Tag: Scotland
Letter from Scotland
Perhaps because we’ve got so much of it, we Scots have been slow to realise that the price of energy has to rise. So it has come as a shock to us to learn...
Letter from Scotland
This week I had my home fitted with two smoke alarms and a heat alarm, all interlinked. I was only just in time to comply with a new law in Scotland requiring all homes...
Letter from Scotland
Where does Scotland stand at the beginning of census year 2022? We have come a long way since King Angus looked up into the sky before the battle at Athelstaneford in 832 and saw...
Letter from Scotland
Who would have thought we would be entering another year riding out a fourth wave of Covid? And each wave seems bigger than the last, simply because we are getting tired and the damage...
Scotland enjoy double success
Coach Iain Strachan believes that edging Ireland 2-1 in the women's indoor mini-series was a real bonus.
The Dundee-based playcaller used three different systems and experimented during the three games in Antrim this week.
And this,...
Coronavirus – First Minister addresses the nation
Earlier on Tuesday evening the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, addressed the nation following an earlier statement to MSPs at The Scottish Parliament.
https://twitter.com/scotgov/status/1470849260258213897?s=20
This is what the First Minister said:
The last two years have...
Letter from Scotland
We’ve been mining coal since the 13th century and, without realising it till recently, polluting the planet with its noxious fumes.
But on Thursday morning, we finally left the Age of Coal behind us. The...
Letter from Scotland
We’ve had the first storm of the winter, Storm Arwen.
A week later, we are still recovering from its 90mph battering. In the North East and the Borders, electricity and water supplies were cut...
Coronavirus -omicron variant identified in Scotland
The Covid-19 omicron variant has been identified in Scotland with four cases in Lanarkshire and two others in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.
The government announced that Public Health Scotland and local health protection...
Letter from Scotland
Now that the world leaders have jetted home from the climate conference in Glasgow, we are being left to pick up the pieces.
The 6,000 pieces of IKEA furniture have been taken away for...
Letter from Scotland
As I stood watching the Armistice Day service at the Scott Monument in Edinburgh on Thursday, I tried to imagine the sense of utter despair there must be when a world war has finally...
Letter from Scotland
Halloween is a time of scary surprises. And as I wandered through my local woods scary visions of the future emerged from the fallen leaves. Floods and fires, and my old English teacher reciting...
Invitation to dress up for Scotland’s biggest ever Hallowe’en party
BT Murrayfield is warming up to host Scotland’s biggest ever Hallowe’en Party – and everybody’s invited.
Fans will be able to watch the national men’s team live in a home international for the first time...
Letter from Scotland
Although autumn is a season in itself, it’s also a time of transition from the highs of summer to the depths of winter. And there’s been much talk of transition this week. Transition out...
Letter from Scotland
The last time Scotland played host to a gathering of world leaders, 200,000 of us turned out to insist that they fulfil their promise to “Make poverty history.”
That was at the G8 summit...
We’ve got McGinn, Super Paul McGinn
Twelve years after making his debut for Queen’s Park and then plying his trade in the lower divisions with St Mirren, Dumbarton, Dundee, Chesterfield and Partick Thistle, Paul McGinn has been capped for Scotland.
The...
Letter from Scotland
On a walk over the Eildon Hills in the Borders last week, I came across a smart modern memorial to a very old poet, Thomas the Rhymer (1220-1298). Tom was not just a poet,...
Letter from Scotland
We have been given another reminder this week that our grand western civilisation is really quite precarious. And isn’t it ironic that all our woes are so intertwined?
Gas and electricity prices rise, causing...
Coronavirus – drop in clinics for 12 to 15 year-olds open
Young people aged 12 to 15 will be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine at drop-in clinics across Lothian from Monday.
Mass clinics are set up in West Lothian, Midlothian and Edinburgh and will open...
Letter from Scotland
You wouldn’t think a sensible remark like “Think twice before you call an ambulance” could cause a political row. But the Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has found himself at the centre of a storm...
Letter from Scotland
After a week of warm, sunny days and then rain and mist, climate change has been on my mind.
Not just the UN conference in Glasgow next month but the immediate “Indian Summer”. On Wednesday,...
Letter from Scotland
The red berries on the rowan trees on my daily walk are, for me, the first sign of autumn.
Soon the fieldfare and redwings will fly in from Scandinavia to feed on them. The...
NHS medical and dental staff to receive a pay rise
The Scottish Government has announced a 3% uplift for some NHS medical and dental staff, which they say is in recognition of their efforts during the pandemic.
This announcement covers three groups of staff who...
Scottish Government appoints senior health officers
Professor Alison Strath has been appointed as Chief Pharmaceutical Officer and Professors Graham Ellis and Professor Nicola Steedman have been confirmed as Deputy Chief Medical Officers. These are all full-time appointments.
Professor Strath has been...
Coronavirus – France moved off quarantine list
Passengers arriving from France ino Scotland will no longer need to quarantine if they are fully vaccinated under the latest review of travel restrictions announced by The Scottish Government.
The step to align France with...
Drug deaths in Scotland “heart-breaking”
Drugs Policy Minister Angela Constance described the increase in drug-related deaths announced on Friday as “heart-breaking”, and repeated The Scottish Government’s determination to work to address the crisis.
National Records of Scotland figures show that...
Letter from Scotland
In this second Covid summer, Scots have been rediscovering their own country. Holidaying at home for just a few days at a time has become the normal thing to do, just as we all...
Coronavirus – Government eases restrictions on EU and US visitors
People from the EU and US who are fully vaccinated will be able to travel to Scotland without any requirement for quarantine from Monday 2 August 2021.
The need for travellers to self-isolate for 10...
Letter from Scotland
Monday is “Freedom Day”…though it depends what you mean by freedom and it depends on whether you live in Scotland or England.
In England, Boris Johnson has declared an end to Government Covid rules...
Letter from Scotland
“We’re at the sharp end of the Delta wave,” the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, told us. For a day or two, Scotland had the highest rate of Covid cases in Europe. But like the...