Russell Jones's Week Moment: The Only Way is Norway

The UK is now the second most miserable country in the world. It's time we learnt some lessons on building a happier society from our Nordic neighbours, says Russell Jones

A protest march against the cost of housing, calling for rent control and the building of more social housing, London, 14 December 2024. Photo: Ron Fassbender/Alamy

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the UK beginning commercial production of North Sea Oil. Oil has an even worse name now that it did in the days of Dallas, but even putting aside the harm it’s done to our atmosphere, the discovery of oil in our territorial waters precipitated one of the stupidest political decisions in all of British history. And yes, that includes Brexit.

We have become familiar with the notion of once-in-a-generation events: they’re those things that happen every three months as our climate collapses. But oil under the North Sea was not just a once-in-a-generation opportunity, it was once-in-history. The clay beds containing oil and gas were laid down 150 million years ago by processes that will most likely never happen again while humans survive on this planet.

The Norwegian Government, which shared access to the North Sea goldmine, understood this, and in 1976 announced: “Our aim is to make Norway a qualitatively better society to live in”. With this in mind, the country formed a democratically controlled system of ownership, with the Government in Oslo retaining control over 70% of the oilfields and related companies. With careful handling, the so-called ‘Venezuela effect’ – the risks of corruption and inflation that go hand in hand with sudden vast wealth – were avoided. Norway remains a low-interest, economically stable country, and the fourth-least corrupt nation on earth.

The country’s oil profits were poured into a sovereign wealth fund for the long-term betterment of Norwegian society. It now worth over $1.7 trillion, a vast ocean of carefully husbanded oil money that has not been idle. It’s been used to invest in sustainable futures, with 98% of the county’s non-transportation energy now coming from clean and renewable sources, transforming what could have looked like climate vandalism into a beacon for the world.

This energy independence gives Norway surprising political confidence too. Their elected officials are comfortable rebuking Trump, where other country’s leaders brown-nose him in the most cringeworthy way imaginable. Foreign ownership of Norway’s media is vigorously regulated, yet freedom of speech is unaffected: Norway holds the top spot on the Press Freedom index, and is the second most democratic nation on earth, scoring maximum points for political rights and civil liberties.