The Scotsman back issues from October 2008:
Hero's farewell to bomb disposal expert who died saving comrades
Oct 01, 2008; ... THE piper played a lament as the Union Flag-draped coffin ofWarrant Officer Gary O'Donnell, the Scots army bomb disposal expert,was carried into church yesterday by members of his regiment. WO O'Donnell, who was awarded the George Medal for his bravery indismantling landmines, ...
Between The Lines: Don't let banking chaos overshadow the real world George Kerevan
Oct 01, 2008; ... WITH the financial markets so volatile, now might be a good timeto have look at what is going on in the real economy. The latestdata from the UK Statistics Authority (the old ONS as was) suggeststhat output flat-lined in the first three months of 2008. That isdown on the miniscule 0.3 ...
Honey Bee=MC2
Oct 01, 2008; ... THEY play a vital role pollinating many of the crops we rely uponfor food and are so essential that Einstein once warned if the beedisappears from the surface of the earth, humans would follow withinfour years. But with studies showing them to be in serious decline, a ...
Cracks begin to show in HBOS buy-out
Oct 01, 2008; ... SHARES in Halifax Bank of Scotland plummeted yesterday, fuellingspeculation that its takeover by Lloyds TSB would be killed off. About GBP 1 billion was wiped from the value of the Edinburgh-based bank and analysts warned that, even if the deal did eventuallygo ahead, it could be ...
Could my cardiac arrest have been connected to sudden cardiac death?
Oct 01, 2008; ... SINCE MY accident in July, when I collapsed from heatstroke andsuffered a cardiac arrest while reporting from the frontline inAfghanistan, I have been champing at the bit to get back toexercising. Regular Scotsman readers may remember I used to write acolumn called Tantrums and Trainers, ...
Devolution plea on animal health budget
Oct 01, 2008; ... AGRICULTURAL policy has been largely a devolved issue since theestablishment of the Scottish Parliament nine years ago. However,there is an increasing demand that Scotland should also have fullcontrol over the annual animal health budget, which is currently inthe charge of Defra ...
A radical stance or she-devil's advocate
Oct 01, 2008; ... FAY WELDON'S new novel, The Stepmother's Diary, upends - andupdates - fairytale cliches by making the villainess of her piece astepdaughter from hell. Much of the action is seen at a remove through the perspective ofEmily, a Freudian psychoanalyst who is literally left holding ...
Fuel-conscious motorists help lift FirstGroup profits
Oct 01, 2008; ... AN INCREASE in bus and rail passengers looking to cut the costsof travel has boosted performance for First Group, the companyreported yesterday. The largest operator of bus and rail services in the UK, FirstGroup said bus passenger revenues were up 7.5 per cent in the sixmonths ...
Business news at a glance: Pub chain helps out licensees
Oct 01, 2008 ... BRITAIN'S second-biggest pub group said it was offering specialconcessions to 850 licensees during current trading conditions. Enterprise Inns, which has some 7,500 tenanted pubs, said thefigure had increased in the ...
Business news at a glance: Childline gets Scottish base
Oct 01, 2008 ... A CHILDREN'S charity is to extend its presence in Scotland afteragreeing a new office deal in Edinburgh. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children(NSPCC) will establish a regional "Childline" base in the ...
Business news at a glance: Arrayjet first in GBP 2m centre
Oct 01, 2008 ... ARRAYJET, a robotics development company, has become the firstbusiness to move into the GBP 2 million extension of Roslin'sMidlothian Innovation Centre. Murdo Mackenzie, executive chairman of New Park Management, ...
Not so great for Katherine as losses hit GBP 100m
Oct 01, 2008; ... Katherine Garrett-Cox: Just weeks into her new role at AllianceTrust and the Dundee-based firm saw losses approaching GBP 100m LOSSES at investment company Alliance Trust have reached almostGBP 100 million as the value of its assets are hit hard by theglobal downturn ....
Business Gazetteer
Oct 01, 2008 ... A HELPING HAND Aberdeen energy group has new aim - to raise GBP20,000 for cancer charity CANYON Offshore and Well Ops, the Aberdeen-based subsidiaries ofHelix Energy Solutions, has pledged to raise GBP 20,000 to improvecancer services in the North-east. The funds will be ...
Gurkhas win battle to stay in UK
Oct 01, 2008; ... HUNDREDS of Gurkhas celebrated a victory yesterday in theirbattle for the right to settle in Britain. Retired Gurkhas and their families cheered outside the RoyalCourts of Justice in London after a High Court judge ruled thegovernment's immigration policy excluding them was ...
Salmond urges Darling to copy Irish move and guarantee savings
Oct 01, 2008; ... ALEX Salmond yesterday lobbied Alistair Darling, the Chancellor,to write a blank cheque to guarantee the safety of UK bankcustomers' savings. The First Minister flew to London for the meeting and urged MrDarling to underwrite all the deposits in British banks andfinancial ...
What price 'green subsidies'?
Oct 01, 2008; ... MANY green-minded members of the public would be happy to spend afew pounds for the sake of the environment. However, according to industry insiders, "green subsidies" nowadd at least GBP 80 a year to the average energy bill. That means roughly GBP 160 million is spent in ...
Jail overcrowding could force mass release
Oct 01, 2008; ... HUNDREDS of prisoners could be released from jail under emergencypowers to deal with acute overcrowding, the head of the ScottishPrison Service warned yesterday. SPS chief executive Mike Ewart shocked MSPs by revealing thesituation was considered on a daily basis - and there were ...
Scotland's oldest war veteran dies at 105
Oct 01, 2008; ... SCOTLAND'S oldest war veteran, who took part in the D-Daylandings in Normandy, has died aged 105. John "Jock" Wilson, described by a war comrade as a "trueScottish hero", was awarded the Military Medal for bravery and theLegion d'Honneur, France's most prestigious military ...
Scot feared eaten alive by crocodile after vanishing from river bank
Oct 01, 2008; ... A SCOT is believed to have been dragged to his death by acrocodile while on holiday in north-east Australia. Arthur Booker, 63, who was born in Banffshire, had been campingwith his wife, Doris, close to the Endeavour River near Cooktown innorthern Queensland for two days ....
Music Review: Ronnie Spector & The Ronettes
Oct 01, 2008; ... RONNIE SPECTOR & THE RONETTES *** THE ARCHES, GLASGOW "I STARTED in rock'n'roll and I'm gonna finish in rock'n'roll,"declared Ronnie Spector, with a throaty laugh. On her first visit toScotland in 15 years, she looked wild enough with her dishevelledbouffant hair, and, at ...
Jackpot brings pleasure and problems
Oct 01, 2008 ... IANTHE Fullagar is the latest teenager to strike it rich courtesyof six lucky numbers. Many have gone on to invest wisely towardscontent and secure lives, but others have found it difficult to dealwith the change in lifestyle a lottery win can bring. Callie Rogers, of Workington, ...
Cash shortage won't prevent us selling says MED chairman
Oct 01, 2008; ... MICROEMISSIVE Displays, the micro screen maker, yesterdayinsisted it was making progress towards product sales despite beingin a race against time to secure extra cash. The Edinburgh-based company warned in August that sales weretaking longer to materialise than it had expected ...
Optos sees shares slip on fall in growth
Oct 01, 2008; ... OPTOS shares dropped to the lowest price since the firm's 2006flotation yesterday after it warned it would miss its full-yearrevenue target. The Dunfermline-based company, which makes retinal scanners, saidthat sales for the 12 months to 30 September would be around dollars101 ...
Tesco to hire 1,700 staff for new stores in Scotland
Oct 01, 2008; ... TESCO, the supermarket giant, yesterday said its expected tocreate 1,700 jobs in Scotland over the next 12 months in defiance ofthe credit crunch. Britain's largest retailer said it would open a number of newsupermarkets, as well as its first Scottish non-food superstore ....
Viking house mice staged their own invasion
Oct 01, 2008; ... IT IS a tale of mice and men which is helping scientists to chartthe history of human migration around the world. A groundbreaking study by researchers in Scotland and England hasrevealed that when Norwegian Vikings came to Scotland they alsobrought house mice which staged their ...
Fresh charges over 14 deaths
Oct 01, 2008 ... A FRESH attempt will be made to mount a prosecution over thedeaths of 14 residents in a nursing home fire, the Crown Office saidyesterday. The owners of the former Rosepark Care Home, in Uddingston,Lanarkshire, will face a third set of ...
Anglers celebrate bumper salmon catch
Oct 01, 2008; ... THE king of fish is making a steady comeback, with salmon catcheson Scotland's rivers last year the third-highest since records beganmore than 50 years ago, it was revealed yesterday. This is the fourth bumper catch in four years and has been hailedas evidence of the success of ...
Ever heard of African baobab fruit? You will soon
Oct 01, 2008; ... IT HAS been hailed as the latest superfruit which willrevolutionise western diets and lift millions of rural Africans outof poverty. Boasting twice as much calcium as milk and six times the vitaminC of oranges, the dried pulp of baobab fruit will appear as the mainingredient of ...
School buildings improving - but Labour urges faster progress
Oct 01, 2008; ... THE state of Scotland's schools is improving, with fewerbuildings in a "poor" state than a year ago, according to a ScottishGovernment report. This year's survey of the schools estate looked at 2,704buildings across Scotland and found 15 per cent were given a goodrating, ...
Chim, chim cheroo sweeps into Auld Reekie
Oct 01, 2008; ... THERE are some pairs of shoes that are very hard to fill, andthey don't come much harder than the Edwardian lace-up boots of MaryPoppins. The part was brought so iconically to life by Julie Andrewsin Disney's 1964 film that some might argue that it would be futileto attempt a reprise ....
Should he stay or should he go? Crisis takes shine off Sir Fred's stellar career
Oct 01, 2008; ... THE global financial maelstrom continues. Banking share pricesare again on a daily rollercoaster. And those rescue rights issuesshoring up banking balance sheets in the summer seem a distantmemory. Royal Bank of Scotland has been plunged back into the spotlightover the past two ...
Cut-price rents put stamp on GBP 3m city development
Oct 01, 2008; ... DEVELOPERS behind the GBP 3 million refurbishment of a Georgianoffice building in Edinburgh's East End have secured a key lettingand lined up further interest after offering cut-price rents in anattempt to buck the market slump. The consortium behind the Stamp Office scheme on the ...
Q&A: Dr Jon Shaw
Oct 01, 2008 ... THE director of the Centre for Sustainable Transport at PlymouthUniversity reacts to criticisms of the planned Borders rail line byProfessor John Kay, a member of Alex Salmond's Council of EconomicAdvisers. What is the significance of Professor Kay's comments? They are the ...
Police set up hit squad to target crime trouble spots
Oct 01, 2008; ... A POLICE force has formed a pioneering special task force to actas troubleshooters in crime hot spots. Tayside Police revealed yesterday that the first target for thenew hit squad will be the Angus town of Arbroath, where the nine-strong team will be deployed to crack down on a ...
ClerkMaxwell launch promises 100 jobs
Oct 01, 2008; ... UP TO 100 jobs could be created in Aberdeen following the launchof an engineering consultancy to the oil and gas sector. The new company, ClerkMaxwell, has been founded by AlistairDornan, formerly of Genesis Oil and Gas Consultants, who will befirm's chief executive. He ...
Scots Stocks: Sales forecast slippage hits shares of Optos while Axeon left a little flat
Oct 01, 2008 ... OPTOS shares plunged to a new record low yesterday after thecompany warned it would not meet its previous sales guidance. The Dunfermline-based retinal scanning outfit said that revenuein the year to 30 September would be 16-17 per cent ahead of theprevious year, compared to ...
Scrutineer: The ultimate defence
Oct 01, 2008; ... Tesco 387.6p +17.7p Optos 98.5p -16.5p IN A world of financial meltdown, it is good to know there arestill some things in business you can depend on. Like Tesco. The retailing juggernaut (the epithet of Britain'sleading food retailer seems rather to ...
Footsie marks time to see if US will finally act
Oct 01, 2008; ... LONDON FTSE 100 CLOSE 4,902.4 +83.7 INVESTORS were treading water yesterday as the market awaited arejigged US financial bail-out plan - expected by the end of theweek. However, banking shares remained under pressure, with HBOS off 14per cent, or 19.6p, to 122.4p amid ...
University spin-outs are new direction for Sigma despite drop in profit
Oct 01, 2008 ... SIGMA Capital Group, the Edinburgh-based investment house, hasrecorded lower first-half sales and profits but described itsperformance as "solid" given the continuing turmoil in financialmarkets. The firm, whose interests include commercial property, renewableenergy projects and ...
Medical Notes
Oct 01, 2008; ... In these trying times, when more and more people are affected byvarious crises, financial and otherwise, there are ways to managethe symptoms and avoid the worst effects of stress, as Alice Wylliereports IT WOULD be an understatement to say that these are trying times.Every ...
Tesco looks to cash in on the mortgage crisis
Oct 01, 2008; ... TESCO may begin offering home mortgages and current accounts tocompete with the major lenders as a result of "opportunities"arising from the credit crisis. Britain's largest retailer yesterday claimed it was "at its best"in difficult trading conditions as it shrugged off the ...
What's On Today
Oct 01, 2008 ... 1 THEATRE: SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES Catherine Wheels and the National Theatre of Scotland presentthis ambitious, eagerly anticipated new stage production of RayBradbury's powerful coming-of-age story, in which 13-year-olds Jimand Will find their lives changed forever when a ...
Television Review: Where love is free and talk is cheap
Oct 01, 2008; ... Dawn Porter: Free Lover, Channel 4 Coming Of Age, BBC3 THERE may have been a lot of love in the room, and there wascertainly a lot of sex going on, but mostly there was just an awfullot of talking at the German free love commune. My goodness, did they like to talk, ...
Wall Street rallies as Bush renews pledge
Oct 01, 2008; ... AMERICAN markets rallied yesterday following Monday's bloodbath,after George Bush vowed to get his dollars 700 billion bail-out planthrough Congress. In his fourth address to the nation in a week, the US presidentwarned that quick, decisive action was needed to avoid "painful ...
Interactive lounge that tests responses to TV and websites
Oct 01, 2008; ... USER Vision, an Edinburgh-based consultancy, has launched what itclaims is the UK's first laboratory to test people's reactions to arange of different media platforms. The interactive lounge - which is designed to look like a livingroom - will allow the company to monitor ...
Welcome
Oct 01, 2008; ... A FEW weeks ago, I stood in as our Reader Ombudsman andpontificated on weighty issues such as whether or not a picture onthe front of the Festival supplement had shown female genitalia. This week, I reprise the role and become the Recommends Readers'Representative - to respond to ...
Best Football Book: End-to-end excitement
Oct 01, 2008 ... 1 FUTEBOL, Alex Bellos: This isn't actually a book about footballas such. It's a book about Brazil, but naturally enough thebeautiful game dominates life there. A series of seeminglyunconnected vignettes and interviews portray the Brazilians who playon the beach, in the rainforest, on ...
Are teachers at nursery school really needed?
Oct 01, 2008; ... NURSERY school in Scotland has traditionally been seen as timefor fun, before the real hard work starts. However, a growingemphasis on early years has opened up the question of whatconstitutes early years education. The new school Curriculum for Excellence covers a wider age ...
Leader: High time to reform insurance deal for savers
Oct 01, 2008; ... SOME 99 per cent of all savers in the UK have less than GBP35,000 in the bank. Under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme(FSCS), if a bank fails, a saver can claim back their deposit up tothe GBP 35,000 limit. At first glance, this suggests that for thevast majority of us, our ...
The Word
Oct 01, 2008 ... guarantee n. formal assurance ...
Once takeover is opened up to be renegotiated, market will smell blood
Oct 01, 2008; ... BARELY a week ago, the outcry was that HBOS was being bought onthe cheap. Now it could be about to get cheaper. The 13.8 per cent slide in HBOS shares yesterday was triggered bytalk that Lloyds TSB wants to renegotiate its emergency takeover ofthe bank - downwards. Under ...
Teenager in GBP 7 million lottery win toasts luck with beans
Oct 01, 2008; ... AT JUST 18, Britain's newest multi-millionaire celebrated in theonly way she knew how - a student feast of beans on toast and cider. Ianthe Fullagar, who has just completed her A-levels, spokeyesterday about how a GBP 7 million EuroMillions lottery windfallwould change the course ...
New bid to prosecute owners of blaze home
Oct 01, 2008; ... A FRESH bid will be made to mount a prosecution over the deathsof 14 residents in a nursing home fire, the Crown Office announcedyesterday. The owners of the former Rosepark Care Home, in Uddingston,Lanarkshire, will now face criminal charges for a third time overthe blaze on 31 ...
Focus on 'Fred the Shred' after Royal Bank losses
Oct 01, 2008; ... THE global maelstrom continues. Bank share prices are on a dailyrollercoaster. And those rescue rights issues shoring up balancesheets in the summer seem a distant memory. Royal Bank of Scotland has been plunged back into the spotlightover the past two days with an aggregate 14 ...
'Dilapidated' prison blasted
Oct 01, 2008 ... SCOTLAND'S chief inspector of prisons blasts the "dilapidated"state of the country's main jail for sex offenders in a highlycritical report. Dr Andrew McLellan says chronic underfunding means some inmatesat Peterhead jail are being denied work opportunities becausecrumbling ...
Sex crimes clear-up rate worst in ten years
Oct 01, 2008; ... POLICE are getting worse at solving sex crimes in Scotland afterlatest figures revealed the detection rate was lower than at anytime in the past ten years. Scotland's eight police forces cleared up 71 per cent of crimesof indecency in 2007-8, compared with 74 per cent the previous ...
Conservatives In Birmingham: Cameron & Co 'will take five years to win over Scotland'
Oct 01, 2008; ... SCOTLAND will not vote Conservative in substantial numbers untilDavid Cameron has won an election and banished the legacy ofThatcherism, the party's Scottish leaders admitted yesterday. They suggested that a revival of the party's fortunes could lagat least four to five years ...
Leader stresses need for change in his keynote address
Oct 01, 2008; ... DAVID Cameron will today say it is not experience but characterand judgment that will see Britain through the current economiccrisis and repair its broken society as he tries to pitch himself asa credible prime minister-in-waiting. In his keynote address to the Conservative Party ...
Cracks begin to show in HBOS buy-out
Oct 01, 2008; ... SHARES in Halifax Bank of Scotland plummeted yesterday, fuellingspeculation that its takeover by Lloyds TSB would be killed off. About GBP 1 billion was wiped from the value of the Edinburgh-based bank and analysts warned that, even if the deal did eventuallygo ahead, it could be ...
Guarantee all savings, Salmond urges Darling
Oct 01, 2008; ... ALEX Salmond yesterday lobbied Alistair Darling, the Chancellor,to write a blank cheque to guarantee the safety of UK bankcustomers' savings. The First Minister flew to London for the meeting and urged MrDarling to underwrite all deposits in British banks and ...
Edinburgh greenest city in Britain, claims poll
Oct 01, 2008; ... EDINBURGH has the greenest reputation of any city in the UK,according to a new survey. Scotland's capital has also been voted as having the best qualityof life for the third year in a row. It is viewed as taking the No 1 spot for being free frompollution. However, ...
Lineen delighted as Pumas' record try-scorer agrees to join Glasgow Coach believes Argentina back Piossek will be a guiding light for youngsters
Oct 01, 2008; ... SEAN Lineen yesterday hailed new signing Jose Maria Nunez Piossekas a genuine bargain who can help develop young Scottish talentcoming through the Glasgow ranks. After losing Daryl Gibson, the former All Blacks centre, to theCrusaders in August, the Glasgow coach has been ...
SFA keen on Euro 2012 if Polish FA loses event
Oct 01, 2008; ... THE Scottish Football Association has not yet ruled out a solobid to host the European Championship finals in 2012 if theincreasing uncertainty over the tournament culminates in Uefa takingit away from Poland and Ukraine. Fresh doubts over the capability of the eastern European ...
Strachan confronts yellow peril with attacking line-up, but is left ruing a Greek passing gifts
Oct 01, 2008; ... HE MAY have been confronted by the colour at every turn lastnight in Vila-real, but there was nothing yellow about GordonStrachan's team selection against Villarreal. In the end, though, nofortune came from this bravery, and another disappointing nightunfolded for a team now almost ...
Luckless Celtic stunned by brilliance of Senna
Oct 01, 2008; ... Villarreal 1 Celtic 0 CELTIC had another close-but-no-cigar night on the continent, butthis latest abortive foreign assignment will also almost certainlydeny them a place in the last 16 of the Champions League. The Scottish champions fell to a second-half goal from a ...