After spending a night in the cells following a second drunken brawl in a House of Commons bar, Falkirk MP Eric Joyce should spare his constituents any further humiliation and resign his seat.
The expert group, charged with advising how Lord Justice Leveson's proposals for regulation of the press could best be implemented in Scotland, had its hands tied from the outset.
The 19th-century American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once observed: "Experience is the only teacher and we get his lessons indifferently in any school."
As David Cameron put it: "Politics is about delivering change." His decision to break off talks on press regulation with the other party leaders and go for a vote on a Royal Charter is a gamble.
It would be unfortunate if opposition by Cabinet ministers killed off the proposals to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol in England and Wales.
The election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope signals a new era for the Roman Catholic Church at a time when criticism reaches into the heart of the Vatican.
Legislation allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the Scottish independence referendum began its long passage through the Holyrood legislative machine yesterday.
Winning the Eastleigh by-election provided Nick Clegg with some desperately needed credibility just in time for the Liberal Democrats' spring conference.
CARDINAL O'Brien may be long gone from public life, following the scandal surrounding his "inappropriate behaviour" with a number of priests – but if the Catholic Church thought his speedy departure, accelerated by the Vatican, would close the door on clerical scandals, then the hierarchy was wrong.
DAVID Cameron's insistence that sticking to the Government's austerity plans is the right course to help families and businesses country is in danger of sounding more dogmatic than carefully reasoned against increasing support, not least from Vince Cable, for more investment in infrastructure to boost growth.
WHEN the best news from the latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) figures is that the country did not go as deeply into the red as the rest of the UK and this coincides with a downgrading of the economic forecast by academics, there is little basis for optimism.
DEFENCE Secretary Philip Hammond did his best to dress up yesterday's announcement about the redeployment of the remaining 16,000 British Army troops from Germany as good news for Scotland.
WHEN very serious allegations about the conduct of British forces abroad go unanswered, it is corrosive both to Britain's international reputation as well as to the morale of the great majority of military personnel, who behave with decency and integrity even in the most trying of circumstances.
If railways had existed in the 14th century, surely Dante would have reserved one of the Circles of Hell in his Inferno for train passengers condemned to suffer endless rounds of weekend engineering works.
While David Cameron was issuing assurances yesterday that he will not "lurch to the right" after his party was left trailing Ukip in the Eastleigh by-election, his tough-talking Justice Secretary was letting it be known that a future Conservative government would scrap the Human Rights Act.
This week political commentators have been having a laugh at the expense of Italian voters for giving more than half their votes to "two clowns": Beppe Grillo and Silvio Berlusconi.
Herald View Archive
ONE of the principal arguments for merging Scotland's eight police forces into one was that the reform would save taxpayers money.
After spending a night in the cells following a second drunken brawl in a House of Commons bar, Falkirk MP Eric Joyce should spare his constituents any further humiliation and resign his seat.
The expert group, charged with advising how Lord Justice Leveson's proposals for regulation of the press could best be implemented in Scotland, had its hands tied from the outset.
The 19th-century American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once observed: "Experience is the only teacher and we get his lessons indifferently in any school."
As David Cameron put it: "Politics is about delivering change." His decision to break off talks on press regulation with the other party leaders and go for a vote on a Royal Charter is a gamble.
It would be unfortunate if opposition by Cabinet ministers killed off the proposals to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol in England and Wales.
The election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope signals a new era for the Roman Catholic Church at a time when criticism reaches into the heart of the Vatican.
Legislation allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in the Scottish independence referendum began its long passage through the Holyrood legislative machine yesterday.
Give them the tools and they will do the job.
He was driven by ambition.
There are many who are yet to be convinced either way on Scottish independence.
Winning the Eastleigh by-election provided Nick Clegg with some desperately needed credibility just in time for the Liberal Democrats' spring conference.
Nobody should ever be subjected to threats, verbal abuse or physical attack while carrying out their job.
CARDINAL O'Brien may be long gone from public life, following the scandal surrounding his "inappropriate behaviour" with a number of priests – but if the Catholic Church thought his speedy departure, accelerated by the Vatican, would close the door on clerical scandals, then the hierarchy was wrong.
BRITAIN is in a flap about manners.
This week Finance Secretary John Swinney will publish his forecasts for the oil revenue which could accrue to an independent Scotland after 2016 ...
ROYAL Bank of Scotland wants to demonstrate that the days of multi-million-pound bonuses have been replaced by sackcloth and ashes.
THE news that one of Scotland's biggest mining companies, Scottish Coal, is to cut its workforce by 450 comes as demand for coal is increasing.
DAVID Cameron's insistence that sticking to the Government's austerity plans is the right course to help families and businesses country is in danger of sounding more dogmatic than carefully reasoned against increasing support, not least from Vince Cable, for more investment in infrastructure to boost growth.
WHEN the best news from the latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) figures is that the country did not go as deeply into the red as the rest of the UK and this coincides with a downgrading of the economic forecast by academics, there is little basis for optimism.
LOCAL government in Scotland is under the microscope.
DEFENCE Secretary Philip Hammond did his best to dress up yesterday's announcement about the redeployment of the remaining 16,000 British Army troops from Germany as good news for Scotland.
IT is a common expression in response to a nasty shock: "Don't give me heart failure." And yet many misunderstand this admittedly misleading term.
WHEN very serious allegations about the conduct of British forces abroad go unanswered, it is corrosive both to Britain's international reputation as well as to the morale of the great majority of military personnel, who behave with decency and integrity even in the most trying of circumstances.
HOW much more evidence do we need that the Coalition Government's Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) is not working?
If railways had existed in the 14th century, surely Dante would have reserved one of the Circles of Hell in his Inferno for train passengers condemned to suffer endless rounds of weekend engineering works.
While David Cameron was issuing assurances yesterday that he will not "lurch to the right" after his party was left trailing Ukip in the Eastleigh by-election, his tough-talking Justice Secretary was letting it be known that a future Conservative government would scrap the Human Rights Act.
THE invasion of Iraq 10 years ago was one of the worst foreign-policy decisions ever taken by a British government.
TIME is running out for Scotland's first national police service.
This week political commentators have been having a laugh at the expense of Italian voters for giving more than half their votes to "two clowns": Beppe Grillo and Silvio Berlusconi.