Category Archives: Scotland

‘Being brothers was a big help’: Atlantic rowers tell of record-breaking trip

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Lachlan trio from Edinburgh speak of their gruelling 3,000-mile challenge after arrival in Antigua

For Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan MacLean, it’s been a struggle to keep their feet on the ground after rowing in record-breaking time across the Atlantic. “When I went to sleep last night, I thought I’d wake up on the boat with the alarm going off, and someone screaming ‘to port, to port’,” said Jamie.

For their parents, Sheila and Charlie, the brothers’ arrival in Antigua on Thursday must have come as a relief. Their only children, aged 27, 26 and 21 respectively, have just spent 35 days, nine hours and nine minutes in a 28ft boat, travelling 2,720 nautical miles from the Canaries in the Talisker Atlantic Challenge.

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Thousands of independence supporters march in Glasgow

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March is first of eight planned for 2020, which looks set to be crucial year for movement

Thousands of independence supporters have begun marching through the streets of Glasgow.

The march is the first of eight planned for 2020 by the grassroots organisation All Under One Banner in what is likely be a crucial year for the Scottish independence movement.

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Labour leadership: Thornberry gives Corbyn ‘0 out of 10′ for election, but ’10 out of 10’ for principle – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

The troubled Northern rail franchise faces financial collapse within months, Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has said, as the government set out a timetable to tackle the “unacceptable services” for rail passengers in the north. My colleague Gwyn Topham has the full story here.

Related: Northern rail franchise could collapse within months, says Shapps

Nadia Whittome, the new Labour MP for Nottingham East, also says she is going to nominate Clive Lewis for Labour leader without necessarily planning to vote for him because she wants his ideas to be part of the debate. Lloyd Russell-Moyle is in this position too. (See 1.55pm.)

I have nominated @DawnButlerBrent for Deputy and @labourlewis for Leader to ensure both are on the ballot.

I haven't decided who I'll endorse but Clive's steadfast commitment to migrants' rights, and electoral reform and party democracy proposals, must be part of the debate.

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Scotland and north of England to be hit by winds of up to 75mph

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Flood warnings in place across south-west England, with damage to properties expected

Winds of up to 75mph (120km/h) are forecast to hit Scotland and the north of England on Tuesday, while south-west England braces for floods.

Coastal communities across the north-east of England and the west of Scotland are most at risk from gales, where exposed areas could see gusts of 70-75mph, according to the Met Office, which issued yellow weather warnings for the two regions.

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Hogmanay fury as Edinburgh residents told to apply for access to own homes

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Local people must ask Underbelly if they want more than six passes to their houses

Edinburgh residents have vented their anger at having to apply to a private company for access to their own homes during this year’s Hogmanay celebrations amid growing concern that the council’s hunger to attract tourism is reducing the Scottish capital to a “theme park”.

People living in some parts of the city centre will also face potential restrictions on the number of guests they can invite if they wish to have parties of their own on New Year’s Eve, when the entertainment giant Underbelly will be running an event expected to attract more than 70,000 people.

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Varadkar dismisses Johnson plan to make EU pay for ‘interesting’ bridge

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Irish PM says UK must pay for any bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland

Ireland’s prime minister has said he will not dismiss the idea of building a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland, but insisted the UK must pay for it.

Boris Johnson and the Democratic Unionist party have spoken in favour of the idea.

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UK weather: Christmas Day bright though not white, says Met Office

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Early frost and fog to give way to sunshine in most places, say forecasters, with rain and wind to follow on Boxing Day

Those dreaming of a white Christmas will have to wait until at least next year, with the Met Office predicting plenty of frost and sunshine but no snow for Christmas Day.

Much of the UK will wake up to frosty and foggy conditions on Christmas morning, before the wintry weather lifts to make way for sunshine later in the day.

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Brexit: MPs voting on withdrawal agreement bill – live news

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MPs vote on the EU withdrawal agreement bill, and Clive Lewis becomes the second Labour MP to enter party’s leadership contest

Brexit secretary Steve Barclay said the general election had delivered a clear instruction to parliament to leave the EU and so MP should respect that decision and back the bill.

This bill is not a victory for one side over the other. The time has come to discard the old labels to move from the past divisions and to come together as one United Kingdom.

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary who is predicted to run for the Labour leadership, warned Conservative MPs to “be careful”. “Doing things because the government has a majority doesn’t mean those things are right,” he said.

He said that the move to water down commitments to child refugees is an example of that. “That is a moral disgrace,” he said.

I turn to my own benches. We may have lost the general election, but we have not lost our values and our beliefs and we must fight for them – day in, day out – in this parliament and we will.

That doesn’t mean that the deal negotiated by the prime minister is a good deal. It isn’t. It was a bad deal in October when it was signed. It was a bad deal when it was first debated in this House in October. It was a bad deal last Thursday and it’s a bad deal today.

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Close Scottish grouse moors to help climate, report urges

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Intensively managed estates have created treeless landscapes with few animals and plants

Conservation groups have called for Scotland’s grouse moors to be closed down and replaced by woodland to protect the country from the impacts of the climate emergency.

A report for Revive, a coalition of environmental and animal rights groups, has found grouse moors cause significant ecological damage by burning heather, allowing heavy grazing by deer and sheep, and using intensive predator control.

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Alex Salmond appears in court on attempted rape charge

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Scotland’s former first minister faces 14 charges that also include indecent assault

Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland, has appeared in court accused of attempting to rape a woman at Bute House, the Georgian property in Edinburgh’s new town used as the official residence of Scotland’s first ministers, in June 2014.

He appeared at the high court in Edinburgh on Thursday in front of Lady Dorrian, the lord justice clerk, to face a total of 14 charges including one of attempted rape, 11 charges of sexual and indecent assault, some of which allegedly occurred numerous times, and two common law charges of indecent assault dating to 2008. Salmond has repeatedly denied the charges.

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General election: Boris Johnson urges voters to reject ‘Sturgeon-Corbyn alliance’ – as it happened

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The prime minister delivers the first big set-piece speech of the campaign as Labour pledges £26bn extra per year for NHS

That’s all from us for this evening. Thanks for reading and commenting. For a comprehensive rundown of the day’s events, see my colleague Andrew Sparrow’s daily election briefing:

Related: Andrew Sparrow's election briefing: Johnson won't change Brexit stance to please Farage

Related: Boris Johnson heckled over floods but does not apologise for 'slow response'

Hoey also said complained that MPs had spent the last two years trying to thwart Brexit, telling LBC:

We’ve had two years of parliament – a remain parliament – doing everything they can to stop us leaving; by different methods and some not so serious as others. But most of the Labour MPs in there and a substantial number of Conservatives have tried to stop it.

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MPs pledge to stop abusive language during general election

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Cross-party MPs vow to ‘promote compassion’ as part of #StopTheNastiness campaign

Leading politicians from major parties have signed a pledge to avoid hateful language during the general election campaign, as a growing number of MPs cite relentless abuse as their reason for stepping down from parliament.

The group Compassion in Politics has launched #StopTheNastiness, which aims to encourage candidates to “campaign with respect, call out hate, and promote compassion” over the next six weeks. It also urges the public to contact their local representatives and ask them to back the pledge, and calls on the media to avoid exacerbating abuse.

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Independent Scotland ‘within touching distance’, claims Nicola Sturgeon

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First minister and SNP leader to address pro-independence rally in Glasgow on Saturday

An independent Scotland is “within touching distance”, Nicola Sturgeon will tell a pro-independence rally in Glasgow on Saturday afternoon.

Her promise comes as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted that a new independence referendum is “not necessary or desirable”.

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Suspected fugitive accused of murdering family arrested in Glasgow

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Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes has been the subject of an arrest warrant since his wife and children were found shot dead in 2011

A man believed to be a fugitive suspected of killing his wife and four children has been arrested after eight years on the run.

French police have said that Police Scotland officers in Glasgow detained a man on Friday, reportedly named Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes. Scottish police did not give details of his identity, but Reuters said a French police source confirmed that Dupont de Ligonnes had been arrested.

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PM urged to confront Trump over US tariffs on scotch whisky

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MPs say thousands of jobs, many in rural Scotland, could be at risk from planned 25% tax

MPs are calling on Boris Johnson to intervene directly with Donald Trump to prevent the US imposing punitive tariffs of 25% on imported scotch whisky later this month.

The US announced last week that scotch would be among a range of European goods subject to hefty import taxes from 18 October, as it hits back against the EU in the long-running trade dispute over subsidies for Airbus.

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Nicola Sturgeon ‘open to Corbyn’ as interim prime minister

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Scotland’s first minister says compromise is essential in order to force Brexit extension

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said she is open-minded about Jeremy Corbyn becoming an interim prime minister as her representative in Westminster said the Scottish National party is now “desperate” for an election.

Sturgeon said she was not personally pushing for Corbyn to lead the country as a unity figure, but he could be an interim prime minister to secure an extension to Brexit and then call a general election.

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US academic given two weeks to leave UK after eight years

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Visa system for researchers is hostile and costly and risks jamming a pipeline of talent, universities warn

After eight years researching music history at Glasgow University, Elizabeth Ford hoped her request for a visa extension would sail through this summer. Instead, the Home Office gave the American academic two weeks to pack up her life and leave the country.

Ford has held a research fellowship at Edinburgh University – which, like Glasgow is in the elite Russell Group – and is due to begin a new research fellowship at Oxford University. But this is in jeopardy after a letter from the Home Office in July, which said that her leave to remain, granted a year before, was erroneous, and that she must leave within two weeks.

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Scottish judges rule Boris Johnson’s suspension of parliament unlawful

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Court backs MPs who said prorogation breached constitution

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Scottish appeal court judges have declared Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament in the run-up to the October Brexit deadline is unlawful.

The three judges, chaired by Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, overturned an earlier ruling that the courts did not have the power to interfere in the prime minister’s political decision to prorogue parliament.

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Loch Ness monster could be a giant eel, say scientists

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Otago University researchers confirm the loch contains no monster – or dinosaur – DNA

The Loch Ness monster could be a giant eel, according to a fishy new theory that will keep Highland tourists guessing.

In one of the biggest DNA studies of its kind, a team of scientists from New Zealand’s Otago University found the presence of about 3,000 species in the deep murky waters of the Scottish loch.

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Riot police out in Glasgow as Irish unity march sparks disorder

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Council calls for fewer marches amid reports of smoke bombs and closure of Govan Road

Riot police, mounted officers, a force helicopter and dog units are being used in Glasgow after protesters against an Irish unity march sparked “significant disorder”.

Police said the planned march through the city’s Govan area, organised by the James Connolly Republican Flute Band, was met by hundreds of “disruptive” counter-demonstrators at about 7pm.

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