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SOMETIMES a picture can tell a story better than words.

Scotland’s Future, the plan for Scotland after independence, is more than 650 pages long.

But if you only read one of these, I’d suggest you turn to page 84, which is devoted to a picture graphic headlined: “Scotland has got what it takes.”

At a glance it tells the story of Scotland’s economic strength. The following is just a taster. We have:

* 25 per cent of Europe’s wind and tidal energy.

* 11.6 per cent of UK farming production, well above our population share.

* Whisky exports worth £4.3billion a year.

* A rural and island economy worth £32billion.

* 98.8 per cent of UK oil production, with the same reserves left in the North Sea as have been taken out already.

If Scotland was independent it would be the eighth richest country in the world among the nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD.

Scotland’s Future, the government White Paper unveiled last week, has a full chapter on the nation’s finances – all backed with solid national statistics.

For every single year since 1980 Scotland has paid more tax per person than the rest of the UK.

Yet in those 30 years London politicians and newspapers told us we were subsidy junkies – the opposite of the truth.

In the last five years alone, Scotland has given £12.6billion more in tax per person than the rest of the UK – that’s an extra £2400 for every man, woman and child in our country. You have to ask why more Scots are not enjoying this wealth.

While gross national income per head in Scotland in 2010 was £26,000, most people took home a lot less.

Money follows power and power resides in the south of England.

That’s why Scotland’s wealth has evaporated like snow off a dyke.

That’s why families struggle to heat homes while city financiers enjoy tax cuts.

The Scotland’s Future document puts forward carefully costed ideas about how we could keep the extra money we make and put it to better use.

That includes a Scandinavian-style child care system that could save ordinary families thousands of pounds.

Scotland’s Future promises to stop pensions falling behind inflation and boost the minimum wage earned by 70,000 Scots.

And if all decisions are made here in Scotland, we can get our economy growing by supporting sectors like engineering and manufacturing that offer decent jobs.

Scotland’s Future has ambition and vision. The negative No camp have nothing to match it.

But if we stay with Westminster, Scotland will be singled out for special punishment.

A House of Commons Committee last week recommended that Scotland’s block grant be slashed by £4billion after a No vote.

It’s vindictive and spiteful. But they have said it before.

The Lib Dems’ Alistair Carmichael, Labour’s Carwyn Jones and Tory’s Ruth Davidson have suggested Scotland’s money could be cut.

That’s the choice we face. It’s a choice between two futures.

Of course, the future is never certain. But it helps if you are the one in control.