The Scotsman back issues from July 2006:
Standard Life dial at hottest yet
Jul 01, 2006; ... AS MILLIONS of Standard Life customers and policyholders fill intheir forms for the Standard Life share offer this weekend (deadline:10am Wednesday 5 July), The Scotsman's unique Standard Life Buy-or-Avoid Share-o-Meter has leapt to a record high of 118.8 - the nearestyet to "strong buy" ...
Need to know: Axis on track for 8 per cent growth
Jul 01, 2006; ... DUNDEE diagnostics company Axis-Shield has said the first half ofthe year progressed as it expected, and its maiden profit for 2005had been sustained. In a pre-close trading statement, the company forecast revenuegrowth of 8 per cent and said ...
Need to know: Bid pullout
Jul 01, 2006; ... A consortium headed by Australian bank Macquarie has withdrawn itsinterest in Associated British Ports. Britannia Ports' ...
Need to know: GBP 21m MBO
Jul 01, 2006; ... Dunedin Capital Partners, the Edinburgh mid-market private equityhouse, has provided GBP 10 million funding for the GBP 21m ...
By-election drubbings leave Blair reeling
Jul 01, 2006; ... LABOUR has been thrown into turmoil by a double by-electiondefeat, as senior figures openly clashed about the future leadershipdirection of the party. Ministers gave contradictory signals about whether Labour'shumiliating fourth placing in Bromley and Chislehurst and its ...
Clydesdale has solution with 34 per cent growth
Jul 01, 2006; ... CLYDESDALE Bank's Edinburgh-based Financial Solutions Centre hasrecorded a 34 per cent year-on-year bottom-line growth and a 25 percent rise in staff during the past year. Managing partner Ken Smith said the centre - one of 12 in Scotlandand 80 in the UK - has helped to ...
Credit card firms prove stubborn on unsolicited cheques
Jul 01, 2006; ... CREDIT card holders are still being inundated with unsolicitedcredit card cheques, despite providers being continually asked toclean up their act. With the Department of Trade and Industry set to publish itsfindings on the current state of regulation of credit card cheques,the ...
Da Vinci Code film fails to generate visitor boom for Rosslyn chapel
Jul 01, 2006; ... FOLLOWING an almost universal panning by Hollywood film critics,The Da Vinci Code movie may have received the most tellingcondemnation of its quality so far. Rosslyn Chapel has reported thatthe hordes of visitors expected after the film's release have failedto show up. The ...
Oldest pensioners face the highest inflation
Jul 01, 2006; ... REACHING retirement is what everybody works towards. Havingsufficient funds to pay for that once-in-a-lifetime holiday as wellas for a comfortable retirement is usually the driving factor duringthose years in employment. But once there, people should beware that it is not always ...
Fund in focus: Aberdeen trust has attracted many property investors
Jul 01, 2006; ... This week's figures from the Investment Management Associationshowed retail investors have continued to plough into property funds.Aberdeen Asset Management's Property Share Trust has taken its fairshare. INVESTORS are still flooding into property funds and, according toBen ...
Grandparentsless less likely to look after the children as care booms
Jul 01, 2006; ... ONCE the backbone of family life, Scotland's grandparents are nolonger being called upon to care for their grandchildren as they oncewere. According to the figures from the Scottish Executive's nationalhousehold survey, only 32 per cent of children aged under fourreceived ...
How using your plastic abroad can see the cost of a foreign trip soar
Jul 01, 2006; ... WE LIVE in an age of technology - where debit and credit cards areaccepted worldwide and are quicker and easier to use than papertravellers' cheques when jetting off to foreign lands. So it should come as little surprise to learn that UK credit anddebit card spending abroad is on ...
Average household worse off now than at any time in last five years
Jul 01, 2006; ... MOST households are worse off than four years ago because ofrising mortgage costs and big increases in utility bills, accordingto a report into family finances across Britain. A typical family with two children has seen their monthlydisposable income fall by GBP 76 since 2002, ...
Borrowers break another debt record
Jul 01, 2006; ... JUST when you thought Britons couldn't fall any deeper in the red,a new record is set. One trillion pounds: British mortgage debtexceeded that sum for the first time in May, the Bank of England saidon Thursday. Outstanding mortgage debt hit a seasonally adjusted GBP 1.007tn ...
Lorry drivers flout bridge warnings
Jul 01, 2006; ... HUNDREDS of lorry drivers a month risk crashing on the Forth RoadBridge and causing massive disruption by ignoring warnings not tocross during strong winds, its operators have warned. The Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) has hit out athauliers who drive past flashing ...
Macfarlane in fresh profit warning
Jul 01, 2006; ... MACFARLANE Group, the Glasgow-based packaging and distributioncompany, saw its shares plummet 18 per cent yesterday following aprofit warning that sparked memories of its near collapse three yearsago. The firm - which announced its first full-year profit for fiveyears in March - ...
Dark shadow over the Enlightenment's legacy
Jul 01, 2006; ... THERE was a time, about a dozen years ago, when I went to a faith-related conference somewhere in the lush English countryside, and meta slightly frightening young American. Tall, blond, and avowedlyChristian, he seemed genuinely shocked when asked to consider one ofthe truths that the ...
Send your festival snaps but snap up the best deal first
Jul 01, 2006; ... NEXT weekend, revellers will be travelling to T in the Park intenton hearing good music and using their mobile phones to take picturesof the stars, before sending on images to friends and family. But before they go, they should check for the most competitivephone deals so they do ...
Call for ban on hands-free phones
Jul 01, 2006; ... USING a hands-free kit while at the wheel is as dangerous as drinkdriving, according to a new study which concludes that all mobilephone use while driving should be banned. The report, by the University of Utah, in the United States,studied the behaviour of 40 drivers on a ...
Delight for Salmond at prospect of first Asian in Holyrood
Jul 01, 2006; ... THE Scottish Nationalists are set to become the first party inScotland to send an Asian MSP to Holyrood. Bashir Ahmad, a councillor for Pollokshields in Glasgow, wasyesterday ranked second on the SNP's list of "top-up" candidates forthe city, virtually guaranteeing him a place in ...
Private treatment centre operator chosen
Jul 01, 2006; ... MINISTERS yesterday pushed ahead with plans to open Scotland'sfirst private sector treatment centre as concerns were raised aboutcreeping privatisation of the English NHS. Amicus Healthcare has been named as the preferred bidder to runthe Scottish Regional Treatment Centre at ...
Motorbike crashes kill one child a month
Jul 01, 2006; ... ONE child a month in Scotland dies as a result of being involvedin accident while riding pillion on a motorcycle, according to newstatistics. Figures from the Scottish Executive show that the number ofchildren being killed in biking accidents have risen over the pastthree years, ...
Parliament ponds may be fenced off to stop mishaps
Jul 01, 2006; ... PERMANENT fences could be built round the ponds in front of themain entrance to the Scottish Parliament because pedestrians keepfalling into them. The first mishap took place in October 2004 just weeks after theparliament was officially opened when a visitor suffered broken ...
Hain breaks Cabinet line with atomic plant attack
Jul 01, 2006; ... PETER Hain last night became the first Cabinet minister to speakout publicly against a new generation of nuclear power stations. In an intervention that will anger Tony Blair, who has neverhidden his pro-nuclear views, the Welsh and Northern IrelandSecretary said if there had to ...
Ministers act to protect waterways from fish parasite
Jul 01, 2006; ... SCOTTISH anglers yesterday welcomed plans to introduce powers toprotect rivers and waterways from deadly alien invaders. The Aquaculture and Fisheries Bill, published yesterday, includesproposals to bring in powers to prevent the potential spread of alethal salmon parasite, ...
Energy firms launch body to handle bill complaints
Jul 01, 2006; ... ELECTRICITY and gas firms have launched an ombudsman service tohandle the tens of thousands of annual customer complaints aboutinaccurate bills. The Energy Retail Association said the new organisation will havethe power to resolve all customer issues related to bills ...
Prison suicide rate tops 100 in the past decade
Jul 01, 2006; ... MORE than 100 suicides have occurred in Scottish prisons in thelast ten years, new figures show. In an answer to a parliamentary question by SNP MSP StewartStevenson, Tony Cameron, the chief executive of the Scottish PrisonService (SPS), revealed that 153 suicides have occurred ...
Pensions attitudes 'softening'
Jul 01, 2006; ... JAMES Purnell, the minister for pensions reform, was yesterdayhappy that the attitude of the public to the controversial decisionto make people work later in life was beginning to soften. Purnell said the numbers opposed to raising the state pension ageto, ultimately, 68 had ...
Fresh shock for Labour as SNP takes the lead in election poll
Jul 01, 2006; ... LABOUR'S ambition of retaining power at Holyrood suffered a severesetback last night after the Scottish National Party took the lead inan opinion poll for the first time since the 2003 elections. A survey of voting intentions by the Ipsos MORI organisationrevealed a massive swing ...
Hope for thousands as pomegranate juice 'helps to beat prostate cancer'
Jul 01, 2006; ... DRINKING pomegranate juice every day helps to combat prostatecancer and may even prevent deaths, researchers say. A study of 50 men treated for prostate cancer found that a medium-sized glass of the juice drunk daily stabilised blood levels ofprostate-specific antigen (PSA) - a ...
Public sector workforce swells by 10,000 in a year
Jul 01, 2006; ... SCOTLAND'S public sector workforce has grown by 10,000 in the pastyear, despite repeated promises by Jack McConnell and his ministersof radical efficiency savings. The figures, released yesterday by the Scottish Executive, alsorevealed that the number of people employed by quangos ...
Wildlife protected
Jul 01, 2006; ... A CRACKDOWN on illegal hare coursing was yesterday identified asone of the main priorities for a new task force which has beenlaunched to combat wildlife crime in the North-east of Scotland. The new wildlife crime partnership ...
Painful decision left me facing cash shortage
Jul 01, 2006; ... "I WILL have to keep going as long as possible. I don't reallywant to retire as I think it will be financially difficult." Those are the words of Alison McLeod, a 54-year-old divorcee fromNewington in Edinburgh. When she split from her husband, she opted tokeep the marital home ...
It's never too early - or late - to plan for your retirement
Jul 01, 2006; ... FAILING company pension schemes, confusion over government pensionpolicy and suspicions over the Chancellor's motives are some of thereasons put forward for the dramatic fall in the number of peoplesaving for retirement. Serious problems can arise if - sometimes through no fault ...
'When you look deep inside, as well as far into space, you can see beautiful things happening'
Jul 01, 2006; ... IT CAN be used to make sure the wings of aircraft are strongenough, see through solid metal, help doctors research the breathingproblems of premature babies and even enable the creation of thetastiest kind of chocolate. The "light" given off by particle accelerators was simply a ...
Trying to get to the dark of the matter
Jul 01, 2006; ... IT IS perhaps the closest that scientists have come to creating areal version of Douglas Adams's fictional computer, Deep Thought. Butwhile the world's biggest machine will not provide the meaning of"life, the universe and everything" when it is turned on next year,the Large Hadron ...
Scrutineer: BP sails sublimely on despite fuelling the wrath of US consumers
Jul 01, 2006; ... IT'S BEEN a tough couple of days for BP, which alone accounts forover a tenth of the FTSE 100 index. Accused in the US of illegallyfixing the price of propane - a cooking fuel used by millions ofAmericans - the oil giant's reputation across the Atlantic is boundto suffer. A former BP ...
Clubs unite to honour players who died in battle
Jul 01, 2006; ... OFFICIALS from Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian football clubswill today commemorate the sacrifice of their players who fought anddied at the Somme. Players from the two Edinburgh clubs fought together during thebattle, which began on 1 July, 1916 - 90 years ago today. The ...
Thousands to visit Somme in tribute to dead
Jul 01, 2006; ... THOUSANDS of Britons will today gather on the battlefields of theSomme, among the stark white stones that mark the last resting placesof the dead, to honour almost 20,000 who fell on the British army'sbloodiest day. At exactly 7:30 am, on 1 July, 1916, a whistle was blown ...
Sun-cream protection claims 'false'
Jul 01, 2006; ... BRITAIN'S biggest-selling brand of sun cream was declared unsafeyesterday after tests revealed it did not give the standard ofprotection that it claimed. Boots Soltan, which has cornered nearly a quarter of the market,was harshly criticised by the consumers' association Which?, ...
T in the Park eBay tickets cancelled
Jul 01, 2006; ... MUSIC fans who buy T in the Park tickets on eBay could be lefthundreds of pounds out of pocket and with no concert to go to afterthe festival's organisers stepped up their campaign to tackleinternet touts. DF Concerts and their official ticket agent Ticketmaster ...
Taking stock: This month has cost me GBP 26.77 but I've done my bit to make the world a better place
Jul 01, 2006; ... NORMALLY I start this column with a healthy dose of self-congratulation. A nice bit of back slapping after yet another headyfew weeks of raking in the cash. Not this time. It's not that I haven't done well - it just depends on how youmeasure it. Sure, I'm down on last month, but ...
Thus seals deal for GBP 70m council broadband contract
Jul 01, 2006; ... THUS, the Scottish corporate telecoms supplier, yesterday landed anotable deal with Highland Council, which will see it install andmanage all broadband links to the authority's schools, libraries andother council buildings throughout the Highlands and Islands. The Glasgow firm was ...
And the week ahead
Jul 01, 2006; ... Tomorrow: Bob the Builder has his big-screen debut in Bob theBuilder: Built to be Wild. Guernsey introduces a smoking ban inpublic places and workplaces. Monday: Keira Knightley will be swashbuckling her way through theUK premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ....
The week in brief
Jul 01, 2006; ... Shipwrecked KIRSTY Young, above, the familiar face of Five News,has been named as the new host of Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.Stirling-born Young takes over from Sue Lawley, who has presented theprogramme since 1988. The show began in 1942 and was presented by itscreator, Roy Plomley, ...
The week: 25 June - 30 June
Jul 01, 2006; ... AN ISRAELI soldier was kidnapped on Sunday morning afterPalestinian fighters tunnelled under the border between Israel andthe Gaza Strip and attacked an army post. Wedding bells were ringingin Australia as actress Nicole Kidman married folk singer Keith Urbanin Sydney. England scraped ...
Leader: Deafening silence on anorexia victims
Jul 01, 2006; ... IMAGINE a mysterious new disease appears. The condition strikesone in every 100 people and has a savage mortality rate of between 10and 15 per cent. Relapses are a major problem. This disease istotally indiscriminate in whom it affects: men and women, young andold, and all classes ....
Whatever happened to freedom of expression?
Jul 01, 2006; ... EVERY year at this time, I begin to resemble a bouncy childawaiting the arrival of Christmas. The catalyst for thistwitterpation is the looming festival season. Despite smelly venuesand flashmobs of tourists, despite being unable to secure areservation at my favourite restaurant or cross ...
Word of the week
Jul 01, 2006; ... England: noun. 1: A division of the United Kingdom, the southernpart of the island of Great Britain. (Etymology: from Angles, thename for a Germanic tribe; Old English genitive case, "Engla" -hence, Old English "Engla Land".) - American Heritage Dictionary. TODAY, as everyone ...
By-election drubbings leave Blair reeling
Jul 01, 2006; ... LABOUR has been thrown into turmoil by a double by-electiondefeat, as senior figures openly clashed about the future leadershipdirection of the party. Ministers gave contradictory signals about whether Labour'shumiliating fourth placing in Bromley and Chislehurst and its ...
Profile: David Thorburn: Mild manners that help Clydesdale with tough decisions
Jul 01, 2006; ... CLYDESDALE Bank's chief operating officer, David Thorburn, freelyacknowledges the enormous disruption at Scotland's third biggest bankover the past two years. A total of 64 branches have been closed - a quarter of its network- as part of a three-year turnaround programme ....
By-election drubbings leave Blair reeling
Jul 01, 2006; ... LABOUR has been thrown into turmoil by a double by-electiondefeat, as senior figures openly clashed about the future leadershipdirection of the party. Ministers gave contradictory signals about whether Labour'shumiliating fourth place in Bromley and Chislehurst and its failureto ...
Valdas is set targets of title and European group stage
Jul 01, 2006; ... VLADIMIR Romanov has told his new head coach Valdas Ivanauskasthat he will only be considered a success in the new season if hemeets the twin target of winning the Premierleague and reaching thegroup stage of the Champions League. Ivanauskas, the 39-year-old Lithuanian who guided ...
Death of former Scotland captain Brian Neill
Jul 01, 2006; ... FORMER Scotland rugby captain Brian Neill has died at the age of68. John Brian Neill won seven caps for Scotland between 1963 and1965. The loose-head prop made his debut against England atTwickenham and then captained his country in their next six matches. These included a ...
Grass-court game loses some lustre as boring baseline battles rule
Jul 01, 2006; ... TELEVISION reveals very clearly how grass-court tennis has changedin the last few years. Approaching the end of the first week ofWimbledon the grass is already worn away along and behind thebaseline, while the approaches to the net remain mostly green. Tenyears ago they would have been ...
Former USSR hero Malofeev will relish return to Scotland
Jul 01, 2006; ... THE name may not be immediately familiar to Hearts supporters, butEduard Malofeev is not a complete stranger to Scottish football. The 64-year-old Belarussian, yesterday named as the club's newsporting director, will certainly recall his first visit to thiscountry with great ...
Bold Eriksson trumpets his case and predicts glory for England
Jul 01, 2006; ... SVEN-GORAN Eriksson's unqualified boldness on the eve of England'ssternest test in this World Cup suggested that he had heard somethingabout this afternoon's quarter-final with Portugal that had escapedjust about everyone else gathered here in Gelsenkirchen. "I have told my ...
Finalmente looks just too quick on draw Number may be up for Pitman's Derby jolly
Jul 01, 2006; ... THE Pitman's Derby is always one of the trickiest races on thecalendar and once again, punters could take a battery of Davy Lampsto today's renewal and still struggle to shed any light on it. Aka the Northumberland Plate, Newcastle's marathon has by andlarge been dominated ...
Irvine tells clubs to stop wasting resources on foreign imports
Jul 01, 2006; ... ANDY Irvine last night appealed to clubs throughout Scotland tohalt the influx of foreign players to the Scottish game. Speaking at the annual general meeting at Murrayfield, thepresident praised the SRU and clubs for "turning the corner" andproviding a more optimistic future than ...
Hingis suffers shock setback on unhappy return to Centre Court
Jul 01, 2006; ... MARTINA Hingis's comeback had been going so well that it came as abit of a shock to see her first struggle against, and then lose to,Ai Sugiyama yesterday. Back on Centre Court for the first time sinceher heyday, the former champion had been expected to sail on serenelythrough the rounds ...
No slip-ups as Murray stands firm for tilt at Roddick Scot in right frame of mind to take on huge challenge
Jul 01, 2006; ... ANDY Murray doesn't usually do straightforward, but he made anexception yesterday afternoon to despatch Julien Benneteau with theminimum of fuss. Taking the court with a two-sets-to-one advantage from Thursdaynight, when poor light stopped play, Murray raced through the ...
Scotland's finest aims to offer a Wimbledon diversion as third round tie clashes with England World Cup match
Jul 01, 2006; ... ANDY Murray did not need to fire himself up too much nor turn theair blue as he swept past Julien Bennteaua yesterday and thisdecorous behaviour continued later when he hailed it an honour to beon the same court as today's third round opponent Andy Roddick. It might be a ...
Ice meets fire as Svan hopes to finally get better of old nemesis
Jul 01, 2006; ... FROM above the Baltic to below the Amazon, has there ever been amore polarised pair of managers than Sven- Goran Eriksson and LuizFelipe Scolari? They renew their rivalry in major tournaments thisafternoon in the third quarter-final episode of a contest in whichthe Brazilian holds a 2-0 ...
Boutique of the week: Frontiers
Jul 01, 2006; ... Why go there? This slice of shopping heaven has had a recentrevamp that allows room for more stock. Owner Jane Forbes has vastexperience in fashion, having worked as a designer for Holland &Holland, Margaret Howell and Hackett, among many top names. Thewindow displays are temptingly put ...
Best Buys: All wrapped up
Jul 01, 2006; ... If you love classic knits for children, holly, jack and daisytoo ... a newly-launched Glasgow-based company, could have just whatyou're looking for. The handcrafted clothing is made from 100 percent cotton wool and the classic vintage-style children's dressinggowns in lilac, dark blue or ...