The Scotsman back issues from April 2004:
Mind your language
Apr 01, 2004; ... The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is probably rightwhen he says that the greed, superficiality, treachery and adulterydepicted in ITV's Footballers' Wives is a depressingly accurateparable of modern Britain. But it is only part of a far wider malaiseafflicting British ...
Macmillan would have had it ever so good while wife faced nuclear hell
Apr 01, 2004; ... HAROLD Macmillan, the British prime minister, and 209 of hisministers and Whitehall officials would have been evacuated to asecret bunker in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack - but his wife,Dorothy, and their four children, Sarah, Maurice, Caroline andCatherine, would have been left ...
Scotland's Asians among the UK's richest
Apr 01, 2004; ... SCOTLAND'S Asian community is reaping the rewards of enterprisewith the top ten richest worth a combined GBP 194.8 million,according to a new survey. The reclusive Khushi brothers, Afzhal, 46, and Akmal, 45, remaintop of the Asian rich list north of the Border, with a ...
Tories fail in move to force release of Holyrood tapes
Apr 01, 2004; ... THERE was stalemate last night in the ongoing battle between BBCScotland and the Fraser Inquiry over access to interviews with keyplayers in the Holyrood project. Attempts by the Tories to use the powers of the ScottishParliament to force the corporation to hand over recordings of ...
Signed Tolkien works help ring up GBP 145,000 sale
Apr 01, 2004; ... A COLLECTION of hundreds of rare books, including signed editionsof Lord Of The Rings, from the private library of an Edinburghbachelor fetched more than GBP 145,000 at an auction yesterday. The sale of William Adams's private collection achievedconsiderably more than the GBP ...
Cereal offenders named and shamed
Apr 01, 2004; ... BREAKFAST cereals that are high in sugar, salt and fat have beennamed and shamed by consumer groups. A serving of Kellogg's All-Bran, Quaker Oat Krunchies or NestleGolden Grahams contains four times the amount of salt found in a 25gbag of roasted peanuts. Many of the worst ...
'Botox' for runway during rail link work
Apr 01, 2004; ... GROUND beneath the runway at Edinburgh airport may have to be"Botoxed" to prevent it moving during tunnelling work for the plannedrail link with the capital, engineers said yesterday. Soft soil under the runway could have to be strengthened tostabilise it during construction of ...
EMI axes 1,500 and slashes roster
Apr 01, 2004; ... MUSIC giant EMI, whose roster of artists includes Robbie Williams,Coldplay and Norah Jones, is cutting 1,500 jobs, dropping a fifth ofits recording artists and outsourcing most of its CD and DVDmanufacturing to reduce costs. The company, which has its headquarters in Kensington, ...
Borders study revolutionises soil research
Apr 01, 2004; ... TEN years work on a nondescript hectare of Borders hill has helpedto revolutionise soil research across the world and could helppredict climate change more accurately. Dr Nick Ostle, of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster,said yesterday that work at Sourhope hill farm ...
Move to improve animal welfare laws
Apr 01, 2004; ... PROPOSALS for tougher animal welfare rules, banning among otherthings docking of dogs' tails, puppy imports, animal baiting orfighting, under-age pet buyers and the horse- shoeing practice knownas "couping", have been published by the Scottish Executive. If approved after ...
Reviews:Film of the Week: Empathy for the devil?
Apr 01, 2004; ... Monster (18) **** Directed by: Patty Jenkins Starring: CharlizeTheron, Christina Ricci In this forceful re-imagining of the life of the serial murdererAileen Wuornos, the killer tells a story about success. It wasgleaned from a visit to her school by the drummer in Slim ...
OPEC's oil curb puts them in driving seat
Apr 01, 2004; ... OPEC'S well-trailed decision yesterday in Vienna to cut oilproduction means that high petroleum prices are definitely here tostay - regardless of what happens in Iraq. A new "oil politics" is breaking out everywhere, including in theUnited States election battle. On ...
Don't junk the soya
Apr 01, 2004; ... Telling your teenagers to adopt healthy eating habits is akin togiving them a recipe for rebellion. What better way to make an angryadolescent eat all the wrong things than to warn that junk food isbad for them, sweets are out of bounds, and that if they don't eatmore greens mother will ...
Doctor's divorce deal 'almost fraud'
Apr 01, 2004; ... A WIFE'S GBP 65,000 divorce settlement ten years ago was wiped outyesterday after a judge said it had been "almost a fraud". Samrana Ahmed, 48, a doctor, won an order for the payment from herhusband, Syed Masroor Ahmed, a surgeon, when she sued him for divorcein the Court of ...
City's secretive hall opens to the public
Apr 01, 2004; ... FOR two centuries, it was the Merchant City's secret, anarchitectural gem so exclusive that entry to its salons made theFreemasons look as if they operated an open-doors policy. Access to Glasgow's Trades' Hall was the privilege of those whomade it the second city of Empire ....
MSPs refuse to compel BBC into releasing Holyrood tapes
Apr 01, 2004; ... MSPs were last night accused of failing the Scottish people, afterthey refused to step into the row over access to taped BBC interviewswith the key players in the Holyrood parliament saga. David McLetchie, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, brandedthe SNP, Liberal Democrats ...
Questions over civil servant in charge
Apr 01, 2004; ... PAUL Grice, the chief executive of the Scottish Parliament, willbe asked today why he promoted a ciivil servant with no constructionexperience to the crucial job of running the Holyrood building,without an interview and without opening up the post to competition. Mr Grice will ...
Reviews:Dead Kennedys: Returning punks win with a Penalty
Apr 01, 2004; ... Dead Kennedys, Liquid Room, Edinburgh **** THERE may be more infamous band bust-ups in rock history, butthere can be few more acrimonious and trenchant than the splitbetween Californian agit-punks the Dead Kennedys and their formerlead singer, Jello Biafra. Ironically for such a ...
Lazy guide to the Internet:I swear it's just not the same
Apr 01, 2004; ... MUCH is made of the dangers of the anonymity the web can offer. Aswell as allowing for criminal, perverted and sinister behaviour(though to be honest, nobody is really anonymous online as manyincarcerated criminal, perverted and sinister individuals nowrealise), research has found it can ...
Macfarlane plans dividend to celebrate sales growth
Apr 01, 2004; ... MACFARLANE Group yesterday unveiled plans for a one-off dividendto its shareholders as it reported its first quarter of sales growthin almost three years. Unveiling full-year results to the City, the logistics group saidthere would be no final dividend for 2003, as expected. But ...
Alfred McAlpine loses its bitter legal battle to shorten company's title
Apr 01, 2004; ... A FEUD over the rebranding of one of Scotland's best-knownbuilding dynasties came to an end yesterday, when a High Court judgeruled that Alfred McAlpine could not shorten its company name toMcAlpine. Relations between Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons and Alfred McAlpine,which have ...
Crisis meeting on salmon farming
Apr 01, 2004; ... MORE than 160 delegates, including industry representatives,public officials and local councillors, will gather in Shetland todayfor a summit meeting on the crisis engulfing the islands' vitalsalmon-farming sector. An estimated GBP 7 million of public money has already been ...
Dounreay makes its final batch of fuel
Apr 01, 2004; ... THE Dounreay plant reached the end of an era yesterday, when itslast batch of nuclear fuel was manufactured, 47 years after theprocess began. The site's fuel-fabrication plant, the first active facility tobegin operating at Dounreay in January 1957, supplied fabricateduranium ...
Now Big Brother is history
Apr 01, 2004; ... LESS than a year after achieving international fame - and stilljust 33 years old - Cameron Stout is becoming a museum piece. The man who put Orkney on the map last July when he won the BigBrother reality show has not been consigned to television historyalready - he is to be the ...
OPEC output cut sparks fears of world slowdown
Apr 01, 2004; ... OIL producers' cartel OPEC is going ahead with a planned cut inoutput, sparking fears that the price of oil could soar to dollars 40a barrel, pushing the global economy into a slump as well asincreasing prices at the pumps. OPEC members had been under pressure to change their ...
Wales's law powers limited
Apr 01, 2004; ... THE Welsh Assembly has been told that it will need to hold a newreferendum on devolution before it can be given the equivalent of theScottish Parliament's lawmaking powers. Peter Hain, the Wales Secretary, dismayed Labour Assembly Members(AMs) yesterday by saying their hopes of ...
Howard has Blair on ropes
Apr 01, 2004; ... TONY Blair, the Prime Minister, was struggling last night torestore Labour's record on immigration after Michael Howard, the Toryleader, claimed the system was in "a complete and utter shambles". In a ferocious Commons attack, Mr Howard questioned the veracityof government claims ...
Cities' civic leaders join forces to lure US visitors
Apr 01, 2004; ... EDINBURGH and Glasgow have always enjoyed a healthy rivalry, butthey are putting aside any differences in a joint attempt to attracttourists from New York during the forthcoming Tartan Daycelebrations. Images of Edinburgh Castle and the Forth Bridge will sit alongsidethose of ...
Scots MEP rejects expense abuse claims as 'malicious allegations'
Apr 01, 2004; ... DAVID Martin, a senior MEP, insisted last night that claims he hadabused his parliamentary expenses were "malicious allegations". Mr Martin, one of Scotland's eight Euro MPs, is facing aninvestigation in Brussels after the Labour Party passed on details ofthe claims to the ...
Flagship student fees bill sails through
Apr 01, 2004; ... SCOTLAND's universities are to become the cheapest in the UnitedKingdom after plans by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to let Englishuniversities charge fees of GBP 3,000 a year won an easy victory inthe Commons. Labour's flagship Higher Education Bill was yesterday passed by309 ...
Executive and Tories unite to oppose whisky stamps
Apr 01, 2004; ... THE rift between the Scottish Executive and Westminster over theintroduction of tax stamps on bottles of whisky to tackle frauddeepened yesterday. The Executive joined forces with the Conservative Party to urgeGordon Brown, the Chancellor, to ditch plans to make whisky ...
Winterton welcomed back after apology for Chinese joke
Apr 01, 2004; ... ANN Winterton, the Tory MP, last night finally apologised formaking a tasteless joke five weeks ago about the Chinese cockle-pickers who drowned in the Morecambe Bay tragedy. Her "unreserved" apology earned her back the Conservative whip anda return to Michael Howard's fold ....
Sketch:Nats champion media freedom
Apr 01, 2004; ... SCOTLAND'S politicians passed up the chance of sending the BBC toprison yesterday. The opportunity came in a Tory motion invokingsection 23 of the Scotland Act (which states: "We're in charge,right?") to make the Beeb hand over tapes to the Holyrood inquiry orbe punished. David ...
Man of match no boy wonder
Apr 01, 2004; ... HE WAS man of the match. He had scored two of his team's threetries in their national final-winning match, and they had the medalsto prove it. It was all going well - except for the fact he was too old toplay. Berwick Rugby Club won the national under-15s finals ...
Scrutineer:Devil is in details but Standard Life has set out its strategy
Apr 01, 2004; ... STANDARD Life can obviously be accused of doing a U-turn ondemutualisation, but as the old saying goes: "When the facts change,I change my mind. What do you do?" It is obvious we are in a starkly-changed world. With-profitsproducts, which have traditionally kept the mutuality show ...
There's nothing so cheering as a less than polished performance
Apr 01, 2004; ... Sporting a multicoloured towelling robe, a day's growth of stubbleand a seriously irritated expression, James Brown had never lookedworse. This is the man who famously fined his band members if theydared to play a bum note. With his immaculate bouffant hair andsparkling costumes, the ...
Standard Life:Staff face culture shock as group moves towards cut and thrust of listed life
Apr 01, 2004; ... YESTERDAY'S announcement from Standard Life was about more than1,000 redundancies among the company's unashamedly loyal employees. In terms of working conditions, there are few companies left thatshare the ethos of Standard Life. Its generous perks include itemssuch as the ...
Standard Life:Member payouts unlikely to be spectacular
Apr 01, 2004; ... DEMUTUALISATION is not a guarantee of prosperity, as the divergentfortunes of former member-owned organisations has shown. The year of the carpet- bagger was 1997, when an average saverwith the Halifax, Norwich Union, Alliance & Leicester and theWoolwich picked up cash or shares ...
Standard Life:Capital bears brunt as financial giant faces up to new realities
Apr 01, 2004; ... ABOUT 900 of the 1,000 job cuts announced at Standard Life areexpected to fall in Edinburgh, sources said yesterday, as speculationturned to the impact on the local economy and financial services jobmarket - and even Edinburgh house prices. The assurer employs around 8,000 of its ...
Standard Life:S&P warns double plan of cuts and reposition too much
Apr 01, 2004; ... STANDARD & Poor's warned yesterday it is concerned the managementof Standard Life is in danger of overstretching itself by attemptingtwo mammoth tasks at once - preparing to demutualise while shiftingthe focus of the company's core business. Mark Button, an analyst at the credit ...
Standard Life:Rivals circling 'wounded animal'
Apr 01, 2004; ... STANDARD Life's industry rivals yesterday cheered the news thatthe group plans to ditch its coveted mutual status, claiming theEdinburgh life and pensions giant's dominant market share was nowthere for the taking. A string of Scottish competitors said they would reap the ...
Standard Life:Chairman in the hot seat as he warms to a strategy shift
Apr 01, 2004; ... FOR Sir Brian Stewart, 2004 has not exactly got off to a rip-roaring start. Last month, Scottish & Newcastle, where he nowoccupies the chairman's seat, announced plans to close its FountainBrewery site - with 200 job losses. Yesterday, it was the turn of Standard Life, his ...
Standard Life:Fred Woollard 'I was right all along'
Apr 01, 2004 ... SO FAR as Fred Woollard is concerned, yesterday's news fromStandard Life was very much a case of "I told you so". "It should be perfectly obvious to everyone now that I was rightin what I was saying four years ago," said the Australian fundmanager, who led the failed attempt to ...
Workers left to rue drop in Standard
Apr 01, 2004; ... IN THE bars and restaurants around Standard Life's headquarters inLothian Road yesterday, the flexi-time lunches were a little longerthan usual and the conversation a little heavier. Informed in advance of an impending announcement, staff hadsteeled themselves for job losses. But ...
Is your home too clean?
Apr 01, 2004; ... Quentin Crisp once declared him-self an out-and-out supporter ofslovenliness, saying: "There is no need to do any housework at all.After the first four years, the dirt doesn't get any worse." It makesone wonder how Crisp would have fared had he come face to face withKim and Aggie from ...
Letting off steam - the expensive way
Apr 01, 2004; ... You'd never catch a woman doing it. But for some reason, men can'tstop. From small boys with their intricate train sets and Thomas theTank Engine books, all the way through to multi-millionairebusinessmen willing to squander it all on a clapped-out old engine,there's something about ...
Leader:Standard Life facing huge challenge
Apr 01, 2004 ... FOUR years ago, the board of Standard Life launched an expensivecampaign urging policyholders to reject demutualisation and topersuade them that staying mutual was in their best long-terminterests. Today, the board of Standard Life has launched a newcampaign. It is to persuade its 2.5 ...
Water chief promises end to huge bills
Apr 01, 2004; ... THE chief executive of Scottish Water said yesterday that therewas nothing to fear from privatisation of the industry - but heinsisted the current public-sector model would prove to be the mosteffective and efficient way forward. In an interview with The Scotsman, Dr Jon ...
TV Review:Don't forget that the 'phoney pharaoh' is also a grieving father
Apr 01, 2004; ... Tabloid Tales, BBC1 Holby City, BBC1 'People will go to their grave believing Diana was murdered," saida talking head in last night's Tabloid Tales, a sharp, pithycelebration of the life and times of Mohamed Al Fayed. A simple statement of fact, but when the talking head was ...
Now and Then
Apr 01, 2004 ... 1 APRIL April Fool's Day. 1817: Blackwood's Magazine started publication as EdinburghMonthly Magazine. 1867: East India Company rule in Malay Straits Settlements ended,and they became British Crown Colony. 1902: The use of the treadmill in British prisons ...
Reviews:Love Like Salt
Apr 01, 2004; ... Love Like Salt, Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow *** IT'S BARELY four months since Emily Gray arrived in Glasgow totake over the artistic directorship of TAG Theatre, but already she'son her way south again, after resigning in disgust at the ScottishArts Council's inexplicable decision ...
Reviews:Pink:Don't m!ssundaztand, she is Trouble
Apr 01, 2004; ... Pink, SECC, Glasgow **** PINK is the closest thing we have to a 21st-century Madonna - asavvy, strong-willed pop star with an astute understanding of musicimage and attitude and an ear for the appropriate collaborators. Three albums into her career, she has tried every ...
Muslim leaders to help thwart terrorists
Apr 01, 2004; ... BRITISH Muslim leaders yesterday spoke out in the wake of theMadrid bombings and the police operation to foil an al-Qaeda attackin Britain, insisting that it was the responsibility of everyone intheir communities to help to thwart terrorist activities. They seized the initiative ...
1,000 jobs go as Standard Life floats
Apr 01, 2004; ... STANDARD Life yesterday announced a plan to ditch its mutualstatus and float on the stock market, as well as slashing a further1,000 jobs this year - 880 of them in its home base of Edinburgh. The board's backing for a flotation will go to a vote of thecompany's 2.6 million ...
Romania offer Vogts little respite
Apr 01, 2004; ... Scotland 1 McFadden (57) Romania 2 Chivu (37), Pancu (51) Referee: J Hyytia (Fin). Attendance: 20,433 IT WASN'T exactly Wales revisited, but Scotland, predictably,provided further evidence that they are pretty much fair game foranybody these days with another reversal at ...
Canadian held on charges of helping UKterror group
Apr 01, 2004; ... CANADIAN authorities were last night holding a terror suspectafter he appeared in court charged with aiding a terrorist group inBritain. Mohammed Momin Khawaja, 29, appeared in an Ottawa court inshackles and a bulletproof vest after being arrested on Monday. It is alleged ...
'A big step in right direction'
Apr 01, 2004; ... BERTI Vogts last night claimed his 13th defeat in 23 matches asScotland coach represented significant progress for the internationalteam. Set beside the aggregate 10-0 drubbing sustained at the hands ofHolland and Wales in their previous two fixtures, the 2-1 reverse toRomania ...
Simon Pia's diary:True-blue Bill baffled by Tory greenery
Apr 01, 2004; ... IT LOOKS as if in Scotland the Tories are going green, althoughBill Aitken remains true blue, if not truly baffled. With lobbyists seeking support for Aucheninnes Moss, a uniqueenvironment under threat, baffled Bill is seeking advice fromcolleague Alex Fergusson, MSP ....
United don't want to move
Apr 01, 2004; ... DUNDEE United yesterday insisted that they have no intention ofsharing a new purpose-built stadium with rivals Dundee on the north-west outskirts of the city because the project is not financiallyviable. Property developer Bruce Linton this week revealed plans to builda ...
Women can be equal at dirty tricks if they try hard enough
Apr 01, 2004; ... WHICH high-profile working woman moaned this week about having totoil in "a male-dominated industry where dirty tricks, backstabbingand industrial espionage are rife"? Was it (a) Benedetta Tagliabue, sultry widow of the Holyroodarchitect Enric Miralles who melted many hearts when ...
Iris's Gift can set early pace at Aintree
Apr 01, 2004; ... NO MATTER the sport, we frequently hear about how difficult it isto keep mind and body at concert pitch indefinitely. Peak for onemajor event, and the chances of scaling a similar summit for anotherbecome that much harder. Horses are similar to humans in that respect which is one ...
Scotland v Romania:How the Scots rated at Hampden
Apr 01, 2004; ... PAUL GALLACHER: Had little to do in first half other than watchthe odd speculator soar harmlessly high, then when called upon wasunable to prevent Cameron's deflection from finding the net. Got downwell to 48thminute shot from Ganea, which also took a deflection, butcould do nothing to ...
Standard is low, but this is no meltdown
Apr 02, 2004; ... THERE are times when it seems Scotland has a death-wish. I referto the strange case of Standard Life RIP. To judge by the board'sdetermination to proceed with bumper pay rises as sales have slumped,bonuses have been cut and 1,000 jobs axed, the kamikaze tendency atthe top seems very ...
McBride sounds war cry in battle to win consumers over to 3G
Apr 02, 2004; ... WAR is about to break out on the high street. After several falsestarts, 2004 is the year when Britain's mobile phone operators findout whether the eye-watering GBP 22 billion they paid ChancellorGordon Brown for third-generation licences four years ago has beenworth it. Handset ...
Land federation unveils new name and council
Apr 01, 2004; ... UNTIL yesterday, it was the Scottish Landowners Federation - fromtoday it is the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association. The change was commemorated with the unveiling of a new logooutside Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh, and a new strapline: "The voice ofrural property owners ...