I READ with disbelief Carlos Alba's report, Mental maths on the way back (May 1), and that ''Secondary pupils are to be banned from using calculators in Standard Grade maths exams in a bid to encourage a return to basic numeracy skills
SCOTTISH Widows' staff and top management clashed publicly at the life and pensions office's annual meeting yesterday over this year's pay settlement having been imposed without union consultation. The subject was aired by employees, along
SO Labour's Scottish agony intensifies. The party which is delivering its widely-praised devolution settlement in double-quick time now looks on, with a mixture of bewilderment and hurt, as the SNP surges past it in voting intentions for the Parliament
NEW YORK: Singer-songwriter Carly Simon is undergoing chemotherapy in a battle with breast cancer. ''It takes some time to get used to the fear of having it,'' she told the New York Daily News. ''But I've always thought
SUNDAY play on the Old Course, St Andrews, has always been a rarity according to the dictum of Old Tom Morris: ''The course needs a rest even if the gowfers don't.'' Permission, however, was granted by the Links Management
What a glad, happy time it is to be a Scottish nationalist or, even better, the leader of the SNP. The strength and consistency of our System Three poll results on the question of voting intentions for a Scottish Parliament have shown the SNP overhauling
''DO your correspondents not trust them?'' asks an apparently astonished Professor H G Morgan (May 5), referring to the Scots predominant in the New Labour Government. No, we do not. No further than we could throw them. I was recently
THE suggestion by an English police leader that a debate should begin on the future establishment of a DNA data base covering the entire UK population has been met with caution and scepticism, writes James Freeman, Home Affairs Correspondent. The general
LOS ANGELES: The arraignment of British rock star George Michael on a charge of lewd conduct was postponed for 10 days yesterday so that prosecution and defense lawyers could review the case further. The 34-year-old singer was arrested on April 7 after
CHARITIES stand to receive almost #50m when the Computacenter information technology group is floated later this month. On the basis of an offer price of 610p, half way between the expected range of 550p and 670p, chairman Philip Hulme will be donating
IN an ideal world they would have been showing the new Kurt Russell film Breakdown. A new #660,000 mobile cinema had been ordered to take movies to the outer reaches of Scotland - Cinema Paradiso with a tartan fringe. It was driven all the way from Glasgow
The new chief executive of the National Farmers' Union of Scotland is to be Ed Rainy Brown who for the past 14 years has carried out that role for the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS). The announcement was made yesterday by union
n Sharon Stone first made the movie grade of hyperbole as the ice-axe wielding bisexual who took great pride in not wearing sensible M&S briefs. This lack of undergarment helped Shazza enormously in the ''controversy'' stakes when
Carlos Alba Education Correspondent TEACHING unions in Scotland yesterday declared war on employers after being offered a pay award of 2.7%. They had asked for 4.8%. The Educational Institute of Scotland said the deal, the lowest offered to any group
Stewart mcIntosh waxes lyrical on the prospects for the housing market This is the time of year when estate agents should be consulting their Shakespeare. Although the Bard of Stratford did not have estate agents in mind when he penned his eighteenth
A SCOTLAND-wide debate considered vital for the development and provision of education for children with special educational needs was launched yesterday. Scottish Education Minister Brian Wilson chose Campsie View School in Lenzie, near Glasgow, for
CONNECTIONS of Summerhill Special will be hoping lightning strikes twice this afternoon, as the mare bids to win at Musselburgh for the second time in five days. The North Yorkshire raider landed the Musselburgh Old Course Handicap last Friday and today
THE action group calling for major changes at Dundee United will try to mobilise backing for their campaign at a supporters' rally in the city on Sunday - and admit they need it to sustain their momentum. United for Change unveiled their plans
I was both intrigued and surprised by the results of a survey, published yesterday by an organisation called the Media Business Group, which suggested that more than 95% of 20 to 34-year-old males would rather watch the World Cup finals on the telly
David Kidd recounts how he helped hotelier Jim Sutherland counter a certain ban. Tuesday, April 21, was an unforgettable day. At 10.00am I briefed my client. At 10.30 I was in Selkirk Sheriff Court. At 10.45 it was all over. The Sheriff had ruled in
May 6, 1946 n IN A letter to the Editor of The Herald, J R H Hutchison MP wrote: ''Scotland appears to be going to have no air future, either in running airlines or in aircraft manufacture. ''This is a state of affairs that the Scottish
LIKE the supertankers which ferry their products all over the world, the oil giants are not going to change course because of a temporary problem of weak oil prices. Smaller companies are different - there has been a sharp downturn in their exploration
NO MORE MISTER NICE GUY by Howard Jacobson Jonathan Cape, #15.99 HOWARD Jacobson is a 56-year-old, Jewish, television critic and author, who has written a novel about a 50-year-old, Jewish, television critic. It is said that all first novels are in some
MOBILE telephone users received good news yesterday when Britain's major supplier announced plans to slash its charges. Vodaphone is to cut its tariff packages for digital and analogue consumer customers by 50% and claims it will introduce the UK
What is the purpose of the sixth, and final, year of secondary education? To round off schooling, of course, and equip young people with the qualifications they need for employment and further or higher education. But anyone whose answer was based solely
Keith Bruce has a stern warning for lovers of Glasgow's esteemed jazz festival FOR this year's Glasgow International Jazz Festival, launched at the City Hall yesterday, the Bottom Line is neither an acoustic music club in New York City nor
ONE of the oldest men to face trial in Scotland has had his case postponed after being rushed to hospital. Mr William Riddicks, 86, was due in court yesterday on alleged sex crimes dating back 37 years. His lawyer, Ms Shirley Foran, told Ayr Sheriff
STAKIS yesterday outlined plans to spend #50m on building 15 LivingWell health clubs as part of its drive to double club membership to 100,000 by the turn of the century. A company spokesman said one of the new clubs would probably be in Perth and two
A senior police officer yesterday denied he chose ''foul means'' to solve the murder of teenage Celtic star Lawrence Haggart. Detective Superintendent Joseph Holden denied that as the ''new broom'' appointed to
THE dearest wish of John Higgins, Scotland's newly-crowned world snooker champion, was to parade the famous old trophy at Parkhead on Saturday before Celtic's match against St Johnstone. The youngster from Wishaw, a self-confessed Celtic
Campaigners are urging the Government to make kidney donation after death compul-sory by law after a poll revealed fewer than a third of Britons carry organ donor cards. According to a Gallup survey published today, almost three quarters (71%) of people
Parbusters THE bandits have been left trailing in the first week of Parbusters '98 with two-handicapper Tony Doherty leading the way in both handicap and scratch stakes. The Cowglen club champion shot a gross 62 in the April Medal
THE former royal yacht Britannia ruled the waves for a final time yesterday as she completed a 560-mile voyage to her retirement home in Scotland. The water may have been deeper than the crowd who witnessed ''the Grand Old Lady of the Sea&apos
ANY question of the recent opinion poll pressure that Labour has come under in Scotland being a flash in the pan is dispelled by latest System Three poll for The Herald. Dramatically, it puts the SNP 5% ahead of Labour in terms of voting intentions
Launched at the Geneva Show in 1996, the Jaguar XK8 would do most of us just fine as a powerful and very stylish coupe or convertible. After all, it comes with the four-litre AJ-V8 engine which is not short of either brake horse power or torque. A supercharged
Two men who punched and kicked a man as he lay against a burning fire have been banned from drinking in the local pub where the attack took place. Paisley Sheriff Court heard how both had continued to assault Mr George Fleck after he fell against a solid
Robert Sangster yesterday encouraged Sheikh Mohammed to ''take a gamble'' and supplement the One Thousand Guineas winner, Cape Verdi, for the Derby. The filly's breeder, and former owner, reckons the Classic winner could prove
THE Scottish Agricultural College has announced the creation of three new professorships. Two of the three posts will be at Auchincruive in Ayrshire. Garth N Foster, head of the environmental services division at Auchincruive, becomes Professor of Environmental
63 West Coats Road, Cambuslang; two bedroom flat, offers over #72,500 Slater Hogg & Howison ONE of the most attractive features in the lower flat of this unusual B listed sandstone villa in the centre of Cambuslang is the large entrance doorway
THERE is still good news to come for Sidlaw, according to chief executive John Durston. Yesterday the Edinburgh-based flexible packaging manufacturer announced a doubling in half-time profits to #3.5m in its continuing activities after excluding exceptional
Killing yourself in the theatre can bring on strange atmospheres. Chekhov and Ibsen give it tragic absurdism, ambivalence even. Ben Brown's college professor in All Things Considered at Hampstead last year certainly exuded a certain uneasy gallows
THE majority of Scottish football clubs in the lower divisions are set to go cap in hand over the next few months for cash from lottery funds to improve their grounds. The first club to take advantage of the money on offer, Dunfermline Athletic of the
IN response to the letter, No win, no fee (May 1), I would like to highlight the work of Glasgow (Bath Street) Citizens' Advice Bureau in the field of employment law. The CAB's Tribunal Assistance Unit gives free, independent, and impartial
THE Prime Minister will be in Northern Ireland today urging the electorate to give a huge Yes vote in the referendum on the Ulster peace agreement. Former Prime Minister John Major will join Tony Blair him on the campaign trail. Political differences
JOHN Redwood's former special adviser has claimed that the Shadow President of the Board of Trade believed William Hague was the worst choice of the six candidates on offer to lead the party. Mr Hywel Williams, Mr Redwood's special adviser
We should take the two matters together. After a bruising, butting, and possibly even biting Allied Dunbar Premiership match between Newcastle and Leicester on Monday, the RFU, England's controlling body, is to set up an enquiry into internationalist
The National Farmers' Union of Scotland has criticised the financial payments on offer to farmers under a European Union early retirement scheme and has called upon the Government for proposals more appropriate to the industry's needs. In a
MICHAEL Fry in extolling the virtues of dukes and the hereditary principle (April 29) presumably regrets the abolition after the '45 of the ''Hereditary Jurisdictions'' whereby these gentlemen were judge and jury in their own
THE German Bundesbank may announce its first interest rates rise for seven months next week as rates throughout the European Union begin to move in preparation for the introduction of the single currency at the beginning of next year. ''We
''We hail Britannia, the grand old lady of the sea!'' In a speech brimming with patriotic fervour, Edinburgh's Lord Provost, Eric Milligan, welcomed the royal yacht Britannia into Leith Docks yesterday morning. In understandably
START as you mean to continue. It is a good rule for yourself, a good yardstick for others to measure your behaviour. That is why, whatever spin doctors say, the launch of the euro is a calamity and a portent of woe for the countries foolish enough
THE airline serving the inter-isles air route in the Western Isles yesterday introduced a cheap fare - but it may only appeal to sightseers in a hurry. For a flat fare of #40, British Regional Airlines will take you from Stornoway to Benbecula, helping
DAILY UK oil revenues have fallen by more than 80% in real terms from their 1980s peak, writes Christopher Sims. Revenues in the month averaged #20.5m per day, which compared with the peak of #118.5m, in 1998 prices, recorded in February 1985, according
A showhouse in an 1860s B-listed property might seem like a paradox, but as the much publicised home of interior designer Alexis Leech, shows, this elegant conversion in Langside has been transformed into just that, a showhouse of her own. Extensively
aTHE problems Sidlaw Group ran into a few years back were due in part to the company's far-sighted strategy of creating a pan- European flexible packaging group. When John Durston came in as chief executive in the autumn of 1996, the seeds of recovery
Experimental composer Dick Lee tells Rob Adams about his latest marriage of apparent opposites In Richard Brautigan's Sombrero Fallout, a story, having been discarded, begins to write itself. Talking about the music he has contributed to Alex Rigg
WITH their plumed helmets and medieval-style stripey doublet and hose, the Swiss Guards, who stand stiffly at the entrances of the Vatican, look uncannily like toy soldiers newly escaped from the pages of a children's fairy story. But the gruesome
IT isn't just Tony Blair and New Labour who face their first political test since last May tomorrow night. The English local elections are just as vital to William Hague and the Tories. They desperately need a sign of forgiveness from the electorate
WHITBREAD is investing further in Scotland with a planned spend of #26.4m this year which will lead to the creation of some 900 jobs. That will boost the jobs total to about 5500, the majority of which are in the leisure and eating out sector, which
aYOUR correspondent, Dr Hambly (May 4), a director of Ayrshire Doctors on Call, can be assured that my only agenda in trying to get improvements in ADOC is the interests of my constituents, and there have been many other critics of ADOC including councillors
NOBODY does it like Yannis Kokkos. The great Greek designer/ director, the softest and most scrupulous voice in the business, has already produced unforgettable work for Scottish Opera. Every element in the company's new production of Tchaikovsky
THE proposed Glasgow southern orbital road between Newton Mearns and East Kilbride could cost council taxpayers in East Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire an additional #5m on top of the original estimate of #36m building costs, it has emerged. Transco
THE Eagles of Lazio will soar to even greater heights regardless of how they fare against Inter Milan in tonight's UEFA Cup final in Paris. The Swede, Sven-Goran Eriksson, has transformed the Roman club since his arrival last summer from Sampdoria
MICK McCarthy last night urged Celtic's tired title-chasers to match the Class of '88 and capture the championship. The former Celt insists that Wim Jansen's players will have no excuses if they fail to beat St Johnstone on Saturday
I am not particularly clubbable. As a kid I lasted half a day in the Boy Scouts, expelled for refusing to wear that ridiculous Canadian Mountie Hat. It's for people with sharp, pointed heads, I protested, and was told: wear it or walk. I walked
The sound of surprise: Graeme Wilson, of the Hung Drawn Quartet, yesterday helped launch the 12th annual Glasgow Jazz Festival, which runs from June 26 to July 5. Dave Holland, Michael Brecker, Lee Konitz, Chico Freeman and Jimmy Smith are among this
The cause of the blaze that killed the father of the so-called ''Family from Hell'' may not be known for days or even weeks. Detectives were yesterday still trying to establish if the fatal blaze in Fraserburgh was started deliberately
HIGHLAND Council wants the Government to protect sensitive communities, such as Knoydart, from speculative purchases by foreign or absentee landlords by giving such areas a special designation that requires much closer scrutiny of offers and takes into
I AM interested to read in Carlos Alba's report, Mental maths on the way back (May 1), that the Scottish Qualifications Authority (the Exam Board) may introduce a mental arithmetic section into Standard Grade maths. It seems obvious to me that unless
A SHARP drop in the value of the pound yesterday appeared to justify Tony Blair's claim that the controversial weekend deal on who will head the powerful new Euro-bank has not undermined market confidence in the single currency. The Prime Minister
Crying wolf: Actor Bill Paterson's latest role is something he can really get his teeth into. He will narrate Peter and the Wolf in a new translation by playwright Liz Lochhead for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Helping them to flesh out
A BOOK of golfing songs sold for just a few pennies in its day is expected to fetch thousands of pounds at a charity book auction. The book, compiled by nineteenth-century Kirk minister John Kerr, is among more than 80,000 rare editions for sale at this
SCOTTISH Widows' chief executive, Mike Ross, warned members yesterday of the ''significant strain'' which its investigation of non-priority pension mis-selling cases would place on other parts of the business, writes Ian McConnell
YOU didn't want to get on the wrong side of Lord Stott, particularly if you, too, were in the legal profession. Lord S, who retired in 1984 aged 75, has published the third instalment of his diaries and remains as caustic as a Brillo pad dried beneath
LORD Sewel is to be congratulated on his announcement to revoke the River Tay and Tweed/Eye Exclusion Orders. We have witnessed the first tangible evidence of Labour's General Election commitment to radical land reforms. However, my main purpose
GOVERNMENT grants for housing in Scotland were unveiled yesterday, with #35m being distributed among 23 local authorities throughout the country. As the first stage in a new Housing Partnership Initiative, the awards are aimed at re-inventing the way
Open season: Glasgow museums director Julian Spalding, left, and council leader Frank McAveety open the doors of the Burrell Collection yesterday to signal the return of seven-day opening.
aON May 1 you carried a brief news item on the proposed ''Erotica'' sex exhibition at the SECC. As Glasgow's newest councillor, I believe I was elected in January in order to help make Glasgow better. The people of this city
GLASGOW'S transport chiefs yesterday ruled out introducing road tolls, but said they were pressing the Government to introduce a national system of taxing non-residential parking. They warned that they would continue to increase public parking charges
A world record-breaking motorcycle stunt rider, whose wife was killed when she was struck by a road safety trailer, is to receive six figure damages in an out-of-court settlement. The Scottish Road Safety Campaign trailer which hit Mrs Donna Bromham
THE SNP will be put under constant surveillance by a specially-appointed ''dirt-digger'' as part of a Labour plan to regain the political initiative in Scotland. Labour is preparing to hire a researcher to collect ''enemy
In the vexed case of John McInnes, exhumed from Stonehouse Cemetery in the bitter winter of 1996 and promptly pilloried by the media as the legendary serial killer Bible John, the magic bullet failed to find its mark. Despite the best efforts of Strathclyde
PLANNED changes to the home being built on Loch Lomondside by former tennis player David Lloyd were approved yesterday by the Helensburgh and Lomond area committee of Argyll and Bute Council. As disclosed in The Herald on Saturday, Mr Angus Gilmour,
SHAREHOLDERS who yesterday stamped their approval on an institutional placing to raise #1m in working capital for Magnum Power would have been at least somewhat cheered by the additional news that the Livingston-based company has signed the second-largest
THE Bible must remain the central source for Christian faith and life but not everyone should necessarily have the same view on its interpretation, an influential Kirk committee claims. There never had been, ''and presumably never will be&apos
WITH the acceptance of renting as a viable way of life, it could be said that the UK is becoming more and more European in its attitude to housing needs. And with the introduction of loft spaces as housing units, it could even be said that we are becoming
PEACE broke out among football's hierarchy yesterday, which is historic enough in itself, but this was also the day when a new professional league was given the all-clear to start for the first time in 108 years. The new company, entitled the Scottish
BP'S first-quarter profits have inevitably been hit by weak oil prices, though chief executive John Browne proudly proclaimed them to be at the top end of analysts' expectations and better than the oil majors' average performance. Net
Two teenagers yesterday admitted kicking Balerno apprentice Mark Ayton, 19, to death. Policeman's son Iain Wheldon, and rugby player Graham Purves, both 17, dramatically confessed to the killing during the sixth day of their trial. The youths had
A FORMER teacher at a Roman Catholic boarding school was jailed for eight years yesterday for sex offences against two boys. Norman Bulloch, 46, a member of the Marist Brothers teaching order, assaulted the boys at St Joseph's College in Dumfries
A Scottish wildcat has become a regular visitor to the home of an 84-year-old in Inverness-shire after developing a taste for cat food. When Mrs Jean Robson of Newtonhill, near Beauly, saw the large, brown, striped creature in her yard on Sunday she
GETTING one's head together in the country is an (in)action that goes down the generations more than ever before. Or at least you think so from James Saunders's painful Russian-doll of a play that sees middle-aged hack, Harold, rudely awakened
Many employers may be setting their sights too narrowly in the search for a replacement to profit-related pay (PRP). PRP was a tremendously popular scheme among employers and employees alike. But it became a victim of its own success, when tax relief
YESTERDAY, at Campsie View School in Lenzie, I launched the most fundamental national consultations in decades on the future of Special Educational Needs in Scotland. The Herald, to its credit, turned up and so did the local paper. I did a single interview
DOUGLAS Lockhart dashed from Oxford to Chester-le-Street yesterday after answering an SOS from Scotland coach Jim Love. Captain George Salmond looks certain to miss today's Benson & Hedges Cup clash with Durham because of a torn groin muscle, and
Stephen Poliakoff is so much more interestingly risky a writer than his contemporaries it makes one weep to think how little that is acknowledged. In Talk of the City he has come up with a play that, if far from perfect, at least asks awkward questions
Several years ago it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to sell a development of homes in Wester Hailes. In fact, most builders would not even have considered trying it. Now however, after an extensive regeneration campaign, Miller Homes
MICHAEL Weir raises some interesting points in his letter on superiorities (May 1). When the Land Tenure Reform (Scotland) Act, 1974, was passed, it was generally thought that superiorities would ''die on the vine,'' since the Act
THERE'S no doubt that having a new fitted kitchen can give you a great deal of pleasure. After the pain, that is, of the seemingly endless weeks of eating out of tins and doing the dishes in the bathroom sink while it's being installed. If
Exclusive The Dick advocaat era began to take shape last night when the new Rangers coach's present club, PSV Eindhoven, confirmed that they had accepted the Ibrox club's offer of more than #5m for their defender, Arthur Numan, and it emerged
HOW many of you have sparingly spread your toast with low-fat margarine this morning? Or splashed a careful dash of semi-skimmed milk into your breakfast cuppa? How many of you will interrupt the monotony of a dreary Wednesday workday with a choccie
EDINBURGH shelved plans to host its own Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition when it emerged Glasgow was seeking to show the documents, theology academics claimed yesterday. At the launch of a conference at Edinburgh University examining the historical context
SIZE isn't everything, but for a celebrated, garlanded, and, of course, controversial, piece, Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and F***ing looks awfully small on the stage of the Citizens'. The set is chiefly notable for its false proscenium
FOOTBALL fans are being advised by leading psychologists to ''keep the heid'' during the most nerve-racking climax to the league championship in years. Celtic and Rangers supporters will experience the final highs and lows of an
The faltering Middle East peace talks will resume again in Washington next week, but only if Israel and the Palestinians make progress in the meantime. Britain and America, frustrated at the lack of progress made at the talks in London over the last
A CAR ''addict'' was jailed for eight months yesterday when he admitted driving while banned for the tenth time. Dustin Davies, 25, who lives in a caravan in Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire, was caught driving while disqualified just six
PERTH: A woman sailor and three male crewmates died yesterday when a fireball engulfed the engine room of the Australian Navy's biggest ship. Another five sailors were injured as they attempted to fight their way into the blazing engine room of
Going soft: the finest of cashmere, the merest hint of silk - John Davidson considers the allure of feel-good fibres IF THIS was a fair country, the Government would be issuing every adult woman with a pastel-hued cashmere sweater this month. Overnight
HOSPITALS have been fooled by the so-called millennium bug into cancelling operations in the mistaken belief they had run out of sterile supplies, a computer software company claimed yesterday. Richard Coppel, chief executive of Prove It 2000, said hospital
A SHORTAGE of trained nurses is putting standards of patient care at risk in Scottish hospitals, according to the country's largest nursing union, Unison. Union leaders are so concerned about the working conditions that they have launched a campaign
THE hillwalker who fell to his death on An Caisteal near Crianlarich on Monday was named yesterday as former Glasgow Conservative councillor Robert Logan. Mr Logan, 51, an experienced hillwalker, slipped on a slope, and fell 40ft on to a ledge, sustaining
A DOCTOR struck off over a nursing home scandal was yesterday refused the chance to return to medical practice. The General Medical Council's professional conduct committee in London took only five minutes to throw out Radha Gobinda Sarker'
Michael Tumelty catches up with Carl Davis as he prepares for more silent acclaim IF you want something done in a hurry, ask a busy man. And there can be few in the music business busier than New York-born composer/conductor Carl Davis, resident in Britain
GIVEN Prestwick Airport's vital role in the Second World War, the people of Scotland and the UK owe an immense debt to its co-founder, Group Captain David F McIntyre. It is sad therefore to find him sloppily described by David Steele (May 1) as
Co-operative Retail Services (CRS) yesterday confirmed that losses almost doubled to #25.6m before tax in the year to end-January, throwing the mutual co-operative movement into sharp focus once again. The equivalent losses for the preceding year were
I NOTE that Jack Straw feels that Mary Bell, and the author and publishers of the book on her, are solely to blame for the terrible results of the decision to pay Ms Bell money from the book. To remind readers of these results, these were that an army
The E-coli inquiry into the deaths of 21 people yesterday heard details of procedures in butcher John Barr's Wishaw shop, and suggestions that key errors may have been made by the authorities in the early days of the outbreak. The inquiry heard
EXCLUSIVE A YEAR to the day before Scotland goes to the polls to elect its Parliament, the SNP has opened up a five-point lead over Labour in the Herald/System Three poll. The Nationalists breaking through the 40% barrier and taking a 41 to 36
