The Scotsman

Scotland a Changing Nation: So What Do You Know About Scotland?

1In 2004, a haggis manufacturer commissioned a survey for Tartan Day to find out who was the most iconic Scot of all time. Who got the most votes? A William Wallace

Business News at a Glance: Stagecoach Signs Cctv Deal

TRANSPORT operator Stagecoach has signed a GBP 1.5 million CCTV deal with Aim-listed Quadnetics to provide security on its buses. Perth-based Stagecoach is investing a record GBP 71m in new vehicles in 2008-9, and said the contract would cover all of the 580 buses ordered for delivery over the period.

Business News at a Glance: Clyde Wins Cast Iron Contract

Music Review: The Blue Nile

THE BLUE NILE **** GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL "YOU'RE back!" someone shouted at Paul Buchanan at the beginning of the Blue Nile's three-night Glasgow residency, their first live shows in two years. So he turned and showed the audience his back. Cue rapturous applause. It was a very Blue Nile moment: a self- deprecating joke prompting adulation.

Medics Tested for Mrsa in New Attempt to Stall Infection's Spread

DOCTORS have been tested for MRSA in attempts to assess the role of staff in spreading the infection in hospitals. About 200 medics at the British Medical Association conference in Edinburgh this week took part in the study, with swabs taken from their noses and mobile phones.

Doctors Reject Plan to Force Them to Reveal Beliefs On Abortion

DOCTORS should not have to reveal, in leaflets and posters, whether they oppose abortion, medics said yesterday. Delegates at the British Medical Association (BMA) conference in Edinburgh heard calls that doctors should have to tell patients if they had conscientious objections to abortion or in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

Flashy, but Awesome in Scale and Achievement

WITH baseball, it's three strikes and you're out. With the Booker Prize, it's three wins and you get literary immortality. There will be critics who - just as in 1981 when Midnight's Children first won the Booker and as in 1993 when it won the Booker of Bookers - persist in finding it no more than a flash piece of storytelling.

Rushdie Named Best Booker Winner of All

THE novel Midnight's Children, first published 27 years ago by the provocative Indian-born writer Sir Salman Rushdie, sealed its place as an all-time British favourite yesterday. The book, with its story centred on a character born at the dawn of Indian independence, was yesterday named the best Booker winner in the 40-year history of the prize.

Scotsman Exclusive: Eight Weeks to Turn Bright Ideas Into Winning Dozen Student Teams Pitch Ideas to Entrepreneurial Exchangebusiness

NOW is time for the real work to begin. Last week, 50 Scottish university students completed a week-long entrepreneurial "boot camp", where they were fed on a strict diet of brainstorming and tests of their motivational skills and business planning. By the end of the week, 12 teams had developed business ideas that they pitched to a Dragons' Den-style panel made up of members of the Entreprenurial Exchange. At the end of the programme, the exchange's founder James Barlow, chief executive of S...

Scotsman Exclusive: Applecross Pulls Projects As Woes Move Upmarket Edinburgh-Based Luxury Homes Builder to Cut About a Quarter of Staff and Abandon Push Into England

UPMARKET housebuilder Applecross is to slash its development plans, abandon a push into England and cut about a quarter of its workforce in a fresh blow to Scotland's construction sector. The Edinburgh-based firm, whose properties cost GBP 430,000 on average, will shelve four development projects in the Scottish capital - two of them stand-alone Applecross projects and the others joint ventures.

Three Times a Lady

THE first rule of success as a politician's wife: don't take advice from Cherie Blair. However, it is Mrs Blair we must thank for Carla Bruni's decision to stick at her singing career and, so soon after her marriage to French president Nicolas Sarkozy, release a third album - Comme si de rien n'etait ("As If Nothing Had Happened"), a paean to love and lust. "Tony Blair's wife, who continued to work as a lawyer for her husband's entire leadership, told me that it was also frowned upon when she...

Joy As South African Graduate Told She Can Stay in Uk with Her Family

A YOUNG South African woman who was facing deportation from Scotland wept with joy yesterday after winning the battle to stop her family being torn apart in an immigration mix-up. Josie Pasane, 25, a graduate of Abertay University, rushed into the arms of her relieved mother and sister as she came out victorious from a meeting in Glasgow with UK Border Agency officials.

The Diary by Alba

Give and take in world of animals SO PANDA diplomacy is in full gear again. Edinburgh Zoo staff are heading for earthquake-hit Wolong panda conservation centre, in China's Sichuan province, to get an update on their new friends.

Soldier Flown Back From Iraq in Bid to Save Life of Cancer Patient

AS A tank crewman stationed in the volatile surroundings of Basra, the precariousness of mortality could never be far from Marc Munro's mind. But when a call came through notifying him that only he could save the life of a stranger back in Britain, he embarked on his greatest mission to date.

Union Welcomes Clarity On Cattle Carcase Dressing

NFU Scotland yesterday welcomed the new EU carcase dressing classification specification, which should mean more consistency in measurement and trimming in abattoirs. Beef farmers often find that carcase dressing leaves them worse off than they expected after accepting a seemingly high ex-farm price for an animal.

Farm Land Untouched by Housing Slump As Investors See a Haven

WHILE the housing market slides, the reverse has been happening with agricultural land values, according to the latest rural research from the estate agents Savills. In the second quarter of this year land values across Britain rose 10 per cent to average GBP 4,500 per acre.

Firstgroup: Public Transport Running Like a Greyhound

FIRSTGROUP, the Aberdeen-headquartered transport giant, received a boost yesterday after telling shareholders at its annual meeting of a continued rise in public transport use and growth in its American business. First said its rail division, which includes ScotRail and Great Western, had continued to see a surge in demand, with like-for-like passenger revenue growth of 10.7 per cent in the three months to the end of June. Meanwhile the bus division grew 6.4 per cent on a like- for-like basis...

Business Gazetteer

COMPUTER SAYS NO E-rage is all the rage in Glasgow

Day One As a Doctor and She Saves Fiance's Life

A MEDICAL student saved her first patient just hours after graduation when her fiance started to choke during their celebratory dinner. Claire Lomas was still wearing her ceremonial robes when Jamie Taylor began to turn blue at the restaurant table.

Music Review: Har Mar Superstar

HAR MAR SUPERSTAR *** KING TUT'S, GLASGOW