The Herald

How the Vote On Airborne Was Tied to Pr Politics

ON Thursday, after Jack McConnell had refused during first minister's questions to budge one inch on the executive's decision to discontinue funding of the Airborne Initiative, Duncan McNeill, the deputy Labour whip, was grinning broadly as he came down the High Street in Edinburgh. The Liberal Democrats had accepted the warning that if they made waves on the issue of the "boot camp" for young offenders the consequence could have been that the issue of voting reform for council elections at L...

Jamieson Raises Hopes of Corporate Killing Bill; Promise Winds Up 'Dull' Conference

CATHY Jamieson, the justice minister, yesterday promised that the executive would legislate if necessary on the crime of "corporate killing", forcing senior executives to take responsibility for their actions. The deputy Labour leader in Scotland told party delegates in Inverness that the executive was determined to stick to its agenda on antisocial behaviour and drugs, which she described as scourges causing human misery, pain and despair.

Official 'Silence' On Fire Figures Attacked

The government was accused yesterday of burying good news by not commenting on figures showing the number of people who died in fires was at its lowest for more than 40 years. The Fire Brigades Union said ministers were "embarrassed" by the success of the fire service as they pressed ahead with reforms to modernise brigades.

Blair Is Accused of Heart Scare Cover-Up

Downing Street was last night accused of a cover-up over the seriousness of Tony Blair's recent heart scare. Dr Lewis Moonie, the former armed forces minister, said aides wrongly suggested the treatment the prime minister received for an irregular heartbeat was minor.

Row Over Plans for Sex Health Scheme

A ROW erupted yesterday over whether a pilot sexual health project is to be rolled out across Scotland. The Lothians-based Healthy Respect and Share schemes issue condoms and morning-after pills to children as young as 13.

Baxter Left to Ponder What May Have Been. Scot Falls Short in Push for Place in Finals

A valiant but unsuccessful attempt to rescue his chances of making this month's World Cup finals means Alain Baxter will sit out the season's highlight and head instead to North America, where he will seek to shore up his world ranking points at the Nor Am finals. Baxter's 25th place finish yesterday in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia in the last Audi FIS Ski World Cup slalom before the finals was well short of the top-10 placing he needed to elevate himself back into the world's top 25, who go throu...

Schools May Ban Camera Phones; Fears of Embarrassing Pictures Being Circulated

SCHOOLS in West Lothian could become the first in Scotland to ban mobile phone cameras in classrooms and playgrounds. If successful, the scheme, which has been endorsed by teaching unions, could be extended throughout Scotland.

Spring Leaps in for Babies and Lovers

A CHANGE from the severe wintry weather was expected to mark the first day of spring today as parents, new brides-to-be and Leapeans recovered after celebrating the first leap year of the millennium. The day that appears only once every four years brought joy at maternity hospitals across Scotland, with leap year babies born after midnight well into double figures up until yesterday evening.

Crime Loses Appeal for Young Lawyers; Graduates Shun (Pounds) 42.20 an Hour for Legal Aid Work

FEARS are growing that the public's access to justice will be reduced to a lottery as law graduates and experienced lawyers abandon criminal legal aid work. There has been a 16% fall in lawyers registering for legal aid work since 1999, reflecting fears expressed by the profession when a fixed fee system was introduced.

'It's Not About Money, It's About Helping People'

IT'S not just Marco Buonacorsi's name that makes him stand out from the class of 2004 studying for a diploma in legal practice at Glasgow Graduate School of Law. He wants to be a criminal legal aid solicitor, anathema to the majority of his fellow students, including Susan Bird and Emily Gerrard.

Trust Launches Blueprint to Help Young People Find Work

THE Prince's Trust today will set out a new strategy aiming to pave routes for young people into employment - after three years of research into social exclusion among the UK's "hardest to reach" youngsters. The trust will provide work placements for 10,000 disadvantaged young people in the UK each year, while extending its range of personal development programmes to include sport, drama and construction.

Woman Dies After Being Hit by Van

Cost of Running Car Rises to (Pounds) 102 a Week

The rising cost of motoring now accounts for 25% of the average income, according to research out today. Petrol price rises and increases in depreciation pushed up the weekly cost of running a car by almost 3% to (pounds) 102.59 in the last three months of 2003.

Fresh Plea Over Missing Teacher

Police searching for a missing teacher yesterday appealed for a group of men seen near the spot of a possible last sighting of the 28-year-old to come forward. Westhill Academy teacher Craig McAlpine was last seen early last Sunday as he left a friend to get something to eat and a taxi home to the Kincorth area of Aberdeen.

Roadside Emission Testing Begins; Drivers Facing (Pounds) 60 Fines in Attempt to Curb Pollution

RANDOM roadside vehicle emission tests, with those exceeding limits facing (pounds) 60 fines, begin in Glasgow today in an attempt to reduce pollution. The launch will coincide with the unveiling of a (pounds) 200,000 campaign warning motorists about powers granted to the city council to enforce the legislation.

Barnett Squeeze Will Join Population Decline

THE problem with any proposition presented with much zeal and an overdose of evangelism is that the fundamentals become obscured, whether by accident or design. So it is with First Minister Jack McConnell's dissertations about Scotland's demography and his solution of economic immigration. The key word is not so much "diversity", more likely it is "diversion". The scene seems to have shifted, at a stroke, from the old mantra of "skills training nurturing the aspirations and talents of our peo...

Briefing: Over-Eager Beavers

The creatures are causing havoc across Tierra del Fuego. Q: May I pull up a log and hear the tale?

Concepts of Wealth

Morag McKinlay's letter (February 25) is humane, obviously sincere and wrong. In fact she proves this in her own words. It is a popular left-wing concept that "wealth" is a sort of finite pie of which we all get a slice. If one person has a big slice, then it's inevit-able that somebody else will get a small slice. But according to Morag McKinlay she is much better off than her parents. Why? If she has a bigger slice of pie than her parents does this mean that there are more people with a sma...

Labour Subservience

IF proof were needed of the subservience of Scottish New Labour to its London masters, Tony Blair left us in no doubt. The Inverness conference should have been a Scottish event, but the star of the show was Mr Gush himself. He went out of his way to warn delegates of the threat of the Tories. The Tories are an irrelevance in Scotland and but for PR Holyrood would be free of them. Northern Ireland may not be everybody's role model but the various Unionist parties, the SDLP, Sinn Fein and the ...

Leaders Who Have Proved Unfit to Lead

THE sight of George Bush questioning the fitness to lead of the president of Haiti is a bit like watching Hitler accuse the chief druid of the Ku Klux Klan of racism. Over the past few years President Bush (and his loyal lieutenant President Blair) has proved that he is not fit to lead. He has supported war criminals like Ariel Sharon, he fast-talked his way to the presidency despite clearly having lost the election, and his military order Downing Street to "find" a legal basis for prosecutin...