Election '97: OO7 goes to SNP's aide

Realistic enough at least to know that letters from politicians go straight in the bin, the Scottish National Party has sent its supporters and waverers an appeal signed by the party's best-known overseas supporter, the actor Sean Connery. "Everywhere I go in the world people want to know about Scotland and why we tolerate our affairs being run by someone else's government," says Mr Connery, a resident of Marbella in Spain.

Some 500,000 copies of the letter are being sent out. The 66-year-old actor, a former James Bond whose visage peers from the page, says it is his "dearest wish to see Scotland free", but the Nationalists are keeping silent over whether he might join the campaign in person.