The Herald

Pope Urges Un Role in New Global Order; Allied Leaders Apparent Target of Plea for Peace and Fairness

THE Pope launched a thinly-veiled attack on the war strategy against Iraq of Tony Blair and George W Bush yesterday when he called for a "new international order" underpinned by the authority of the United Nations. Celebrating his traditional new year's mass in St Peter's basilica, the frail-looking 83-year-old issued a forceful call for peace and a new, fairer world order.

Eyes Wide Shut?; the Contestants in a New Tv Reality Show Will Go Without Sleep to Win (Pounds) 100,000, but Have the Programme Makers Got Their Eyes Shut to the Dangers?

Another reality TV show - another living nightmare. On Sunday evening, having kept their peepers open for 36 hours and then sleeping for only two, 12 contestants will be dragged out of their beds live on air to begin seven days of sleep deprivation. As their ability to function like sleep-nourished people begins to wane, the housemates will be set tasks which test their memory, time perception, reactions and mental agility. The most successful stayer-upper will receive up to (pounds) 100,000 ...

Dogged by Silly-Season Controversy

WHO would have thought that when the end came it would arrive on four paws. Diana failed to topple the monarchy. What the butler allegedly saw turned out not to matter much. But mark my words: Dottie and Florence, Princess Anne's bull terriers, will rock the house of Windsor to its very foundations before this new year is out. Quite the daftest story of the winter silly season keeps getting better and better. It broke just before Christmas. The scene was Sandringham, where the royal family we...

Rank Outsider Who Could yet Win the Race for Power

IN his latest caustic volume, Dude, Where's My Country?, the American polemicist and film-maker, Michael Moore, lists Bush's removal among sundry other "spring cleaning chores" for the new year. However, Moore did not mean that decidedly domestic context to downplay the enormity of this particular task. "There is probably no greater imperative facing the nation than the defeat of George W Bush in the 2004 election," he writes. "All roads to ruin lead through him and his administration. Four m...

Holyrood Accounts

Baxter's Father

Scotland Pays the Price; Business Suffers As Executive Fails to Settle Its Bills

PAYING bills is hardly the most pleasant of tasks for anyone. Yet if those ordinary consumers facing hefty credit card bills for Christmas followed the tardy example set by the Scottish Executive - as revealed in The Herald today - then the only people rejoicing would be debt collectors. Newly-released accounts show the executive failed to pay almost one-third of its bills on time, despite a self- set target of settling all undisputed invoices within 30 days. The delays have been put down to ...

Sky Marshals and Blair's Lack of Backbone

SKY marshals! The very name smells of George Bush out of Zane Grey. If Mr Blair has an ounce of the backbone needed for anyone in his job, he'd counter this nonsense by forbidding any plane carrying such an armed functionary to enter British air space, always supposing we still have a right to any. But how is it to work, either way round? Will planes entering US/ British air space be stopped and searched? Intercepted by a fighter and required to wave/not wave a gun at a window? Will we be ins...

Dogs and Owners

BEING a keen runner and cyclist, I have become used to the phrase, "It's OK, it will not touch you", as dog-owners try to prevent their animals from claiming another victim. I even had one owner revert to fending off his dog with a stick and still utter these immortal words. Equally, I have seen some really interesting examples of well-behaved owners. One such was the man who had two white Highland terriers and when he told them to heel they did so immediately and never barked once as I passe...

Briefing: Glofish

Genetically-altered pets could be swimming into some American homes by Monday. Q: Some homes?

The Healthy Eating Helpline

Martin Williams (Healthy living helpline costs taxpayer (pounds) 115 a call in its first year - December 30) is completely disingenuous in his reporting. The advice line is only a relatively small part of the healthy living campaign. It would be ridiculous to run such a campaign without offering practical help for people wanting to change to a healthier diet.

That Hogmanay Hangover Cancellation Was Correct to Maintain Public Safety

EDINBURGH today had that morning-after-the-night-before feeling, and not all of it was due to strong drink having been taken. There was no escaping the disappointment of the tens of thousands who had travelled to the capital for the biggest Hogmanay party in the world, only to see the plug pulled on the festivities. In the end, gale-force winds and driving rain did what no terrorist threat has managed in the 11 years the event has run. The severity of the weather is not in any doubt. What has...

Honours System Was Never 'Above Reproach'

NOT only does the Scottish Conservative Party's sole Westminster flag-carrier, Peter Duncan, MP [pictured], bear more than a passing resemblance to the Scottish comedian, Moray Hunter, judging by his comment that the honours system "had worked well for generations" (December 31), he also seems to share Mr Hunter's talent for satire. Has he never heard of Lloyd George and Maundy Gregory; of Harold Wilson's lavender list; of Margaret Thatcher's knightly Fleet Street claque; or, better still, of...

Laughable Ideas

Deploring the Loss of Real Hogmanay

THREE drunken cheers for Jackie Kemp in deploring the loss of real Hogmanay. It came as a considerable shock to me after a couple of decades in England to discover its disappearance, a phenomenon not compensated for by contrived profit-making parties or by the moronic delight of peace-shattering fireworks with everything. In fact, in this and sundry other matters I regret having returned to Scotland. If English ways, English culture, are to dominate then the best place to be is where they ori...

When Does a Patriot Turn Into a Racist?

I AM Scottish. I run my own business and try to buy locally whenever possible. I do purchase foreign goods - German power tools, French car, Japanese hi-fi, etc, but this is a matter of choice and, of course, the retailers and service providers are locally based. Where I have a problem is with organisations that I have always considered British placing their business with overseas call centres. We recently wanted to cash in a Prudential endowment policy and just could not get the overseas cal...

Violence in Schools

JOHN Montgomery (Violence in schools, December 30) clearly writes as a concerned parent. As a teacher of more than 20 years, I confirm that he is right to be concerned. There is a malaise in many schools across Scotland, the main cause of which is the prevailing policy of inclusion. The thrust of this policy is that all children, no matter how emotionally distressed, persistently disruptive or lacking in basic literacy and numeracy, are to be "taught" in mainstream classes. Somebody, somewher...

From the Herald Archives

25 YEARS AGO THE Dutch businessman freed at the weekend by guerrillas in El Savador said that the two British bank officials, including Scot Ian Massie, still in captivity, faced a far more difficult situation. The terrorists have dropped the deadline after which they said they would kill the Britons if their demands, including a ransom from Lloyds Bank International, were not met.

Captain Ben Coutts

He may well have been baptised as Burnaby, but he was forever Ben Coutts. His death at the age of 87 marks the end of an era and the passing of a truly remarkable man. One of a family of four brothers and a sister, he was the son of a Church of Scotland minister and a mother who was one of the Fleming family, which included bankers and the author of the James Bond novels. Ben Coutts never did anything by half measures. Education was the mantra of the Coutts household, but Ben, by his own admi...

Enric Bernat Fontlladosa

Enric Bernat Fontlladosa, inventor of the world-famous Chupa Chups lollipop, has died. He was 80 years old. He died on December 27 at home in Barcelona, said Miguel Otero, spokesman for Chupa Chups.