David Duguid well remembers the Burns Night he spent in Baku, Azerbaijan. On the hunt for haggis, he had to criss-cross the city from shop to shop. The marvel, perhaps, is that he was able to find any at all, let alone 13 tins. But, as he says: “You go anywhere in the world in oil and gas and you’ll hear Scottish accents.”
For how much longer will this be true? Duguid is now a Tory MP representing Banff and Buchan, a rural region heavily reliant on North Sea oil and gas. Despite historically high prices, the industry he joined decades ago is under siege and the future of its next generation of workers is in doubt. The downturn is being driven by a rash
