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AS Westminster prepares to wrench Scotland out of the EU against its will, and steal the European future of our children, we have published the report which lays bare exactly how far the UK is prepared to go to suppress support for independence.

Gavin McCrone’s 1974 report, which was delivered to the UK Prime Minister 45 years ago, said that Scotland – if independent – would “tend to be in chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree and its currency would become the hardest in Europe with exception perhaps of the Norwegian kroner”.

We believe that this is required reading for anybody who faces a choice about Scotland’s future – and who might be wondering whether the UK and Westminster are really capable of working in our interests.

READ MORE: The big Unionist cover-up: The history of the McCrone report

Norway has a $1 trillion oil fund saved for future generations. What does Scotland have?

Successive Labour and Tory Governments buried the existence of the bombshell report, until an SNP staffer requested the locked file be released in 2005. Clearly, the parties which usually run the UK do not want you to read it. But we do.

And why now, you might ask? Well, this has been a much requested project from our readers over the years since we launched – and it’s something we have planned to do for a while. In fact, we had the pages mostly planned and ready some months ago.

But it is particularly pertinent now as we head into the endgame of Brexit, because Scotland is facing another potential moment of transformation to match that of striking oil in the North Sea.

We are being dragged out of the EU against our will. Our children – my own daughter is just five months old – may not have the same right to travel, live and work in Europe that our generations were so lucky to have. It is unforgivable that Westminster and the UK parties should attempt to impose this on us.

But Scotland has an escape route. And we hope this publication might play some part in changing minds if it reaches enough people whose opinions can be swayed.

And if this a roaring success, we certainly don’t rule out publishing the report again – perhaps in the final weeks of the next campaign.

One sentence from the McCrone Report sticks out above all: “For the first time since the Act of Union was passed, it can now be credibly argued that Scotland’s economic advantage lies in its repeal.”

Every morning, The National and Sunday National will continue to fight Scotland’s corner. We’ve got lots of great ideas for indyref2. With your support every day, we’ll help deliver independence.