Your latest editorial comment on Dounreay should be reprinted in large, easily read type, and posted to every Government Minister in the land. It should be of particular interest to Brian ''we should be proud of this facility'' Wilson
Once again the ubiquitous ''Aliens attempt to conquer the world'' storyline is imposed upon us in the form of the BBC's new drama series Invasion Earth. Aiming to match such commercial successes as imported American cult hits
Francis Shennan hears that ''hot talent'' is the latest obsession in American business He was described in The Herald, with some justification, as the business guru who states the obvious for #500 a head. But Tom Peters has some interesting
EXCLUSIVE THE Scottish Secretary is being pressed to give Holyrood full oversight of all National Lottery awards north of the Border, as appeared to be the original intention of the White Paper last summer. Section 2.7 of the White Paper spoke of the
THE SNP special conference which opens in Perth today is likely to debate the crisis at Dounreay and the lessons of the Knoydart saga for land reform as emergency topical resolutions. The two-day conference is primarily concerned with selection procedures
How best can a volunteer force meet new demands? Armed Forces Minister John Reid explains SINCE we started the Government's Strategic Defence Review a year ago, George Robertson and I have received more mail than at any time in our political careers
Food scares are usually blamed on anyone but ourselves, discovers Marian Pallister AFTER a decade of unrelenting food scares, shouldn't the British know all there is to know about food safety? With our experience of salmonella, lysteria, BSE, E-coli
THE fact that managerial incompetence, and possibly corruption, exist in Scottish local government should not come as a surprise to anyone. After all, incompetence and corruption are to be found in every walk of life. Of course in the current political
Ruth Wishart meets a Scottish star taking Broadway by storm He is not at his most glam. Standing in his dressing room topless, clutching Baby Wipes to remove his temporary stage tattoos. Frankly a bit sweaty, darling. And it is at that moment that Faye
JIM Leighton will have the honour of joining such all-time greats as Pele, Maradona, Rivera of Italy and Uwe Seeler of Germany as players who have been involved in four World Cup finals. And yesterday, he showed his delight at being a member of such
A POLICE intelligence cell has uncovered evidence that hardcore Scottish football hooligans are intent on causing trouble at the World Cup. Their number is described as ''small,'' and officers remain confident that the impeccable
VOLKSWAGEN looks set to win the most prestigious motor marque of all, Rolls Royce, at a shareholders' meeting in London this morning. The German company's #430m bid will be recommended by owners Vickers to the meeting and VW's Audi subsidiary
THE last five years have been excellent for 3i, with an average compound return of 23.4% as the country recovered from the deep recession of the early 1990s. However, the current year will be tougher given a slowing economy, particularly in manufacturing
World Cup referee Hugh Dallas last night urged the Scottish players to ''think twice'' before making any rash challenges from behind in the opening game against Brazil. Dallas talked after he had met members of the Scotland squad
What exquisite timing for the Association of Direct Labour Organisations to have their AGM followed by buffet and entertainment in the Motherwell civic centre. Yes, Motherwell, home of the North Lanarkshire Council, whose very own DLO has the huge deficit
Eliminating pensioner poverty was one of William Beveridge's chief objectives, but one the welfare state has still to achieve - and is further away from now than at any time in the past 50 years. While the Woopies (well-off older people) are whooping
INDEPENDENT gas supplier Calortex claims fewer domestic customers are switching from the incumbent monopoly provider in Scotland than in those UK regional markets liberalised earlier because of ''slightly anti-competitive'' behaviour
June 5, 1900 n THE Herald reported: ''The Fife miners held their annual gala at Stirling yesterday when some eight or nine thousand people left the Kingdom and spent an exhilarating day in and around the City of the Rock. Eleven special trains
IT is only oil and gas fields that have come on stream in the past year that have kept North Sea production rising, according to the latest Royal Bank of Scotland oil and gas index. The findings will put further pressure on the Government as it considers
I was broken in to the impact of nuclear warfare when reading an excerpt from Hiroshima by John Hershey. I was 10. I think my memory was the inspiration for Arnie Schwarzenegger's Total Recall. It's like living in a demented Tardis, frenetically
EVERY morning, before he goes to school, Duncan Speirs shaves his father and helps him dress. After school he does not hang around to spend time with his friends, he goes straight home to make sure his parents are not alone. In the evenings Duncan reads
THE European Union's financial watchdog has warned that loopholes in the complex system for paying Euro MPs' allowances are breaking its own financial rules and are an invitation to fraud, writes Rory Watson, European Correspondent. The criticism
I'VE heard about starting the annual RSNO ScottishPower Proms with a bang, but that was ridiculous. At the first cannon shot of the 1812 Overture I bounced out of my seat, physic-ally recoiling from the shot. The resultant din, not just from the
Dropped for the second Test in New Zealand on his last Scotland tour, moving to top English club Leicester immediately upon his return, has hardly provided Craig Joiner with the platform he sought in attempting to re-establish himself. A regular
SCOTTISH Local Government Minister Calum MacDonald yesterday detailed a raft of measures to tackle financial mismanagement in councils, but denied he was conducting a ''witch hunt''. Addressing the Association of Direct Labour Organisations
Snooker Rex Williams has won his battle against a players' revolution to keep his place as head of the sport's world governing body. Eight leading players, including Stephen Hendry and John Higgins, had tried to overthrow Williams, chairman
WORLD Cup officials and French politicians now fear the tournament could descend into a fiasco because of ever-widening transport disruptions. An embarrassed French President Jacques Chirac moved to speak for the first time on the ongoing Air France
Sandy Lyle is convinced his game is back on track after having returned to traditional blade irons recently. Lyle put Mizuno irons back in the bag at the Volvo PGA Championship a fortnight ago and he was satisfied enough with the results to keep them
BREWER and hotelier Vaux has received an approach from an unnamed bidder. In a brief statement yesterday morning, chairman Sir Paul Nicholson said the Sunderland-based company had received a ''totally unsolicited'' approach with a
THE beleaguered Grampian Police force suffers further criticism in a report published today, which calls for a major shake-up of its CID operations. HM Inspectorate of Constabulary also criticises its financial management arrangements and the fact that
CARRY on gardening: that's the summertime message from the Royal National Institute for the Blind, whose free postal catalogue offers competitively priced tools designed for easy use by blind and partially-sighted people. A new book, Getting On
The suspended chief executive of a Scottish council was last night facing a police inquiry following allegations believed to relate to expenses irregularities. Mr Tony Connell was asked to leave his office at Moray Council's Elgin headquarters at
nTrying to outrun a high-speed patrol car is never a great idea, partly because the top police drivers really know what they are doing. Down in Humberside, the vehicle crime unit has just put a couple of particularly mean machines on its fleet. They
BOOTS has been one of the best performing consumer stocks in the past five years, boasting the fourth strongest total shareholder return of all. A business driven more by attention to cash than most in the face of recent acquisition activity, Boots will
David Coulthard faces the biggest test of his Formula One Grand Prix title credentials in Montreal on Sunday, and he insists he is not out of contention. Coulthard knows he cannot afford to let McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen extend his 17 points advantage
EAN Rook, that doyenne of Fleet Street columnists, once wrote a piece suggesting that the Queen should pluck her eyebrows. That article produced such a disturbance in the breast of one reader that, unable to sleep, she got up at 2am and vacuumed the
Ho Chi Minh City officials have banned topless spectators from live World Cup broadcasts in public places. ''People should behave politely in those public places, so topless people are not allowed in to watch,'' a city culture official
Billy Joel and Sir Elton John disappointed 30,000 fans by cancelling a Manchester concert last night after Billy Joel fell ill. The American singer-songwriter has been laid low by an asthma attack he suffered at the pair's Glasgow concert on Tuesday
SCOTTISH & Newcastle's retail division will offer ''a taste of the Deep South'' to more diners by expanding the group's Old Orleans chain of themed restaurants. The division hopes to open up to four new sites in Scotland
WIDENING inequality between rich and poor pensioners in Britain was forecast yesterday in a report prepared for the Government. Social Security Minister Harr-iet Harman said the report sounded a ''clear warning'' to working people
CRIME reported in Strathclyde fell again last year - the sixth year in succession - and is down a third on the all-time Scottish high of 1991. The outstanding crime figures were, however, accompanied by the stiffest warning yet to the Government that
Golf English Open Colin Montgomerie fired his lowest round of the year - and then made another plea for tougher courses on the European Tour. An eight-under-par 64 gave Montgomerie a one-stroke, first- round lead yesterday over Frenchman Nicolas Joakimides
KEVIN FERRIE Going into the first major weekend of Test rugby this season, it will be fascinating to see whether British rugby is truly at a contemptible level. Either Australian rugby has suddenly improved beyond recognition or there is simply a fool
Ron MacKenna looks at an outsider's roller coaster ride through Glasgow culture
IT may not have the splendour of Wembley, Hampden or the Stade de France, but Newlandsfield Park in the South Side of Glasgow, was the venue for Scotland's World Cup heroes last night. Craig Brown and 21 of the 22-strong squad gathered at the home
THE Micky Hammond and Brian Harding partnership got off the mark at Perth yesterday when Celtic Duke took the Bill Cadogan Novices Chase. Hammond was watching from his home in Middleham but assistant, Jedd O'Keeffe, said: ''It's a
A HOT theatre, but stewing was a small price to pay to see Scottish Ballet letting its hair down. It felt like the best of the old days: when not every piece had to be a repertoire-investment, when new faces could move centre stage as dancers or choreographers
JUST two beaches in Scotland - both in Fife - have passed the top European test for environmental quality, it has been announced, to the irritation of organisations across the country. The total number of European Blue Flag awards presented to beaches
LABOUR proposals for directly-elected provosts in Scotland were attacked by the Liberal Democrats yesterday as ''seriously flawed'', writes Ken Smith. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace warned that taking power away from
THE average Briton is becoming better clothed while cutting back on drinking at home and buying fewer cars, according to a survey on High Street spending taken before yesterday's surprise interest rate rise. Results from the CBI's distributive
FILM critic Barry Norman is leaving the BBC after 26 years to join Sky Movies. With his conversational style and near catch-phrase ''And why not?'' veteran broadcaster Barry Norman, 64, has been Britain's best-loved and most
THE Tory activist who helped run the anti-devolution umbrella organisation during the referendum campaign yesterday told the Neill Committee which is examining party funding of ''an intimidatory atmosphere'' which existed after last
SCOTTISH Office Agriculture Minister Lord Sewel will today call for a more integrated approach to rural development with people at the heart of policy. The Minister is to use the Cosla conference in Perth on rural policy to signal that agriculture can
ONE major and unforeseen side-effect of the collapse in recruiting by the major forces has been that the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan Castle has been running at greatly reduced capacity, writes James Freeman. The situation has become so serious
THE spirit of the German Bundesbank, the shrine of sound money, lives on in Threadneedle Street. Despite growing signs that the economy is slowing down, the Bank of England has raised interest rates by 0.25% to 7.5%. The move surprised the City, dismayed
CELTIC yesterday sacked assistant coach Murdo MacLeod, paving the way for a new managerial regime to be put in place at Parkhead over the next few days. However, last night the Norwegian Nils Arne Eggen dismissed suggestions he was to be appointed at
IT emerged yesterday that North Lanarkshire Council paid out almost #1m in councillors' expenses and allowances last year. The Labour-controlled council spent a total of #942,251 before tax and National Insurance deductions. Around #710,000 went
THE humble zipper has become the SNP's latest inspiration for choosing its candidates for the Scottish Parliament, writes Ken Smith. While the pedants of constitutional reform talk about single transferable votes, additional member systems, and
Hong Kong TENS of thousands of Hong Kong residents yesterday staged the first major protest on Chinese soil against the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy students around Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Braving heavy rain, people from all walks of life
SAILORS got scurvy. There was housemaid's knee and hatters going mad with mercury poisoning. Then miners with black lung wheezing their last. Up sooty lums, the dread of an agonising death from cancer of the testes belonged to sweeps. Then came
DOUG Lucie, it seems, has come full circle. The writer who in his time has been the fiercest chronicler and critic of modern modes and manners, has finally turned his sights on girl-power and the modern female - and it is not a pretty sight. It may well
BOOTS shares shone yesterday as the High Street multiple chemist and healthcare group came out with full-year profits above expectations and a confident trading statement that bucked the bearish market trend. Chairman Sir Michael Angus revealed that
PLANT-hire group Hewden Stuart announced significant progress in disposing of non-core activities at its annual meeting yesterday and a boardroom pruning which will see the rest of its old guard leave. Glasgow-based Hewden told shareholders that agreement
The fourth day of the Amateur Championship at Muirfield yesterday was rechristened Black Thursday by the home supporters as all five Scottish hopefuls for the blue riband title fell by the wayside. Walker Cup man Graham Rankin and James Bunch, conqueror
FEARS of a hard landing for the British economy were growing last night after the Bank of England shocked the City and the business community by imposing an unexpected 0.25% increase in base rates to 7.5%. The Bank, which has been divided on monetary
SHARES in Edinburgh-based Vision Group surged nearly 20% yesterday after confirmation that its Universal Serial Bus (USB) technology will used in new a digital camera for personal computers to be launched shortly. PMC Consumer Electronics said the camera
A key stepping stone towards introducing the first vaccine against the Aids virus was announced yesterday. The decision by the United States Food and Drug Administration to approve Phase Three trials of the vaccine was described as ''a milestone
Catriona Matthew produced a good finish to move close to the leaders, while fellow-Scot Kathryn Marshall was in better spirits as the Evian Masters reached the halfway stage in France yesterday. Matthew, with two birdies in the last three holes
WHEN Dutch actor Titus Muizelaar rips up a poster for Sea Urchins (director: Irina Brown of this parish), it's a nice in-joke for the local audience. But when Lineke Rijxman flicks through a copy of Trainspotting nearer to the start of Buff, it&
THE Government yesterday failed its first major test in its bid to introduce union recognition and a national minimum wage in Scotland. The country's biggest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland, said the Government's White
Connections to please 200 In answer to critics who claim that people no longer have faith in the police to the point where they simply do not report crimes - hence the falls in recorded crime throughout the UK - Mr Orr robustly suggests that that is
THE search is on for the 1998 Entrepreneur of the Year. The awards, created by the Entrepreneurial Exchange in partnership with Price Waterhouse and The Herald, offer the cream of Scotland's fast-growing businesses a unique showcase to display the
THE growing problems of our textile and allied industries have inspired George Foulkes, MP, to advise Scots to buy Scottish. This counsel should be heeded not only by individuals but also by organisations, national and local, public and private. For
A SCOTS council's direct labour department recorded a #3m deficit last year before digging a similar #3m black hole this year, it was claimed last night. The allegations were made by a senior council official at beleaguered East Ayrshire Council
A GUEST at a hotel murder mystery weekend who bit and kicked a policeman after he arrested her for being disorderly thought he was all part of the game, a court heard yesterday. Caroline Shand, 38, described by her solictor as a ''solid citizen
I NOTED with some surprise that two-thirds of your letters section on May 30 was taken up with replies to Hunter Steele's article on Scottish publishing by what seems like a two-man campaign against that same industry. It is intriguing that despite
Ready for the big kick-off: tomato growers in the Clyde Valley will have little spare time to devote to cheering on Scotland's footballers when they play against Brazil in the opening match of the World Cup on June 10. This month marks the start
EUROPEAN fisheries ministers are next week set to outlaw the wasteful slaughter of hundreds of dolphins and porpoises caught up in the ''walls of death'' drift nets used by tuna fleets. The ban, if implemented, would mark the end
Tennis: French Open Monica Seles defeated the world No.1, Martina Hingis, for the first time in six attempts, winning their French Open semi-final 6-3, 6-2 to reach her fourth final at Roland Garros. The last time the American had gone so far in
Boss Grooves: T In The Park's promoter tells David Belcher of the trouble he's seen AS T In The Park's promoter, Geoff Ellis enjoys a busy and varied everyday work-schedule in his pine-clad office at DF Concerts' rustic HQ, a converted
THE other day I was talking to someone whose retail business depends heavily on tourists. For him the season has started badly. And, with half the world about to go football crazy, he prudently predicts June will be pretty much a write-off too. All will
THE Scottish people are to be consulted for the first time over a new set of stamps to be issued by the Post Office next year to mark the dawn of the Scottish Parliament. The move was announced in Edinburgh yesterday by Post Office chief executive John
n From his early, clean-cut roles through to the swarthier, hard-bitten types he played later in his career, William Holden always exuded a sexy confidence that rarely smacked of arrogance, and made him a hit with discerning female fans. It's interesting
Pedal power: Tony Blair and Donald Dewar yesterday backed a charity cycle ride by former Old Firm players John Brown and Danny McGrain, who are peddling from Land's End to Glasgow to raise #100,000 for the Yorkhill Scanner Appeal.
SCOTLAND'S enterprise network will be ordered by Donald Dewar today to slim down and tighten up their organisations, targeting their efforts on job creation measures in unemployment black-spots, writes Robbie Dinwoodie. The Secretary of State&apos
The Herald has covered the swinging fortune of litigants involved in maternity rights cases, which continued earlier this year with the judgements of the English Court of Appeal. In the cases of both Heather Crees v Royal London Mutual Assurance Society
GLASGOW City Council are proudly announcing their plans for Private Finance in secondary schools - ie, mortgaging off our education system to the private sector with the sweetener of computers for all schools. But what they don't proclaim so loudly
GLASGOW councillors last night effectively dumped controversial museums and art galleries director Julian Spalding, selecting instead the wife of former Scottish Labour official Jack McConnell to head a new super department. Mr Spalding had been on
Bicycle thieves beware: one cycle out there- the picture deliberately does not make clear which one - has been electronically tagged by Tayside Police. It has been stolen several times, and each time the thief has been traced. The existence of the Hyena
Anti-smoking campaigners yesterday said they will force tobacco companies to admit that they have ''shamelessly'' tried to sell cigarettes to children. The response comes after four tobacco giants began legal moves to discredit an
DOUNREAY's leading critic is seeking assurances from the Government nuclear watchdog over the 170kg of highly enriched uranium which may or may not have been lost 30 years ago, writes David Ross, Highland Correspondent. As a team of 10 inspectors
TAKE eight young contemporary dancers - all making the crossover from final-year training into professional performance - and you have Transitions Dance Company, founded by Bonnie Bird in 1982 as a way of ensuring that students at the Laban Centre garnered
Its larger relatives the Jeep family may grab all the headlines, but the Chrysler Neon is doing very nicely as well, says Ross Finlay It is a rare situation for any importer when its saloons are swamped, at least in numbers of units sold, by off-roader
THE Scottish portfolio of 3i, the leading venture capital group, rose strongly in the year to March, finishing at #582m, an increase of 32%, invested in 342 companies. However, the outlook for 3i's manufacturing customers has deteriorated and the
QUIETLY and without publicity, arrangements are being finalised for the disbursement of Lottery cash in Scotland which are quite inconsistent with the general expectations on devolution. The Lottery is big business. The original forecast for the UK in
The timing could hardly have been better. As the people of North Lanarkshire and East Ayrshire absorb the fact that the direct labour organisations of their councils have lost millions of pounds of taxpayers' money (maybe, like Dounreay's missing
PEOPLE living near Gleneagles Hotel will campaign to prevent it from falling into foreign hands. The hotel, with a workforce of 500, is by far the largest employer in the area surrounding Auchterarder, Perthshire. Speculation about its future has reached
THE leading member of the controversial consortium which now owns the Knoydart Estate, Stephen Hinchliffe, has agreed to meet the community-led Knoydart Foundation and has not ruled out negotiating with it for the sale of the estate, writes David Ross
THE ability of supermarkets to market early potatoes has been questioned by members of the Scottish Early Potato Growers' Association who argued that independent greengrocers were a better outlet for their crop. Jim Crawford, of Dowhill Farm, Girvan
A sheriff provoked outrage last night after letting off a policeman who drove while more than twice the limit. Sheriff Sandy Eccles made the judgment despite admitting the officer's excuse was ''extraordinary''. Detective Constable
THE Bank of England blamed a rash of above-inflation pay settlements led by Marks & Spencer for yesterday's shock interest rate rise which alarmed the City and sparked fears of higher mortgage rates. Tony Blair made clear he backed the decision
GOOD to see there are still pockets of Blair's Britain where Old Labour values remain. Someone must have forgotten to tell Theatre Workshop that socialism is technically a dirty word these days. Jimmy C, as the Edinburgh-born activist James Connolly
SCOTLAND'S armchair football fans will not be prevented from seeing their country's first two World Cup matches live even if striking technicians go ahead with a threatened blackout of the BBC's coverage. Technicians' union Bectu
EXCLUSIVE THE Territorial Army's ''weekend warriors'' will face compulsory mobilisation and deployment to the world's trouble spots under far-reaching reforms due to be announced by the Ministry of Defence. The Government
In our correspondence columns recently a reader from Salem, Massachusetts, one Ed Margerum, appeared to let the SNP have its cake and eat it. Ed's point - which had never occurred to me - was, in so many words, that the fearty factor in voting for
LABOUR'S new modernising army of MPs is proving to be more traditionalist than people realised, writes Ken Smith. It was widely assumed the new intake would enthusiastically embrace high technology for voting at the House of Commons rather than
BRITISH Energy chairman John Robb yesterday said he would step down after the nuclear generator's new chief executive, Peter Hollins, 50, had settled in and the company had found uses for its cash pile, writes Ian McConnell. Robb, apparently giving
SCOTTISH Gaelic is about to achieve a new status within Europe which will extend its use into many more areas of Scottish life, perhaps even into island courts. This follows the confirmation in Parliament yesterday that the Government had agreed to sign
IT may not be as futuristic as the ''beam me up, Scottie'' technol-ogy which has captivated Trekkies for the past 30 years or more, but the idea of launching satellites from the deck of a former North Sea oil platform still catches
A SCOTS judge, who chairs the board of governors of a trust which was caught up in a major child sex abuse trial, yesterday claimed the staffing of its residential homes for children had undergone ''a transformation''. Lord Osborne
A FORMER air hostess convicted of a 16-month stalking campaign against a love rival had her conviction set aside yesterday after three appeal judges heard that two other women had now come forward to claim that they were harassed by the alleged victim
