Blair digging graves to make his legacy

BY BRIAN PENDREIGH

SEAN Connery has given his most incendiary ever interview on politics, branding Tony Blair an "a***hole" making his legacy from graves in Iraq and suggesting that First Minister Jack McConnell is frustrating democracy in Scotland.

In his first interview since the Holyrood election, Connery also calls on Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander to resign over the voting fiasco, which saw almost 150,000 ballot papers spoiled.

The actor reveals he has been giving post-election advice to SNP leader and likely new First Minister Alex Salmond and suggests he has already become a roving ambassador for Scotland. But on the issue of a return to the land of his birth, Connery remains as enigmatic as ever.

Speaking from his home in the Bahamas, Connery described the conduct of the election as an "embarrassment".

Connery told Scotland on Sunday: "I think [Douglas] Alexander should resign because he was warned. Alexander is not resigning, he's not even apologising."

Referring to the decision to hold council and Parliament votes together, he added: "No other place would attempt to do the two on the same day. It's a real, horrendous mistake."

Connery said of the outcome, in which the SNP won by 47 seats to Labour's 46: "It was an amazing result considering the Prime Minister and Jack McConnell were up there, and all the tabloids on full blast. They had all the ammunition stacked against them, and they've come through, the SNP. The thing is that they [Labour] pushed for a fear element into it."

He added: "Everybody got blinded by the Union issue. It wasn't the Union issue. It was a change of government they wanted.

"What I think got the people going behind Alex Salmond and the SNP was that they really conducted an excellent campaign and they have come out with what they are trying to do. And this will determine the future of Scotland, regardless of a referendum [on independence]."

McConnell has let it be known that should the SNP fail to form a government he is waiting in the wings to try for another coalition with the Lib Dems.

Asked if McConnell was betraying democratic principles by not letting Salmond get on with it, Connery said: "This is it completely. If you were asking the will of the people now, that's exactly what they would want. They would say, 'Let them get in, we're at least on the right track'. If they [Labour] start with a sabotage situation like now they can't blame anybody but themselves."

Connery said that if anybody should be a Labour supporter "it should be me, with my background". He added: "The problem is that Labour has been too long in power. They are totally fossilised. For 50 years until the opening of this Parliament we had nothing but a Labour majority in Scotland, regardless of what happened in the rest of the UK."

On the issue of independence, Connery remains convinced a referendum can still take place with or without the support of the Lib Dems. He even suggests that three years of minority rule under the SNP might be enough to persuade Scots it is time to go it alone.

"When you get to the crossroads in 2010, they [the SNP] might not even need a referendum, it would be so obvious that they want to run alone. The issue is that I do not think the UK is a United Kingdom. I think it is not a democracy, it is not equal, that's the problem."

But the star acknowledges that the SNP is facing a new challenge as a result of the imminent change of leadership of the UK Labour party. "That's going to be the major problem," said Connery. "From a not particularly powerful base, Salmond dealing with Gordon Brown, who is out to set a much bigger stall after this a***hole Blair."

Connery referred to the massive controversy during the election campaign when Blair criticised Sir George Mathewson, former chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, after he backed Salmond for First Minister. Blair responded during a trip to Scotland by calling Mathewson "self indulgent".

Connery said: "How can somebody like a Blair come up and knock somebody like George Mathewson of the Royal Bank, with his success, for being deluded? How dare he say that of somebody from his position who's digging graves to make a legacy? That's the sort of person in Scotland he's knocking. And that can't taste good in the mouth of the Scots."

He then took a side swipe at the Lib Dems, saying: "They [the SNP] are obviously not going to be in bed with the Liberal Democrats. I mean they are so non-productive anyway. They are like some kind of hybrid. Now if the Liberal Democrats were really interested in the big picture of Scotland, they would get in and prove that they can work with a party like the SNP."

Connery predicted the SNP would win the election last month when he declared that Salmond was "the right man at the right time". He also hinted that he may return to live in his homeland if Scotland voted for independence.

Connery told Scotland on Sunday he had followed the election results on the internet throughout the night of May 3 and 4 and had spoken to Salmond since the outcome.

Asked what role he might play in the new Scotland, Connery replied: "For me it's to get the [Scottish] voice heard.

"Since Winnie Ewing at the beginning it's unequal. Her treatment by the MPs when she got to London was deplorable. And if you ask any businessman or any chief, if he had four divisions like Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, what would he do? He would bring them all up to the best they could be competitively for the benefit of the big picture. Well, that's what it should be, that kind of equality. All this talk about borders with guns and all that is s****, you know, absolute panic s****. We are talking about our people who want an equal deal."

Connery agreed he might become a roving, cultural ambassador for Scotland but he also made a plea for fairness towards the SNP, particularly from the media.

"The day we got the Parliament opened, I was asked, leaving the building, what did I think? I said it will be turmoil. Until we get a media which is sympathetic to a better and bigger picture of Scotland it won't work. And it's sadly come true.

"If we get a fair innings and everybody does work, there's a real genuine opportunity."

Connery's relationship with Labour has veered from conciliatory to outright hostile. He lent his support to the devolution referendum in 1997, standing alongside Blair, Donald Dewar and Salmond in urging Scots to vote 'yes'. But there was controversy after Dewar vetoed Connery's knighthood in December 1997. At the time, the veteran actor said he was "deeply disappointed but strangely not angry or greatly surprised". He was eventually made a knight in 2000.

Connery has worked alongside McConnell as well, especially during the annual Tartan Week celebrations in New York. However, this relationship was also strained after sources close to the First Minister described him as a "falling star".

An SNP spokesman said: "The difference between Alex Salmond and Tony Blair was that while Alex Salmond wanted to celebrate and build on Scottish success, Blair came north and attacked it. As for Sir Sean's points about Douglas Alexander and the causes of the election problems, Alex Salmond has already said that he will commission an independent inquiry into the voting fiasco if elected First Minister."

No one was available for comment from Scottish Labour.


I'll be in Scotland when weather improves, says Connery
BP: It was reported that you are thinking of moving back to Scotland or buying a house - is that right?

SC: That very first time I was supposed to have looked at houses is one of these rumours. It's not true.

BP: You are not actively looking for somewhere in Scotland just now?

SC: No, no. I don't feel the need. Travelling in the world today is a pain in the a***.

BP: Do you have any plans to come to Scotland in the near future? Is there anything that will bring you here?

SC: Well, I'm working on the Glasgow animation thing I'm doing, and I'm still doing this book on the history with Murray Grigor. In fact I'm doing quite a few things.

BP: So when will you next be in Scotland?

SC: When the weather improves.

BP: There is no political initiative to bring you here in the coming weeks?

SC: No, no, I won't figure in their plans, I don't think. They have got enough on their plate.

BP: Are you going to do Indiana Jones (left) 4?

SC: I'm still talking with them. I've got their script and they're still working on it.

BP: Can you tell me anything about the story? I believe it might shoot in the Bahamas?

SC: Is it? I don't know.

BP: Can you tell me what Henry Jones does?

SC: No, I can't. It's all secrecy. You know they're paranoid about it.

This was found at Scotsman.com.