Category Archives: Scotland

Scotland will miss child poverty targets without vast cash boost – report

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Report highlights ‘massive gap between scale of ambition and scale of resources allocated’

The Scottish government will miss its own child poverty targets unless it substantially increases investment, according to a report on last December’s budget published by the independent Poverty and Inequality Commission.

The report highlights “a massive gap between the scale of Scotland’s ambition to tackle child poverty and the scale of resources allocated to delivering that commitment”, according to the Scottish branch of the charity Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG).

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Scotland won’t be independent within EU, says Farage

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Brexit party leader dismisses Nicola Sturgeon’s campaign for independence within EU

Nigel Farage has called on “genuine Scottish nationalists” to vote for his Brexit party in next week’s EU elections, as he described Nicola Sturgeon’s campaign for an independent Scotland within Europe as “the most dishonest political discourse anywhere in the world”.

As anti-racist protesters chanted outside the venue, Farage told cheering supporters at a rally in Edinburgh: “If you’re genuinely a nationalist lend your vote to the Brexit party, let’s get out of the EU and then have an honest debate about independence.”

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Titian masterpieces to be displayed together for first time since 1704

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The 16th-century paintings will be shown as a series in London, Edinburgh, Madrid and Boston

One of the most important groups of high Renaissance paintings is to be brought together for the first time in more than 300 years.

A partnership between galleries in London, Edinburgh, Boston and Madrid was announced on Thursday which will allow five of Titian’s greatest paintings to be seen as they were intended – together as a series.

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Second Brexit referendum would be doing SNP’s work, Boris Johnson claims

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Ex-minister hits out at campaigners pushing for a fresh vote

Boris Johnson has accused supporters of a second Brexit referendum of “doing the work of the Scottish National party” by making a second Scottish independence vote more likely and threatening the union.

In a speech in Aberdeen on Friday, the former foreign secretary and perennial Conservative leadership hopeful sought to turn the tables on remainers who argue that Brexit would increase the risk of a second independence referendum.

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Brexit: Corbyn says second referendum could be ‘healing process’ – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Jeremy Corbyn launching Labour’s Euro elections campaign

Nicola Sturgeon has urged Scottish voters to treat both Labour and the Conservatives as pro-Brexit parties in the European elections, claiming only the Scottish National party has the weight to fight to remain in the EU.

Describing the vote on 23 May as the most important European election in Scotland’s history, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister also reiterated her call for a fresh referendum on Scottish independence before 2021, regardless of whether Brexit happens.

It is striking, I would say depressingly, just how close together Labour and the Tories are on Brexit. On this defining issue of our time, Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May have so much more in common than they like to pretend. They oth want to take Scotland and the UK out of the European Union.

There is no escaping the fact that Labour is a pro-Brexit party, just as the Tories are a pro-Brexit party.

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Thousands join Glasgow march for Scottish independence

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Rally comes as polls indicate SNP likely to make gains in European elections

Thousands of people have marched in Glasgow in the largest show of support for Scottish independence since Nicola Sturgeon said she would introduce legislation to hold a second referendum on the issue.

The All Under One Banner event, led by a single flag-bearer and a pipe band, left Kelvingrove Park at 1.30pm and was following a route west to east through the city centre to a rally at Glasgow Green.

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On Loch Lomond’s banks, anger grows at £30m resort plan

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Locals and naturalists oppose a proposed hotel development on ‘beautiful and historic’ wooded national park land

A storm is brewing on the banks of Loch Lomond. One of Scotland’s most serene beauty sites has been rocked by a planning and environmental row that swamps anything the elements can throw at it.

Last week, updated plans for a £30m leisure facility near the small town of Balloch at the southern end of the loch were presented to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs national park. The project has the backing of Scottish Enterprise, the government agency tasked with stimulating economic development and investment.

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Scotland should get independence vote by May 2021 if Brexit going ahead, says Sturgeon – live news

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

Here is the key quote from Sturgeon’s opening statement.

There are some who would like to see a very early referendum, others want that choice to be later.

My job as first minister is to reach a judgment, not simply in my party’s interest but in the national interest.

Asked if she is willing to drop her demand for an independence referendum, Sturgeon says she is genuinely open-minded. If other parties can come forward with another mechanism that will protect Scotland’s interests in the event of Brexit, she will consider that, she says. She stresses that she is “open-minded”.

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Diary of explorer David Livingstone’s African attendant published

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Jacob Wainwright’s diary is only handwritten witness account of missionary’s death

The diary of an African attendant on the Scottish explorer David Livingstone’s final journey into the continent has been published online, containing the only handwritten witness account of the the Victorian missionary’s death in 1873.

The manuscript was written by Jacob Wainwright, a member of the Yao ethnic group from east Africa and the only African pallbearer at the explorer’s funeral in Westminster Abbey in 1874.

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Sri Lanka terrorist attacks among world’s worst since 9/11

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Death toll from Easter Sunday’s eight bomb blasts nears 300, with 500 others injured

The wave of bombings on Sunday targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka is among the worst terrorist attacks carried out worldwide since September 11, in which 2,977 people died.

On Monday, police said the death toll had surged overnight to 290, with the number expected to rise further. About 500 people were injured, according to reports.

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UK weather: country enjoys record-breaking Easter Sunday

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England just misses out on record, but new highs set in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

It has been raining in Spain and it’s jumper weather on the coast of Sicily, but in the UK it has been another glorious day, with record-breaking temperatures across much of the country.

Amid warnings that the heatwave was evidence of climate change, the Met Office said new Easter Sunday temperature records were set in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with England just missing out on a new record.

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Trainspotting 2 actor Bradley Welsh shot dead – reports

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Edinburgh police say man was found in city’s West End with gunshot wound and died at the scene

Trainspotting 2 actor Bradley Welsh has been shot dead in Scotland, according to reports.

Welsh was reportedly killed in Edinburgh on Wednesday. Police said they were called to Chester Street in the West End of the city at around 8pm and found a man with serious injuries who died at the scene.

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Extinction Rebellion set to disrupt London rail and tube lines

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Climate protesters warn they will escalate action after blockading capital’s landmarks

Climate change protesters, who police say have caused “serious disruption” affecting half a million people in London over the past two days, have said they are planning to escalate their protests to disrupt rail and tube lines.

Thousands or people have taken part in the civil disobedience protests, blockading four landmarks in the capital in an attempt to force the government to take action on the escalating climate crisis.

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How Scotland erased Guyana from its past

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The portrayal of Scots as abolitionists and liberal champions has hidden a long history of profiting from slavery in the Caribbean.

The mangrove-fringed coast of Guyana, at the north-eastern tip of South America, does not immediately bring to mind the Highlands of Scotland, in the northernmost part of Great Britain. Guyana’s mudflats and silty brown coastal water have little in common with the lush green mountains and glens of the Highlands. If these landscapes share anything, it is their remoteness – one on the edge of a former empire burnished by the relentless equatorial sun and one on the edge of Europe whipped mercilessly by the Atlantic winds.

But look closer and the links are there: Alness, Ankerville, Belladrum, Borlum, Cromarty, Culcairn, Dingwall, Dunrobin, Fyrish, Glastullich, Inverness, Kintail, Kintyre, Rosehall, Tain, Tarlogie, a join-the-dots list of placenames (30 in all) south of Guyana’s capital Georgetown that hint of a hidden association with the Scottish Highlands some 5,000 miles away.

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Easter weather: parts of UK to be hotter than Corfu and Mallorca

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Temperatures forecast to exceed 20C on dry and settled bank holiday weekend

Parts of the UK will be hotter than some of Europe’s top holiday destinations over the Easter weekend, with temperatures exceeding 20C (68F).

As sunseekers plan to go away over the coming weeks, the UK could be hotter than St Tropez in southern France, the Greek island of Corfu, Bodrum in southern Turkey and the Spanish island of Mallorca, which is forecast to be cloudy on Saturday and Sunday.

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Horror over Alesha MacPhail murder ‘must not obscure lessons’

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Experts say Alesha’s killer, Aaron Campbell, is ‘not a one-off’ – and more can be done to prevent similar crimes

Since Aaron Campbell received a life sentence last month for the brutal rape and murder of six-year-old Alesha MacPhail, the reverberations from his crimes have continued as the public and professionals struggle to come to terms with what the trial judge, Lord Matthews, described as “some of the wickedest, most evil crimes this court has ever heard”.

Related: Why was Alesha MacPhail killed? Perhaps we should stop asking | Libby Brooks

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MoD criticised over £500m cost of storing obsolete submarines

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Failure puts UK’s reputation as responsible nuclear power at risk, auditors say

Storage of obsolete nuclear submarines has cost the UK taxpayer £500m because of “dismal” failings in the government’s nuclear decommissioning programme, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found.

The Ministry of Defence has twice as many submarines in storage as it does in service and has not disposed of any of the 20 vessels decommissioned since 1980, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

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Once more Balmedie prepares to fight Trump on the beaches | Kevin McKenna

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A record number of locals objected to the US president’s development near his Aberdeenshire golf course – to no avail. But the struggle goes on

The word “douce” sits easily alongside a place like Balmedie, but would never be seen within a million miles of Donald Trump or any of his enterprises. Yet this pleasant coastal village a few miles north of Aberdeen is at risk of forever being associated with America’s pantomime president and the locals are aghast at the prospect.

Last week planning officials at Aberdeenshire council signalled their assent for plans by the Trump Organisation to build a sprawling housing estate comprising 550 homes and golfers’ chalets on farmland adjacent to the US president’s exclusive golf facility a little further down the coast. The plans will now go before a full meeting of the council in April.

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Report calls for reform of ‘unhealthy’ land ownership in Scotland

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Commission set up by Scottish government recommends new powers to split monopolies

Scottish land ownership rules must be radically reformed to reverse the concentration of the countryside in the hands of a small number of ultra-wealthy individuals and public bodies, a major review has warned.

The study by the Scottish Land Commission, a government quango, says that in extreme cases where landowners abuse their power they could face compulsory purchase or community buyouts.

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Youth climate strikes to take place in more than 100 countries

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Movement inspired by Greta Thunberg has snowballed, as Belgian workers join strike

Hundreds of thousands of children are expected to walk out of their classrooms on Friday for a global climate strike amid growing anger at the failure of politicians to tackle the escalating ecological crisis.

Children at tens of thousands of schools in more than 100 countries are due to take part in the walkouts which began last year when one teenager – Greta Thunberg – held a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament.

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