50th Anniversary of the McCrone Report

That the Parliament recognises the 50th anniversary of the McCrone Report, which was composed by Professor Gavin McCrone on behalf of the UK Government in 1974, to grasp what impact Scottish independence would have on the Scottish and UK economies; notes that the McCrone report outlined that, with independence, Scotland’s finances "would tend to be in chronic surplus to an embarrassing degree", generating, it understands, similar levels of prosperity that enabled Norway to create a sovereign wealth fund, which has significantly grown in size since it was created, and which, it believes, will continue to be used to enhance public services within the country long into the future; understands that the report highlighted unanswered criticisms from the UK Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, which, it considers, charged the UK Government with selling off Scottish assets to companies for significantly less than they were worth, but that, despite this, since the 1970s, more than £300 billion has flowed into the UK Treasury from oil and gas taxation; believes that the report was suppressed by the UK Government due to fears that, if such information were to be made public, it could increase support for Scottish independence ahead of the 1974 general election; understands that the McCrone Report was only made publicly available in 2005, after the Scottish National Party obtained the previously classified report through a Freedom of Information request, and believes that Scotland can utilise the skills and expertise developed in the North Sea over the previous decades to place Scotland at the forefront of the green energy revolution, and seize what it sees as this second golden opportunity to create a prosperous and forward-looking independent nation.