The Herald

Cinema Is Dead . . . Long Live the Cinema; Love Them or Loathe Them, Multiplexes Ushered in a New Age of Movie-Going

It wasn't supposed to be this way. By the time mobile phones evolved into multi-media entertainment systems, and scientists learned how to duplicate livestock, and robot dogs became available in department stores, cinema was meant to be a moribund form, elbowed out by ever more sophisticated home entertainment systems. But, just as the widely predicted death of vinyl records has never quite come to be (decisively prevented by the massive explosion in club culture and dance music, as well as t...

Colonel Wins Libel Damages Over Papers' Allegations

Colonel Tim Collins, the former commander of the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment, yesterday won his latest battle in the High Court in Belfast. The 43-year-old colonel, whose eve-of-battle address to his troops during the Iraq war won worldwide acclaim, was awarded substantial libel damages against the Sunday Express and Sunday Mirror.

Superquarry Firm Admits Defeat After Harris Application Falls On Stony Ground

ENVIRONMENTALISTS celebrated the end of one of their longest- running campaigns in Scotland yesterday when the company behind plans for a superquarry in the Western Isles finally admitted defeat. In January, judges at the Court of Session told Lafarge Aggregates that it could not use planning permission granted in 1965 to quarry a 600-hectare site at Lingerbay on Harris.

Tartan Scotland Branded a Failure; Uncertainty Over Role Leads Scots' Flag Bearing Firm Into Liquidation

IT was launched nine years ago to raise the standard for Scotland overseas and increase business generated through trade, tourism and the arts. But yesterday the future of Scotland the Brand (StB) was in grave doubt, after its 13-member board recommended that it should go into voluntary liquidation.

Augusta Will Determine Whether Tiger's Pride Is Followed by His Fall; Woods has to Get Back Into the Swing of Things at the Masters

Tiger Woods has had many aspects of his personality and golfing prowess examined in detail under the greatest public spotlight and pressure in the Masters Tournament, the first major championship of the season. His temperament, nerve, will to win and most especially his putting stroke have all passed with flying colours on his way to being helped into the green jacket on three occasions. Next week, attention will be focused on his pride and whether or not, as the saying goes, it will come bef...

Boardroom Standards All Come Down to a Matter of Mutual Trust; Policy-Holders at Standard Life Are Livid That Senior Executives Are Gaining While They Lose Out. So Are High Payouts to the Top Dogs Unjustified? Jennifer Cunningham Reports

Between 300 and 400 policy-holders and investors are expected to converge on the Edinburgh International Conference Centre for the annual general meeting of Standard Life on Tuesday. This year it's an unusually hot ticket. For the first time in 179 years, policy-holders will be able to register their approval or disapproval of directors' remuneration packages, which will give the normally dry proceedings the unpredictability of a Fringe performance.

The Sales Pitch Guaranteed to Get Up Your Nose

You are probably used to walking into the supermarket for a pint of milk, smelling the beautiful aroma of freshly-baked bread and coming out with three speciality loafs, flowers and a DVD player. Well, it could all be about to get a whole lot worse. An air cannon that fires enticing aromas directly at your nose could be used to tempt customers walking around supermarkets and stores. The invention was originally developed by Yasuyuki Yanagi and his colleagues at the Advanced Telecommunications...

Planning Appeals

I WAS appalled by Alf Young's assertion (April 2) that to give a community the same right of appeal to a planning decision as that of a developer was "superficially appealing" as it would "level the playing-field between developer and community interests" but that it would "simply overload the system", and apparently was not to be recommended. It is blatantly obvious to anyone who has been involved in objecting to an unattractive or unwise planning proposal that the present law is heavily and...

The Case for Using Another Sewel Motion

Mention Sewel motions and you can expect another distorted portrayal in The Herald, starting from the first sentence of your editorial (April 1). The issue of civil partnerships for same-sex couples is not "new". My ministerial colleague, Cathy Jamieson, made a very full statement of the executive's intentions and the underlying rationale nearly seven months ago. You might want to reread it.

How the Eu Idea Ignores the Natural Behaviour of Mankind

WEDNESDAY'S article on Europe by Iain Macwhirter tends to indicate that he is beginning to suspect that all his New-Labour beliefs are not quite what he thought them to be. However, it still reflects the refusal of the europhiles to face up to the real facts of the EU. Never in the history of mankind has a group of disparate peoples been brought under one central control except by armed force. In every case the resulting structure has disintegrated through internal forces - sometimes suppleme...

Grade Script Is Good for a Troubled Bbc

Daleks, you are in safe hands. It is to the credit of Michael Grade, the new chairman of the BBC, that he has never shirked a tough decision in his long career in broadcasting. When he was controller of BBC1 he axed Dr Who, a controversial editorial judgment the corporation must have thought, over time, was wrong because it is to bring the popular television series back. Asked yesterday if he would drop it once more, he gave a refreshing answer - it was none of the business of the board of go...

The Key to Transforming Scotland

ALF Young's polemic against John Swinney was both illogical and misleading (April 2). Of course the SNP - unlike both Alf and the Scottish Executive - does, indeed, believe that it is undesirable to lose Scottish corporate HQs. Indeed, we find it astonishing that anyone should take the opposite view. In which other country, faced with the loss of such vital drivers of the economy as HQs, would the response of both a senior economic commentator and the government be: too bad, nothing we can do...

A Sair Day

Another Scot

Huge Step Towards Democracy in European Union

IAIN Macwhirter (March 31), describing a debate in the European Parliament on Monday, March 29, on a report by Mr Bosch (Soc, Austria) on the fight against fraud, complains about the thin attendance. He goes on to rail against the democratic deficit in the European Union, mainly due to the parliament's lack of powers. Perhaps some background would help. First, Monday afternoon is the session time devoted to uncontentious business, as opposed to the Tuesday to Thursday sittings. Secondly, the ...

The Law On Whales

While I am with the spirit of your editorial, Coll's claim to beached whale (April 2), the law is clearer than you suggest. A whale in the ocean blue is indeed res nullius until caught; but a whale stranded on the beach, if it is a "larger whale", is undoubtedly a royal fish and the property of the Crown. The only doubtful point is, what is a larger whale? The test used to be whether or not the whale could be drawn up the beach on a wain drawn by six oxen; nowadays, I believe, the duller appr...

Scotland the What: In a Brand-Conscious World, What Will Ours Now Be?

New Zealand has its fern leaf, Canada its maple in autumnal red. Scotland has its name in saltire blue merging into muted tartan. National symbols matter to promote countries and their products in the global marketplace. The Scottish logo has been in place for seven years, serving as a badge of quality and distinction for a basket of enterprises from supermarkets to calendar publishers, whisky to textiles, and financial services to hotels. Scotland the Brand (STB), the not-for-profit, member-...

Why in London?

Willing to Let the World Know

Visceral anti-Americans invariably call those who disagree with them ignorant, and arguments that undermine their stance are met not with reasoned rebuttal but with a tirade. Alex McKechan (Letters, April 1) is true to type: he is sure that I know nothing of US foreign policy, and he does not address - far less rebut - any of the points I made in support of the democratic credentials of the US. Instead, he has the US ravaging Cuban children as a deliberate and wilful act, makes them accessori...

The Googlefather; As Co-Founder of the World's Favourite Internet Search Engine, He has Conquered Cyberspace. But, Discovers Abigail Wild, the Billionaire Built the Foundations of His Ubiquitous Empire From Lego

Larry Page, co-founder of Google, is among those claiming they could one day rid our e-mail inboxes of spam. If he's right, it could save the thousands of internet users who ordinarily have to sift through dozens of unsolicited messages several vital working minutes a day. Impressive stuff, but Page and his colleagues - who are now planning an e-mail service to rival Yahoo! and Microsoft's Hotmail - have already made a bigger impact on the planet than they ever will again. Google is not just ...