John MacKinnon named as man who died while three others were injured in incidents on Skye and in Wester Ross
Communities in Skye and Lochalsh have experienced “one of the worst days” in their history after shooting incidents that left one man dead and three others injured.
Police named John MacKinnon, 47, as the man who died following a series of incidents on the Isle of Skye and in the Dornie area of Wester Ross on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Tory leadership contender says rival had previously dismissed direct support as ‘handouts’
Suella Braverman, the attorney general, is giving a speech to the Policy Exchange thinktank on equalities and rights. There is a live feed here.
In a preview of the speech published in the Daily Telegraph, Braverman says she wants to clarify the law on trans rights as it applies in schools. She says:
When it comes to gender-questioning children, we should always have compassion. At the same time, our compassion should never blind us to the harm it is possible to do to children by misplaced affirmation. Many schools and teachers believe – incorrectly – that they are under an absolute legal obligation to treat children who are gender questioning according to the preference of the child. Many are scared of the consequences of not doing so.
I want to make it clear that it is possible, within the law, for schools to refuse to use the preferred opposite-sex pronouns of a child.
The UK and partners have condemned in the strongest terms China’s escalation in the region around Taiwan, as seen through our recent G7 statement.
I instructed officials to summon the Chinese ambassador to explain his country’s actions.
Continue reading...Police arrest 39-year-old man after series of incidents being treated as linked in west Scotland
A man has died on Skye and three others were injured after a series of incidents, some involving a firearm, on Skye and in Wester Ross in west Scotland.
Police Scotland said they had arrested a 39-year-old man who was one of the casualties after receiving reports on Wednesday morning that a woman, 32, had been seriously injured at a property in the Tarskavaig area of southern Skye.
Continue reading...Decline coincides with end of teacher-led grading after cancellation of exams in 2020 and 2021
Pass rates for Scottish pupils have fallen significantly after schools returned to using exams to grade performance for the first time since 2019.
This year’s results showed the overall pass rate for Highers, heavily used for students aiming for university, fell from 89.3% in 2020 to 78.9%. The pass rate for National 5s, awarded largely to 16-year-olds, fell from a peak of 89% in 2020 to 80.8%.
Continue reading...Measures aim to ensure safety, pay transparency and anti-harassment and discrimination policies
The performing arts and entertainment trade union Equity has launched a comedian’s charter in an effort to ensure good working practices and the safety of performers.
Developed by the union’s comedians’ network, the measures included in the charter “will ensure pay transparency, a safe working environment, late-night safety, and anti-harassment and discrimination policies”, according to Equity.
Continue reading...South of England experiencing faster recovery than north, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Visits to high streets and shopping centres dipped to below pre-pandemic levels last month, with the north of England – plus Scotland and Northern Ireland – trailing behind the south in terms of the overall recovery from Covid-fuelled gloom.
Footfall decreased by 14% in July compared with 2019, reversing gains made in April, as retailers struggled to entice shoppers amid a heatwave in the third week of the month and surging inflation.
Continue reading...Leadership rivals bid to win members’ support in foreign secretary’s home town
Drug-related deaths in Scotland fell by nine in 2021, according to the latest figures released by National Records of Scotland, the first decrease since 2013 but falling well short of the significant reduction that campaigners are calling for.
The latest figure of 1,330 is still the second highest annual total on record, and Scotland continues to have by far the highest drug death rate recorded by any country in Europe and five times the rate in England.
We’ve had a raft of reports, policies and strategies that say what needs to change, and families are more likely to be included round the table, but it’s much harder to track their influence on the ground. We don’t understand what’s getting in the way of good words becoming good deeds.
1,330 of our fellow Scots have died entirely preventable deaths and we should not be celebrating this as an achievement ... The solutions are no secret. We need action, not reports with recommendations that are never implemented.
Continue reading...MS Victoria is temporary solution to host refugees but there are concerns about small rooms and seasickness
Ukrainian refugees staying on a cruise ship docked in Edinburgh must be moved to more suitable accommodation within days, welfare groups have said, as those onboard already report concerns about small rooms and feeling seasick.
The first arrivals of mainly women and children displaced by the war in Ukraine boarded the MS Victoria passenger ship earlier this week. Chartered by the Scottish government, it is expected to host up to 1,700 people and is a temporary solution to a growing accommodation crisis, which earlier this month prompted the government to pause its Ukrainian refugee sponsorship scheme for three months.
Continue reading...61-year-old says what he saw and experienced at Edinburgh Academy has ‘stayed with me all my life’
BBC presenter Nicky Campbell has claimed he was the victim of abuse at a Scottish private school during the 1970s.
Campbell, 61, said witnessing incidents of both sexual and physical abuse at the Edinburgh Academy had had a “profound effect on my life”.
In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331.
Continue reading...Labour would, however, stick to plans to nationalise the railways if it won the next election, Starmer says
Polling from YouGov suggests that Liz Truss was perceived by Tory members to have outperformed Sunak on every issue covered in last night’s debate.
In particular, she led on Ukraine, cost of living and levelling up, although her lead was weaker on Brexit, the environment and taxation.
There are some lines on PA from Robert Buckland, the Wales secretary who is supporting Rishi Sunak for the Tory leadership, defending last night’s fierce TV showdown as “robust debate”.
There’s this balance to be struck between having a vigorous debate and being sort of almost too polite to each other.
I think it’s inevitable that you’re going to have candidates disagreeing, and frankly, we need to hear what the arguments are.
Continue reading...Analysis: As heat records break across Britain, the north of England and Scotland are reassessing the effects of the climate crisis
Newspaper readers in the UK’s northern half were used to scowling at the front pages every time they declared a sizzling summer. “It may well be sizzling in the south but it’s chucking it down in Hull/freezing in Wrexham/blowing a hoolie in Aberdeen” they grumbled, as they put on another cardigan or rescued the washing from a downpour.
Not this time. With a few exceptions (it’s still coat weather for those living in Shetland) much of the UK really has been outrageously hot this week. Whether it is asphalt melting, schools shutting or allotments withering, all but the most hardcore of climate crisis deniers now accept people are experiencing the effects of global heating in their own communities.
Continue reading...US company says recruitment drive will take permanent workforce in Britain to 75,000
Amazon is creating more than 4,000 permanent jobs across the UK this year, the online company has announced.
The US firm said the recruitment drive would bring its permanent workforce in the UK to 75,000, having created 40,000 new jobs in the past three years.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Dozens of laws protect Queen’s private estates from investigators – but documents reveal allegations of wildlife crime
On a pleasant autumn evening in 2007, a wildlife warden at the Dersingham Bog nature reserve in Norfolk took a friend to see two female hen harriers returning home to roost. But as dusk descended, they were startled by the sound of shotgun blasts.
After the first shot, they saw one of the rare birds of prey “immediately fold and drop out of sight”. About 30 seconds later they heard a second blast – and another harrier fell from the sky.
Sandringham has been investigated for wildlife and pesticides offences against legally protected birds of prey at least six times between 2005 and 2016.
As well as the two hen harriers shot in 2007, police and Natural England have investigated the deaths of a goshawk, a sparrowhawk, a red kite, a tawny owl and a marsh harrier at Sandringham estate and land it owns nearby, with only one prosecution.
In 2009, the estate was given an official warning about the mishandling and unlawful storage of highly toxic chemicals after the sparrowhawk was poisoned.
In 2016, Sandringham admitted it had destroyed the body of a goshawk found dead near Sandringham House before it could be examined by police, which meant no cause of death could be established.
Continue reading...Latest updates: 1922 committee announce latest vote tally
Q: Lord Frost says Penny Mordaunt is not up to the job. You have worked with her. Do you agree with him?
Truss says she will not be making any disparaging comments about her opponents. The contest shows a broad range of talent. And the party did not get there through identity politics.
Continue reading...Fergus Linehan calls for visa-free travel for British artists to solve logistical problems of touring
The outgoing director of the Edinburgh festival has called for the UK’s visa and exports rules to be greatly simplified to allow musicians and artists to travel overseas far more smoothly.
Fergus Linehan, who directs his last international festival next month, said the UK’s post-Brexit visa rules had been a “disaster” for the arts and for artists by stifling collaboration and making it harder for British artists to tour abroad.
Continue reading...Dorothy Bain QC releases her letter to the UK supreme court seeking its ruling on Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a second referendum
Scotland’s lord advocate has confirmed she fears Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a fresh independence referendum may be unlawful.
Dorothy Bain QC has now released the letter she wrote to the UK supreme court last week seeking its ruling on whether Sturgeon has the legal powers to stage a referendum without the UK government’s authority.
Continue reading...Latest updates: prime minister tells Nato conference UK will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030
And in another interview Liz Truss refused to endorse Boris Johnson’s claim that “toxic masculinity” helped to explain Vladimir Putin’s conduct and that he would not have invaded Ukraine if he were a woman. Asked if she agreed, she told Times Radio:
[Putin is] clearly is capable of very, very evil acts ... I don’t pretend that I can conduct a psychological analysis on him, nor do I think it’s helpful ...
I think that both women and men are capable of terrible and appalling acts.
All of Ukraine that has been invaded by Russia is illegally occupied. And, ultimately, the Russians need to be pushed out of all of that territory, and certainly what we shouldn’t be doing as friends and allies [of Ukraine] ... is implying that there are any trade-offs or any bits of Ukrainian territory that could be traded away or compromised on.
It is realistic, and that is why we are supplying the extra lethal aid we’re supplying.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary tells Commons foreign affairs committee UK sees Nato as key defensive alliance for Europe and G7 as key economic alliance
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has just started giving evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee. There is a live feed at the top of this blog.
On Sunday Emmanuel Macron, the French president, came away from a meeting with Boris Johnson under the impression that the UK was enthusiastic about his plan for a “European political community” - a proposed new grouping, taking in European countries in the EU and outside it.
That this house notes that UK economic growth is forecast to grind to a halt next year, with only Russia worse in the OECD; further notes that GDP has fallen in recent months while inflation has risen to 9.1% and that food prices, petrol costs and bills in general are soaring for millions across the country; believes that the government is leaving Britain with backlogs such as long waits for passports, driving licences, GP and hospital appointments, court dates, and at airports; and calls on the government to set out a new approach to the economy that will end 12 years of slow growth and high taxation under successive Conservative governments.
Continue reading...Met police say they are investigating allegations former chief whip assaulted party worker at London pub
A senior Scottish National party MP accused of sexual assault has quit the party and will sit as an independent after the Metropolitan police said they were investigating the allegations.
The Met said it had received a complaint from a third party about Patrick Grady’s alleged sexual assault of a 19-year-old party worker at the Water Poet pub on Folgate Street, London, in October 2016.
Continue reading...Exclusive: activists forcing action over ‘systemic’ failings such as handling of complaint against former chief whip Patrick Grady
A new system for dealing with sexual harassment complaints within the Scottish National party could become party policy within weeks, the Guardian has learned, after escalating criticism from activists about lack of openness and accountability.
Revelations in the past week about the scale of failings in the handling of a sexual harassment complaint against former Westminster chief whip Patrick Grady have prompted widespread frustration among SNP activists, who have been pushing for a culture change since the #MeToo movement kicked off in 2017.
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