Educated at Dunfermline High School, he was among the last of a cadre of leading British journalists not to go to university.

              After stints on The Glasgow Herald and The Scottish Daily Express, Ian Jack became yet another clever Scottish journalist to be drawn to the bright lights of Fleet St. There he would triumph as a reporter, columnist, and editor. Like his predecessor, the Dundonian James Cameron (another non-university man), Jack’s early career saw him take jobs on papers that were not always in tune with his gently expressed left-of-centre views.

              Cameron was anti-nuclear weapons (he was a founder of CND) and fiercely pro decolonisation. Beaverbrook and his newspapers – mainly The Daily Express, where Cameron was a foreign correspondent – held exactly the opposite opinions. Like Ian Jack, Cameron’s final newspaper home was The Guardian. That paper allowed writers both the space and the intellectual freedom to write what they thought, not what an editor or proprietor thought they should write.

              His father taught Ian the love of learning and respect for humanity

              I never met Ian Jack, though I was to read many of his Guardian columns and have been an occasional buyer of the literary magazine, Granta, which he edited for 12 years. But one book by him has been a constant companion on my bookshelves since it was published in 1987. Before the Oil Ran Out – Britain 1977-86 is a treasure chest of what Britain was like before and during the Thatcher years.

              Before the Oil Ran Out begins with Jack exploring his father’s life and times, seeing Scotland, Britain and the Empire through his father’s lens. Jack senior was an ordinary, decent, certainly highly intelligent, working-class tradesman who looked after his family and passed on a love of learning and a good dose of humanity to his son (another quality he shared with James Cameron). If Jack’s father had an undistinguished life by the standards of many, it was a marked success in giving us the Lad O Pairts who was his son.

              His book is a brilliant commentary on a Britain increasingly uncertain of itself

              Jack’s book is a tour of Britain as it watches the death of industries and communities and the rise in unemployment, particularly among young men. Derelict factories, shuttered shops and wind-blown precincts contrasted with the oil-boom in Aberdeen and the huge rise in wealth of London and the Southeast. It was the most profound change in British life since the Industrial Revolution. Occasioned by Thatcher’s policy of favouring service industries over manufacturing, the years Jack observed marked the beginning of structural inequality in British life. It remains with us today, and more profoundly than ever.

              Before the Oil Ran Out is far more than an analysis of economic and social change. It is also a brilliant commentary on a Britain increasingly uncertain of itself. Here are the roots of Brexit. Here are the roots of the UKIP. Here are the roots of the louder calls for Scottish independence. Here are questions of the greatest importance and to which we have still not found coherent answers.

              Before the Oil Ran Out was and remains the best explanation of Thatcher’s Britain

              Jack’s book had resonance for me because I lived in Aberdeen between 1978 and 1983. In university holidays, I could knock on any one of a dozen doors and instantly find work in the oil business or construction. Many jobs were to be had in shops, offices, pubs and clubs, but the big money was getting the black gold out of the ground. One summer, I made £250 a week working on a project fitting out an enormous oil production platform, anchored 300 miles offshore. Big money for 1981 and a great experience, even though it meant working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. [ed. note: £250.00 in 1980 would be worth c. £1,200.00 today.]

              Not long after leaving Aberdeen I started to work in economic development, mainly in attracting inward investment to Scotland. The work eventually took me to London to represent Scotland’s five new towns. I’d never known wealth of the sort I encountered in London. I’d never known despair of the type I encountered when visiting the Scotland of that time. Ian Jack’s Before the Oil Ran Out was and remains the best explanation of Thatcher’s Britain (and of much of what Britain is today) I have ever read.

              Ian Jack alerted me to the depth of disaster we carved for ourselves

              Early in the book, Jack writes that in 1986 the UK reached “peak oil”. He wrote that in the previous year oil taxes had paid for 10% of the Chancellor’s budget. After 1986, oil production began to decline. “By the early years of the next century – less than twenty years from now – Britain will probably cease to be a significant producer of oil,” Jack wrote.

              He concluded by saying, “But given the lack of industrial investment during Britain’s peak oil years, it is difficult to see what will provide our living.”

              Nearly 40 years later, Britain is paying the price for not using the bounty of oil in the North Sea to rebuild the British economy and provide everyone with world-class educational standards. Mrs Thatcher used North Sea oil revenues to first pay for the unemployment caused by the collapse of our national manufacturing base and, secondly, to cut taxes, especially for the well off.

              It was Ian Jack who alerted me to the depth of the disaster we carved for ourselves. He made me angry. He made me think. He made me better informed and, quite often, he moved me with his abiding love for his parents and for seeing the world with at least half a Scottish eye. I’m glad he lived, and mourn his passing.


              We need your help! The press in our country is dominated by billionaire-owned media, many offshore and avoiding paying tax. We are a citizen journalism publication but still have significant costs. If you believe in what we do, please consider subscribing to the Bylines Gazette 🙏

              Tags: Ian Jackin memoriamNorth Sea oilScotlandThatcher
              Previous Post

              Glasgow firm prepares RAF base for new aircraft

              Next Post

              All change in the Kremlin?

              Martin Roche

              Martin Roche

              Aged 15, Martin began his working life on a Scottish evening newspaper. He then ran his family business before reading politics and international relations at Aberdeen University, as a mature student. He worked in London in investment promotion attraction for Scottish development agencies, followed by a 35-year career in international PR consultancy. He has been a columnist on African Leadership magazine, commenting on geopolitics, a regular contributor to foreign direct investment media and has written for business publications worldwide. He recently returned to Scotland. He lives in Glasgow.

              Related Posts

              No Content Available
              Next Post
              Image A.Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

              All change in the Kremlin?

              PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CROWDFUNDER

              Subscribe to our newsletters
              CHOOSE YOUR NEWS
              Follow us on social media
              CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORMS
              Download our app
              ALL OF BYLINES IN ONE PLACE
              Subscribe to our gazette
              CONTRIBUTE TO OUR SUSTAINABILITY
              Make a monthly or one-off donation
              DONATE NOW
              Help us with our hosting costs
              SIGN UP TO SITEGROUND
              We are always looking for citizen journalists
              WRITE FOR US
              Volunteer as an editor, in a technical role, or on social media
              VOLUNTEER FOR US
              Something else?
              GET IN TOUCH
              Previous
              Next

              LATEST

              Bakkafrost Barge

              The Story of the Bakkafrost Barge Sinking

              27 March 2023
              An open book with 3D drawings depicting storytelling

              Book Festivals Spring spotlight

              25 March 2023
              Demonstrator on the streets of London

              Eggs, black shirts and unsettled Britain

              24 March 2023
              Slogan Still Home from Clinically Vulnerable Families group

              COVID-19 lockdown continues for many in the UK

              23 March 2023

              MOST READ

              Bakkafrost Barge

              The Story of the Bakkafrost Barge Sinking

              27 March 2023
              Portrait of Humza Yousaf

              Humza Yousaf’s plans if he becomes the SNP leader

              13 March 2023
              Tree representing lungs

              Where are the areas in Scotland most affected by lung conditions?

              21 March 2023
              An open book with 3D drawings depicting storytelling

              Book Festivals Spring spotlight

              25 March 2023

              BROWSE BY TAGS

              Brexit Christmas ClimateChange Covid Covid19 Culture Defence Democracy Devolution FishFarms Glasgow Halloween health History Holyrood independence IndyRef2 Johnson Journalism Liz Truss Long Covid Monarchy nationalism NATO NHS Nicola Sturgeon politics Poverty Pro-EU Public Health Putin Russia Sars-CoV-2 Scotland Security Security and Defence shipbuilding SNP Sunak Tories Tourism Twitter Ukraine UK Supreme Court War in Ukraine
              Bylines Scotland

              We are a not-for-profit citizen journalism publication. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in Scotland and beyond.

              Bylines Scotland is a trading brand of Bylines Network Limited, which is a sister organisation to Byline Times.

              Learn more about us

              No Result
              View All Result
              • Network
              • About
              • Authors
              • Contact
              • Donate
              • Privacy

              © 2023 Bylines Scotland. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

              No Result
              View All Result
              • Home
              • News
                • Scotland
                • World
              • Politics
                • Council Areas
                • Europe
                • Holyrood
                • Rest of UK
                • Westminster
              • Business
                • Fishing
                • Trade
                • Transport
              • Health
              • Environment
                • Climate Change
              • Opinion
              • Donate
              • Newsletter sign up
              CROWDFUNDER

              © 2023 Bylines Scotland. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

              Welcome Back!

              Login to your account below

              Forgotten Password?

              Retrieve your password

              Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

              Log In