Sean Connery launches SNP TV station

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Sean Connery launches SNP TV station24 April 2007 | 16:20 | Source: telegraph.co.uk EDINBURGH -- Sir Sean Connery will today launch an online television station on behalf of the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Sean Connery

The actor will introduce the first program on SNP TV, which will also feature interviews with pop star Sandi Thom and actor Martin Compston.

The channel will go live this evening with an exclusive broadcast by Connery in which he outlines his "hopes and aspirations" for Scotland.

The station is expected to broadcast for three hours every evening, with daily round-ups for the remaining 10 days of the election campaign.

Political figures such as former SNP president Winnie Ewing and trade unionist Jimmy Reid will also have slots.

SNP campaign director Angus Robertson said "the SNP was always trying to reach out to young voters and this was a great opportunity to relay our positive message about success for Scotland in a fun way."

First Minister Jack McConnell accused the Nationalists yesterday of an "ideological obsession" with independence, saying voters had a choice between "hope and grievance".

He told BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Live program: "We have outlined in this campaign... a clarity of vision and purpose for a third term in parliament that compared to the ideological obsession of Alex Salmond and the SNP, where independence is everything, I think, offers a choice between hope and grievance."

McConnell said he was not discouraged by the SNP lead in the opinion polls.

"The poll that will count is the one on election day.

"I think increasingly people are realizing that Alex Salmond would not be a fit person to be First Minister of Scotland and that not only have I and the party made a real difference in Scotland but that we have the clarity of vision and purpose and the best policies for the future too."

"The future under Alex Salmond would be one of increased taxes, every working family in Scotland paying more than they would elsewhere in the UK; one of constant division and turmoil inside the UK or, with me in parliament, focused on ensuring that young Scots have the best education system on the planet,"McConnell added.

SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon said: "Jack McConnell's foolish remarks can only make Labour's dismal ratings even worse. Labor’s campaign is stumbling from one crisis to another.

They are slumping in the polls, their economics expert has attacked Jack McConnell, and there is no coherence or consistency to their campaign. Jack McConnell and Labor are panicking because of the popularity of Alex Salmond."

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, dismissed poll findings suggesting his party is going nowhere in the Holyrood campaign.

A YouGov poll for The Sunday Times put the Tories at 14 per cent in the constituency vote and 13 per cent in the list vote, equating to 16 seats, while a Scottish Opinion survey for the Mail on Sunday put them on 10 and 11 per cent, equating to 13 seats.

Cameron told BBC1's The Politics Show: "If you don't want the divorce offered by the SNP, the Conservative party is now a moderate, sensible, centre right party."

Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Conservative leader, told BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Live program: "If you average out the polls, the Conservatives are way ahead of where they were three or four years ago."

She again rejected suggestions the Tories would consider entering a formal unionist coalition designed to deny power to the SNP if the Nationalists emerged as the biggest single party.