News.Scotland.Org

December, 31

These days the people of Scotland are feeling insecure with the rise in the cases of attacks by dogs. The increase in such violent cases by these pets is reported to be making the life of common man restless. In order to put a check in these growing cases, a need for a law is been thought of, so that this problem can be sought out. If we look at the figures of such cases, we can find that there has been a major rise in such dog attack cases in recent years.

It is known that daily such new cases are reported where people either suffer injuries or loose their lives. In order to control this severe problem, the Scottish parliament is looking to act more stringently and roll out some restrictions to make sure this problem is put under control. The new law will make sure that it would be an offence to have a dog which is violent or out of control and will back to insert a microchip to the dog. Having his stand Alex Neil a SNP MSP said there is a need to form a new law regarding the dog menace. He added “My bill would introduce control orders for dogs acting threateningly. If a dog is acting threateningly, it could be subject to an order which could force it to be muzzled or have certain restrictions placed on it, and it would be automatically microchipped.”

After the implementation of this new law if any of the dogs which are found to be dangerous will fall under its scanner. The bill now needs the support of the government gets the final nod. But the main thing is to end this dog menace which has now turned out to be a nightmare for Scottish people.

The reports suggest that in this year only more than six hundred cases of dog attacks has been reported. And if this growing problem is not controlled then this could worsen.

Scotland, Dec 29: As an attempt to help the smokers to get rid of the habit the pharmacists are all set to conduce one-to-one counselling at Lothian pharmacies. As part of this initiative pharmacists will prescribe nicotine replacement therapy without doctor’s appointment along with 12 weeks long personal support. Researches also shed light on the fact that it is easy to quit the habit of smoking effectively with the help of professionals than with the individual initiative. This proposal will be extended to nearly 40 pharmacies located in all four local authorities.

NHS Lothian’s smoking cessation coordinator, Fiona Moore said: “New Year is the apt time where people plan for their next course of action and resolve to change things in abetter way. Forgetting the smoke habit is an effective way to improve your health. Studies show that it will be four times effective if the smokers receive support along with nicotine replacement therapy. Trying to stop this habit by your own initiative will not bring in effective result.”

Earlier NHS Lothian organised a four year long initiative budgeted at £1.2 million and it included 28,000 smokers in the region to get rid of the habit. The health departments across Scotland were advised to restrict the number of smokers in their area. While NHS Lothian expects to reduce its addicts level by 17 per cent and the number will decrease from 166300 to 138000 by the year 2010. When a smoker gets admitted to any Lothian hospital a dedicated member of staff will approach him and guide him throughout the course of the treatment.

This new initiative is intended to encourage the number of people using NHS Lothian’s anti-smoking services. It is expected to bear fruit in the near future. The initiative put forth by the pharmacist was appreciated by anti-smoking group ASH Scotland.

December, 29

These day people seems to be more concerned about their health and fitness, this new founding was obtained by a recent research conducted in Edinburgh. It was noticed that out of the surveyed people majority were exercising to keep them fit and active. People have embraced exercising to deal with the increasing stress and bad eating habits in their lives. With the concern people are showing towards their health and fitness these days, it seems majority are switching towards the healthy way of living.

Backing up this positive step towards a better tomorrow, the Edinburgh Leisure, who themselves conducted this research have launched a Feel Good campaign to motivate more and more people to make exercising part of their daily routine. It was known that UK stand in second place for most obesity rates among women which too raises a concern for maintaining a healthy life cycle, and exercising is a good way to keep the body and mind healthy.

According to Keith Jackson the chief executive of the Edinburgh Leisure, “Lot of people feel they want to turn on the fire and curl up indoors all winter, a lack of exercise can encourage many illnesses. So in such a scenario people taking interest in exercising is a healthy move and all should encourage it.

The research has shown that, those days are gone when people use to take exercising as a burden, these days they are enjoying the array of exercising and gaming options available. Whatever be the reason still it’s nice that they are giving a thought for these sorts of activities taking them to a brighter and healthier tomorrow.

December, 28

The licence structure will soon get a new look according to that the actual driving age will become 18 years though the provisional licences will be issued from 17 years of age. This would mean that the drivers have to be 18 in order to drive in roads. Also the new rule will make the practical test a bit harder. This new structure will help young drivers to improve the approach toward driving and road safety.

It is known that the driving test will become tougher in this new structure and also there are plans to include the knowledge on road safety in the school syllabus. This new format of test is an innovative way to make sure the driver is capable to drive in all conditions. The previous 40 minutes driving test is now expanded to two stages and also included many new additions like driving at night and on motorways. All this will help to encourage the driver to drive safely.

As it is evident that these days many accidents are occurring mainly involving young drivers who are losing their lives for driving recklessly. This new structure will help to control the hazardous driving to some extent. Now to make sure young drivers have more driving experience and confidence, the young licence aspirants have to complete 500 hours of driving before getting the final nod.

Hope this new plan will help to reduce the reckless driving and will bring out more confident drivers. Now time will tell how far this new structure prepared by department of transport will succeed.

Scotland, Dec 28: The traditional and favourite food items like the Scotch pies and butteries are facing the threat posed by the lack of funding. European money has been paid for at least half of the training costs in the food sector will no longer be available from the European Social Fund.

According to Iain Gray the East Lothian MSP and the finance spokesman of the Labour party said: “The food sector industry is facing a potential food shortage. The main reason for this is due to the shortage of potential skilled labourers. The shortage of bakers who are able to produce traditional treats such as the plain loaf, pan loaf and bridie is the prime matter of concern.”

He further added that: “Proper training is the need of the hour, baking is not an exception. It is not a wise decision by the SNP government to exclude the overall food industry from the purview of training assistance. It is important that we give shape to next generation of master bakers.”

The European Social Fund amounts to £1.4m and £3m had been spent for the training the food industry since 2001. Labours said that effort has is giving shape to about 700 training chances per year.

While commenting on this a Scottish government spokesman pointed out that: “The change was put forth by the former Labour administration. The food sector had been excluded at that time. The present Scottish government is taking initiative to discuss on the key issues of financing the food sector training. Soon after the New Year we will organise a meeting that would discuss about the national food policy and the future of food industry in Scotland.”

The traditional food industry of Scotland will lose its identity and existence if it is not encouraged properly.

December, 27

Landlines are now no more an essential mode of communication for large number of Scots. More and more people are relying on mobile phones to be connected round the clock. The conventional telephone has lost its space in this technological era where every thing is becoming compact and portable. Now only few people still use the traditional telephones in UK. But still for some reasons the landline telephone has few utilities attached to it, like broadband internet connections.

But one can’t say that landline phones have faded out, still about 85 percent Scottish people have a landline connection at home. Even though mobile phones have occupied their supremacy, still the traditional phones have some role to play in the UK houses. Though looking at the graphs, one can see a slide in the percentage of landline phones in homes in coming years, which tells that people are slowly leaving this conventional communicative device back and moving forward.

If we look overall we can see that more than 82 percent Scottish homes have access to mobile phones which is far more than the percent of the whole UK. Another major reason for mobile phones overtaking the traditional phone is the tempting offers and promotional schemes these mobiles companies roll out for consumers attracting them to grab these offers. While they can enjoy free calls on through internet via other chat operators. People are now adapted to mobile phones and these techno gadgets have become necessary elements of their lives.

In the communicative era the youngsters have shown great interest in mobile phones as a handy device to stay connect with the outer world round the clock. It could happen that in coming years landlines will become an addition in the museums for future generations to have a look at this traditional communicative device.

Scotland, Dec 27: In a shocking report it was revealed that in Scotland the under age drinking habit is on rise. In the recent days police have arrested under aged children for being drunk in the public. In the past five years at least 2000 children were arrested for being drunk in the public. Among those arrested there are several primary school students that raise concern about the health of the future generation.

Alcohol awareness campaigners and politicians voiced their concern about the new habitual change in the youngsters. They said that the drinking habit has become worsen now than the past decade. Meanwhile one leading charity voiced against the criminalising youth unnecessarily by arresting them for being drunk. They also pointed out that out of 2000 children arrested over the past five years only 34 were of the age 12 or below.

According to Frank Soodeen of the agency named Alcohol Concern said: “Despite the harm the children are doing the drinking habit will affect their developing bodies by if not properly monitored they are likely to have sex or sustain injury or get into scuffle. Other than criminalising young people unnecessarily it is better to consider the option of licensing laws and proper regulation to ensure age restriction to be effectively implemented. Adequate training should have to be given to the staffs who are selling alcohol to help while approaching under age drinkers.”

While commenting on this the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland opined that it supports all the initiative that would help in minimising the menace of under age drinking culture. The enforcement is part of the series of restriction measures taken to curb this ruining habit.

Under age drinking habit pose great threat to the future of the young generation in Scotland. As being a delicate issue it has to be approached with great care by chalking out a comprehensive strategy to bring in an amicable solution.

December, 26

Travellers are facing severe problems this winter with fog making it really hard for flights to carry their operation. Due to poor visibility several flights were cancelled causing flyers to wait desperately to reach their destination. With the festive season on cards the problem has worsen as more and more people are looking for a Christmas getaway. It is known that many flights were delayed and even called off due to the foggy conditions continuing, meanwhile several flights has to be cancelled from Heathrow and Gatwick airports with poor flying conditions.

With flights unable to operate, people are resorting to road ways to reach their destination. All major airports were flooded with passengers waiting for their flights to operate; it was chaos all over the place and passengers facing tough time to fly. Many travellers reported were going for celebrating Christmas abroad, but fog ruined their plans and preparations. The British Airways informed that it will refund the airfare for its passengers whose flights were cancelled and will also offer them with rebook facility. But many travellers opted for other means of transportation to reach their destination.

It is expected that if this situation continues, then roads would be busy with travellers going to different places. But the weather forecaster has suggested that the present foggy condition will clear soon making the situation back to normal. It was noticed that about 84 flights were cancelled yesterday from Heathrow airport, and 15 flights were cancelled from Gatwick airport. Amidst all this confusion airport was buzzing with speculation and chaotic situation all waiting for the condition to get favourable for flying.

This severe problem has resulted as a nightmare for many travellers and to some extent has spoiled the festive mood of many. Also with the severe cold conditions in UK, people are heading towards other destination to beat the chill and enjoy a great season of festivals.

Scotland, Dec 26: The missed hospital appointments pose tough challenge to health chiefs in Glasgow. It is a matter of great concern as the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde offers health related services to almost a quarter of the Scottish population that amounts to 1.19 million people. One among five patients is failing to keep his hospital appointment. So the staffs have to work even harder to cater to the needs of the waiting time target.

Recent figures also shed light on the fact that even the patients who are undergoing treatment for serious ailments are also failing to turn up at the hospital. In north Glasgow hospital division, nearly 4435 patients with heart problem failed their appointments in the first nine months of 2007. Missed appointments in diabetes clinics were 2504 and gynaecology appointments were 4169.

The number of failed appointments was high in the south of the city. At least 5000 patients failed to turn up for the appointment with surgeons. In the year 2006 nearly 228877 patients missed their appointments in the whole region. This ranges to 20 per cent of the total patients appointed in the year that amounts to 1094000.

While commenting on this Spokesman of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “The figures give a clear indication about the patients’ inability to keep up with the appointment in the hospitals. In this context we request the patients to inform us about the possibility of cancelling their appointment, so that we can arrange for a new appointment for them. This will help in reducing the number of missed appointment.”

The board is now planning to invest £1.2 million for the purpose of planned care improvement programme that is expected to encourage the flow of patients and will help to minimise the missed appointment rate. The proposal includes new scheme to spot out the reason for the missed appointment cases and to chalk out the effort to minimise this number in future.

December, 22

It seems travelling by flight in this new year would become a night mare for millions of air flyers from UK. It is known that the workers of the airport have decided to stage a series of strike in the coming year. It is told that the strike would come into force from January 7, in which all airport workers including the firefighters would walk out of work. Sources have confirmed that the strike has been called on due to the closure of the final salary pension scheme for new workers. This strike will disrupt all the airport activities and will affect the passengers too.

After the announcement of the strike which will effect all major airports including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, and Southampton. The concern is all about the impact of this strike towards the passengers and air traffic. This announcement has come as a protest to the decision and is a matter to worry for BAA. After a vote majority the strike was called on and National officer Brendan Gold said “This is a 2-1 vote for strike action, which is a powerful mandate and a strong message to BAA to think again.” Even he added in a news conference that if this strikes will take place then it would paralyse the all the airports in London.

Amidst all this revolt against BAA and the airport workers, the main suffers would be the innocent passengers who have to bear all the hardships which this strike would bring for them. It is strange that BAA is not showing any positive signs to tackle this big issue, recently it was noticed that BAA posted a profit of over £500 million still some matter are left to be solved.

Mr Gold also said that we had a series of talks and meetings with the company but for no result and finally we have to resort to strike. Workers have slowly lost faith in BAA and not to add the new workers in the final salary pension scheme has added to the problems. In order to safeguard the rights of the workers and to put the demand this strike has been called on.

Now it seems dark clouds are hovering over the innocent passengers who are planning to fly this new year. Hope passengers are prepared for a tough flying experience.