The Scotsman back issues from August 1998:
Salmond makes it clear that Italy's Braveheart is in league of his own
Aug 01, 1998; ... HE MAY have often invoked the Braveheart spirit but the ScottishNational Party leader, Alex Salmond, was yesterday a littlefainthearted over an apparent attempt to forge a new European pan-nationalist alliance of parties which revere William Wallace. A man claiming to be a ...
Campaigners call for tougher laws to protect green belt
Aug 01, 1998; ... SWATHES of Scotland's green belt will disappear under a tide ofTarmac and housing without prompt Government action, it was predictedyesterday. The Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland (APRS) hascalled for tougher planning laws to halt the continued spread ofScotland's ...
Begg warns parliament may create 'transport time-warp'
Aug 01, 1998; ... SCOTLAND could be trapped in a transport time-warp while Englandis put at the forefront of a traffic revolution, a senior policyadviser warned yesterday. The prediction was made as the transport minister, John Reid,announced the Government is to drop plans to turn the English ...
MPs attack former sports firm boss
Aug 01, 1998; ... ANGRY MPs hit out at entrepreneur Tom Hunter yesterday over theloss of 550 jobs in one of Scotland's worst unemployment blackspots. The multi-millionnaire former boss of Sports Division left thecountry yesterday morning, leaving behind a bitter workforce. Talkswere being set up to ...
Eight jailed for total of 100 years over family sex abuse
Aug 01, 1998; ... EIGHT people involved in one of Britain's worst cases of familysex abuse were yesterday given jail sentences totalling 100 years. The defendants included four members of the same immediate familyfrom the West Country town where children and grandchildren sufferedsadistic and brutal ...
Prince says he has proof that nurses were killers
Aug 01, 1998; ... ONE of the Saudi Arabian Royal family's most powerful figuresclaimed last night that his country had irrefutable proof that twoBritish nurses were involved in the murder of an Australiancolleague. Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al Saud defended the waythat Lucille ...
Torrential rain leads to floods and traffic chaos
Aug 01, 1998; ... HEAVY rain caused chaos across Scotland last night as torrentialdownpours threatened to burst the banks of rivers struggling to copewith the persistent wet weather. Flash floods forced Railtrack to close the west coast railway lineat Lockerbie, leading to severe disruption of the ...
Shutdown fuels sterling fears
Aug 01, 1998; ... SIEMENS, the German electronics giant, provoked a political stormover the strength of sterling yesterday by announcing it is to closeits giant semiconductor plant on Tyneside with the loss of 1,100jobs. The move, 14 months after the plant was opened by the Queen, willprobably ...
Party over for car trade's ritualistic reg-letter day
Aug 01, 1998; ... EXACTLY one minute past midnight last night the party was finallyover and the last guest had gone home leaving tired showroom staff tosweep away the evidence marking the end of a motoring era. The popping of the last cork on the final bottle of sparkling wine(alcohol-free, of ...
Coastguard closures will go ahead despite warning
Aug 01, 1998; ... TWO Scottish coastguard centres, at Oban and Pentland, are toclose despite a warning from a powerful Commons committee that safetycould be threatened if local knowledge was lost. The Government announced yesterday that the two Scottish closures,which have been fiercely opposed ...
Britain makes total ban on landmines
Aug 01, 1998; ... A TOTAL ban on the use of landmines was announced by theGovernment yesterday in a symbolic tribute to Diana, Princess ofWales. George Robertson, the Defence Secretary, closed the last loopholethat allows their use so that a full ban could be in place before theanniversary of the ...
Fears over future of transport in Scotland as A1 dualling shelved
Aug 01, 1998; ... SCOTLAND could be trapped in a "transport time-warp" while Englandforges ahead at the forefront of a traffic revolution, a policyadviser warned yesterday. The prediction was made as the new minister for transport, JohnReid, announced the Government is to drop plans to dual the ...
Prison staff threaten to strike over suspended colleague
Aug 01, 1998; ... STAFF at Glasgow's Barlinnie Prison are prepared to take illegalindustrial action in support of a colleague who was suspendedyesterday. Members of the Scottish Prison Officers' Association (SPOA) atScotland's largest jail held a series of meetings after the prisongovernor, Roger ...
2,000 pound fine for importer of animal 'snuff' videos
Aug 01, 1998; ... A FACTORY worker was fined GBP 2,000 yesterday for importinganimal "snuff" films featuring women in stiletto heels stamping onsmall animals. Keith Toogood, a 44-year-old father of two, pleaded guilty toimporting obscene videos in what is believed to be the firstprosecution of its ...
Sky deal with Channel 4 reignites TV war
Aug 01, 1998; ... THE satellite television company, British Sky Broadcasting, lastnight reignited the digital TV war by securing a lucrative deal withChannel 4. Channel 4's new subscription film channel, Film Four, and itsstandard programmes will now be available on the satellitebroadcaster's ...
Sturrock's trip into unknown
Aug 01, 1998; ... ST Johnstone's opening-day visit to Fir Park is going to be ajourney into the unknown, with their manager, Paul Sturrock,admitting he has "no idea" what to expect from Harri Kampman's new-look Motherwell. "It's going to be very difficult for us because you can't gaugehow ...
Williamson warns of travel sickness
Aug 01, 1998; ... KILMARNOCK need look no further for a warning over the dangers ofearly season European distractions than their opponents at Rugby Parkthis afternoon. Last year Dundee United traipsed from Andorra toTurkey and back again before August was out and the ensuing fatiguecontributed to a dismal ...
Jefferies looks to raise standard still higher
Aug 01, 1998; ... THE difficulty in attempting to predict the rest of the seasonfrom the opening fixtures was never better illustrated than a yearago. On the Sunday, Celtic lost to a Hibs side inspired by ChicCharnley while the following evening a double from Marco Negri helpedRangers to a ...
Rangers must sape up fast
Aug 01, 1998; ... IF Dick Advocaat conjures a victory for Rangers in front of aTynecastle crowd and national television audience tomorrow evening,observers may believe they have witnessed a performance from the1998/99 champions. Rangers will never be more vulnerable over this 36-game marathonthan ...
Salonika are bother on and off the pitch
Aug 01, 1998; ... RANGERS officials will fly out to Greece on Monday before advisingtheir fans on travelling to a potentially troublesome tie againstPAOK Salonika in the next round of the UEFA Cup. Dick Advocaat's side, who negotiated a way past Shelbourne in thepreliminary round, were handed a draw ...
Put Jansen debate to rest, says Stubbs
Aug 01, 1998; ... CELTIC will unfurl the Premier League championship flag atParkhead this afternoon in celebration of the success achieved by WimJansen and his players last season. But ahead of the season's opening fixture against Dunfermline,which sees the historic breakaway finally come to ...
East Fife recruit Hunter to board
Aug 01, 1998; ... THE former Livingston owner, Bill Hunter, has joined the board ofdirectors at East Fife. Hunter, who sold his stake in the Almondvale outfit last season,was the driving force behind the club's change of name fromMeadowbank Thistle, and their move from Edinburgh to Livingston ...
Dundee step into future
Aug 01, 1998; ... THURSDAY night just past in a small hotel in Edinburgh, the westside of town. The rain teems down outside. A pipe band ispractising in an upstairs room, the bagpipes wail. Down in the barbelow sit 20, perhaps 25 figures, clasping pints of beer, andclinging just as tightly to memories ...
Blain out to prove his worth against Aussies
Aug 01, 1998; ... THE fast bowler John Blain yesterday confessed he was apprehensiveabout his long-awaited Scotland comeback. The Northamptonshire player, fit again after major knee surgery,lines up against Australia A at Aberdeen tomorrow and in BroughtyFerry on Monday, and he is anxious to show ...
Black farewell takes limelight
Aug 01, 1998; ... ROGER Black's farewell to his adoring fans will overshadowwhatever else happens at tomorrow's British Grand Prix in Sheffield. Black tackles Iwan Thomas and Mark Richardson in his valedictory400m, but Solomon Wariso, the runner who pipped Black for a EuropeanChampionship spot at ...
It's time for MPs to stand up and be counted
Aug 01, 1998; ... IT'S a complaint I've heard countless times in the members' lobbythis year. "Wonder what I'm doing here," says glum Honourable Member."No-one reports my speeches. Government ignores the place, givesanything important to the media before telling the House. By thetime we debate it, ...
Liddell out of touch with party, claims SNP
Aug 01, 1998; ... THE Scottish National Party last night attacked the new deputyScottish Secretary, Helen Liddell, for failing to condemn theembattled leader of North Lanarkshire Council, Harry McGuigan. Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP's publicity convener, seized on commentsby Mrs Liddell in The Scotsman ...
Doubts on members' voting rights
Aug 01, 1998; ... THE chairman of the committee examining the relationship betweenHolyrood and Westminster said yesterday it would be wrong if ScottishMPs could vote on purely English matters after devolution. Nicholas Winterton, chairman of the Commons select committee onprocedure and Tory MP for ...
McLeish delivers his crackdown on criminals
Aug 01, 1998; ... THE Scottish Office's flagship policies on drugs, sex offenders,racism and bad neighbours passed into law yesterday as the Crime andDisorder Act received Royal Assent. The Scottish Office home affairs minister, Henry McLeish, said theact would help to keep ordinary people safe, ...
Magnus masterminds a first stage win for Sweden
Aug 01, 1998; ... MAGNUS Backstedt became the first Swede to win a stage in the Tourde France when the former skier headed off three other riders in thefinal sprint of the 19th stage from La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerlandto Autun in France. The GAN team's tall, powerful former junior was too cagey ...
Serious business, this funny old game
Aug 01, 1998; ... TRADITIONALLY, the philosophy of football has been quite simple.It is, as Plato understood, a Funny Old Game. In its simplicity,Funny Old Game (FOG) is a splendid credo, applicable in victory,defeat, or stalemate. Imagine, for example, a midweek tie in one of the former ...
Coulthard dreams of being the best man
Aug 01, 1998; ... DAVID Coulthard is eagerly anticipating a McLaren one-two at theGerman Grand Prix at Hockenheim tomorrow. His only concern iswhether he will be the one, or the two. The Scot has borne his role as season-long bridesmaid to his team-mate Mika Hakkinen with remarkable sang froid, ...
Rankin eyes elusive title
Aug 01, 1998; ... GRAHAM Rankin and Mark Donaldson, two players who have not exactlycovered themselves in glory in their past ventures in the J&BScottish Amateur Championship, will contest this year's 36-hole finalat Prestwick today. Rankin, a late developer on the international scene and whose ...
Scots miners to take share of 500m pound award
Aug 01, 1998; ... THOUSANDS of miners, including several hundred Scots, who sufferfrom the painful and debilitating condition Vibration White Finger(VWF), are set to cash in on compensation deals after nine test caseswon appeals. The Scottish miners expect to take a share of a GBP 500 ...
Pop music manager set fire to home in vendetta
Aug 01, 1998; ... A FORMER music industry high-flier was in jail last night afterbeing convicted of trying to burn down the house of the man he blamedfor ruining his dreams of escaping the rat race. Paul Kerr, brother of the Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr, set fireto the house of John Darroch, who he ...
Banned surgeon is to keep NHS job
Aug 01, 1998; ... AN NHS hospital trust has defended its decision not to suspend aplastic surgeon banned from operating in a private hospital followingthe death of a patient. However, Dundee Teaching Hospitals has confirmed that an externalaudit will be carried out into the performance of Anas ...
Spectacular find on view
Aug 01, 1998 ... A ROMAN sculpture of a lioness devouring a man which was founddeep in a river bed near Edinburgh went on display yesterday for thefirst time. It has been described as one of the most spectacular finds fromRoman Britain for many years and one of the best pieces of Roman artever ...
Residents of nursing home hit by E coli
Aug 01, 1998; ... A KILLER bug has returned to the same part of Scotland where morethan 20 people died two years ago in the world's worst outbreak of Ecoli 0157 poisoning. An 82-year-old woman is giving cause for concern at MonklandsGeneral Hospital, Airdrie, where another 69-year-old woman is ...
Days Out
Aug 01, 1998; ... IF you are thinking of holding a garden party, chances are you'reup for a few pals, a barbecue, the odd bottle of Cava and a punnet orseven of strawberries. No such small-scale homeliness for CatherineMaxwell Stuart, however. She's laying on lashings of topentertainment this weekend, ...
Suffolk ram sale sets new record
Aug 01, 1998; ... DIFFICULT times for farming perhaps, but not much in evidenceyesterday at the Suffolk lamb ram sale at Ingliston, Edinburgh, wherethe supreme champion from John Sinnett, Stockton Court, Worcester,sold for a new breed record price of 75,000gns (GBP 78,750). Although well ahead of ...
Clinton ducks the DNA question
Aug 01, 1998; ... AN embattled President Bill Clinton made a painfully briefstatement on the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal yesterday, promising totestify "completely and truthfully" as the FBI crime lab beganexamining the dress she says is stained with his semen. "No one wants to get this matter ...
Shedding light on the dark continent
Aug 01, 1998; ... Pieces of Light By Adam Thorpe Jonathan Cape, GBP 16.99 SIX years ago, Adam Thorpe's first novel, Ulverton, was publishedto considerable critical acclaim. Not only was the book anastonishingly fine debut, it was a powerful and imaginative tour deforce, a subtle and playful ...
Little comfort in lifetime of regret and embarrassment
Aug 01, 1998; ... Out Of The Woodshed Reggie Oliver Bloomsbury GBP 25.00 MANY writers often protest - somewhat disingenuously - that thereis no point in anyone attempting a biography of them, sinceeverything of interest is already contained within their work.Writers, after all, have a dull ...
The play's the thing for those growing children
Aug 01, 1998; ... THAT is it then. It is official. Wednesday, 5 August has beendeclared National Play Day and we have all to down tools and playaround. No change there for some of us, you may be thinking, but thedifference is that this day is all about child's play. Apparently the British parent, ...
A tree piece that may prove a little too sweet
Aug 01, 1998; ... Eucalyptus Murray Bail Harvill GBP 12.99 YOU don't perhapsassociate Australia with whimsy. (The "perhaps" is there in case youfirst think of Rolf Harris or Barry Humphries; in which case,doubtless, you do.) But whimsy is just the word for Murray Bail'sEucalyptus, which is so ...
The word on the street is buy, buy
Aug 01, 1998; ... IT'S not every market that has a film producer among thestallholders. But a move to bring street markets back to towncentres is helping to create a new breed of trader. Penny Thompson, a former director of the Edinburgh InternationalFilm Festival, works for a film company during ...
Volume Control
Aug 01, 1998; ... IT is a potent patch of ground, down in the shadow of the Palaceof Holyrood house. Speedily taking shape, as the builders hammerbusily, is a powerful confluence of cultural forces in the land:politics (the parliament), the press (our esteemed selves) andpoetry. It is fitting and ...
Magic realism in an illogical world
Aug 01, 1998; ... Somewhere In A Desert Dominique Sigaud Phoenix House GBP 14.99 BENEATH the surface of ordinary life, another lies in chains.Dominique Sigaud releases it. Her first novel tells of an Americansoldier who dies a day after the Gulf War ends. He dies in thedesert. No-one knows why, or ...
Hail Fredy mercurial
Aug 01, 1998; ... Fredy Neptune Les Murray Carcanet GBP 18.95 LES MURRAY'S vast new poem moves like an Indiana Jones movie. ItsGerman-Australian protagonist, Fredy, witnesses the burning ofArmenian women in the First World War. The shock of this depriveshim of bodily sensation. Able to lift cars, ...
The life and soul of the party
Aug 01, 1998; ... The Political Works of Andrew Fletcher Edited by John RobertsonCambridge University Press GBP 15.95 ANDREW Fletcher of Saltoun resisted the Union of 1707 with suchintelligence, passion and courage that he earned the respect even ofhis political opponents. He has been known ever ...
Kept on her toes
Aug 01, 1998; ... WITH a powerful telescope, it is possible to watch the slow birthor transmutation of stars lying deep in the heart of the galaxy.Meeting Deborah Bull you find yourself witnessing something notdissimilar: she is still recognisable as a principal ballerina at theRoyal Ballet - the taut ...
Verse born of neurosis
Aug 01, 1998; ... WH Auden : A Commentary John Fuller Faber GBP 30 A SHILLING life, as WH Auden wrote long ago, will give you all thefacts. These days, however, a critical book dealing with all thefictions is likely to set you back 30 quid. Such is the case withJohn Fuller's huge reference work, ...
Public sent out of court as jury sees video
Aug 01, 1998; ... A COURT was cleared of the public yesterday when a pornographicvideo at the centre of a blackmail trial was shown to the jury. The explicit film was shot in the office and home of a Fife lawyerwho claims he paid two men GBP 20,000 to try to get it back fromthem. The lawyer, ...
Gordon sets record with third arts prize
Aug 01, 1998; ... THE Scottish artist, Douglas Gordon, has become the first personto win a hat-trick of the contemporary art world's most prestigiousprizes. Gordon, 32, from Glasgow, was presented with the $50,000 (GBP31,250) Hugo Boss Prize award at a ceremony in the Guggenheim Museumin New York ...
Drunk aircraft passenger is fined 1,500 pounds
Aug 01, 1998; ... A MAN returning from nine weeks of working in Saudi Arabia hasbeen fined GBP 1,500 for causing havoc on a plane after drinking toomuch vodka. Paisley Sheriff Court heard that once George Waugh, 32, adraughtsman, of 19 Blythswood Drive, Paisley, boarded the connectingflight from ...
Our friends in the south stick in pen and twist it
Aug 01, 1998; ... HE MAY share a surname with Edinburgh's most famous junkie, butAlex Renton isn't quite so keen on the capital's high life. In hisestimation, Edinburgh's residents are "mean, snotty and stand-offish". Writing in the British Airways High Life inflight magazine,accompanied by ...
The snip of golden scissors ends ten-year wait for Scots Muslims
Aug 01, 1998; ... EVEN the boy chosen to present the golden scissors on the velvetcushion was beginning to look a little impatient. After half an hour standing poised before a phalanx of cameras,waiting for a Saudi prince to come to cut the ribbon on Edinburgh'snew GBP 4 million mosque, he was ...
Moves to ease law on wedding venues
Aug 01, 1998; ... THE Government last night backed plans which could see couplesbeing married anywhere from Musselburgh race course to Hampden Park. Those wanting to tie the knot in a religious ceremony in Scotlandare already free to choose any location for their wedding, providedit is sanctioned by ...
Teachers square up to take on Liddell
Aug 01, 1998; ... TEACHERS' unions warned the new Scottish education minister, HelenLiddell, yesterday that they were preparing to fight her toughapproach. Officials reacted with suspicion to Mrs Liddell's radical start,signalled in interviews after she was appointed this week, sayingthey would ...
Scotsport is scrapped as STV draws a blank
Aug 01, 1998; ... SCOTTISH TELEVISION'S football programmes, Scotsport and ExtraTime, have been scrapped from next week's schedules in the wake ofthe station's failure to secure rights to screen Premier Leaguefootball games this season. As the football season kicks off today, the station has pulled ...
It never rains but it pours on Europe's leading golfers
Aug 01, 1998; ... GOLF is unpredictable but few days have been more bizarre in thehistory of the European Tour as the second round of the VolvoScandinavian Masters yesterday. Following a delay of four-and-a-half hours because of torrentialrain, Jose Maria Olazabal had his worst tournament for seven ...
Fairclough conquers wind to take lead
Aug 01, 1998; ... "GUST Buster" is the logo on Lora Fairclough's brolly, and herrecently altered swing certainly had to survive more than a fewblasts from the elements as she battled to the halfway lead in theGerman Open at Treudelberg, near Hamburg, yesterday. After a day of stiff winds and ...
It doesn't add up as Murray loses place in price war
Aug 01, 1998; ... THE most shocking element of the tripartite conflict involvingColin Hendry, Blackburn Rovers and Rangers is the discovery thatDavid Murray appears to have extraordinary difficulty indistinguishing between blackmail and free enterprise. As a serious disciple of Thatcher -whom he ...
Unsworth criticised after second transfer in a week
Aug 01, 1998; ... DAVID Unsworth came under fire yesterday for leaving Aston Villajust one week after signing for the Birmingham club. The defender quit after signing from West Ham for GBP 3 million,and is now on his way to former club Everton for the same fee. John Barnwell, the chief of the ...
Ex-Celtic striker ready to quit again
Aug 01, 1998 ... PIERRE van Hooijdonk wants to leave newly-promoted NottinghamForest - because he does not think the club will survive in thePremiership. The former Celtic striker, rated by the City Ground manager DaveBassett at GBP 10 million, scored 35 goals for them last season, butclaims the ...