The Herald

The Domestic Goddesses; Home-Grown Artists Have Created a Feminine and Theatrical Experience at Stirling's Changing Room. By Moira Jeffrey

Pallas was a giant. Pallas Athena, well she was another kettle of fish altogether. The owl-eyed goddess of wisdom slew the giant in battle, wore his skin as a shield and somehow picked up his name along the way. As well as brains, Pallas was the goddess of war, art and crafts. She was a great weaver, but a terrifying adversary on the battlefield.

Billboard

Bard's birthday THE news of celebrations of our National Bard at the end of this month just keeps a-comin'. This announcement comes from Wee Stories, the award-winning theatre company for children and concerns a solo tour-de-force by their main man, Andy Cannon. His one-man journey through the life and poems of Robert Burns glories in the title of Tae A Mouse And A' That. It is a promenade show, which will be taking place at the National Museum of Scotland and at the Museum of Scottish Countr...

Paisley Does Its Bit

Congratulations to Iain Lawson on his appointment as Estonia's honorary consul in Scotland - a good news story for both countries at the start of the year that will see the EU take in 10 new members, mainly former communist states from central and eastern Europe. Allan Laing notes too that the new honorary consul is based in "that great international centre of diplomatic intrigue, Paisley". Well, I can add that this is not the last time you or your readers will see Paisley doing its bit, in t...

We Have to Show We Care Homes Should Be Open On Provision for the Elderly

The Care Commission was established less than two years ago to inspect and regulate Scottish care services for the youngest (childminders) to the eldest (homes for the elderly). It published its first annual report yesterday. It showed that commission staff investigated more than 800 complaints in its first year in business.Of these, 60% were completely or partially upheld. Most cases involved care homes for old people and most complaints were upheld. In fact, the "success" rate for complaint...

Castle Toward

THE letter from the Rev Paul Middleton (January 6) speaks volumes. Generations of young people have benefited from the Castle Toward magic over the years: some have come from disadvantaged backgrounds, some have shown extraordinary musical and artistic talent, but all will have gained enormous confidence, learned important life skills and forged lifelong friendships during their intensive stays at the castle. Whether these young people go on to be the lead singer of Travis, play in a professi...

Just Cross Over

Blair's Doctrine Tears Up Rules Dating From 1648

Lord Hutton's report will focus debate on whether the prime minister has told the truth about his personal role in the public naming of Dr David Kelly. Important though that is, it should not deflect parliamentary attention from the more important question: has the prime minister been telling the truth about why Britain joined the US in attacking Iraq? In the weeks before the attack, Mr Blair repeatedly argued that Iraq, armed with "weapons of mass destruction", posed a clear, immediate and d...

Stop Replacing Scottish Words with English Ones

Local Income Tax Is Perfectly Feasible

Other countries successfully operate local income-tax systems without encountering the imaginary difficulties outlined by your pre- decimal correspondent B G Shilling (Letters, January 7). Other countries have "can do" cultures. All of us (or at least all of us worth taxing) have ID numbers: they are called national insurance numbers. All of us also have postcodes identifying our places of residence. Local authorities would tell the Inland Revenue what tax rates and tax bands to apply to thei...

Threat to Universities; Executive Must Address Looming Funding Disadvantage

Sitting on ministerial hands is in no sense a viable response to the threat posed to Scottish higher education by variable top-up fees for English universities. Jack McConnell, the first minister, and Jim Wallace, his deputy and enterprise minister, might still hope that they can bide their time and trust in faith that the new fees will not cause the funding damage many predict. It seems a pious hope, as Scottish university principals reminded Mr McConnell last night. The bill paving the way ...

It Takes Time to Live a Healthy Life-Style

MUCH as I normally agree with Iain Macwhirter, I must take issue with him on his dismissal of Margo MacDonald's case that children's lack of fitness is in part due to the fact that so many mothers now go out to work (January 7). Margo MacDonald's point is not a criticism of working mothers but a statement of fact, as the secret ingredient of health is time, not school co-ordinators, and time is something working mothers don't have. As one of the last generation of "stay-at-home" mums, I am on...

What a Relief

Getting the Young to Focus On Pensions

BILL Vevers (Letters, January 6) has misunderstood my comments about pensions. My remark about "apathy and ignorance" was certainly not referring to retired workers who, for whatever reason, have been unable to save for retirement. Rather I was pointing out that young people need to take their future pensions seriously. There are some who are completely unaware of what pension opportunities are available. It is important that we challenge the perception that many young people have towards pen...

Francesco Scavullo

Fashion photographer Francesco Scavullo, who shot covers for Cosmopolitan magazine for more than 30 years, has died of heart failure. He was 82. Scavullo was preparing for an assignment when he complained of feeling weak and collapsed on Tuesday morning.

James 'Tip' Anderson; St Andrews Caddie Who Had Golf in His Blood

Legendary golf caddie, James "Tip" Anderson helped American stars Arnold Palmer and Tony Lema to win three Open Championships between them. Born and bred in St Andrews, his association for more than 30 years with Palmer, the first golfing superstar, was renowned and he shared many of Palmer's successes over the years since they first joined forces at the Centenary Open Championship in 1960. Paying tribute to his old friend, Palmer said: "Tip was the epitome of the 'Old World' caddie - a man o...

Abbey Leak Confirms Outsourcing of Funds to State Street

SOME employees of Abbey National Asset Managers in Glasgow received internal confirmation yesterday that their parent bank planned to outsource management of their division's (pounds) 28bn of funds to US giant State Street, a senior industry source said. Business leaders and the Scottish National Party meanwhile expressed dismay about such a move - which would sound the death- knell for ANAM and deal a blow to Glasgow's financial sector.

Steady Decline in Mutual's Financial Health

Standard Life has been at the centre of an argument about its financial strength for the past 18 months. Critics say it failed to reduce its exposure to equities early enough in the bear market and was critically weakened. Standard says it is still strong and its higher strategic weighting will deliver better returns over the long term.

Standard Life Locked in Talks with Fsa; Insurer Denies Balance Sheet Is Under Pressure

Standard Life was yesterday forced to rush out a statement of reassurance about its financial solvency after the Financial Services Authority confirmed a leaked report that it was in high- level discussions with the insurer over its balance sheet. The report suggested that the FSA's new "realistic" solvency requirements for insurers, applied to Standard's year-end financial returns, had effectively cut "excess capital" from (pounds) 6bn to (pounds) 2.5bn.

Aberdeen Oil Jobs to Be Axed

Peak Group Expands Horizons