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CAN we really be threatened with yet another pump price rise from the Westminster government?

We already pay the highest fuel and heating bills in Europe – despite being an energy-rich nation.

You need to go back to 1974 to understand why we are so powerless.

That’s when the British government commissioned a report on the then newly discovered North Sea oil and its economic implications for Scotland.

The document packed such a punch it was stamped “secret” and locked away for 30 years.

It was written by Professor Gavin McCrone against the backdrop of a rising SNP and growing support for independence.

Professor McCrone said an independent Scotland would be among the world’s richest nations, with a budget surplus so large it would be “embarrassing”.

The SNP at the time claimed that North Sea oil would earn £800million a year for the government by 1980.

McCrone said that forecast was “far too low”. Annual earnings would be more like £3billion.

He predicted that Scotland’s currency would be “the hardest in Europe” and this level of prosperity would continue “for a very long time into the future”. He also suggested England could borrow from its wealthier neighbour.

But the report was suppressed, independence was postponed and Scotland gave her oil wealth away for nothing.

The Labour government in 1974 ordered McCrone’s paper to be classified immediately. It was restricted in much the same way as top military secrets.

In the 30-odd years it lay in the vaults, £300billion of oil tax revenue flowed from Scotland to the Treasury.

All that time, Labour and Tory politicians told Scots they were too poor to run their own country.

They all kept schtum about McCrone, even during the Thatcher era when Scotland’s industry was devastated. Our oil revenue built the Channel Tunnel and bought nuclear weapons but our shipyards, steelworks and mines were run down. The oil revenue financed tax cuts for the rich financiers and property speculators of the south-east of England, while millions of workers languished on the dole.

All the while, we were told we’d be as poor as Bangladesh if we dared take our country back.

We didn’t know the secret McCrone report said we’d be as rich as Switzerland. Well, we know now. The report was finally uncovered in 2005 thanks to Freedom of Information Laws.

But it is not as widely publicised as it should be. This is a good time to remind ourselves of McCrone, and not just because of the rising cost of heating the house and filling up the car.

All energy matters remain regulated by London, from the behaviour of the profiteering power companies to the tax levied on the oil in our waters.

The UK government last week granted 167 new licences to firms keen to exploit those North Sea reserves. Despite what you might have been told, there’s plenty still there – and companies are queuing up to benefit.

Northern Lights, a Pricewaterhouse Coopers report published last year, reported that there was £376billion of value left in the North Sea over the next 40 years.

John Hayes, the energy minister, told an industry gathering: “The durability of oil production in the North Sea continues to confound expectations.”

It sure does.

Hayes’ Tory-led government raked in a record £13.4billion from Scotland’s oil and gas revenues last year alone.

They expect to gain about £61billion over the next five years.

But Scotland is denied access to this money, relying instead on a block grant from Westminster that is being cut by £10billion, putting terrible pressure on public services.

It’s beyond dispute that 90 per cent of the reserves lie in Scottish waters. Under international law, this would be ours if we were a sovereign state.

Since McCrone, Scotland has proved itself resourceful in building up new industries such as renewable energy and food exports.

Despite the theft of our oil, we are the most attractive place in the UK outside London to do business, according to surveys of companies.

Yet leaders of the Bitter Together No Campaign this week were peddling the “too poor” line once again.

The McCrone story tells us all we need to know about such people.

Far from being guided by good old British fair play, these establishment figures will say anything to retain power and prestige.

So, next time a leading member of that establishment – Alistair Darling or David Cameron – attacks the SNP and independence, judge them by their deeds.

Ask yourself: Who has Scotland’s best interests at heart?

And who told us fibs for 30 years?