News.Scotland.Org

Edinburgh, Sept.22: Charities faced a huge setback after the city council’s move to cut the grants assured to them early this year. They are planning to sue the council as a protest against the move. Charities under the purview of the council fear that the reduction in the grant will be a hurdle in their path of service and some charities will be closed as the outcome of this.

The new budget in this regard was given sanction yesterday by the councillors. The approval of this budget was against the pleas of the voluntary sectors. The education leader of the city, Councillor Marilyne Mac Laren registered her disappointment over this decision.

While responding to this decision Ian Boardman, member of the Edinburgh Network of Voluntary Organizations for Children, Young People and Families, said: “The Community groups are taking legal advice to see if there is any legal proceedings to help their way out of this”.

He further added that “Individual organizations should have to make the decisions themselves, but some are considering legal action. They are trying to clarify whether the funding agreement signed between themselves and the council is of a contractual nature”.

Meanwhile several organizations made heart-felt pleas to the council on behalf of their groups, many of which serve the most vulnerable members of society. Christine Richards, of Smile Childcare, based in Wester Hailes, added: “We are being cut so close to the bone that it may result in a situation where the company is trading as insolvent. We may have to close down.”

While reacting to these mixed responses of the charities, Councillor Ewan Aitken, the city’s Labour leader, claimed the cuts were “undermining years of work building positive relations with the voluntary sector, that at this moment are shattered. They’ve been reduced to asking for legal advice - that can’t be good for us as a city.”

Councillor Jeremy Balfour, the city’s Tory education spokesman, said: “The trust factor has gone. In future are we going to hold our hands up [when handing out grants] and say we can’t guarantee we will provide, for example, money for this service for the homeless”.

The decision to slash the grant in total humiliated the Charity organizations to a greater extend. While the council is considering this as a codifying attempt.

It is feared that ‘Bluetongue’ a dreadful livestock virus is all set to enter Scotland by next year. Reports suggest that this disease was first found in a highland cow at a Suffolk farm in Britain. The virus is spread by insect and results fatal for the livestock.

While the government is cautious about the outbreak of this disease, UK Agriculture Minister, Lord Rooker in a meeting says, the disease could arrive on the British shores, there is nothing to panic, and “We have been expecting it because of what’s happened in Europe in the last couple of years. It isn’t a surprise,” he said.

Another reason why the arrival of this disease is considered threatening is due to its effect on the red meat industry. It is learnt that Scotland has a vast red meat industry, which is worth £1.5 billion per year. And if this disease will hit Scotland, then it will have an adverse effect on the growing market too.

There are assumptions that the disease is due to the result of global warming, it has been noted that bluetongue is spreading across north since Oct 1998, and since then around 3000 cases have been reported in Europe. Jim McLaren, the president of the National Farmers Union Scotland, said this dark cloud of bluetongue was hovering all round the summer from the shore of Europe. Borne by midges and this animal in England points that the disease had landed here.

After the information about the discovery of this disease in a nearby farm, all tests are going on to check whether any more fresh cases are reported. Even The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs informed that the first case can not be considered to be the outbreak of bluetongue, and its too early to say that it’s a wide spread.

The government tough has taken this matter seriously and is monitoring the situation so that in adversity they can fight out the disease. So government has kept there fingers crossed and are monitoring all small moments in this matter.

What is Bluetongue?

Bluetongue disease also known as ‘catarrhal’ fever is a insect-borne viral disease which effects sheep and other livestock’s. The disease is caused by a virus called bluetongue, it does not transmit to humans.

Edinburgh, Sept.24: On Sunday the Murrayfield stadium witnessed the third round pool match of Rugby World cup 2007 between Scotland and New Zealand. The All Black team thrashed the home team by scoring 40-0, with this victory the New Zealand team booked their berth in the World Cup quarter finals.

Some of the key players of the Scotland team were rested for the fourth round pool match against Italy, which is scheduled to be conducted on next weekend. The new caps included in the team failed to impress with their performance. This is the first time the New Zealand team keeping the opponent scoreless in a world cup.

The Scotland coach, Frank Hadden and the team members were not happy with the outcome of the game. The home team fails to make use of the territory advantage and the local ground support. The previous victory against Romania has raised the team spirit and the two consecutive win in the first two pool matches had worked as a morale booster of the team. But this crumbling victory has disappointed the fans to a greater extend.

The opposition team scored six tries, two by winger Doug Howlett and the Scots were blanked for the first time since March 2004, when France won 31-0 at Murrayfield. The All Blacks made too many passes forward and started to play an attacking game right from the beginning; the attempts made by the Scottish team to restrict the attack went in ruin. The New Zealand team captain Richie McCaw, Byron Kelleher, Ali Williams and Dan Carter scored the other tries, and Carter nailed only four of eight goal kicks, although the misses were from the touchline, one finds the post.

Right from the kick-off the Scotland team find difficult to break the defence wall of the opposition team. Scotland team has to stick to an effective strategy so as to regain its form in the next match against Italy.

Scotland, Sept.25: The 81 years old Delta Queen, a legendary paddle steamer built in Dumbarton is facing the threat of being off the river because of the strict safety laws. Considering the traditional link of this vessel support to save the ship from various quarters is gaining momentum.

Delta Queen has 60 years of glorious history, in her heyday, the vessel powered down the Mississippi with jazz bands playing and cheering the crowds who have gathered in the banks to admire the beauty of this vessel, overtaking her rival the Belle of Louisville in a race which thrilled the shipping community of the Grand Old South. She has carried presidents and princesses, seen wartime service and been hailed as the jewel of the Southern states of the US.

The 285ft vessel, built at William Denny & Brothers on the banks of the River Leven, could be scrapped after her licence was withdrawn. The steamer fell pray to the safety regulations requiring all boats carrying passengers overnight to be made primarily of steel. Previously, Delta Queen was granted an exemption after arguments that, as a riverboat, she was never more than a mile from shore, the consistent safety record, a 24-hour fireman on board and an extensive sprinkler system.

Earlier the Delta Queen begins its service as a packet boat, carrying mail, livestock and passengers. After undergoing refurbishment she began to offer luxury overnight travel between Sacramento and San Francisco.

The interior of the Delta queen boasts 88 state rooms, and fitted out with Tiffany-style stained-glass windows, brass fittings, hardwood panelling and the dramatic grand staircase crowned by a magnificent chandelier. She was considered as a prestigious symbol as she attracts wealthy passengers and gamblers who risked their fortune in the gaming room.

During the Second World War the Delta Queen was under the control of US Navy, used to carry the wounded took her over and, painted grey and under the designation “Yard Ferry Boat 56″, she was used to carry wounded soldiers in San Francisco Bay. After decommissioning in 1947, she travelled 5,000 miles through the Panama Canal up into the Mississippi, where she came to be regarded as the jewel of the south.Many high-profile guests including US presidents Harry Truman, Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter, as well as Princess Margaret and other celebrities have sailed on her.

She had overcome similar safety-based threats in the past to take her off the river, most notably in 1966 and 1970. On both occasions the public rallied round and in 1970 she was designated a national historic landmark. Considering all these history Scottish politicians joined a campaign to save her.

The campaign kicked off last month after the Majestic America Line, the vessel’s owners, announced she would cease operations permanently at the end of the 2008 season. Jackie Baillie, the Dumbarton MSP, has persuaded 15 MSPs to back her motion calling for the preservation of the vessel. “I want the American authorities to reconsider this threat to our joint heritage. They must find a way of preserving this Clyde-built vessel for future generations,” Ms Baillie said.

Graham Kennison, a trustee of the Scottish Maritime Museum, who is backing the campaign, said the Delta Queen represented a huge part of Dumbarton’s shipping heritage.
“There can’t have been a river in the world which did not have one of Denny’s shallow draft vessels and the Delta Queen symbolises something unique. After construction, the Delta Queen, which was built as one of a pair alongside the Delta King, was shipped in segments across the Atlantic accompanied by a team engineers from Scotland, providing a lasting emotional connection with Dumbarton.” He said.

Construction of the Delta Queen provided work for Hundreds of ship workers from Scotland participated in the construction work of the Delta Queen. They built the steel hull, engines and deck up to the second level. The wooden superstructure and further two decks were built in the US.

Singer Johnny Cash extended his support to the campaigners by penning a song on Delta Queen. He also performed on television before asking the audience to support the ‘Save the Delta Queen campaign’.

Edinburgh attracts thousands of arts lovers from all around the world for its renowned festivals on every August. But this September is dedicated to rugby fans who gathered in large number to witness the Rugby World Cup-2007. With the home team continuing its best performance and moving towards the third successive victory, it is a real time for celebration in Scotland. In the first match Scotland beat Portugal and in the second one they beat Romania, both with a clean dominance. With these sweeping victories the Scottish team proved their competence and ability to win this world cup.

Scotland scored 56-10 against Portugal and in the second match they improved their previous performance without any loopholes and proved their dominance right from the beginning by scoring 42-0 against Romania. The highlight of this match is the hat-trick scored by Hogg, which propels the score board to tick fast. The defence of the Scottish team is worth a special mention which restricted the Romanian team to move forward to score points. Even though it is a slow victory, considering the tactics and the team work this victory deserves an appreciation.

In the first match Romania lose against Italy by a four point margin, but this time they cannot make the score board tick at least once in their favour. The coach of the Scottish team, Frank Hadden, Will be happy with another five points but he has to carve out a perfect team which could retain the winning streak going. On 23^rd September, Scotland team will face the All Black, New Zealand team in Edinburgh. The only matter of concern is the arm injury of Euan Murray, who had been helped from the field in the final quarter of the match against Romania.

Even though the seating capacity of the Murray field Stadium is 67,500 the crowd turn over were only 31,000 in the match against Scotland and Romania. As the home team is continuing its winning streak the crowd turn over is expected to increase in the oncoming match between Scotland and New Zealand, Which is scheduled on 23^rd September.

“Atif is innocent, he is not a terrorist he is just a young muslim”, said this father talking to the media. The distressed family of Mohammed Atif Siddique, a Scottish student who was convicted for al-Qaeda terrorist offence states that there son has fallen prey of sheer mis-interpretation. They told that Atif embraced a strict Islamic way of life which made great differences with the family leading to his ill-fate.

The family said Atif was like any other Muslim boy just he had a quest for al-Queda and the so called war on terror. He had a strong desire to do an in-depth study of al-Queda, and nothing more than this. For this mistake he was convicted, his actions were not strange pointing towards any terrorist intentions; thousands of people also do such acts.

Giving his insight to the incident, Mohammed Siddique the father of Atif says, my son is the first person to be convicted under the new terror laws in Scotland, if this is what people have to face then it will curb the civil liberties. The grief sticken father in a message to the parents tell’s that “all parents should stop their children going on the internet or in case they will end up in jail.

He further added “The sad thing is why our young people shouldn’t be able to find out what is happening in Iraq or Afghanistan? Does it mean every child that goes on to a website is considered to be a terrorist? Thousands of young people in the Muslim community will have accessed the same material.”

On the part of Atif, he thought its his right to know what’s going on with Muslims as this could also happen to him. There were few questions haunting his mind for which he needed answers. His questions were the Taleban encouraging people to carry out suicide bombings was all that justified. Many more such questions were there in his mind.

In the past two years Atif had some hard times and was reported to be eloped from home on two occasions after some differences with family. At that time he developed some contacts with some other people from England. Since then he was under doubt. Now his case is under trial and time will tell what will be his fate.

In a sensational issue one of the government minister made an eye raising announcement previous night on the move to sell his shareholding in an energy company after he was alleged of a ‘conflict of interest’. It was learnt that the minister owns £30,000 of shares in Scottish Power. Stewart Stevenson, the minister under allegation is responsible for drawing up Scotland’s target on renewable energy. After a question was raised by one of the newspaper spokesman over the breach of ministerial code of conduct by Stevenson, the SNP government denying all allegations on Mr Stevenson said he has the right to hold the share even while dealing with ScottishPower as the transport and climate-change minister.

Later in the evening after a dramatic day full of negotiations with Alex Salmond, the first minister, his advisers and Mr Stevenson. He announced to sell those shares in order to avoid any insight of conflict of interest. Making a statement last night at around 8:20pm he said “I know that there has been no conflict of interests, and I cannot see any likely conflict of interest in these shareholdings and general legislation. However, I am passionately committed to the climate-change legislation that I will be charged with bringing forward as a minister. “Given that the ministerial code does speak about perception, I am disposing of all energy company shares to remove any scintilla of any possible conflict at any time in the future.”

This ruckus on the holding of share by Mr. Stevenson began with the question raised by one of the dailies over the government. The question was whether he is going to sell the shares, or will keep him away from any discussions with the ScottishPower. It is also known that the company is a key player of the energy market in Scotland and deals in coal fired electricity generation and is moving towards the renewable energy sector.

Ending the silence over the issue Bob Graham of the campaign group Highlands Against Wind Farms said, “There is a clear conflict of interest here. He is going to make recommendations that are going to have an impact on ScottishPower. This government has to be seen to be squeaky clean. Its credibility is up for grabs.” The government spokesman informed that in order to avoid any chance of doubt over Mr. Stevenson, he will dispose his shareholdings in ScottishPower and also few other shares which he has in Scottish and Southern Energy. Even his wife who also has some shares of the same company will dispose her shares too.

The spokesman further added that all this was decided by Mr. Stevenson as provided for in the ministerial code and has informed in writing about the issue to the first minister and permanent secretary. Adding more he said, Mr. Stevenson will not engage in any further shareholdings while being in ministerial office. This wrangle over the shareholdings has caused problems for the Scottish government and also for the first minister. The government avoiding any problems from this conflict of interest bringing any distrust from the people, acted timely and sought out this issue without further delay.

Good news for Scottish people, the major the media baron BBC is all set to expand its operations in the region with a £50 million increase in regional programmes. This announcement comes as bonus for Scotland’s television industry, revealing a surprise for the UK wide audience, Mark Thompson yesterday told about the plans to triple BBC Scotland’s output. This move will not only benefit the media industry but also will generate several new jobs he added.

Currently BBC’s has raised their investments to £90million as against £38 million previously. Adding further the director general said we want to make few of our established hit national shows in Glasgow. Mr Thompson said that Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister opened the BBC Scotland’s new £188 million headquarter at Pacific Quay in Glasgow which is one of the world’s leading digital centres.

The expansion will be a boon in all aspects said the analysts; it will expand the industry and also help many people to get jobs. Even the Scottish government is planning all possible ways for the growth of media, they have also appointed a commission on broadcasting to think about the future of television in north of the border.

BBC director general also hinted that this is just a beginning and the increase in the Scottish programming for UK network was just a start. They look forward to grow in coming years to the proportion of the population. Taking the viewers interest on count we eyes to take some titles we have and which have been broadcasted from Pacific Quay. BBC also reveals that it had uncovered four new instances of deception of viewers and its listeners by Blue Peter, the Tom Robinson Show and the Clare Mc Donnell Show on BBC 6 Music, and Flim Café on BBC Asian Network. This move has been backed by several media analyst who finds this to be great news for the Scotland television industry and its viewers.

We will add interesting articles about Scotland and also post new pages we have added to the site. If you have an article you think would be suitable here, email it through to us.

One of the senior officials here last night stated that the present day Independent Scotland would be forced to apply to become a member of the European Union (EU). Arguing repeatedly about the transition from Union with England to EU, Alex Salmond calls it “seamless”. Looking into the sensitivity of the issue in Scotland, the European Commission always has refused to be in the debate over this subject. In a gust to Mr Salmond, Joe Borg the fisheries commissioner said that as independent Scotland will remain outside EUAdding that the application process will be likely a cake walk for Scotland, as it was in the EU for over 30 years. But the serious concern is that it may take long to complete the process as before joining, the other member states must have to approve the country’s membership.

Talking to media Mr Borg stated “On the issue concerning Scotland’s independence, that’s not my competence to assess or to evaluate but if, for one moment, we were to assume that Scotland gained independence and therefore is eligible as a new member state for the European Union, I would see that, legally speaking, the continuation of the membership would remain with the rest of the UK - less Scotland. And, therefore, Scotland, as a newly independent state, would have to apply for membership.”

Further adding Mr Borg stood against the conjecture SNP was making till now. He also contradict the statements from Mr Salmond and Jim Mather (enterprise minister). Mr Salmond said previously that “Scotland is already a member of the EU and that would continue. It is not easy to leave the EU, as we saw with the attempts by Greenland when they won autonomy from Denmark.” While his enterprise minister Mr Mather says, “We are an incumbent member state - what about England having to re-apply?”

One of the spokesman for Mr Salmond told that, the first minister have not shred the view of Mr Borg. He tells that Mr Borg has made it clear that the issue is not within his competence to assess as an individual. The European commission has intentionally have not given any answers to the questions levied on them by the European parliament.

Stating the views given by late Robin Cook when he was foreign secretary in a statement said, an independent Scotland will remain a member of the EU. European Union welcomes all new comers and Scotland will definitely be one of them. With the inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria into EU as a member, Why not rich Scotland.

Taking neutral stand yesterday the European Commission spokeswoman said “It is not customary for the commission to state its views on matters which, as things stand are purely hypothetical. Mr Bog with his views has given a spark to the debate on the future of Scotland as an independent country. According to him, he suggests that Scotland is not assured of its membership in EU and it can find itself outside the main trading block for a long span of time.

Lorand Bartels, one of the lecturers in the international economic law at Edinburgh University tells that, the route to get into EU for Scotland will not be fast. He adds that . “This process may be relatively unproblematic, given that Scotland already applies EU law, but it is unlikely to be entirely ’seamless’. At the very least, there would be likely to be an obligation to adopt the euro,” Lorand said.

One more acid test which Scotland has to clear is the French who have decided to boast a nationwide referendum before all new members into the EU. So now the fate of Scotland’s inclusion into EU lies on the hands of French people. Now time will tell how long it will take for independent Scotland to make through into EU.