Voting for a new Britain: Campaigns Briefing 3 Days to Go

MARGARET COOK, the former wife of Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, intends to cast a vote for the SNP in protest at her ex-husband's policy on Kosovo. Mrs Cook said she "abhorred" the Nato bombing and was increasingly sympathetic to SNP leader Alex Salmond's condemnation of it. However, Mrs Cook does not support Scottish independence and will cast her constituency vote for the Liberal Democrats.

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AN SNP-controlled Scottish Parliament would hold an inquiry into the "scandal" of the privately-financed pounds 180m redevelopment of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Alex Salmond, has promised. "Private consortia are ripping off the public purse," he said.

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SEAN CONNERY'S visit to lend support to the SNP could have proved costly. A thief, posing as his personal assistant, tried to use the actor's credit card number to place telephone orders for a range of goods from a lawnmower to a pounds 150,000 work of art. The thief said he was working for a bogus Connery company called Goldfinger Productions.

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ON THE campaign trail in Perth, Scottish Tory Ian Stevenson condemned the Government's beef on the bone ban: "Scottish Conservatives will fight in the new parliament to give the people of Scotland the freedom to make their own choices as to what they buy and eat," he said.