David Maddox: Banking on Sean and Andy

Just a final thought on the events of the weekend and Andy Murray's defeat to Federer.

Some people may have noticed that there was an attack on one Scottish icon - Sir Sean Connery - for fronting an advert for a French bank on green banking.
Labour put out a quite contorted press release on it having a go at Sir Sean's alleged blunder.

Which got me thinking as I looked up at the TV screen to watch the tennis - "Famous people... advertising banks... making money... what's the big deal?"

And then I took a closer look at Mr Murray again and remembered his sponsorship. Strangely enough nobody seems to be concerned about the Dunblane lad's sponsorship by RBS, the bank whose dodgy practices almost sunk the British economy.

Could one of the differences be that Murray now refers to himself as British (courtesy, reportedly, of his marketing team's advice) while Sir Sean is a well known SNP supporter?

*As an addition the prize for the most pointless Murray political press release - keenly contested over the last week or two - has to go to the Scottish Government's one on Saturday evening telling us that the First Minister Alex Salmond would be sat on his sofa watching the Scottish hero do his stuff against Federer.

Kenny Farquharson: Mike Russell's power nap

A few weeks ago when the SNP announced it was moving into a new party HQ, I was reminiscing about the Nationalists' old base in North Charlotte Street.

If those walls could only speak...

A friend who is an SNP activist emailed me over the weekend with this reminiscence:

Here's a tale from the Charlotte Street HQ.

The morning after the 99 elections Mike Russell was catching 40 winks on one of the sofas in the "media suite" (sic).

Someone popped their head round the door. "Sean Connery here to see you Mike"

"Aye, right," said Mike and went back to sleep.

Ten minutes later, the same now anxious head appeared round the door. "Mike, wake up, Sean Connery is here. Downstairs in the hall. And you are keeping him waiting".

One rumpled, half asleep, bemused and shame faced CEO fell down the stairs to find truly that Sean Connery was standing, patiently, waiting to discuss the election results with him.

He hadn't wanted to come up in case people were busy..

Anyone with any other memories? Add to the comments on this post or email me on kenny.farquharson@scotlandonsunday.com

Hamish Macdonell - Fun with Sir Sean

NEVER let it be said that the Tories pass up an opportunity to have a dig at Scotland's most famous absentee Scotsman and Nationalist, Sir Sean (Bahamas) Connery.
Former Tory leader David McLetchie took the opportunity in a debate this morning to praise the James Bond actor for taking part in the Homecoming advert for VisitScotland.
The he added: "I am sure we would all look forward to the permanent homecoming of Sir Sean Connery and no one more so than John Swinney, in that the resumption of tax residence in Scotland by Sir Sean would go a long way to plugging the gaping financial hole in his local income tax plans. Could Sir Sean once again ride to the rescue of the Scottish National Party in its hour of financial crisis? On this occasion I don’t think so, but you never know."
Ouch.