Unemployment rises in Scotland – as, strangely, does employment
Following the pessimistic reports on employment earlier this week, today’s unemployment figures didn’t come entirely as a surprise, although they appear to be worse than expected. The number of Scots...
View ArticleGoing into hospital in August? You’d be ill-advised
If you want to improve your chances of surviving a visit to hospital, best wait until September. That’s the implicit message from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE), which is today...
View ArticleUseful Scots word: pech
By Betty Kirkpatrick Most Fringe fans come to Edinburgh relatively well-equipped for the experience. They have reserved their accommodation and they have either booked and received their tickets in...
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Anger at call to send rioters to the Western Isles
SNP MP Angus MacNeil has reacted with fury to a call for rioters to sent to the Outer Hebrides as a punishment. The suggestion was made in an e-petition and posted on a UK government website, according...
View ArticleKindness, car-park politics, a pinnacle – and two sad departures
Turning away – for a moment at least – from the politics and palaver of the Fisherfield hill-survey saga, a few other recent outdoors stories merit mention. First up has to be the heartwarming tale of...
View ArticleUniversity costs often underestimated, says new Standard Life report
The university quarter in the centre of Edinburgh may be bustling with tourists and Festival-goers, but they will soon be heading home and the start of the academic year is just around the corner....
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Weir’s Week: no Battle of Britain, but memories of the Brylcreem Boy
By Stewart Weir Saturday As a kid, I was amazed to hear and read about one Denis Compton. Here was a guy who was arguably the best batsman of his day (certainly sponsors Brylcreem thought so) and, as...
View ArticleFriday song: Four Years
The Sensational Alex Salmond Band have interrupted their Edinburgh Fringe schedule to produce another video to accompany their excellent album. This week’s riotous offering, written and performed by...
View ArticleEdinburgh city council publishes tram funding options report
A report into the funding options available for completing the Edinburgh Tram Project from the airport to St Andrew Square was published today. Based on financial assessments produced by senior...
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MacCrone hopes to avoid the tank traps in the Rallye Deutschland
By Stewart Weir Scots rally driver John MacCrone faces one of the toughest tests of his career this week on the ADAC Rallye Deutschland. The 22-year-old from Mull knows that the German event - which...
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Renewed calls for ‘talking therapy’ counsellors in all Scottish schools
By Stuart Crawford The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) has renewed calls that there should be a trained counsellor in every Scottish school. The BACP has over 1,500...
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Review: Alan Hollinghurst at the Edinburgh Book Festival
By Diane Maclean The Stranger’s Child, the latest novel by Alan Hollinghurst, was never intended as a full-length book. Hollinghurst had hoped, after the rigors of writing his 2004 Booker...
View ArticleNew retail figures show extent of high street footfall problems
The latest figures from the British Retail Consortium and ATCM/Springboard suggest that a growing number of shops are vacant as customers drift away. The number of people visiting shops, known as the...
View Article‘Sizeable increase’ in recent Scottish housing market activity
The latest Scottish House Price Monitor from Lloyds TSB Scotland suggests that Scottish house prices are almost identical to four-and-a-half years ago. But in the three months to the end of July, the...
View ArticleRugby World Cup: Did Beattie pay the price for Murray’s faith?
As the successful 30 players chosen by Andy Robinson to represent Scotland look out their passports today, Glasgow’s Johnnie Beattie will be heading back to his club devastated that, like his famous...
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Review: The Wound and the Gift, by Ron Ferguson
By Alex Wood With The Wound and the Gift, Ron Ferguson – journalist, church minister, writer – has produced a stunning, insightful and unorthodox biography of the Orcadian poet, George Mackay Brown....
View ArticleWordwatch: panic
By Betty Kirkpatrick August is usually part of the silly season as far as the media is concerned, but this year it broke with tradition. Several hard news stories raised their heads in August, not...
View ArticleGaddzooks – a few thoughts from afar as Tripoli is toppled
Watching the coverage on TV yesterday evening – channel-hopping between BBC, Sky, Al Jazeera and the retro madness that is Russia Today – was to watch endless footage from inside Colonel Gaddafi’s...
View ArticleOpinion: The renewables sector is more about money than energy
By Stuart Crawford Many of us continue to look on aghast at Scotland’s headlong rush down the renewable energy cul-de-sac. The Scottish government seems to have embraced the renewable agenda almost...
View ArticleVideo: Ford Europe ‘Future of Safety’ roadshow in Glasgow
The United Nations has declared this the "Decade of Action for Road Safety". The UN points out that someone is killed or seriously injured on the world’s roads every six seconds – and that, with 1.3...
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