Met Office issues yellow warnings with heavy rainfall and lightning expected to cause disruption
More than half a month’s rain could fall across the south of England on Friday, which could lead to some homes and businesses being flooded, the Met Office has said.
Between 30mm and 40mm of rain was expected to fall in some areas in six hours, the forecaster said. Typically in August, 63mm of rain falls across the south-east of England over the entire month.
Continue reading...De-aged image offers likelife image of how prince may have looked during unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1745
The face of Bonnie Prince Charlie has been recreated using death masks that depict him as he would have looked during the Jacobite rising of 1745.
The prince, who was renowned for his good looks, has captivated a new generation of interest through the TV show Outlander.
Continue reading...Makeshift outdoor show held after two venues cancel booking of comedian known for his gender-critical beliefs
A comedy event featuring Father Ted creator Graham Linehan was staged in the open air outside the Scottish parliament on Thursday evening, after a second Edinburgh venue refused to stage it.
The organisers, Comedy Unleashed, booked the plaza outside Holyrood’s main entrance, and erected a small makeshift stage for an audience of roughly 120 people, after failing to find another indoor venue.
Continue reading...Ministry of Defence agree to talks after 50 workers at site in Ayrshire were due to walk out over pay
A two-week strike due to hit a British munitions plant that supplies missiles to Ukraine has been suspended after the Ministry of Defence agreed to talks.
Nearly 50 workers at the site at Beith, in Ayrshire, which assembles the Storm Shadow and Brimstone missiles, had been due to walk out for a fortnight next Monday in a long-running row over pay and bonuses.
Continue reading...Both sides of constitutional debate use Gers data to argue case for and against independence
Scotland’s public spending deficit has fallen from a record peak last year, as oil and gas revenues reached their highest-ever level after a global rise in oil prices.
The government expenditure and revenue Scotland (Gers) report calculated a per-person deficit – the gap between the amount raised through all tax and spending on all public services – as £1,521 in the 2022-23 financial year, down from £2,184 the previous year.
Continue reading...Plan to knock down former offices in Aberdeen will release ‘vast amount of carbon emissions in atmosphere’ warn experts
Aberdeen is arguably best known for two things: granite – found in nearby quarries and used to construct almost all of the coastal city’s buildings – and oil. After the discovery of a significant reserve in the North Sea in the 1970s, Aberdeen became known as Europe’s oil capital and a thriving oil and gas industry sprang up in Scotland’s north-east.
At the centre of the boom was the multinational company Shell, which built a five-storey modernist headquarters in the city’s Tullos area, from where it operated for half a century, before moving last year. Now the building has become the subject of a bitter row after Shell announced its intention to demolish rather than upgrade and repurpose it.
Continue reading...Inverclyde welcomes second largest number of twins on record to start primary education
Seventeen sets of twins will start primary school in one Scottish local authority next week, the second largest number on record.
Schools in Inverclyde will welcome the twins for the first time on Friday 18 August, in an area that has colloquially become known as “Twinverclyde”.
Continue reading...Hamish Ogston’s donation will fund up to 2,700 apprenticeships in crafts to preserve historic buildings
A British philanthropist has given almost £29m to heritage skills training, breathing new life into dying crafts and addressing the chronic shortage of specialists who can prevent historic buildings from deteriorating beyond repair.
Hamish Ogston’s donation, which has been made through his charitable foundation, will be announced on Thursday.
Continue reading...Genealogy site Scotland’s People made available records of adoptions dating back 100 years, raising fears for breaches of privacy
A genealogy website operated by the Scottish government has disclosed the names of thousands of people adopted as children.
The Scotland’s People site made available the records of adoptions dating back more than 100 years, records that included the adopted child’s first name and new surname. While the Information Commissioner’s Office has not received a formal breach report, its officials were contacted by National Records of Scotland (NRS), an official arm of the Scottish government that runs the website.
Continue reading...Police seek witnesses after pair injured by object launched from pedestrian walkway above Fife road
A man and woman have been taken to hospital after a concrete slab was launched at a taxi from a pedestrian flyover in Scotland.
The incident took place on the B921 as the taxi headed towards Kinglassie in Fife at about 12.30am on Sunday. The man and woman, both 37, were taken to Glenrothes hospital for treatment.
Continue reading...Mountain rescue teams and coastguard helicopters searched for two men and a woman on Aonach Eagach in Glen Coe
The bodies of three hillwalkers have been recovered from a mountainside in the Scottish Highlands after they failed to return from a trek, police have said.
Police Scotland said concerns were raised shortly after 9pm on Saturday when the trio did not return from their walk of the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glen Coe. Coastguard helicopter and mountain rescue teams searched the area and three bodies were found.
Continue reading...No 10 backtracks on minister’s claim 500 asylum seekers could be on barge by end of week
According to a report in the Times, Liz Truss named 16 people on her original honours list – four for peerages, and 12 people getting other honours. Two people have declined, but there are still 14 names on the list, the Times says, one person for every four days she was in office.
The Labour MP Chris Bryant says resignation honours lists should be abolished.
Continue reading...Actor and writer posted yesterday after performing her show Sunsets to one audience member
An actor who went viral online after she posted a tearful tweet about performing her one-woman show to an audience of one at the Edinburgh festival fringe has played to a sell out crowd only 24 hours later.
The actor and writer Georgie Grier received messages of support from comedians including Jason Manford and Dara Ó Briain when she posted on Twitter on Thursday afternoon: “There was one person in my audience today when I performed my one-woman play, ‘Sunsets’ at #edfringe. It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s fine …?”
Continue reading...Service between Stromness to Hoy and Graemsay is Royal Mail’s first permanent drone delivery service
Royal Mail has begun using drones to deliver post in the Orkney islands, helping pave the way for drone deliveries to islands around the UK and on the mainland during emergencies.
The service between the village of Stromness on Orkney’s main island to the nearby islands of Hoy and Graemsay, using aircraft able to carry up to 6kg, is Royal Mail’s first permanent drone delivery service.
Continue reading...Visit to Aberdeenshire intended as chance for PM to criticise opposition with reports he could announce 100 new drilling licences
Rishi Sunak is to make a visit to north-east Scotland focused on North Sea energy that is intended to draw a dividing line between the government and Labour’s plan to ban new oil and gas projects.
While No 10 said in advance only that the prime minister would use the trip to Aberdeenshire to commit to policies connected to energy security and net zero, he is expected to announce funding for a planned carbon capture scheme in the region.
Continue reading...Disappearance of Tony Parsons in 2017 finally resolved after Alexander McKellar took girlfriend to burial site
Twin brothers who left a cyclist to die on a remote Highland roadside after hitting him with their pickup truck and hiding his body in a pit used for animal carcasses have finally been brought to justice after one confessed to his new girlfriend.
The disappearance of the “much-loved” grandfather and passionate fisher Tony Parsons in the middle of a 100-mile charity fundraiser in September 2017 left his close family “heartbroken” and the authorities baffled. He had vanished seemingly “into thin air”, according to the police who searched for him.
Continue reading...Plans, unveiled by Humza Yousaf, include significantly reducing application fees
An independent Scotland would adopt an “open and inclusive” approach to citizenship based on the current Irish model, according to proposals set out in a Scottish government paper.
The plans, unveiled by Humza Yousaf on Thursday, include ditching citizenship tests and significantly reducing application fees in contrast to Westminster’s “regressive” approach to migration.
Continue reading...Project close to bird sanctuaries in Outer Hebrides gets go-ahead after no objections from Scotland’s environment agencies
Plans to build a spaceport on the small Hebridean island of North Uist, close to heavily protected bird sanctuaries, have been given the green light despite significant local opposition.
The proposed spaceport at Scolpaig Farm, on the north-west coast of the island in the Outer Hebrides, will host up to 10 launches a year, firing small sub-orbital rockets out over the Atlantic.
Continue reading...Teachers have to fill in social worker gaps while postal workers report being physically exhausted after having to walk miles with heavy bags at speed
When Karen Wilson started work as a secondary school teacher almost 40 years ago she had plenty of energy for life outside of school. She loved singing in choirs and opera groups and enjoyed her evenings.
But in the last decade that all changed. “The intensity has definitely increased,” she said. “Teaching becomes your whole life because you don’t have any energy to do anything else.”
Continue reading...Inspectorate calls for urgent improvements, particularly in treatment of prisoners with mental health problems
Scotland’s prisons are repeatedly breaching the human rights of inmates put in solitary confinement, particularly those with severe mental health problems, the prisons inspectorate has said.
Prisons are routinely failing to provide segregated inmates with at least two hours of human contact a day, are using segregation to “contain” inmates with severe mental health issues who need specialist care, and are failing to properly reintegrate troubled prisoners, it found.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
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