Archive

IF Valentine’s weekend is all about displaying devotion – well, that and hastily purchasing cheap, withering petrol station roses – Dundee United’s long-suffering fans still showed plenty of it. “United we love you” they hollered as they finished the

JUST over a month ago, Mark McGhee was receiving the Manager of the Month award for December from league sponsors, Ladbrokes.Many more performances like this and he might soon find himself topping the bookies’ sack race market. Certainly, after seeing

SCOTLAND came agonisingly close to pulling off an improbable victory in the Principality Stadium last night, but Wales finished the stronger team to pull clear. There was a major doubt about the legality of the home team’s first try, scored by Gareth

A man has been arrested and 33,000 diazepam tablets seized in a police raid. Officers searched a property in Marion Street, Kirkcaldy, on Friday and made the discovery of class C drugs. A 24-year-old man was arrested over the find and is due

Ireland saw their RBS 6 Nations title slipping away after a 10-9 defeat to France, punished in Paris for poor scrummaging and wasting a host of half-chances. Maxime Medard's late try snatched victory, Jules Plisson landing the vital conversion

MICHAEL O’Halloran scored on his Rangers debut to ensure his new side avoided a shock Ladbrokes Championship defeat to part-time Alloa at the Indodrill Stadium this afternoon. However, O’Halloran, a £500,000 capture from St. Johnstone in the January

Caretaker manager Lee McCulloch led Kilmarnock out of the Ladbrokes Premiership relegation play-off place thanks to a well-deserved 2-0 victory at Fir Park. Greg Kiltie and Craig Slater scored in five second-half minutes to consign Motherwell to

Celtic re-established the gap at the top of the table with what was a comfortable if uninspiring win over Ross County. Leigh Griffiths and Dedryck Boyata netted a goal in either half to clock up a routine 2-0 win for the Parkhead side. With

Celtic re-established the gap at the top of the table with what was a comfortable if uninspiring win over Ross County.Leigh Griffiths and Dedryck Boyata netted a goal in either half to clock up a routine 2-0 win for the Parkhead side.With Aberdeen not

Pope Francis kicked off his first trip to Mexico on Saturday with a long popemobile ride past cheering crowds on a day that will start with tough love speeches to the country's political and church elite - and end with a silent prayer before the Virgin

MP Natalie McGarry has re-emerged on Twitter after disappearing from public view when being threatened with potential legal action by JK Rowling. Her publicly unrestricted Twitter re-emergence came on Saturday with the words: "Twitter updated.

TEACHERS caught someone impersonating a Scottish pupil during an examination last summer, new figures show. The incident of "personation" appears in the latest report on cheating published by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). No

Ministers will stop short of imposing a "sugar tax" as part of a childhood obesity strategy being unveiled in the coming weeks. Instead the Government is expected to use the threat of a levy in future to encourage the food industry to take action

Workers have pulled 114 bodies from the rubble of a high-rise apartment building that collapsed in an earthquake in Taiwan's oldest city a week ago, leaving one missing, authorities said. Two other bodies were recovered away from the collapsed

Stephen Fry has said Bafta parties have been tamed in recent years due to "buttoned-up and puritanical" guests. The host of the awards bash said the stars tend to be on their best behaviour and stick to just one drink. Fry, 58, will be presenting

Major powers agreed to a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria to begin in a week, doing nothing in the meantime to halt Russian bombing poised to give government forces their biggest victory of the five-year-old war.If implemented, the deal would

The world is heading for a "chocolate deficit", according to a report. Demand for cocoa will soon be at an all-time high as shoppers in developing countries buy more of the sweet treat, especially in the run-up to Valentine's Day. But supply

A NEW investigation into Police Scotland over the death of a man in custody is being considered by prosecutors. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said it has entered talks with the Health and Safety Executive over the case

A mother who was killed in a car crash that injured her three sons has been named locally. Kirsty Parker, 34, from Denholm, died at the scene of the accident on the A698 near the Scottish Borders village on Thursday. She was driving a Vauxhall

Air travel eh? If there’s one thing that can temper the frankly terrifying thought of being packed inside a metal tube and propelled 35,000 feet into the air for 10 hours, then it’s the soothing prospect of turning left when boarding and wallowing in

RISING numbers of Scots are moving home as the stamp duty replacement and record low interest rates have cut some of the exorbitant costs. The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) has brought down the costs of buying some properties, particularly

WOOD from Scotland is to be used in the renovation of Horatio Nelson’s HMS Victory as the flagship battleship is restored to  its original condition of 250 years ago. Three Aberdeenshire estates have donated 10 oak trees and 11 elm trees towards

A FRAUDSTER has been jailed after claiming she was single to qualify for £32,000 worth of benefits. However, Margaret Grieve was caught when investigators found her being congratulated on her wedding anniversary on social media. Grieve fraudulently

A POLICE officer has admitted he failed to react properly to an emergency call from the father of a Scots teenager who was dying of heatstroke on an Australian trek. Senior Constable John Diviney took the call from Gordon Williamson, whose son

Commuters in the East Coast and Central Scotland have been warned of possible disruptions to travel throughout Saturday. The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning after sleet and ice were forecasted for major areas of the East Coast and

A Scot council's bid to fly the Irish tricolour to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising appear to be floundering after its supporters said the move is being reconsidered. SNP councillors at North Lanarkshire who supported the move

RANGERS has regained the legal ownership of its precious trademarks from Sports Direct supremo Mike Ashley, it has been confirmed. A host of Rangers and club-related trademarks and logos including the club name, Ibrox and The Gers, were held by

A NEW facility at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) has been opened by the Princess Royal. The new Atrium at the university’s Paisley Campus High Street entrance is ais technology-rich learning area, featuring educationlearning areas

David Love A WOMAN who conned a childless couple into believing she was carrying their baby has been jailed for two years. A sheriff described 25-year-old Samantha Brown’s crime as “callous, calculated and cynical”. She led Benita and Mark

Britain must keep its Trident nuclear deterrent to maintain its "outsized" role in the world, according to the US defence secretary. Ash Carter said the nuclear-armed submarines are an "important part of the deterrent structure of Nato". MPs

A SCOT behind the global project to unearth the celestial secrets of the universe was inspired to study science by his engineer uncle - who helped develop the bouncing bomb. Emeritus professor Ronald Drever played a pivotal role in the study to

Val, 63, and Eric Jarvis, 66, East KilbrideVal: Everyone said we were too young to get married – I was 18, Eric was 21. They thought we hadn’t lived but we thought – why wait? I wasn’t pregnant, which is what everyone assumed – we were just in love. When

MY BridgeClimb guide is squinting into the sunset staring at mountains. “Don’t they look beaut?” he says. We are standing on top of Sydney Harbour Bridge. Below us, the city begins to sparkle, the sails of the opera house have turned pink, but my eye

Beer on whisky, very risky – whisky on beer, never fear. Quite why it’s OK to drink one way, and not the other is a mystery to me, but it’s advice Paul Miller and his team have followed to the letter. In 2012 they launched Eden Mill, the first brewery

TIME, apparently, doesn’t exist. Einstein once outraged his peers by suggesting the universe may not have cogs, coils or pound shop batteries round the back – that infinity doesn't shoot straight and reality is only determined by whomever observes

Millions of people will today flip pancakes while celebrating Shrove Tuesday. The tradition, also known as Pancake Day, marks the eve of Lent and is enjoyed by people across Britain and throughout the world. But the art of pancake making may

Let us pause to recall iconic movie kisses: Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr, limbs entangled on the beach in From Here to Eternity. A rain-soaked Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The spaghetti-fuelled lip lock in Lady and

Doctor Who fans will be pleased to hear that Scottish actress Karen Gillan, who once played the Doctor’s assistant, will be getting a lot more screen time in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Ms Gillan plays Nebula in the film, a space pirate with blue

How we scoffed at Matt Brittin, the European head of Google, as he somehow failed to remember how much he was paid when asked by the chair of the Commons public accounts committee the other day. Mr Brittin, whose appearance before MPs resembled

WHILE Scotland has been wrestling with the issues of raising revenue and then protecting it, perhaps somewhere in Massachusetts a professor at Harvard Business School has been considering adding a new lecture to her Masters degree entry course. It

TREASURY Chief Greg Hands has dug his heels in on the tax powers talks, rejecting a suggested compromise from MPs and sticking to the UK Government’s offer, which it says would benefit Scotland by £4.5 billion but which the SNP Government insists would

Campaigners have hailed a "landmark" legal ruling they said will improve the protection of alleged victims' human rights within the Scottish justice system. Rape Crisis Scotland reacted after a court found in favour of an alleged abuse victim who

A LABOUR MSP has been let off with a warning by Holyrood's presiding officer after he branded Nicola Sturgeon a "liar". Neil Findlay withdrew the insult, which he shouted across the chamber during First Minister's Questions yesterday, after accepting

Police are appealing for witnesses following a break-in and theft at a jewellers in Edinburgh. Entry was forced to a window of the George Street building housing Laing the Jeweller at around 1am on February 12. A number of watches, collectively

A Glasgow restaurant has come under fire over a sign about “surprise sex” being the best thing to wake up to “unless you’re in prison”. Khublai Khans Mongolian Barbecue Restaurant in Merchant City put the freestanding board in the street a few

Tiny specks of gold have been found in rocks at a popular tourist destination, to the surprise of scientists. Researchers say the discovery in rocks from the beach at Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae has raised the possibility of bigger finds elsewhere

HUNDREDS of jobs are set to be axed from councils across Scotland as local authorities set their budgets in the wake of the protracted row over the Government’s controversial cash deal. Calling on local authorities to promise there will be no compulsory

IT TOOK me to give up coffee for Lent to realise just how much I was paying for it. The habit of buying my morning takeout Americano from a branch of a deli chain conveniently situated between the train station and the office, and taking it to my desk

I HAVE become somewhat dispirited of late and begun to wonder if I will ever revert to anything other than a poor shadow of the woman I once was. Having re-read some of my columns written in the first couple of years here, I find myself wondering where

SCOTLAND-based banks are amongst the worst in Britain for customer satisfaction, according to a new consumer watchdog study. The Royal Bank of Scotland ranked equal bottom in a Which? survey of consumer happiness with Clydesdale Bank and Copenhagen-based

NZCA Lines / Machines in Heaven Broadcast, Glasgow **** Sometimes you have to just acknowledge that supports can be where the jewels are. And with Glasgow's Machines in Heaven they know they are onto something. White-clad NZCA Lines

AN HOUR out of Gourock, the late morning ferry edges past the Cowal Peninsula and there is Bute, the pride of Argyll, coming out of the waves once more to meet you regally. This morning she is swaddled in an early February mist and as a rheumy sun

Titchfield's, Kilmarnock TO A DREARY Sunday afternoon with the heating on full, the rain sliding down the picture panes and a conversation that goes like this. Did he say pie? Yes, he even described the pastry in it. Pie like actual pie? Yes. Look

IT is surely becoming increasingly clear that the real choice facing Scotland is simple, uncomplicated independence or settling for a similarly uncomplicated position fully integrated as a small region of a greater England (otherwise called the UK).Any

MEDIA House International has been appointed to help promote an alternative to the HS2 plan to develop faster rail connections between northern England and London. The Glasgow-based communications consultancy has been brought on board to support the High

THE uncertainty caused by the referendum is damaging investment in Scotland... Saving lives transcends borders... Young people today don't even understand the concept of borders... Does any of that sound familiar? These are not old quotes from a mildewed

SCOTLAND should be allowed to introduce its own visa scheme for international graduates, an influential Holyrood committee has said.The Devolution (Further Powers) Committee, which has been examining the impact of the UK Government scrapping a system

IN a sign that David Cameron expects the rush to the line over Britain’s membership of the EU to be a particularly painful and divisive experience for the Conservatives, talk is already rattling around Westminster of a post-vote healing process – a “unity

UNLIKE Alan Jenkins and Darren Desbrow (Letters, February 11), I don't worry about the moral rights of dead people or fear the intervention of the state in the matter of organ transplants. I think about the three people I have known in need of transplants

YOUR correspondent David Stubley (Letters, February 12) suggests parallels between Flower of Scotland and La Marseillaise and the Star Spangled Banner, and indeed all three revel in bloody and violent events in the histories of the three countries concerned.On

Royal Bank of Scotland’ s conversion of its old executive wing into an entrepreneurial hub is symbolic of the bank’s transformation and will help drive growth in the Scottish economy, Ross McEwan has said.The RBS chief executive said siting a new business

AN artificial surface looks certain to be installed at Scotstoun Stadium this summer, following talks between all the stakeholders.For the first time, and following recent articles in the Herald, the discussions were extended to include Victoria Park

House of Commons Speaker John Bercow claimed £2,000 for “hand-finished” beeswax candles and £210 for postcard-sized portrait prints of himself to be given out to admirers on expenses, it has emerged.Mr Bercow also claimed thousands of pounds for wining

AN irreverent footnote to the love poems of St Valentine time – from a female perspective, as befits a Leap Year!FRIENDS AND LOVERSWho needs lovers when you can have friends?Of course it all depends,And lovers can be friends,But on the wholeI cannot tholeTheir

Redeemable: A Memoir of Darkness and HopeErwin JamesBloomsbury £16.99 HOW are the lost to be found, the hopeless redeemed, the violent of mind and spirit becalmed and consoled?The answer can be suggested by philosophy, hinted at by criminology but only

IF only our forefathers had helicopters, life would have been so much easier. This is Sighthill Park in Glasgow in 1979 when the city's council had the rather quirky idea of building a stone circle in order to give the small park, created on wasteland

ROBERT Frost’s analogy of the admired woman being like a silken tent in a field is unconventional, but he makes a persuasive case in one of his best known poems.THE SILKEN TENTShe is as in a field a silken tentAt midday when a sunny summer breezeHas dried

IN what now seems a genius piece of branding, Creative Scotland (CS) adopted the term “The Stooshie” to refer to the groundswell of opposition to the new organisation’s ways of working that led to the departure of chief executive Andrew Dixon some three

A LARGE propeller from a crashed aircraft, a film that puts a very sinister twist on the commercialization of childhood, a conveyor belt full of objects with a backstory and a series of record players that play unrecognisable snatches of copyrighted music

Rory McPhersonThe last 18 months for oil have escalated from being generally disliked into outright victimisation, seeing it take a 75% nose-dive from its $110 price-tag in June 2014. The recent “bull-market-bounce” to circa $35 has provided some respite

The price of motor insurance went up by seven per cent in the last quarter of 2015, and rogue claims management companies are to blame, says the industry.The Association of British Insurers says the upward trend in premiums, which rose by eight per cent

Katie FfordeMy love affair with Scotland stretches back 40 years and it inspired my latest book, A Summer at Sea, which is set on a puffer in the Crinan Canal. I first stepped aboard the puffer Vic 32, which had been rescued from a breakers' yard in the

Planning and starting the year’s veg garden is always exciting. If you’re an old hand, you’ll not need my advice, but if you’re new to the game you'll pick up some ideas here. Whether you’ve been lucky enough to get a plot on your local allotment or are

“IT doesn't suit women to be promiscuous” according to newly-wedded roue on the rebound, Elyot Chase, in Private Lives, Noel Coward's cynical 1930 dissection of love and marriage. As his ex wife Amanda Prynne so witheringly counters, however, “It doesn't

THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLETa-Nehisi Coates (Verso, £9.99)Review by Alastair MabbottFew people on this side of the Atlantic would have known much about Baltimore until The Wire came along with its groundbreaking depiction of a decaying city devastated by poverty

The government has recognised that the length of a woman’s skirt and her past sexual history does not mitigate a rapist’s culpability, so why has it not recognised that a survivor’s mental health should not be "fodder for the defence"? So asks

ENGINE maker Rolls-Royce, which employs around 1,400 people in Scotland, has slashed its dividend to save cash after suffering a 12 per cent fall in profits as the crude price plunge weighed on the business.The company made £1.4bn underlying pre tax profits

CHARITIES should help build a strong system to regulate their fundraising to help maintain public confidence, according to their own leaders and the Scottish Government.The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) said a failure to act could

I HAVE just listened with admiration to that erudite, sensible and brilliant lady Baroness Shirley Williams during an interview and to her retirement speech in the House of Lords (February 11).She made two significant comments on the current political

THE Rt Rev Dr Gregor Duncan, Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway is right to condemn the scandal of food banks existing in "one of the wealthiest nations on this earth" ("It is a scandal that so many have to resort to charity in midst of plenty

Next is to open its largest store in Scotland in The Peel Centre at Straiton in Edinburgh.The new store, which will bring 110 jobs, marks the third time the retailer has increased its floorspace at the retail park. It first moved to Straiton three years

SOME Labour MSPs breathed a sigh of relief after finding themselves at the top of party lists last weekend. Those not so fancied by members are facing an desperate struggle to defy odds and opinion polls by beating the SNP in constituencies to cling on

NICOLA Sturgeon is facing calls to release a secret investigation report into a "rotten" SNP branch at the centre of a race row.The SNP's Coatbridge and Chryston association was temporarily shut down by party HQ this week after North Lanarkshire

Arnold Clark, Europe’s largest independent and family-run car dealer, has been named retailer of the year at the industry’s AM Awards.It is the fourth time the Glasgow-based group has won the accolade. It also won the awards for best dealer website, and

By Liz LeydonAs the film Spotlight brings the Boston Catholic Church clerical abuse crisis back to the forefront of our minds, reopening old wounds for all involved, it draws inevitable but inaccurate comparisons between the abuse crisis and cover up

Another morning, another thud on the doormat. The in-house squirrel emerged from the hallway with a svelte Library of America book in his paw, looking pleased. It had been ordered before Christmas, and he had forgotten it was heading his way across the

SCOTLAND’S official environmental watchdog has lodged an objection to plans for the transfer of nearly nine million tonnes of crude oil a year between tankers at the mouth of the Cromarty Firth.The Scottish Environment Protection Agency said it was a

Rather than spending on cards, chocolates and candle-lit dinners this weekend, couples looking to keep love alive might be better off sitting down for an honest chat about their finances.Britons will part with more than £950 million for Valentine’s gifts

This seasonal salad will make a bold statement at the start of any meal, being wonderfully fresh yet substantial and distinctive in flavour. As with all recipes, success begins with the best possible ingredients so make sure you use pears at the peak

Thomas and Mary: A Love StoryBy Tim ParksHarvill Secker, £16.99Review by Rosemary GoringThe opening chapter of Tim Parks’s mordantly amusing, deeply sad novel depicts a seaside holiday when Thomas loses his wedding ring. He and his Scottish wife Mary

What is it?Small but powerful coffee machine.How will it change my life?It is said that the type of coffee we drink can be a reflection of our personalities. According to a study, black coffee is favoured by straightforward types, espresso drinkers make

DOCTOR WHO: THE DROSTEN’S CURSEA.L. Kennedy (BBC Books, £7.99)Every so often, the BBC commissions a prestigious literary author to pen a Doctor Who novel, and lifelong fan A.L. Kennedy hits the mark far more accurately than did Michael Moorcock, who never

A Guide to Berlin by Gail Jones(Harvill Secker, £14.99)Review by Malcolm ForbesThe trouble-in-paradise novel – think Lord of the Flies, The Beach – shares genes with both the expat novel (The Sun Also Rises) and the campus novel (The Secret History).

It is now creeping towards a decade since the beginning of the financial crisis that led to so much opprobrium being heaped upon Britain’s big banks. In the aftermath of that catastrophe, chief executive after chief executive paraded their new found

SCOTTISH film makers are losing confidence with efforts to build a national film studio with one leading producer branding the failure to build one a 'national disgrace.'Willy Wands, who has been behind films and TV shows such as Whisky Galore, Jonathan

Wartime Churchill aideBorn: 1920;Died: January 20, 2016CHRISTINA Morrison, who has died aged 96, was a Highland lass who found herself, in her early twenties, handling top-secret messages for Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the bomb-proof underground

IF his agent has anything to do with it, Nir Bitton will be the next saleable asset that Celtic cash in on. The 24-year-old Israeli midfielder signed a five-year contract extension with the Parkhead side back in November but there has been persistent

I'VE never wanted to marry or have children. I love living alone. I revel in my aloneness. I have a secret life, indoors and out, that no one is privy to but me. I love to travel alone, I love to visit the cinema on my own, I like to dine in restaurants

A CHILDREN'S orchestra that attracts budding musicians from disadvantaged backgrounds is set to have its funding slashed as cash-strapped councils across Scotland face up to new budget restraints.Big Noise Orchestra has been acclaimed for its work in

THREE low-carbon engineering projects that could equip Scotland ‘for the 21st century and beyond’ are to be considered for investment by the Scottish Government.Experts and members of the public picked the infrastructure projects as the most urgent to

SCOTLAND’S only pitch competition for women-led companies has announced 16 semi-finalists.Among those heading to the AccelerateHER semi-finals later this month are Jura-based gin distillery Lussa Drinks Company, Edinburgh-based portable shelters specialist

DID I ever tell you about the time I didn’t interview Floyd Mayweather? It was not as disappointing as the time I didn’t interview John F Kennedy. Stood on a grassy knoll for three hours without joy for that one.The deal was that Floyd was going to phone

IN the race to build Scotland’s credentials as a breeding ground for unicorns – tech start-ups that reach a $1 billion valuation – Colin Adams is a key player.As well as being director of commercialisation at The University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics

LUXURY fashion brand Burberry is to face a class action lawsuit in the United States, claiming it used misleading price tags at its outlet stores to fool shoppers into believing the goods were being sold at a hefty discount.The company, which manufactures

HENDERSON Loggie, the Dundee-based accountancy firm, has been named finalist at a national awards scheme run by online accounting software company Xero.The firm is a finalist in the Emerging Partner of the Year category of the 2016 Xero Awards, which

Market round-upC&D Auction Marts Ltd sold 4340 prime hoggs in Longtown on Thursday to a top of £112 per head and 266p per kg to average 184.3p (+4p on the week).The firm also had 4352 cast sheep forward when heavy ewes sold to £150 for Texels and averaged

DESPITE the news that more and more of us are having cosmetic surgery, if you don't have a face for fashion, you don't have a face for fashion and no amount of nipping, tucking or backstreet Botoxing is going to change the fact. Likewise downloading that

Modern flannel jacket, £340, JaegerModern flannel trousers, £159, JaegerBertie Rogue brogue, £89, Men's at DuneShirt by John Rocha, £40, DebenhamsIndigo Ottoman stripe crew neck, £89, Jigsaw