Political News Archive

  • Debate must include poverty, says Kirk
    Wednesday 14 March 2012

    THE debate on Scotland's future should not just be about constitutional change but about the impact it would have on tackling poverty and ill-health, the Church of Scotland has said.

  • Cuts will cost Scots £400m
    Wednesday 14 March 2012

    THE knock-on costs of welfare changes in Scotland could be many times any savings made by the Treasury, MSPs have been told.

  • Lord McConnell calls for referendum compromise
    Wednesday 14 March 2012

    SCOTLAND'S longest-serving first minister, Jack McConnell, has urged the Scottish and UK governments to put the national interest of Scotland first as they square up in the referendum debate.

  • Orde backs single force for Scotland
    Wednesday 14 March 2012

    ONE of the UK's top police officers has told MSPs that Scotland is right to create a single force.

  • MP tables bill for finance transparency in football
    Wednesday 14 March 2012

    AN MP wants Scottish and English football associations to have more power to ensure financial transparency.

  • Sturgeon in talks on 'heartless' welfare reforms
    Wednesday 14 March 2012

    IAIN Duncan Smith looks set to receive a frosty reception today when he discusses implementing the UK Government's welfare reforms with Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Health Secretary, who has branded them "heartless".

  • Call for ban on alcohol advertising in public places
    Wednesday 14 March 2012

    ALCOHOL advertising in public places should be banned, especially if it appears in areas where it can be seen by children, Labour has claimed.

  • Salmond floats plan to sell water to English
    Wednesday 14 March 2012

    An independent Scotland could sell water to England if drought persists south of the Border, Alex Salmond has told a group of schoolchildren.

  • Pro-Union forces gear up
    Tuesday 13 March 2012

    THE umbrella pro-Union campaign will launch before the summer and hopes to match the £2 million war chest the SNP has already accumulated, The Herald can reveal.

  • First-time buyers' scheme launched
    Tuesday 13 March 2012

    THE UK Government yesterday announced help for first-time buyers to purchase homes worth up to £500,000, while an equivalent Scottish scheme launched last week was capped at property worth half that.

  • English 'would bomb our airports'
    Tuesday 13 March 2012

    GLASGOW and Edinburgh airports, in an independent Scotland, could be bombed by an English government if it was threatened by an unfriendly country, a former deputy leader of the UK Conservative Party has warned.

  • Labour bill to tackle drink issue
    Tuesday 13 March 2012

    LABOUR will signal their defiance over plans for minimum unit pricing on alcohol today by publishing their own Bill containing a raft of other measures which they say would better tackle binge drinking.

  • Miliband attacks SNP policies
    Tuesday 13 March 2012

    ALEX Salmond's Government was accused by Ed Miliband of having done "very little" on child poverty, with the Labour leader insisting planning a fairer economic policy was much easier within a United Kingdom than it would be in an independent Scotland.

  • Miliband calls for cuts in top rate pension tax relief
    Tuesday 13 March 2012

    LABOUR yesterday urged the Chancellor to "ease the squeeze" on Britain's households, calling on him to reduce pension tax relief for the highest earners so that cuts to tax credits for ordinary families could be reversed.

  • MP Joyce quits party to deal with 'personal issues'
    Tuesday 13 March 2012

    Disgraced Falkirk MP Eric Joyce resigned from the Labour Party yesterday to deal with "a number of personal issues" following his conviction for drunkenly headbutting two Tories in a House of Commons bar last month.

  • Swinney insists Scotland can easily afford to be independent
    Monday 12 March 2012

    SCOTLAND's economy is holding its own despite global economic problems and UK Government mismanagement, according to Finance Secretary John Swinney.

  • Darling lays into Salmond over his RBS judgment
    Monday 12 March 2012

    Alistair Darling has claimed Alex Salmond was a "complete fool" if he thought the Royal Bank of Scotland's takeover of ABN Amro was good for Scotland.

  • Clegg bid to reclaim turf of home rule
    Monday 12 March 2012

    Nick Clegg has told the SNP to get off his party's turf, as he hit back after Alex Salmond linked home rule to independence.

  • Glasgow city Labour 'beyond the pale'
    Monday 12 March 2012

    Glasgow's Labour leadership is not fit for purpose and their antics in deciding the budget earlier this year were "beyond the pale".

  • Sturgeon: UK reforms are threat to Scots NHS
    Monday 12 March 2012

    SCOTLAND's health budget could be hit by changes being proposed by the UK Government, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has warned.

  • Delegates vent anger over flagship Coalition policy
    Monday 12 March 2012

    Nick Clegg suffered an embarrassing rebellion yesterday as rank-and-file LibDems vented their anger over one of the Coalition's flagship policies.

  • Pilot scheme for blood test to help catch early-stage lung cancer
    Monday 12 March 2012

    A BLOOD test that could detect lung cancer in patients years earlier than at present will be piloted across Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

  • SNP tactics to take Glasgow: blame Labour for shady deals and baby deaths
    Sunday 11 March 2012

    THE SNP has been accused of using "obscene" negative tactics in its battle to win Glasgow in May's local elections, after deploying statistics about dead babies to attack Labour.

  • North Lanarkshire likely to fall to SNP
    Sunday 11 March 2012

    THE SNP is on course to defeat Labour in North Lanarkshire in May's local elections, according to Labour's own internal research.

  • How the Austro-Hungarian Empire could be blueprint for Scotland's future
    Sunday 11 March 2012

    THE Austro-Hungarian Empire, the ill-fated union that collapsed after the First World War, could be the best template for Scotland staying within the UK, according to a constitutional thinktank.

  • Salmond uses best childcare policy to woo voters - again
    Sunday 11 March 2012

    ALEX Salmond has promised that Scotland will have the most generous childcare system in the UK as he set out a series of practical ideas designed to woo voters in May's local-council elections.

  • Minimum rate 'Tycoon Tax' on the agenda for Clegg
    Sunday 11 March 2012

    Nick Clegg will accuse rich tax avoiders of hurting millions of ordinary Britons today, as he steps up calls for a "Tycoon Tax".

  • Aggreko boss Soames demands hard facts on independence
    Saturday 10 March 2012

    RUPERT Soames, chairman of Glasgow-headquartered temporary power giant Aggreko, has called on the Scottish Government to do "some serious work" to provide facts on what independence would mean.

  • Children quiz PM over horse riding
    Saturday 10 March 2012

    DAVID Cameron has spoken of his love of horse riding, days after being involved in a row over whether he had ridden an animal loaned to ex-News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks by police.

  • Salmond: Glasgow needs a political overhaul
    Saturday 10 March 2012

    GLASGOW desperately needs a new political outlook and a change of administration, First Minister Alex Salmond has claimed.