Scotland on Sunday back issues from February 2008:
Open all hours plan for doctors
Feb 03, 2008; ... THOUSANDS of Scots will gain access to their GP at evenings andweekends under a groundbreaking deal close to being signed bydoctors' leaders and the Government. Ministers have offered Scottish family doctors an extra GBP 16mto help cover the cost of out-of-hours opening but have ...
Spiral blood flow discovery gives vital twist to creation of artificial arteries
Feb 03, 2008; ... A TEAM of Scottish doctors has created artificial arteries thatwill help thousands of patients suffering from a major life-threatening condition. The artificial implants can be used for bypass surgery forpatients with clogged arteries, a condition that affects 10,000Scots every ...
Gym food not fit for purpose
Feb 03, 2008; ... YOUR health club gym may be an air-conditioned temple to the godsof fitness, but many members would be better off taking a close lookat what's going on in the kitchen. According to nutritionists, some keep-fitters who "refuel" in theclub restaurant after a workout will be lucky to ...
Lingerie sends panting drivers on road to ruin
Feb 03, 2008; ... IT SELLS stockings, but it has caused hold-ups - and worse. Rubber-necking male motorists are being blamed for causing aspate of crashes and near misses outside a designer lingerie shop. Staff at Agent Provocateur in Glasgow claim to have witnessednumerous bumps and accidents ...
Q & A with Emma Bridgewater
Feb 03, 2008; ... Emma Bridgewater founded her ceramics company in 1985 and it isnow a highly successful international brand, with four shops in theUK and a mail-order catalogue. Her interest in ceramics was sparkedby spending a lot of time with her grandmothers, both of whomcollected china, as a child ....
Lynn O'Rourke
Feb 03, 2008; ... Despite the miserable weather of late, bidding farewell toJanuary and greeting the start of February always feels spring-liketo me. I know we are still quite likely to have hail, sleet and snownext month (hey, it's possible we could still get all three inJuly), but psychologically the ...
Words Of Wisdom
Feb 03, 2008; ... SUPREME BEING, Prime Mover, Lord, Tetragrammaton, the Deity,Mlimo: there are countless names for God. But most religions findnaming God close to offensive, and many of our interjections -corblimey, golly, by gum, for example - are corruptions of the wordGod, along with obsolete ...
MPs fight bid to reveal homes spending
Feb 03, 2008; ... MPs are preparing to block attempts to get them to reveal howthey spend a GBP 22,110 a year housing allowance, in spite of callsfor greater transparency on expenses from each of the main partyleaders. Freedom of Information (FoI) campaigners are pressing the Houseof Commons ...
Police fly to Pakistan to probe newlywed's death
Feb 03, 2008; ... SCOTTISH detectives will fly to Pakistan this week to helpinvestigate the mysterious death of a newly married, pregnant woman. But relatives of Sobia Wali fear they may never learn exactlywhat happened to the 22-year-old. Some have claimed her body is to be exhumed in order ...
Stomach for the battle
Feb 03, 2008; ... IF YOU'D seen the state of him that Sunday afternoon you wouldn'thave fancied his chances much. It was September 23, the World Cupwas up and running and Frank Hadden's A team were an hour away fromtaking to the field to face the All Blacks at Murrayfield. The homedressing-room was calm ...
Drinkers face sobering 10 per cent rise in prices
Feb 03, 2008; ... HERE'S a sobering thought to drive you away from drink. The price of wine and spirits is predicted to go up by five timesthe rate of inflation in the next year. The rises will dismay consumers, although health campaigners lastnight hoped that they might bring Britain's binge ...
Letters To The Business Editor: Lesson one: teachers don't get retirement fund for free
Feb 03, 2008 ... I WAS very disappointed to read within the article "Swinney urgedto pull plug on 'drain' of public sector final salary pensions" themyth being perpetuated that recipients of public sector pensions,such as teachers, are a "burden on the public purse", implying thatwe do not contribute to ...
Inflation puts savers on borrowed time
Feb 03, 2008; ... IF THE frenzied interest rate cutting by the US Federal Reserveover the past fortnight is not proof enough of the serious times weare in, then the dramatic policy volte face by the InternationalMonetary Fund last week should dispel any doubts. In an extraordinary U-turn, Dominique ...
Al-Fayed tells shrub growers to bog off
Feb 03, 2008; ... THE controversial owner of Harrods has thrown Britain's largestbog myrtle plantation off his land. Last year tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed announced plans to grow acommercial crop of the ancient Scottish shrub at Balnagown, hisEaster Ross estate. Al-Fayed agreed to allow 250,000 ...
Briefs
Feb 03, 2008 ... MERGER TALKS TWO of Scotland's call centre companies are rumoured to have held"informal talks" about a possible tie-up. Whispers in the sector last week suggested that David Murray'sResponse Handling is eyeing a deal with rival firm BeCogent. Dermot Jenkinson, founder ...
Briefs: Balloonist missing
Feb 03, 2008 ... JAPANESE and US authorities are searching for a Japanese man whohas gone missing while trying to cross the Pacific Ocean alone in ahot-air balloon. Michio Kanda, 58, set off on the voyage from eastern Japan onThursday, aiming to reach Portland, Oregon, in 60 hours, a ...
Briefs: Stabbing charge
Feb 03, 2008 ... A 13-YEAR-old boy has been charged following a knife attack on aclassmate. The teenager, who has not been named, will appear before LeedsYouth Court on Wednesday following the attack on Shaquille Clarke-Adams at Allerton Grange School in ...
Briefs: Emergency landing
Feb 03, 2008 ... A PLANE carrying around 100 passengers made an emergency landingyesterday because of engine trouble. The pilot of the Fokker 100 twin-engine plane was forced to landthe aircraft at speed because of an engine fault. Police, ambulances ...
Briefs: Police search
Feb 03, 2008 ... POLICE were searching land around the East Sussex home of amissing award-winning TV make-up artist yesterday. Officers could be seen searching grounds close to the house inDuddleswell, Uckfield, which Diane Chenery-Wickens shared with ...
Briefs: Hit and run
Feb 03, 2008 ... A MAN on a mobility scooter who left an elderly woman injuredafter a hit-and-run incident was yesterday being sought by police. Pensioner Audrey Lane, from Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, wasknocked down by ...
Briefs: Crash death
Feb 03, 2008 ... A 62-YEAR-old British woman has died in a bus crash in NewZealand. The woman, who lived in Spain, died instantly when the bus leftthe road and rolled down a bank, about 3km (1.8 miles) south ofCharleston, in the South Island's West Coast region, at about ...
Doctors treat MS sufferers with cannabis
Feb 03, 2008; ... SCOTTISH doctors have started prescribing cannabis on the NHSbefore it is officially licensed in a bid to relieve the pain ofmultiple sclerosis sufferers. Medics, apparently frustrated by years of trials of medicinalcannabis, have decided to wait no longer and are legally ...
Time running out to break free of bonds
Feb 03, 2008; ... MILLIONS of investors are being warned to urgently review anyinvestment bond holdings or risk being hit by a potential GBP 3bntax bill following the Government's reform of capital gains. Policyholders bought the bonds in the hope of avoiding a 40 percent tax charge. Many are now ...
Dunfermline reviews bounced cheque penalty after complaint to Money Pages
Feb 03, 2008; ... DUNFERMLINE Building Society is to review a controversial chargewith a view to scrapping it, following an investigation by Scotlandon Sunday. Former policeman Graham Dick complained to the society and to ourMoney Pages after he was charged GBP 25 for paying in his son'scheque ...
Terror czar warns of changing threat
Feb 03, 2008; ... MUSLIM fanatics in Scotland could be radicalised within weeks,the country's terror czar has warned. And John Corrigan stressedthat the exact potential of the threat is constantly changing andcan never be quantified. He spoke to Scotland on Sunday just six weeks before retiring ...
Backlash over cancelled Egg credit cards
Feb 03, 2008; ... INTERNET bank Egg was last night facing a backlash from customerswho claimed their credit cards were being cancelled because theydon't generate enough profit. Egg has told more than 160,000 customers - around 7 per cent ofits total - that their cards will be withdrawn because they ...
Saturday's alright for surgery appointments
Feb 03, 2008; ... IT'S JUST before 9am in the quiet Stirlingshire village ofBalfron and the shopkeepers are opening up for business. Unlike the thousands of other places across Scotland witnessingsimilar scenes yesterday, joining in with the traders was Dr BrianKeighley. His surgery is one ...
Endowment holders must prepare for payouts slide
Feb 03, 2008; ... MORTGAGE endowment customers should brace themselves for moredepressing news as recent stock market turbulence takes its toll onpayouts from with-profits investments. It is vital if you are hoping to repay your mortgage using anendowment that you open correspondence from your ...
Let us make billions or the lights will go out, warns energy industry
Feb 03, 2008; ... THE trade body for the energy industry says recent allegations ofprofiteering are a "fallacy" and warned that the alternative toprice rises would be power cuts. Duncan Sedgwick, chief executive of the Energy RetailAssociation, which represents the "big six" energy firms, ...
And the Oscar for the ugliest location goes to... Scotland
Feb 03, 2008; ... FROM the Hogwarts Express steaming across Glenfinnan Viaduct tothe towering Wicker Man being consumed by flames on the Gallowaycoast, Scotland has produced some of the most iconic images in filmhistory. But now the national film agency has claimed that our scenerycannot compete ...
Final Statement: We have too many passengers on democracy's gravy train
Feb 03, 2008; ... WHAT price democracy? There is no price too high, most of uswould once have instinctively replied. Reluctantly, I have concludedwe are deluding ourselves. Like many readers, I last week posted a significant cheque off toHer Majesty's Revenue & Customs to settle my tax liability ....
MPs urged by church to oppose embryo bill
Feb 03, 2008; ... SCOTLAND'S 59 MPs are being urged to put God before Gordon whenthey vote on a controversial bill allowing research on human-animalembryos. The Catholic Church in Scotland has written to all MPs north ofthe border to express its opposition to the Human Fertilisation andEmbryology ...
Crombie's future now a soap opera, says SL chairman
Feb 03, 2008; ... GERRY Grimstone, the chairman of Standard Life, says thecontinuing speculation over the future of chief executive SandyCrombie has become "a soap opera" and that he has the full supportof the board. Crombie's position was again thrown into doubt after thedeparture last week of ...
MPs urged by church to oppose bill on embryo research
Feb 03, 2008; ... SCOTLAND'S 59 MPs are being urged to put God before Gordon whenthey vote on a controversial bill allowing research on human-animalembryos. The Catholic Church in Scotland has written to all MPs north ofthe border to express its opposition to the Human Fertilisation andEmbryology ...
Superfast internet in sewer pipeline
Feb 03, 2008; ... THE superfast internet of the future is set to arrive from a verysurprising, and insanitary, place: the sewers. And Dundee's sewers could be the first in the UK to carryinternet at speeds 20 times those currently experienced by mosthouseholds. The new network of fibre optic ...
Ugly win far too close for comfort
Feb 03, 2008; ... IRELAND 16 ITALY 11 EDDIE O'Sullivan's Ireland opened the 2008 RBS Six Nationsagainst Italy yesterday desperately seeking redemption after thedebacle of their World Cup. Instead, they conjured a slipshod,directionless morass of a performance that leaves more questionsthan it ...
Nippy Sweetie: 'This year, I've been toying with the simple idea of just being nice to people'
Feb 03, 2008; ... WHAT will I give up for Lent? I've given up various things in thepast: coffee (I was as high as a kite for a week having had onelarge espresso after lunch on Easter Sunday); chocolate (although Idid develop a desperate Skittles addiction), smoking (while everyoneelse stood in the ...
Perspective: Afghan war is key to peace in our time
Feb 03, 2008; ... AFTER years of robust pub arguments with friends about the rightsand wrongs of British military action abroad, I've identified threecategories of anti-war campaigner. Sussing out which type I'mtalking to makes the necessary job of unpicking their arguments thatlittle bit easier. It's a ...
Anti-terror police bug Muslim Labour MP
Feb 03, 2008; ... SCOTLAND Yard's anti-terrorist police secretly bugged a leadingMuslim Labour MP during private meetings with one of hisconstituents, it was claimed last night. The Ministry of Justice confirmed it was investigating theallegation that Sadiq Khan, who is now a government whip, ...
GBP 5.6m to turn a safe road into an accident blackspot
Feb 03, 2008; ... ROAD chiefs spent GBP 5.6m "improving" a crash-free stretch ofdual carriageway and created an accident blackspot, Scotland onSunday can reveal. Fifty-three people have been injured - two of them seriously -since a section of the Edinburgh City Bypass was resurfaced in ...
Strachan delighted with contribution of his strikers
Feb 03, 2008; ... THREE strikers on the scoresheet was among the many aspects ofCeltic's Scottish Cup win at Rugby Park that left manager GordonStrachan a content figure yesterday. A goal from Georgios Samaras onhis first appearance since joining the club on loan from ManchesterCity was an added bonus on ...
Flamboyant Greek fuels Celts chorus
Feb 03, 2008; ... KILMARNOCK 1 CELTIC 5 THE Celtic supporters seemed to enjoy themselves as much as theirteam yesterday. Indeed, they turned into a Greek chorus in more waysthan one as a desperate Kilmarnock were demolished in the fifthround of the Scottish Cup. In surprisingly good voice ...
Interview: Angela Knight Hard days' Knight
Feb 03, 2008; ... FORMER Economic Secretary to the Treasury Angela Knight took overthe helm of the British Bankers' Association on April Fools' Day.The job has been anything but a barrel of laughs ever since. Was it a bad omen? "Certainly I had no idea what I was lettingmyself in for," says Knight, ...
Leader: Medical breakthrough
Feb 03, 2008 ... WHEN the National Health Service was founded, 60 years ago comeJune, the relationship between patients and their family doctors wasfirmly established at its heart. General practitioners would be atthe front line, meeting and treating local patients on a day-to-daybasis and acting as ...
Money HelpDesk: Where is the best home for my house sale cash?
Feb 03, 2008 ... I AM in the process of selling and buying houses which willresult in: 1. A six-month period with circa GBP 1.3m cash; 2. On completion of my new abode, I will be left with circa GBP600,000 in cash to invest. Can you advise on the best secure investment for the GBP ...
Microsoft to face rivals in Yahoo battle Murdoch and Apple poised to take on software giant in multi-billion-dollar internet merger
Feb 03, 2008; ... GLOBAL giants including Apple and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp arebelieved to be considering rival bids for the internet companyYahoo, which has received a dollars 44.6bn (GBP 22.6bn) offer fromMicrosoft. The conglomerate InterActiveCorp was another company named as apotential ...
Miller deal with rebel shareholders ends fears of housebuilder's forced sale
Feb 03, 2008; ... THE squabbling members of the Miller family have resolved theirdispute over ownership of the Edinburgh housing and propertycompany. Shareholders representing 64 per cent of the share capital inMiller Group have agreed to withdraw their shares from the market,bringing an end to ...
Star player takes Scottish Rugby Union to court
Feb 03, 2008; ... THE Scottish Rugby Union is set to be embroiled in a high-profile row at the start of the Six Nations campaign. Former Scotland captain Scott Murray is taking the SRU to theEmployment Tribunal for constructive dismissal. On February 25, hewill face the SRU and Deltex Holdings, ...
On the Spot: Tim Hopkins, Policy worker for the Equality Network, which campaigns for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality
Feb 03, 2008 ... Why should a dislike of homosexuals be regarded as a 'hatecrime'? As a Christian who cannot endorse a practice I regard asungodly, am I a criminal? William Cassidy, by e-mail Dislike isn't and shouldn't be a crime, and your views certainlydon't make you a criminal. But if ...
Taking the Mick
Feb 03, 2008; ... SHE'S young, American and sometimes wears a flower in her hair.He's 62, Glaswegian and wears traditional black robes. It was nevergoing to be a meeting of minds, but after years of wrangling,Heather Brooke believes that she is about to celebrate a famousvictory over Michael Martin, the ...
Peter Ross at Large: Resharpened darts packs a paunch for a new generation
Feb 03, 2008; ... HERE they come now, the eight greatest darts players in theworld, strutting plump and stately into the SECC like ReservoirHogs. There's Wayne Mardle with his trademark Hawaiian shirt in adry-cleaning bag. And there's the big Dutchman Raymond vanBarneveld. Whistling abstractly at the ...
Equity firms seek own debt on cheap Private equity firms look to buy own debt on cheap
Feb 03, 2008; ... A NUMBER of private equity firms are seeking to exploit thecredit crunch by buying back their own debt on the cheap, accordingto City sources. It is understood that a number of groups are looking to buy backthe debt they raised to fund mergers and acquisitions last year onthe ...
Investors warned: expect 0 per cent return from commercial property market
Feb 03, 2008; ... THE commercial property market in Scotland will see zero growththis year, casting further doubt on the future of property-linkedfunds. The latest analysis from consultants Drivers Jonas shows themarket has done a U-turn since January 2007, with supply nowoutstripping demand ....
Online Forum: As Shell reports a record GBP 13.9bn annual profit, should oil companies be subject to a windfall tax?
Feb 03, 2008; ... No. Why should a successful company be penalised retrospectively?The majority of a litre of petrol's price goes to the Exchequeralready. How about decreasing the price at the pump instead? Iain fae Elgin, London The Government already taxes the North Sea operations, it ...
True scale of attacks on under-16s
Feb 03, 2008; ... ONE in eight rape victims treated at a specialist centre inScotland is under 16 years old, new figures reveal. May Deanie runs the Archway Project in Glasgow, the country'sfirst one-stop centre for sexual assault victims, where they can beexamined, receive counselling and be given ...
No balls, but Musselburgh offers riches
Feb 03, 2008; ... IT'S a tough choice for those who follow the sporting life in andaround Edinburgh today, with an embarrassment of riches in threesports all on display within a seven-mile radius of the city centre. There's the Hibs v Rangers Scottish Cup tie at Easter Road andthe Scotland v France ...
Revealed: true scale of attacks on under-16s
Feb 03, 2008; ... ONE in eight rape victims treated at a specialist centre inScotland is under 15 years old, new figures reveal. May Deanie runs the Archway Project in Glasgow, the country'sfirst one-stop centre for sexual assault victims, where they can beexamined, receive counselling and be given ...
Police to shake up rape-case tactics
Feb 03, 2008; ... POLICE chiefs have ordered the biggest-ever shake-up of rapeinvestigation in Scotland amid growing concern about low convictionrates and avoidable trauma for victims. Among the proposals are that rape investigations will have to besupervised by senior officers - Detective ...
Police to shake up rape-case tactics
Feb 03, 2008; ... POLICE chiefs have ordered the biggest-ever shake-up of rapeinvestigation in Scotland amid growing concern about low convictionrates and avoidable trauma for victims. Among the proposals are that rape investigations will have to besupervised by senior officers - Detective ...
Robinson embraces the thistle
Feb 03, 2008; ... ON THE undercard today, Scotland's A team play against theirItalian counterparts in Venice in a match that kicks off at 1.30pmand will therefore overlap the main attraction at Murrayfield. That may not appear the smartest planning in the world but AndyRobinson for one couldn't ...
Celtic's latest Bhoy has plenty to prove
Feb 03, 2008; ... IT SEEMS that every transfer window closes with Celtic managerGordon Strachan having new players but not necessarily a discernibleteam. On arriving at the Glasgow club from Dundee United in a dealworth GBP 1.25m, Barry Robson became Strachan's 32nd signing acrosshis two-and-a-half years ...
Bolt from Les Bleus is unlikely at Muddyfield
Feb 03, 2008; ... AT a presentation to the media a few months back, the SRUshowcased their strategic review which had Orwellian targets forjust about everything from recycling scrum machines to hot-dogsales. Included in the talk was the fact that the Murrayfieldbigwigs now expect Scotland to win 40 per ...
Salmond launches crusade for moral values in schools
Feb 03, 2008; ... ALEX Salmond has vowed to put ethics and moral values at theheart of Scottish education. The First Minister claimed the schools curriculum should focus onemphasising Scottish values alongside "rights and responsibilities". The SNP leader said the moral framework would help ...
Salmond launches crusade for moral values in schools
Feb 03, 2008; ... ALEX Salmond has vowed to put ethics and moral values at theheart of Scottish education. The First Minister claimed the schools curriculum should focus onemphasising Scottish values alongside "rights and responsibilities". The SNP leader said the moral framework would help ...
Sarkozy ties knot with pop star girlfriend
Feb 03, 2008; ... IT was third time lucky for Monsieur President yesterday as hetied the knot with his pop star fiancee in a surprise ceremony. Former model Carla Bruni became France's First Lady at thepresidential Elysee Palace yesterday morning when she said "Je veux"to Nicolas Sarkozy ....