The Scotsman back issues from October 2007:
Housing gap shows signs of widening
Oct 01, 2007; ... AN ALARMING gap is appearing between housing affordability inScotland and the supply of new homes sought by buyers at the rightprice, a new survey out today revealed. The Central Scotland 2007 New Homes report from Savills foundthat, of 20 areas analysed, 11 showed double-digit ...
Watch this Space for talent
Oct 01, 2007; ... THE Space is bustling with energy, dancers warming up in its airystudios, chattering and laughing voices in its corridors. Five yearsafter its much-publicised royal opening, it's business as usual atthe Scottish School of Contemporary Dance. When the first studentsmoved in to the GBP 5 ...
Retailers want clarity on minimum wage
Oct 01, 2007; ... RETAILERS are today calling for more certainty about the nationalminimum wage as new figures show the size and knock-on effects oflast year's increase. On the day the 2007 increase comes into effect, the British RetailConsortium (BRC) said the 6 per cent rise in 2006 cost ...
Lifeline... or millstone for taxpayer?
Oct 01, 2007; ... FOR Alastair Chisholm, it is a floating bridge. The MV Loch Shira is the Cumbrae-based music teacher's sole linkwith the mainland as one of Caledonian MacBrayne's "lifeline"services. He has been making the ten-minute crossing to Largs for 20 years,counts the crew as friends ...
Farming faces a frenetic month as markets prepare to reopen But UK bureaucrats are doing little to ease the pressure
Oct 01, 2007; ... OCTOBER has arrived and there is a real taste of autumn in theair. This is normally one of the busiest months of the year, but thistime it promises to be nothing short of frenetic, with livestockmarkets open this morning for the sale of prime stock and on Thursdayauctions of store and ...
Business Gazetter
Oct 01, 2007; ... NAUGHTY NOUGHTIES The GBP 100 platinum club sandwich THE electronic City scuttlebutt is calling it the snack thatforetells the end of the age of conspicuous consumption, the leisureand luxury boom that, like TV chefs and makeover shows, has come todefine the "noughties". We ...
Demand for rates cut to head off an economic slowdown
Oct 01, 2007; ... BANK of England policymakers are being urged to cut interest ratesthis week in a bid to head off the threat of a sharp slowdown in theeconomy. The Ernst & Young Item Club, which uses the Treasury's economicmodel for its forecasts, said a cut from 5.75 per cent would show theBank ...
The Monday Interview: Jack Dee: You know Jack
Oct 01, 2007; ... JACK DEE smiles like a shark. The lips curl back, the teeth makean appearance, but the eyes stay resolutely unamused. He unfurls thisunnerving greeting as we meet in a cramped, fourth-floor office ofOpen Mike Productions in London's Soho on a dreich Monday afternoon,where Dee is putting ...
US hedge funds in talks on Northern Rock bid
Oct 01, 2007; ... TWO American hedge funds are understood to have been given thegreen light by the government to enter takeover talks withbeleaguered mortgage bank Northern Rock. It is believed JC Flowers and Cerberus met John Kingman, head ofthe Treasury's enterprise and growth unit, last week ....
Tighter laws on sale of airguns
Oct 01, 2007; ... TOUGH new laws about the sale and possession of air weapons andcrossbows come into force today. The crackdown, which will force all retailers to be registered asfirearms dealers and restrict the sale of airguns and crossbows tothe over-18s, represents a combination of UK and ...
Army plays down drop of 30 per cent in recruits signing up
Oct 01, 2007; ... THE army insisted yesterday there was no recruitment crisis northof the Border despite the publication of figures showing a 30 percent drop in the number of new soldiers from Scotland in the pastfive years. A total of 2,346 Scottish recruits joined the army in 2002-3 inthe lead ...
David Lee's Pick of the Week: Careful use of words finds another fan
Oct 01, 2007; ... THURSDAY ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH HE PLAYS the bassoon badly, but little else that Alexander McCallSmith does is below par. I am not being rude about his bassoon-playing, as McCall Smith - let's call him Sandy, as it's more inkeeping with his avuncular being - has no pretensions ...
RBS 'team' set to dismember carcase if they win ABN war RBS set to boost its already big wholesale banking arm
Oct 01, 2007; ... IF, AS seems likely, the RBS consortium bid is successful thisFriday, ABN Amro will be broken up. While Barclays has tried to sweeten its offer by saying the HQ ofthe merged group would be in Holland, RBS and its partners, Fortisand Banco Santander, have made no such commitment- ...
Betting is on RBS to win battle for ABN this week
Oct 01, 2007; ... THE Royal Bank of Scotland consortium battling against Barclays totake over Dutch banking giant ABN Amro is all bar certain to clinchvictory this week, City analysts said at the weekend. The 71 billion (GBP 49bn) offer from RBS and its partners, Belgo-Dutch bank Fortis and Banco ...
Pressure on the nation's purse still outweighs plight of planet
Oct 01, 2007; ... ETHICAL shopping is the most important trend on the high street,with everyone from retailers to manufacturers making increasinglybold claims about their environmental or social credentials. But British consumers still put the cost and convenience of foodahead of their concerns ...
Review: Wigtown Book Festival
Oct 01, 2007; ... WIGTOWN BOOK FESTIVAL CHOOSING the Rev Ian Paisley as the opening speaker at a bookfestival was a gamble. At the age of 82, however, and recently namedFirst Minister of Northern Ireland, Paisley's appearance at theScottish Book Town Festival in Wigtown was a fascinating serving ...
Manorlane plans new over-60s communities
Oct 01, 2007; ... STIRLING-BASED housebuilder Manorlane is to target the retirementsector following a year of outstanding growth, with plans for communities for the over-sixties. In just its second year of trading, the company saw turnover jumpto GBP 13.67 million in the year to April from GBP ...
You've been Tesco'd - how city became store's new No1
Oct 01, 2007; ... IT IS perhaps not as enviable an epithet as the "Fair City", butPerth now has a new name: "Tesco Town". The Scottish city hasovertaken Inverness as the city in Britain most in the grip of theever-expanding supermarket chain. Latest figures reveal shoppers in the Tayside town now ...
Conservatives in Blackpool: Prudence abounds as Brown delays election decision and Cameron gets back to basics
Oct 01, 2007; ... GORDON Brown yesterday again delayed his decision on calling asnap election as the Conservatives moved to counter his bid to stealtheir voters by returning to their traditional issues of tax cuts andfamily values. The Prime Minister had been scheduled to hold a final war ...
Conservatives in Blackpool: Goldie vows to tackle the UK's democratic imbalance
Oct 01, 2007; ... ANNABEL Goldie, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, warnedher party yesterday that the Union would be in jeopardy if thedemocratic imbalance created by devolution was not addressed soon. Miss Goldie told representatives at the Conservative Partyconference in Blackpool that ...
TV is good for children, insists academic
Oct 01, 2007; ... TELEVISION can be beneficial to children, helping them developimportant social skills and inspiring creative play, a leadingScottish educationalist said yesterday. Dr Ross Deuchar says watching television in a structured way canboth stimulate and educate young viewers ....
Television Review: All together now, in no-man's band
Oct 01, 2007; ... Singing With The Enemy, BBC3 Celebrity Wife Swap, Channel 4 FOR music fans who actually enjoy pop in all its forms, lately theX Factor juggernaut has been all TV has to offer, with its tediousformat, lachrymose stories and excruciating mockery of the mentallychallenged. Singing ...
Internationl Angle
Oct 01, 2007; ... RECRUITMENT specialist Michael Page reports its results for thethree months to 30 September on Friday. The white-collar recruitment agency shrugged off recent turmoil inthe financial markets as it delivered a record set of interim resultson 20 August. Financial services now ...
Leader: Cameron must conjure up something special
Oct 01, 2007; ... WILL he or won't he? The Tories meet for their Blackpoolconference, but the headlines remain with Gordon Brown and histeasing ways regarding a possible snap election. David Cameron, theConservative leader, is faced with the unenviable task of parroting"bring it on", whether he believes ...
Readers' Ombudsman: Shocking image of anorexic can only help highlight the dangers
Oct 01, 2007; ... IT WAS probably one of the most controversial pictures TheScotsman has ever used. The top-selling Italian daily Corriere dellaSera had already refused to publish it. But we decided - after agreat deal of thought - to run it. Of course it attracted criticism. The picture showed ...
Conservatives in Blackpool: Prudence abounds as Brown delays election decision and Cameron gets back to basics
Oct 01, 2007; ... GORDON Brown yesterday again delayed his decision on calling asnap election as the Conservatives moved to counter his bid to stealtheir voters by returning to their traditional issues of tax cuts andfamily values. The Prime Minister had been scheduled to hold a final war ...
Conservatives in Blackpool: Tories promise pension help for 125,000 whose schemes collapsed
Oct 01, 2007; ... MORE than 100,000 people whose pension schemes collapsed would getimmediate financial help from a Conservative government, the partywill promise today. Between 1997 and 2005, a number of occupational pension schemeswent bust, leaving pensioners with little or no money in ...
Hadden takes look at Pumas and says they are beatable
Oct 01, 2007; ... FRANK Hadden believes his team is capable of beating Argentina andperhaps even setting up the opportunity of a real World Cup clashwith New Zealand in this tournament, having come through Saturday'snail-biting finale to Pool C. The squad yesterday woke to a glorious sunny day in ...
Under-rated Pumas a lurking danger to Scots Hadden's side in no position to take Argentina lightly
Oct 01, 2007; ... WITH six days to go before they play the fourth-best team on theplanet, Scotland need to find the kind of acceleration usuallyassociated with luxury sports cars. They may not literally have tolearn how to go from nought to 90 in a matter of seconds, but theywill have to get up to speed ...
Now here's an election that really is just weeks away
Oct 01, 2007; ... THE scrum of photographers was more akin to an Old Firm signing -the focus of their attention holding up a number one Celtic stripwith his name on it. But Donald Tusk was no prized footballing transfer promising goalsfor his new team. Instead, he was seeking victory of a different ...
TV is good for children, insists academic
Oct 01, 2007; ... TELEVISION can be beneficial to children, helping them developimportant social skills and inspiring creative play, a leadingScottish educationalist said yesterday. Dr Ross Deuchar says watching television in a structured way canboth stimulate and educate young viewers ....
McDonald does trick for subdued Celtic Vennegoor of Hesselink injury causes concern ahead of Champions League test
Oct 01, 2007; ... Celtic 3 Dundee Utd 0 THE way it's been for Gordon Strachan recently, he might have feltsurprised he wasn't asked whether he was disappointed that the goalshis side scored on Saturday were not more evenly distributed aroundthe team. Riled by what he believes is the negativity of ...
Lamont in the clear to return from knockout
Oct 01, 2007; ... RELIEF was the overriding emotion among the Scotland squadyesterday, but it took on a deeper context for Sean Lamont and hisbrother Rory. Rory spent the night in a French hospital, undergoing CT and MRIscans, after landing painfully from a challenge by Andrea Masi earlyin ...
Hostile fire opens up old wounds
Oct 01, 2007; ... A FUNNY thing happened while driving to the golf course last week.I was shot at. Having negotiated a small bridge which stands at thehead of the drive, I was heading towards the clubhouse in an orderlymanner when there came the unmistakable sound of gunfire, or, to bemore precise, the ...
Newcomers live up to expectation with easy progress into second round
Oct 01, 2007; ... IN what was an historic day for the Scottish Cup, the three juniorclubs taking part in the famous old competition for the first timelived up to expectations by rattling in 19 goals between them toadvance to the second round. After cruising through with little trouble on Saturday, ...
Hibs and Donaldson deliver in style Hosts make good their promise to bounce back from tame CIS Cup exit
Oct 01, 2007; ... Hibernian 4 Kilmarnock 1 IF ONLY everyone kept their promises as readily as John Collinsand Clayton Donaldson. "I've no worries I'll see a reaction - the boys will play welltomorrow," the manager said on Friday, referring to Hibernian'smidweek defeat in the CIS Cup. "One day ...
Efficient Hearts prosper in Paisley Tynecastle side grind out unspectacular win over punchless St Mirren
Oct 01, 2007; ... St Mirren 1 Hearts 3 HEARTS finally climbed into the top half of the SPL yesterday asthey secured the kind of away victory which will be required on aconsistent basis if they are to sustain a position closer to thetitle race than the relegation battle. Their win over a ...
Van Zanten accuses Stewart of 'conning referee'
Oct 01, 2007; ... DAVID Van Zanten, the St Mirren defender, last night accusedMichael Stewart of deceiving referee John Underhill to earn thepenalty kick which gave Hearts a 2-0 lead in their victory at LoveStreet yesterday. Stewart converted from the spot himself to ease Hearts on theirway to a ...
Rivero holds off Drummond push at Scottish Seniors
Oct 01, 2007; ... ROSS Drummond, who found victory frustratingly elusive during a 24-year career on the European Tour, narrowly missed out yesterday onhis first triumph as a European senior when Spain's Jose Rivero, 70for 206, ten under par, held off a stirring challenge from the Scotto claim the first ...
Domestic bliss not enough for proprietorsat Chelsea and Milan
Oct 01, 2007; ... MURMURINGS of a European football league have echoed around thecontinent for a couple of decades at least. The Champions League wassupposed to be UEFA's pre-emptive strike, guaranteeing that the topclubs in Europe would face each other on a regular basis and creatinga cash-cow from ...
Semple to quit after losing appetite for racing
Oct 01, 2007; ... SCOTTISH racing is about to lose one of its most popular andtalented characters with the shock news that Ian Semple is to quittraining at the turn of the year. Semple's decision comes as the Carluke handler anxiously awaits adecision on whether or not he'll be held legally ...
Hadden confident team can reach last four
Oct 01, 2007; ... FRANK Hadden believes his team is capable of beating Argentina andperhaps even setting up the opportunity of a real World Cup clashwith New Zealand in this tournament, having come through Saturday'snail-biting finale to Pool C. The squad yesterday woke to a glorious sunny day in ...
Music Review: RSNO
Oct 01, 2007; ... RSNO, GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL ***** WITH full houses in Edinburgh and Glasgow, the Royal ScottishNational Orchestra launched its new season with a palpable sense ofoccasion. That's promising news in particular for the Edinburghseries, displaced to the Edinburgh Festival Theatre ...
Inquest that will keep the controversy alive Fayed to receive biggest public hearing yet
Oct 02, 2007; ... TODAY, in Court 73, a cramped room at the end of a stone-flaggedcorridor at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, the coroner'sinquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi al-Fayed will begin, more than a decade after the crash in Paris. Thewish of princes William and ...
Legal aid winners
Oct 02, 2007; ... DONALD Findlay, below, QC, has topped the list for legal aidpayments to advocates, for the second year in a row, receiving GBP358,400 last year. The Glasgow-based law firm Ross Harper topped the solicitors'list, also for the second year in a row, at GBP 1.732 million - and11 ...
Legal Aid Bill Costs Taxpayers More Than GBP 150 MILLION
Oct 02, 2007; ... SCOTLAND'S legal aid bill cost the public purse more than GBP 150million last year. Criminal cases accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total, butthe civil legal aid bill also rose, for the first time in threeyears. Last year's total legal aid bill was 2 per cent up on 2005 ...
Widow agrees to return GBP 1.8m legal aid cash falsely claimed by solicitor
Oct 02, 2007; ... A SOLICITOR "embellished" claims for legal aid in child welfarecases with false details of sex abuse to fraudulently obtain nearlyGBP 2 million, The Scotsman can reveal. In Scotland's biggest-ever legal aid fraud, James Muir made falseclaims for public money in hundreds of child ...
Darling guarantees savers' deposits up to GBP 35,000 - and eyes raising the safety net to GBP 100,000
Oct 02, 2007; ... Alistair Darling: Raising deposit protection to GBP 35,000 THE government will raise depositors' protection on their savingsto GBP 35,000 and explore whether it can be raised further to GBP100,000, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, saidyesterday. Darling's ...
Between the Lines: How an election could tip us into a UK recession
Oct 02, 2007; ... FROM the government and the Bank of England has come an insistenttheme in recent weeks: that the UK economy is strong and sound. Theimplication is that it will be better able to withstand the shocksthat have rocked the financial system over the past two months. Howconfident can we be ...
Need to Know: Waste not want not
Oct 02, 2007; ... WASTE management group Biffa has hailed an encouraging performanceas landfill volumes continued to grow. Shares in the company rose asmuch as 8 per cent on the news, which contrasted with expectations ofa fall in volumes at the division. The firm also highlighted a strongfirst half from ...
Need to Know: Gas pipeline opens
Oct 02, 2007; ... THE UK's gas supplies have been bolstered following the completionof a GBP 5.5 billion project to deliver gas from Norway's Ormen Langefield. The Langeled pipeline, which is the world's longest subseapipeline, began transporting gas for commercial use from ...
Mortgage approvals slowest since April
Oct 02, 2007; ... FURTHER evidence of a slowing housing market emerged yesterdaywith Bank of England figures showing that mortgage approvals forbuyers fell last month to their lowest level since April. In August, only 109,000 home loans for purchase were given the go-ahead, 5 per cent fewer than in ...
Dej vu as Paterson kicks Scots to success Borderer secures last- eight place again
Oct 01, 2007; ... Scotland 18 Italy 16 DEJA vu anyone? Four years on and a different opponent, butScotland again emerged from an incredibly nervy pool decider in theRugby World Cup with a two-point win and Chris Paterson to thank. The Borderer stepped up to the plate in Australia in 2003 to ...
Dej vu as Paterson kicks Scots to success Borderer secures last- eight place again
Oct 01, 2007; ... Sccotland 18 Italy 16 DEJA vu anyone? Four years on and a different opponent, butScotland again emerged from an incredibly nervy pool decider in theRugby World Cup with a two-point win and Chris Paterson to thank. The Borderer stepped up to the plate in Australia in 2003 to ...
NiTech wins GBP 800,000 funding
Oct 02, 2007; ... AN EAST Kilbride company whose technology can reduce the cost andenvironmental impact of a range of manufacturing processes hassecured fresh six-figure funding. NiTech Solutions, spun out from Heriot-Watt University in 2003,said the GBP 800,000 injection would help drive forward ...
Citi reveals dollars 3.3bn hit from credit crunch
Oct 02, 2007; ... CITI, the world's largest financial services group, and two otherbig names in the market have warned they have been seriously stung bythe credit turmoil over the summer. Citi said that it expects third-quarter net income to drop by 60per cent, stunning investors with a warning ...
Scots Who Hit The Heights In The States
Oct 02, 2007; ... THERE is often great fanfare when a Scottish artist or actorreturns home as a "prodigal son", but the reception can be mixed. The Scottish Turner Prize winner Douglas Gordon, now based in NewYork, is one of the top Scottish names in contemporary art. His first major Scottish ...
Conductor back after 18 years to lead BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Oct 02, 2007; ... A SCOTTISH conductor who made his name in the opera houses ofGermany and the United States, but who for years dropped out of sightfrom the Scottish music scene, was picked yesterday to lead one ofthe country's top orchestras. Donald Runnicles, born in Edinburgh 52 years ago, was ...
The Diary
Oct 02, 2007; ... Sabre-tooth tiger's soft touch IT HAS a fearsome reputation as one of the most savage beasts thatever lived. But the sabre-toothed tiger was actually a bit of apussycat, according to new research. With its dagger-like teeth, the smilodon is popularly thought ofas one of ...
Health And Safety Inspectors Begin Probe
Oct 02, 2007; ... A SPOKESMAN for the Health and Safety Executive said that the twoHSE inspectors, who arrived in Dundee yesterday afternoon, would belooking at the level of supervision at the pool and the number oflifeguards who were on duty as part of the investigation. It is understood the ...
Inquiry to focus on lifeguard cover after boy's swimming-pool death
Oct 02, 2007; ... STAFFING levels at a swimming pool in which a schoolboy drownedwill be among the areas of an investigation by safety officials. Senior inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)arrived in Dundee yesterday to begin a detailed investigation intothe death of Luke Hutton ....
Peppercorn rent for new entrant winner
Oct 02, 2007; ... GETTING that first step on the farming ladder can be extremelydifficult unless the individual has a considerable degree of capitaland family connections within the industry. Yesterday in Castle Douglas, John Kerr, 23, signed the lease forthe 65-hectare farm of Newen near ...
Threat to pig industry confirmed by MLC
Oct 02, 2007; ... THE British pig industry is in real danger of imploding and losingcritical mass, according the latest edition of market trends from theMeat and Livestock Commission. Producers are receiving about GBP 5 less per pig than they were ayear ago, while feed costs have almost doubled as ...
Faslane 365 days on: 1,110 arrests and GBP 5m bill for policing protest
Oct 02, 2007; ... IT HAS lasted a year, cost police and taxpayers GBP 5 million andhas resulted in 1,110 arrests. But the wider impact of the Faslane365 protests on Britain's commitment to the Trident nuclear weaponssystem and its successor is far from clear. The high-profile anti-nuclear protest ...
Greyhound buses now under First's roof
Oct 02, 2007; ... FIRSTGROUP, the Aberdeen-based transport business whose operationsinclude ScotRail, completed its acquisition of American Greyhound busgroup Laidlaw yesterday. The news came as FirstGroup put out an upbeat trading update,saying that strong rail revenues had helped it make a good ...