Saudi Arabia approves ambitious plan to move economy beyond oil | World news | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/a ... beyond-oil

Can we send them the likes of Gideon and Theresa? Those two berks would have a field day.

"15-year plan includes ... privatisation of state assets"
Hilarious. The royal family privatise a state asset they already effectively own and then buy all the shares so they actually own it. net change : square root of eff all.

The thing is they could move beyond oil very easily - chuck a massive lump of cash into research on electrical power transmission and put a wodge of solar panels in the desert. It's simply a matter of long term thinking and R&D then they'd have a licence to print money for the next billion years. They'd much rather spend their money on £20m townhouses in Kensington though..

I imagine, at the first hint of the SHTF, the Saudi uber-rich will cash up and relocate to their palatial apartments in Monaco and the like, leaving their country to descend beyond the sorry state it was prior to the discovery of oil beneath it's feet. Far from the madding crowd.