The Herald

Take Two Schools of Thought; Once It Looked Like Boarding Schools Were in Terminal Decline. But Opinion On Whether It's Right to Send Your Child Away Is Deeply Divided. By Joan Mcfadden

The words boarding school conjure up a chilly picture of sparse dormitories, shabby linoleum and a punctilious regime insisting on inedible food and cold showers. Even the cheerful midnight feasts favoured by Enid Blyton and the colourful imagery conjured up in the Harry Potter books fail to dispel the notion that boarding school subjects children to an apparently loveless atmosphere completely at odds with today's ideas of how we should bring up our children. Perhaps unsurprisingly, towards ...

The Diary

Bit of a let down JACK McConnell (pictured), the first minister, seems well aware of what the press can do to you if they are in a mischievous mood. Jack was just about to take to the stage to introduce the Sunday Mail's Great Scots awards dinner at Glasgow's Hilton when a balloon on one of the tables slowly deflated with a loud rasping noise. Getting to the rostrum, Jack told the audience: "I'm glad it didn't happen during my speech, otherwise the News of the World would have written a story...

Let's Give Our Children the Chance to Walk a Bit Taller

Let's raise a cheer about what won't happen in Scottish education tomorrow. Peter Peacock's much-trailed modernisation programme will not bring us new-style initiatives like the privately-financed state school in the north-east of England, where pupils are solemnly taught that Charles Darwin got it wrong and Adam and Eve and a six- day earth creation are the real deal. That establishment, and others like it, choose to call themselves faith-based schools when myth-based might be nearer the mar...

Not How People in a Democracy Behave

DOUG Maughan seems to be trying to be fair, but misses the point (Letters, October 29). For instance, even if it's too extreme to compare the present US government to Hitler's regime, an analogy between the neo-conservatives and the Italian Fascists works quite well. And the US has often allied itself with brutal dictatorships in its own economic interests - fascism by proxy, so to speak. The British government should have distanced itself from US foreign policy, as far as diplomacy permits, ...

A Blunt Instrument; Morning-After Pill for Schoolgirls Is a Risky Strategy

A predictable response yesterday greeted the news that pharmacists are to be allowed to prescribe the morning-after pill to schoolgirls in Glasgow, the city with the some of the highest teenage pregnancy rates not just in Scotland but in Europe. A green light to promiscuity among children. A worsening in the already worrying incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among young people. An erosion of society's morals. That reactions were as expected does not invalidate them. It is a measure o...

Briefing: The White House

This is a significant week in the history of the official residence of the president of the United States. Q: Because of tomorrow's election?

The Dark Ages

Clocks go back at 2.00am, says your Saturday edition. Sunday morning marks the end of summer. Unless you have readers in faraway foreign parts we can be sure that whatever Sunday morning marked it was not the end of summer. More correctly it could be described as the start of the dark ages. I cannot understand why a nation of supposedly intelligent, civilised people should want to voluntarily plunge itself each October into a season of gloom when the alternative is much preferable as evidence...

Dig About Dundee

Inept Move by the Greens Policy On Denominational School Funding Will Backfire

It is flippant to suggest that the Greens have become more Orange by committing themselves to abolishing state funding for religious schools at their party's annual conference yesterday. However, the policy will be viewed as promoting the very bigotry and sectarianism it purports to eradicate. Robin Harper, the Green Party leader who opposed the policy, described it as politically inept. He is right. Withdrawing funding from denominational schools would not only go back on a commitment from t...

Glasgow's Origins

AS reported on October 29, the inauguration of a St Mungo Lecture in association with the award of the St Mungo Prize is to be welcomed. However, Mungo was not Glasgow's "founding father" and he did not establish Glasgow's "first cathedral". A settlement at Glasgow - originally known as Cathures - existed long before the arrival of Kentigern-Mungo perhaps in the late sixth century, and Glasgow's first cathedral was not completed and dedicated until 1136.

This Piece of Despicable Legislation

I HAVE been around for almost 60 years. In that time I have heard people complain of various governments failing to deliver on public services, national investment, economic growth, early closing of pubs and even about the irrationality of the illegality of turf accountants prior to the legalisation of betting shops. However, I have never heard anyone complain about the lack of casinos into which they can haemorrhage their funds, nor am I aware of any party political manifesto which raised th...

Our Scared 'Heedies'

Having retired last year after nearly 40 years at the "chalk face" it comes as no surprise to me that, despite the McCrone report, the vexed question of teachers' working hours is never far from the surface. Abigail Wild (October 30) quotes Bill Milligan of the Association of Head Teachers, Scotland, as saying that the sight of teachers out and about in the community during school hours would make parents upset. This says it all and reveals how scared our "heedies" have become of parental cri...

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester; the Oldest-Ever Member of the Royal Family Who Described Herself As 'Pre-Beatnik'

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, oldest member of the royal family in history and the Queen's only surviving aunt, had her fortune told as a young woman that she would marry above her station. "Since I was a duke's daughter, this seemed rather unlikely to me," she related in her 1981 autobiography, The Memoirs of Princess Alice. The sand-diviner at the oasis in Algeria in 1924 added that she would have much to do with the army. In the event she married Prince Henry, younger brother of K...

Call for Modern Art Gallery

The National Galleries of Scotland has called for the creation of a new "masterpiece of contemporary architecture" to house a spectacular collection of modern art. In a submission to the Cultural Commission, it cites the country's "outstanding" holdings of masterpieces, but says it lacks a great collection of contemporary art.

Edinburgh Point to Referee Blunders As Scotland's European Challenge Fades

Scotland's Heineken European Cup challenge all but ended at the national stadium yesterday when Newport Gwent Dragons claimed the first Welsh win of the competition this season, leaving Edinburgh ruing key decisions that went against them in a close-run match. In particular, Frank Hadden, their coach, believed the match officials had made a glaring blunder in failing to spot an obvious obstruction of Marcus Di Rollo by Gareth Baber, the opposition scrum- half, as the centre looked poised to s...

Bush and Kerry Go Toe to Toe in Final Round; Nation Divided As Poll Looms

GEORGE W Bush and John Kerry were involved in frantic campaigning in key swing states yesterday as the race for the White House looked certain to go to the wire in tomorrow's US presidential election. Opinion polls in a number of marginal swing states, including Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, suggested the outcome was still too close to call.

Never a Ghost of a Chance; Rangers Expose Aberdeen's Guise As Revitalised Contenders in Hallowe'en Massacre

Rangers 5 Aberdeen 0 Scorers: Thompson (38); Lovenkrands (67); Novo (75, 88 pen); Ricksen (87) The dream proved not just impossible for Aberdeen, but, actually, ghastly as it transpired. Following years of misery in Glasgow, and after conquering Celtic at Parkhead on Wednesday, it was evidently asking too much of Jimmy Calderwood's team to return south to Ibrox for further pillage. Few anticipated this rout, and for Aberdeen it marked a swift return to the sort of ghoulish, grisly scoreline w...

Bundesliga Link with Vogts and Bonhof

THE fate of the Scotland manager, Berti Vogts, is expected to be sealed this week but uncertainty remains over the circumstances of a protracted divorce. Reports that the Scottish FA's chief executive, David Taylor, has concluded negotiations with Vogts' lawyer, Andi Gross, and that an official announcement will be made today were dismissed as premature.

Army's Secret Meal Charge Costs Soldiers (Pounds) 3.6m

THE army is secretly taking money from its own soldiers by charging them an extra 61p a day for food to help reduce a (pounds) 50m deficit in its rations budget, military sources have claimed. The hidden deduction taken to offset other debts means the 60,000 men and women living in barracks are paying more than (pounds) 3.6m a year in unnecessary charges.

University Woos State Students with Offer of (Pounds) 15,000

THE University of St Andrews is seeking to shake off its image as an elitist institution full of English public-school toffs by offering scholarships every year to Scots who have attended a Scottish secondary school or further education college. The 50 scholarships to the university, where Prince Wil-liam is studying, will be worth (pounds) 3000 a year up to a maximum of five years.