The Scotsman back issues from January 2009:
2008: The year that shook - and changed - the world
Jan 01, 2009; ... Bill Jamieson, who led the way in reporting and analysing thedownfall of the 'masters of the universe', reflects on the momentousevents of 2008 - and turbulent times ahead PLUNGING house prices, financial seizure, crashing stock markets,collapsing banks - and the onset of what ...
Warning over fall in beef self-sufficiency
Jan 01, 2009; ... POLITICIANS are generally far more interested in keeping foodprices low than the longer-term issue of security of supply. A report by Lionel Colby, a leading meat industry consultant,highlights salient issues that will require attention if beefproduction is not to decline further ....
'Authoritative, calm and brilliant' - no wonder he's now Sir Sandy
Jan 01, 2009; ... JOHN Swinney, the finance secretary, yesterday led a chorus ofpraise for Sandy Crombie as the chief executive of Standard Life wasknighted in the New Year's Honours. Senior figures from the financial world joined Swinney incongratulating Crombie, who was honoured for his services ...
Aberdeen UK's top asset manager after GBP 250m Credit Suisse deal
Jan 01, 2009; ... ABERDEEN Asset Management yesterday became the UK's biggestpublicly quoted fund manager by acquiring the asset management armof Credit Suisse in a deal worth GBP 250 million. The deal involves the Swiss bank taking a 25 per cent stake inAAM, the fast-growing group run by chief ...
'There will be rewards to be reaped in dairy farming'
Jan 01, 2009; ... MILK producers may be experiencing tough times and there islittle doubt that 2009 will be a taxing year as the economycontracts and consumer spending falls. However, the bleak mixture ofdifficult trading conditions, high input prices and furtherregulation will not last for ever, ...
'Improved margins' help Forth Holdings' profits climb 36 per cent
Jan 01, 2009; ... FORTH Holdings - the Stirling-based construction, engineering andproperty services group owned by Duncan Fletcher and his family -has posted a 36 per cent rise in pre-tax profits in the year to 31August. Accounts filed at Companies House revealed a pre-tax profit ofGBP 7.5m on ...
Price war at the pumps as petrol cut to 83p per litre
Jan 01, 2009; ... Tesco move is expected to set off fresh supermarket price war TESCO, the supermarket giant and Britain's biggest independentpetrol retailer, yesterday gave motorists a good start to the newyear at the forecourts by slashing the cost of a litre of petrol anddiesel by 3p. The ...
Glasgow businesses 'come out fighting'
Jan 01, 2009; ... GLASGOW has "come out fighting" to meet the challenges of thedownturn, according to the city's marketing bureau. Many of the city's shops reported a better than expected festiveperiod, the bureau claimed. Debenhams reported an increase in sales in the last four weeks inmany ...
90 per cent: the biggest decline in banking history
Jan 01, 2009; ... HBOS yesterday broke the record for the biggest annual fall in aBritish bank's share price: more than 90 per cent has been wiped offthe value of its shares in the past 12 months. Yesterday, as the FTSE 100 index of leading stocks closed withthe worst annual performance in its ...
In memoriam - the soldiers who survived the trenches only to die yards from safety
Jan 01, 2009; ... HOME was in sight and the horrors of war which they had leftbehind were for once not uppermost in their minds. As they sailed towards Stornoway on New Year's Day, 1919, the 280soldiers on board the Admiralty yacht Iolaire were looking forwardto setting foot on their native islands ...
Capital blasts off into 2009
Jan 01, 2009 ... Picture Caption: SPECTACULAR fireworks lit up Edinburgh's skylinelast night as up to 100,000 Street Party revellers celebrated theNew Year in style. Party-goers from around the world descended ...
Walker finds mummified head in bag on footpath
Jan 01, 2009; ... A PARTIALLY mummified human head has been found in a bag on afootpath. Police have launched an investigation after the grisly discoveryyesterday by a woman walking along the path. The head, thought to have been removed from the body of someonewho died several years ago, was ...
The millionaire lawyer, his lady companion, dinner at Gleneagles... and sexual shenanigans that put fellow diners off their hors d'GBP uvres
Jan 01, 2009; ... IN the rarefied atmosphere of the Gleneagles Hotel, a dining fauxpas could involve ordering red wine with fish or the inappropriateuse of cutlery. But a pair of diners has shattered the established rules ofetiquette by drunkenly mistaking their public table for a privateboudoir ....
There's certainly nothing clever about these tough luck boxes
Jan 01, 2009; ... THINK out of the box, Britain. This is not a plea to be lateral,and have inventive New Year resolutions. It's a request to companiesto use more finger-friendly packaging when sending 2009's food,drink and Christmas presents through the post. There is a pile of brown things in the ...
All numbers heading higher for Loganair
Jan 01, 2009; ... PRE-TAX profits at Loganair, the airline that operates servicesthroughout the Highlands and Islands, soared in the year to the endof March, rising by 24 per cent to GBP 4.2 million. Turnover rose by 8 per cent to GBP 52.8m, while the number ofpassengers the airline carried ...
Cutbacks hit MS families' GBP 140-a-day respite care
Jan 01, 2009; ... FUNDING for specialist respite care for patients with multiplesclerosis in Scotland is being cut back, leaving many having to findthe money themselves, The Scotsman has learned. With the economic downturn putting increasing pressure on localauthority budgets, carers say a postcode ...
Who Owns Scotland: Swathes of Scotland bought on wing and prayer
Jan 01, 2009; ... THE Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has become theeighth-biggest landowner in Scotland, research by The Scotsman hasrevealed. In the third day of our series investigating who owns Scotland,we reveal that Europe's largest conservation charity owns a vast -and rapidly ...
Son of political leader found dead in Edinburgh flat
Jan 01, 2009; ... THE son of a German political leader has been found dead in aflat in Edinburgh, it was revealed yesterday. Stephan Bisky, 23, the son of Lothar Bisky, chairman of the LeftParty in the German parliament, was discovered in the Powderhallarea on Christmas Eve. The 67-year-old ...
Friends' farewell to playwright Pinter
Jan 01, 2009 ... FAMILY and close friends of Nobel prize-winning playwright HaroldPinter gathered to say farewell at an intimate funeral yesterday. About 50 people stood ...
Admin glitch costs workers a packet
Jan 01, 2009 ... THOUSANDS of workers had their New Year plans disrupted yesterdayafter the UK's biggest building society failed to deliver wages toits staff on time. Nationwide ...
Scot remanded on rape charges
Jan 01, 2009 ... A SCOT was remanded in custody yesterday by magistrates inAldershot, Hampshire, charged with repeatedly raping and stabbing a21-year-old woman as she walked home from a ...
SNP's membership surges by 60 per cent
Jan 01, 2009; ... THE SNP has capitalised on its electoral success by growing itsmembership base by 60 per cent in the last five years, it emergedyesterday. There were just 9,450 members of the Scottish National Party in2003 - a time when the party was being knocked back by electoraldefeats and ...
Tories' New Year plea to 'mend broken UK economy'
Jan 01, 2009; ... ANNABEL Goldie, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said theNew Year should be a time to start mending a broken society andeconomy. She warned that the country would face challenges caused by"Labour's recession" and a legacy of "broken promises" by the SNPScottish Government ....
Search by 200 volunteers fails to find missing islander
Jan 01, 2009; ... SEARCHERS yesterday failed to find any trace of a 21-year-old manwho has been missing on South Uist in the Western Isles since BoxingDay. More than 200 volunteers joined the search for Simon Macmillan,who vanished in the early hours of 26 December after getting off abus three ...
Q&A: Jennifer Campbell
Jan 01, 2009 ... The volunteer with Friends at the End, a Scottish group callingfor a change in the law on assisted suicide, is disappointed byGordon Brown's remarks on the controversial issue. What did you think about Gordon Brown's comments that legislationon assisted suicide would put pressure ...
Warning as flesh-eating bug kills drug-user
Jan 01, 2009; ... A DRUG-USER has died from the flesh-eating disease necrotisingfasciitis, health officials revealed yesterday. Two other cases had been confirmed previously and a furtherpossible case has been identified, according to NHS Lanarkshire. Both the confirmed cases are in "serious" ...
World has a blast as revellers forget woes and welcome in New Year
Jan 01, 2009; ... MILLIONS of revellers around the world cast concerns about globalrecession and other worries to one side as wild celebrations wereheld to welcome the New Year. New Zealand was the first country to celebrate 2009, whichstarted at 11am GMT, while Australia followed close behind at ...
Who Owns Scotland: 10 - 6
Jan 01, 2009 ... 10 Crown Estates - 106,000 acres THE Crown Estates are the lands that historically belong to themonarch although, unlike Balmoral, they are not privately owned bythe Queen but are attached to the title. The modern Crown Estates Commission is a combination of the ...
Violent crime:police chief's 'positive' hope
Jan 01, 2009 ... THERE can be no "quick fix" in tackling violence and organisedcrime in Scotland, a leading police officer warned yesterday. Stephen House, Strathclyde's chief constable, said there were noshort-term solutions to the "booze and blades" culture, despite adrop in violent crimes ....
Now enter the great depression of 2009
Jan 01, 2009; ... Downturn winners A GOLD mining company only promoted to the FTSE 100 two weeks agohas recorded the biggest annual increase in its share price.Randgold Resources, which is incorporated in Jersey but operatesacross Africa, saw its value increase by 62 per cent in 2008. Itsshare ...
Television Review: Holmfirth, where stars go to retire
Jan 01, 2009; ... Last of the Summer Wine, BBC1 Around the World in 20 Years, BBC1 THE year's end, I suppose, is a good time for nostalgia -although it's hard to avoid it at any time of year, as the multi-channel age seems often to provide mainly a chance to see the sameold programmes and ...
Facing new year with resolve
Jan 01, 2009 ... IT'S out with the old and in with the new, the time for turningover a new leaf. The Scotsman wondered what New Year resolutions thebusiness world's great and good (and others) might be pledging. Inthe spirit of the festive season, here are our suggestions. "Must avoid confusion by ...
Comedian Hurst denies smashing phone at gig
Jan 01, 2009 ... STAND-UP comic Lee Hurst yesterday denied smashing an audiencemember's mobile phone at a gig. The comedian is alleged to have grabbed the phone during aperformance at a pub in Guildford, Surrey and thrown it to thefloor. The former star of TV show They Think It's All Over ...
Queen of the turf
Jan 01, 2009; ... IT IS the 21st century after all, so the outside world may wonderwhy a woman proving she's very good at her job should cause quitethe stushie it did when Hayley Turner became the first female jockeyto ride 100 winners in a year at Wolverhampton on Tuesday night. A brief trawl ...
HBOS and the biggest fall in banking history
Jan 01, 2009; ... HBOS yesterday broke the record for the biggest annual fall in aBritish bank's share price: more than 90 per cent has been wiped offthe value of its shares in the past 12 months. Yesterday, as the FTSE 100 index of leading stocks closed withthe worst annual performance in its ...
And it's a happy queue year to you
Jan 01, 2009 ... EDINBURGH Hogmanay organisers were criticised yesterday afterhundreds of people were left queuing for hours in freezingtemperatures to get tickets they had already paid for. A line of about 1,000 people snaked around St Andrew Square aspeople turned up to get their street party ...
Capital has a blast as party-goers forget woes and worries to welcome in 2009
Jan 01, 2009; ... EDINBURGH'S Hogmanay celebrations went with a bang last night, asthousands of revellers braved freezing cold weather to see in 2009. As temperatures in the capital dropped as low as -5C, the citycentre thronged with crowds estimated to be 100,000. By mid-evening, Princes ...
Book based on Holocaust love story is pulled
Jan 01, 2009 ... THE fall-out continued from a discredited Holocaust love storyyesterday, as a book based on Herman Rosenblat's story was pulled. Laurie Friedman's Angel Girl, a children's book inspired by MrRosenblat, was pulled by Lerner publishers. Spokesman Adam Lernersaid: "While ...
Scrutineer: Whither the Footsie?
Jan 01, 2009; ... FOR most of the year anybody "buying on weakness" in the stockmarket suffered a burnt wallet. Things kept getting worse. Tungsten-nerved contra-thinkers who bought equities because they thought thegloom was overdone were merely shown to be underestimating theunfolding gravity of the ...
Changing Room Chat
Jan 01, 2009 ... SPL tipped to try luck on the Irish THE Irish presence in the SPL is going to become stronger,according to Northern Ireland's top agent, Gerry Carlile. As the January transfer window opens for business today, thedepressing economic climate has guaranteed big-money signings ...
Johansson eyes derby debut as he becomes Hibs player at last
Jan 01, 2009; ... ALTHOUGH more than eight years have elapsed since JonatanJohansson last played a game in the SPL - on leaving Rangers, hiscareer progressed in England with Charlton before he joined Malmo in2006 - the Finnish international forward can't wait to make hisScottish return in the Edinburgh ...
Strachan holds all the aces as McGeady returns from exile
Jan 01, 2009; ... CELTIC winger Aiden McGeady has had plenty to chew on over thelast two weeks as he endured his exile from training with the firstteam. Now ostensibly back in the fold, all eyes will be on managerGordon Strachan's team-sheet for this weekend's clash with DundeeUnited. Strachan's ...
Test your sports knowledge of 2008 in our bumper quiz
Jan 01, 2009 ... Olympics 1 Name the cyclist who won the women's road race and Team GB'sfirst gold medal of the Games. 2 Chris Hoy won gold in which three cycling events in Beijing? 3 How many gold medals did American swimmer Michael Phelps claim? 4 Name the Chinese athlete who ...
Low aiming to hit heights again in bid to beat second-season syndrome
Jan 01, 2009; ... MORE THAN a year ago Moray Low was being touted as Scotland'snext best thing in the world of scrummagers by former Scotland andLions prop Peter Wright, but in his second season he could beforgiven for feeling he had almost fallen off the earth's surface. However, at the start of a ...
Warriors grateful for Murray Park offer from neighbours Rangers
Jan 01, 2009; ... RANGERS FC have again linked up with the Glasgow's rugby team tohelp the city's bid for a weekend double. Glasgow Warriors will today train at Rangers' Murray Parkfacility ahead of the deciding leg of the David Lloyd 1872 Cup atFirhill tomorrow (3pm). Rangers, who travel to ...
Business news at a glance: Commodities tumble to end
Jan 02, 2009 ... COMMODITIES sealed their worst year on record with acceleratinglosses in the fourth quarter of 2008. Data out yesterday showed the five commodity indexes used mostheavily by investors to gain exposure to raw material ...
Teachers want ban on school bells over health and safety
Jan 02, 2009 ... TEACHERS are proposing a ban on school bells after deeming them ahealth hazard to sensitive ears. Members of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association have beencomplaining that the current school-bell system used to signifybreaks between classes is too noisy. Jim ...
Business news at a glance: Tories seek red tape time limit
Jan 02, 2009 ... THE Tories are today calling for a time limit to be applied toScottish Government red tape. Each regulation should have a five-year lifespan - after whichcivil servants would have to prove the need for the rules to remainin place, Tory ...
Business news at a glance: HSBC loans top best-buy tables
Jan 02, 2009 ... HSBC was the most competitive mortgage lender last year, newresearch shows. The bank, which did not take part in the government's bankingbail-out, dominated the best-buy tables throughout the year,according to online mortgage ...
Gates that led to a new opening for Bulloch
Jan 02, 2009; ... WHEN steel galvanising firm Highland created the Famous Grousegates at Murrayfield Stadium, it was seen as a publicitymasterstoke. Making the gates ensured that the company was associated with aniconic structure commemorating 17 years of the drink's sponsorshipof Scottish rugby ....
A wheel love affair
Jan 02, 2009; ... When John Guy bought his first car for GBP 130 in 1964, it begana journey spanning 40 years, hears Craig Brown IT IS a love affair stretching over five decades and twocontinents. It is a story that takes in a honeymoon, separation,reunification and ends happily ever after with a ...
Lochhead unveils latest round of Rural Priorities funding
Jan 02, 2009; ... THE expansion of a popular farm deli and cafe, leading to thecreation of jobs and improved educational facilities, is among the450 projects to be funded by the Scottish Government in the thirdround of the Rural Priorities scheme. This week Richard Lochhead, the Cabinet secretary ...
'Come home safe' message delivered to 70,000 farmers
Jan 02, 2009; ... FARMING is a dangerous business and the rate of fatalities isdisproportionate to the number of people employed in the industry. In 2007-8 there were 42 deaths on British farms. Less than 1.5per cent of the working population is employed in agriculture yetthe sector is responsible ...
Leader: Hope for 2009 in Obama's can-do message
Jan 01, 2009; ... THE year 2009 starts with a paradox. On the one hand, all the oldproblems of the first decade of the 21st century remain, and someare even getting worse. The Middle East has erupted into violence with the collapse ofthe Hamas ceasefire and the Israeli bombing of Gaza. In ...
Banks feel 'remorse' - Citigroup chairman
Jan 02, 2009; ... ONE of the world's leading banking figures has confessed thatsome in the industry feel "remorse" that they were partly to blamefor the global economic slump. Sir Win Bischoff, chair-man of US banking giant Citigroup, saidyesterday that banks "ultimately do carry some of ...
Growing peace
Jan 02, 2009; ... Those who serve on the front line often bring back deeppsychological scars, writes Emma Cowing, and an Ayrshire garden isproving invaluable as a healing environment IT'S A CRISP winter morning in the grounds of Auchincruive, homeof the Scottish Agricultural College in Ayrshire. The ...
Business Gazetteer
Jan 02, 2009 ... Virtual future Console-ation of cheaper meetings during recession BUSINESS meetings of the future could take place through Sony'sPlayStation 3 games console, if an academic gets his way. Dr Nipan Maniar, from Portsmouth University, is leading a projectto allow people from ...
Woman's head in bag may be from crypt
Jan 02, 2009; ... A HUMAN head discovered in a plastic bag on a public footpath isthat of a woman and, an expert believes, could have been stolen froma crypt. Detectives are checking missing persons' records and searchingfor other body parts near the path where the mummified head wasfound on New ...
Scots going bankrupt at record rate with 500 a week expected this year
Jan 02, 2009; ... MORE than 25,000 Scots will be forced into bankruptcy this year,according to a grim economic forecast published today. As the effects of the impending recession begin to bite, nearly500 Scots a week will plunge into sequestration - the Scottish legalterm for bankruptcy - or take ...
Coming home is all very well, but let's keep looking up and out, too
Jan 02, 2009; ... AND SO we breenge into another year; not just any old year, as weare reminded from all quarters, but the Year of Homecoming, amammoth tourism ploy pegged on the 250th anniversary of the birth ofRobert Burns and aimed at attracting far-flung Scots back to the oldcountry, there to empty ...
Who Owns Scotland: 5-2
Jan 02, 2009 ... 5 Blair trust - 140,000 acres THE Blair Castle Charitable Trust manages and owns the massiveformer estate of the Duke of Atholl in Perth and Kinross. The trust, headed by its administrator Peter Jarvis, took on muchof the estate after the 10th duke, George Murray, died a ...
Mamma mia, how can we resist you?
Jan 02, 2009; ... THE tunes were cheesy, the plot implausible and the least saidabout some of the singing the better - but Mamma Mia, did they sellsome DVDs. The movie, based on the hit musical scripted around the songs ofAbba, has smashed records by becoming the UK's biggest-selling DVDever ....
Town grieves for marine killed on Hogmanay
Jan 02, 2009; ... THE flag was at half mast at the Royal Marines' Condor base inArbroath yesterday, as the town mourned the death of anothercommando in Afghanistan. The loss marked an end to Britain's worst year of fatalitiessince the conflict began. The marine, who has still to be named by ...
Recipe for success? Salt and fat, admits McDonald's chief
Jan 02, 2009; ... THE woman given the job of promoting McDonald's has revealed thesecret of the fast-food chain's success - salt and fat. In what some might see as a slightly-too-honest appraisal of hercompany's products, Jill McDonald, chief marketing officer forMcDonald's UK, admitted that if the ...
Messages in Brief: 2009 'won't be easy' for Britain warns Brown
Jan 02, 2009 ... GORDON Brown yesterday warned the country that 2009 "won't beeasy" as it faces up to the economic crisis. In a New Year message immediately branded arrogant by the Tories,the Prime Minister insisted that Britain would pull through - butadmitted the challenge was "enormous" ....