Former first minister accuses Salmond of hijacking campaign for his own endsBy Paul Hutcheon
FORMER first minister Jack McConnell has accused his successor Alex Salmond of "hijacking" a multi-million pound campaign to woo expats back to Scotland and turning it into a "waste of money".
The former Scottish Labour leader launched his attack on Homecoming 2009 after it emerged that a £200,000 advert aimed at encouraging overseas Scots to come "home" will not be shown on television channels outside the UK or Ireland.
The glitzy promotional ad for Homecoming, which features Sir Sean Connery, may only be broadcast in homes north of the Border.
McConnell has now accused Salmond of using the campaign to promote Scottishness ahead of a 2010 referendum on independence.
"The first minister and the SNP are more interested in publicising themselves and Scottish identity in Scotland than in promoting Scotland as a destination to those who live elsewhere. The whole Homecoming idea - which we began five years ago - was to increase tourism and promote Scotland, leading to more jobs. We wanted those with Scottish ancestors to consider returning.
"It was never meant to be an internal publicity campaign for Scottishness, instead of being a great investment for our future. This advertising campaign is a waste of money. The first minister has been hijacking the campaign for his own personal crusade. Scotland should be outraged. I am," he said.
The advert was to raise awareness of the Scottish government's £5 million campaign to woo thousands of overseas Scots back "home".
Next year is the 250th anniversary of poet Robert Burns's birth and ministers are planning more than 200 events to celebrate the occasion.
The 60-second clip, broadcast on ITV earlier this month, features singers Lulu, Amy Macdonald and Sandy Thom recite a line from Dougie MacLean's anthem Caledonia.
Actors Brian Cox and Connery also sing against a traditional Scottish background.
However, the £200,000 advert was criticised after many of the participants filmed their cameo roles outside Scotland.
It has now been confirmed that the promo is unlikely to be broadcast on any television channel in the overseas markets targeted by VisitScotland, the tourism agency taking the lead on the Homecoming celebrations.
While ministers are hopeful that Scots in Canada, Australia and the US will heed the message of the advert, the agency has stated there are no plans to buy airtime in any of the countries targeted by officials.
The only space booked has been with Ulster Television, which will broadcast the advert in February, a decision that has outraged McConnell.
Organisers are instead hoping ancestral Scots will watch the Homecoming advert on YouTube or other multimedia platforms, and be inspired to book a holiday.
Homecoming officials hope the airtime will spur Scotland's five million population to act as "ambassadors" for the project.
A VisitScotland spokesman said: "We always intended to show the Caledonia advert beyond Scotland - initially we wanted to show it in this country to see if it got a warm welcome and test it out through our viral marketing to over one million people across the world. Showing the ad in Scotland is essential to raising awareness of this national celebration and to encourage the Scottish population to take part and extend the invitation to their own friends and family. As the response has been so positive we are now taking the campaign forward and have now, for example, booked space with Ulster Television for the ad to be shown in February."
A source close to the first minister said: "Jack McConnell's pathetic outburst follows his own lamentable efforts in trying to organise the Year of Homecoming, which we inherited as an empty shell, with no events planned and nothing organised. Whatever reputation he had as a former first minister has gone with these sour and ill-informed comments.
