News.Scotland.Org

Scotland, May 7: The Health Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government in its report said that the misuse of alcohol in Scotland amounts to £2.25bn per year. The amount is more than double when compared with previous statistics. The study considered cost to business, police, court service and the NHS.

On the other hand the Scottish Beer and Pub Association (SBPA) whose members operate 1500 pubs in Scotland have questioned the reliability of the figures. The Scottish government has allocated £120m for the next three years to restrict the raising problem of alcohol abuse.

According to the report the costs include the £405m spend by the NHS, £170m spend by social work service and £385m spend by the fire service and criminal justice. The wider economic costs were estimated at £820m and the human and social costs were estimated at £470m.

The lower productivity at work and the day off due to hangover is costing £150m for the NHS and the A&E services costs £32.3m.The misuse of alcohol costs £288m for the police as alcohol is believed to be the reason behind 40 per cent of the crimes. Premature death due to regular alcohol consumption costs £328m for Scotland.

While commenting on this Minister for Public Health, Shona Robison said: “The statistics give a clear picture about the huge impact created by alcohol misuse in crucial sectors like the police, courts, the NHS and social services. It has an adverse effect on our economy. Not only the alcohol misuse affecting our services and health but also slows down the potential as a nation.”

Proper awareness to control the over use of alcohol is what needed to check the adverse effects posed by it.

Scotland, Apr 24: In a bid to aid older people to stay intact with their community, a new project will be implemented in the Highlands. The project aims to promote the helping tendency among the older people to make them help each other. The core idea of the project emerged at a workshop in Inverness that includes delegates from Ireland, Dumfries and Galloway and Scandinavia.

The project is named as Older for Older abbreviated as O4O. Four areas will be chosen for the implementation of the project in the coming summer. Highlands’s higher education institute will take initiative to execute the European Union-funded project.

According to Professor Jane Farmer, the project co-ordinator, “Earlier, research has shown that older people are making significant social contribution for each other in the rural areas. The project consider them as assets as they help to maintain the liveliness of the communities by contributing a range of basic support services that help them to lead an independent life for the rest of their life. Even though the project gives special emphasis on older people it will also try to build a strong bond between generations.”

In the meantime the project of UHI tries to keep men engaged by participating them in courses like golf, canoe building and furniture making. The new report of Scottish Funding Council case studies’ submitted to the Scottish government has recommended Engaged Men project. Involvement of various educational institutions, public-sector agencies and organisations will be effectively used in the project.

Scotland, Apr 17: There are arguments raised for and against the development of technology. The invention of computers and mobile phones has made a huge impact in our day to day life. The significant Scottish Trades Union Congress will provide a platform to discuss and debate the issue of increasing level of abuse and bullying of workers as part of the advances in technology.

Teaching unions will express their concern about the threat of harassment and false allegation through mobile phones, websites and e-mails against the staff. The event scheduled to commence in Inverness on coming Monday will also discuss ways and means to tackle renewable power and post office closures.

The financial aids to promote Scottish arts will also be a part of the discussion. A report about the development in new technologies will be tabled by the Union of Woman Teachers and the National Association of Schoolmasters. In the recent years Cyberbullying, abuse sent by e-mail and posts on websites, remains as a problem for teachers.

A campaign will be initiated by the STUC General Council to demand for the change in legislation to ensure protection of people who are subjected to false allegation on websites.

April, 12

In a shocking report it was revealed that teenage girls are getting exposed to drugs far earlier than their male counterparts. The research showed that girls get use to these drugs at a much early age than boys. Even these young girls try out all sorts of drugs including cocaine, LSD, and Ecstasy way before boys. This trend in girls has shown how these teens are getting attracted to these recreational drugs apart from the fact that these drugs could harm them.

The reasons which makes these young girls fall into the drug culture is through older boy friends and also by getting use to visiting the nightclubs. You can easily spot many teenage girls smoking and hanging out with their boy friends in nightclubs and even taking drugs without any hesitation. All this has a lot to do with their lifestyle and friend circle, which plays a vital role for getting adapted to this drug culture in such an early age. Even the way these days girls are getting into relations with older boys gives them the comfort to easily get into these nightclubs which are main centres for getting such drugs. The lack of check at the entrance of these clubs gives these under-age-girls to have an easy way in to these clubs.

While the mindset of these new generation girls to have a go at everything gets them into such situations where they themselves don’t know what they are into. And when they finally come to know, it becomes too late.

Scotland, Apr 11: After enduring ten years of theft attempt, a collection of rare paintings of David Roberts worth £500,000 will be kept for display next year at the National Galleries of Scotland. The 19th century art works of David Roberts were owned by Helen Guiterman who left the painting to The Art Fund charity in 1998 and it didn’t get fulfilled. For forging Helen Guiterman’s will her cousin’s grandson Shaun Gray was sentenced to three years of imprisonment.

The Art Fund has taken several steps to make sure the wishes of Guiterman to get fulfilled. They began to study the case after a delay occurred in handing over of the art work and they also found that Gray is the executor of the will. When The Art Fund found that Gray had forged the will and indulging in false accounting they raised the alarm. Gray was arrested when he plead guilty of charges levelled against him.

Gray also forged the documents to make himself owner to the valuable properties of Helen Guiterman that includes estate and collection of six oil paintings and 51 watercolours of David Roberts. The Art Funds finally recovered the art works and will take necessary steps to ensure its safety until it could be legally owned by the National Gallery of Scotland.

The collection of rare art works of renowned painter David Roberts includes famous Nuns in the Calefactory at Carmona. Robert hailed from Stockbridge in Edinburgh and was born in the year 1796. He is very popular and critically acclaimed during his lifetime. The paintings from the collection will be kept for display in the exhibition named Imagining Spain: From Goya to Picasso, The British and Spain to be held from 18 July to 11 October next year.

Scotland, Mar 24: As an attempt to restrict the number of forced marriages several initiatives were put forth by various organisations. The Scotland based Islamic foundation has suggested for a new legislation to tackle the issue effectively. They feel the civil powers in England are sufficient enough to take restrictive measures to help the people to get rid of forced marriages.

While commenting on this the chairman of the Islamic foundation, Osama Saeed said: “A comprehensive debate is what needed to find an effective solution. According to Islam a marriage will be valid only after both parties are agreed to it. He termed forced marriages as an injustice held responsible in many cases by people who happen to be Muslim and they originate from certain parts of the world where it does happen.”

He also pointed out that: “There seems a decrease in the number of forced marriages that is because of the change in the attitude of the people in Scotland. An effective legislation will intensify the process and bring in effective changes in the mindset of the people. Giving shape to new legislation will help to tackle the issue of forced marriage that exist in our society and it will send a positive message that this is a violation of human rights and it cannot be tolerated.”

Ms Saeed also added that an explicit debate is what needed in Scotland. The issue of criminality should be an option on the table and it is up to the victims to decide about the changes need, they can also get the help they need.

March 19

If you are a dog owner then think twice before freeing rein of your dog while taking them on a walk. In one of such interesting case a woman claimed £160,000 damages as she injured her knee when she was knocked over by a black labrador. The judge sentenced the dog owner to pay her the compensation amount. Ruling the claim of the women the dog owner said the woman was just victim of an accident.

This case has added another number to the innumerable compensation cases which has now taken shape of a growing culture in Scotland. Daily several such incidents occur regularly in Scotland. In the case of Caroline Spencer a taxi passenger who went to court to get compensation after she suffered a whiplash in a low speed accident. Many such cases are registered daily in the law records.

These figures are raising a severe concern of how immature are people behaving and has highlighted a serious problem creeping in our society. But as every coin has two sides, in the same way few people are also cashing in with such bogus claims and skipping away with compensation.

March, 12

The plastic money is making news this time for a whopping 25 per cent rise in its false use in UK. These debit and credit card frauds have jumped to a great level in the past three years. Even the banks suffered a loss of £535m by the use of such stolen or counterfeit cards.

These cases of fraud use of UK credit cards were recorded at a high in overseas, where those cards were used to buy products through internet, phones and mails. The banks suffered a loss of £208m this year by the fake use of these cards in overseas.

It was noticed that the chip-and-pin technology has proved to be help in reducing this growing fraud. With the launch of this new card such frauds will have an adverse effect. Meanwhile those countries where this technology is still not available, there the criminals are getting away with their fraud acts.

Meanwhile the banks are planning to bring out the chip-and-pin cards all over the Europe by 2010. This move will curb all such card frauds and would help the baking sectors to lower their losses by such fake cases.

March, 5

Britain now-a-days is facing a severe problem of road rage; the situation has become so grim that one in every three driver is a victim of road rage. Research has revealed that more than ten million motorists had been always on the receiving end of another’s aggressive behaviour. Even the study shows that this strange behaviour of road rage, not only restricts to obscene gestures and abusive languages, but many a times takes dangerous form.

It is also known that the actual figure of this growing problem is far more, as many cases are not reported for various reasons. Looking at the figures one can trace that about 64 percent of the people admitted to have suffered with aggressive behaviour. Even the the approach of motorists has changed a lot as few of the motorists claims that it is good to be slightly aggressive on roads.

Study also shows that bad driving makes people to loose their temper. About 59 percent of the people who admitted to road rage have agreed that, it was bad driving which has put them to this situation. The growing stress is making their problems worse and making life dangerous for drivers.

The problem needs to be tackled soon as the cases of road rage have taken a major toll on the motorist of Britain. And this trouble has to be sought out soon, to make driving safer and stress free for the people.

March, 1

The thieves are these days cashing in with a new valuable commodity in Scotland. It seems they have shifted their trend of stealing and are moving as per the market condition. It is noticed that the rise in the fuel prices across Scotland has given rise to the incidents of diesel thefts immensely. This jump in the prices of fuels have made diesel as important as any other valuable item, thus giving the thieves many reasons to make quick money.

Many cases of diesel theft from farms and good yards across Scotland are reported on a daily basis. It is also known that these thieves use to combine copper and lead with diesel and resale it making good profits. According to police sources these thieves are targeting fuel tanks at farms and goods yards to perform their thefts. Police have also warned the farmers and yard owners to take security measures and be watchful for any such incidents.

Other than that many spates of diesel thefts has also been reported in many areas around Aberdeenshire and Borders. In one of such incident over 1000 litres of diesel were stolen from a farm in Balquidder, Stirlingshire recently. It was told that the thieves drain off the fuel from three 5000-litre tanks. Many more such cases have occurred in recent months across Scotland raising an alarm for police to curb these increasing diesel thefts soon or this problem would take a big shape.