Sir Sean Connery is famed for avoiding the media, but in 1997 he granted a rare interview to S2 Live in support of the Scottish National Party and the opening of the Scottish Parliament.
Speaking about the elections, he said: “It’s a very good sign. It means that every party is represented in Scotland. And that’s very refreshing.
“I’ve never ever declared that the Scottish nationalists would be the answer to everything because where would they get the experience of running a country like Scotland if they didn’t have a parliament?”
As for a lack of talent in Scottish politics, he replied: “There’re nine Scots, all the key positions in London, and to think that we will not be able to amass a pretty good parliament is ridiculous. They will need time to settle, and they’ve got some very good guidelines because they can see where all the other parliaments went wrong.”
The Scottish National Elections of 1997 had a spectacularly poor turnout, a factor the Bond actor attributed to the role of the media and how he felt it had become the focal point of politics: “One of the papers, that should be nameless, said the rain helped the SNP. I can’t figure that out… they’re not made of sugar.
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“The media in Scotland, and particularly the press, really have to examine their conscience and hopefully the Parliament will push things and it will get much more genuine free expression. And not because of some other agenda that’s being pushed through because… who owns the papers?
“There is a complaints commission and I hope they have teeth, as I hope the parliament will have more and more teeth.”
Despite returning to Scotland in recent years, primarily for the golf, Connery has remained interested in the politics of the country and has always stood firm in his support of the nationalists.
“If there had not been a Scottish National Party there would have been no election,” he maintains. “It would have been a rubber stamp from London and nothing would have changed."
