IT was the oil dossier hushed up by Westminster governments while they used the unimaginable riches from the North Sea to steal a future from generations of Scots.

The top-secret McCrone Report of 1975 concluded that the discovery of oil and gas could transform the Scottish economy into one of the most prosperous in Europe and boost support for independence.

The report claimed: “The country would tend to be in chronic surplus to a quite embarrassing degree and its currency would become the hardest in Europe.”

That was not to be, however, as successive Tory and Labour governments hushed up the impact of North Sea oil, and robbed Scots of the chance to become one of the richest countries on earth.

We believe that Scots should know of the opportunity which was lost.

Only last year, we made Scottish newspaper history by publishing the report in full – and the response from our readers was phenomenal. We believe more than 80,000 people read the whole thing across print and digital last year on February 27.

From now on, that date will be known as “McCrone Day” – and we commit to printing the whole thing every year until we achieve independence to highlight how Scots were screwed by Westminster.

We want our readers to get it into the hands of as many Scots as possible to show the truth about our place in the UK – and this time we’re much better placed to meet the demand from you.

From today, you can go to our online shop and order as many bulk copies of the edition for your Yes Group – or even for handing out yourself, so that we can show undecided voters than Westminster does not serve Scotland’s interests.

To address one point: yes, we know that the climate crisis has sharpened minds on the use and extraction of fossil fuels – but that misses the point. This could have been any resource – diamonds, renewables, whatever. It’s about the principle that the people of Scotland were lied to and denied the chance to choose their own future.

Visit www.thenational.scot/shop to order your copies NOW.