The Scotsman

Review: Philip Escoffey

COMEDY, PHILIP ESCOFFEY: SIX MORE IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BEFORE DINNER **** GILDED BALLOON TEVIOT (VENUE 14)

Lloyds Explores Special Bonds to Lower Reliance On State Aid

Chief executive Eric Daniels is reluctant to sell off branches LLOYDS Banking Group is testing the water on raising billions of pounds through a special bond issue as a means of reducing its reliance on state aid.

Dolly Pioneer Leads Bioquarter Bid for Profit

Simon Best: 'Delighted' to lead GBP 600m commercialisation ONE OF the UK's best-known life science entrepreneurs is to lead the commercialisation of Edinburgh's GBP 600 million BioQuarter project.

Rsa and Yell Cash Calls Set Rights Issue Fever On Market

RIGHTS issue fever is set to sweep the market when it reopens for business tomorrow, following weekend reports of two major cash calls. Insurance giant RSA was yesterday said to be considering raising up to GBP 615 million through a rights issue to boost its financial position.

Public-Sector Bodies' Vote of Confidence in Private-Sector Staff

MORE than four-fifths of public-sector organisations believe skills shortages would be best filled by private-sector workers, according to research published today. Employers operating across central and local government, the NHS, charities and not-for-profit bodies stressed concern about lack of commercial talent, recruitment giant Hays said, while 47 per cent of respondents noted widespread skill shortages generally.

Diamond Deal: Jewel Giant de Beers Looks to Pwc to Help It Renegotiate Gbp 922 Million Loan with Bank Consortium

Book Festival Reviews: A Wire That Runs Through History

IN THE Main Tent, David Simon is telling a story. He's told it many times before and he'll tell it many times more, because when people ask where The Wire comes from, this is where it begins. Christmas Day, 1985, the homicide section of Baltimore Police Department. A young crime reporter wanders in with a bottle of cheap whisky. It's not a busy day: no murders, just the odd shooting and a stabbing. So there's time to talk. Drink, talk, and drink some more. "You know," says the homicide sergea...

Cd Review: Cd of the Week: Just Jack: It's a Rap

JUST JACK: ALL NIGHT CINEMA *** MERCURY, GBP 12.72

Cd Reviews: Pop, Jazz and Classical

POP NOAH AND THE WHALE: THE FIRST DAYS OF SPRING ***

Just the Ticket for a Cracking Good Night at the Fireworks

CLUTCHING their tickets after getting up early yesterday to join the queue for Sunday's Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert are Blue Martin, eight, and her father, Dennis. The Martins were among hundreds in the queue snaking along Johnston Terrace waiting for the Hub, near Edinburgh Castle, to open and sell the last allocated tickets.

City's Flats Are Going ... Gone!

THEY may have stood for more than 40 years but it took barely eight seconds to reduce two 23-storey flats in Glasgow's Pollokshaws area to rubble yesterday. The demolition of parts of Shawbridge Street is part of a regeneration project that plans to breathe new life into the area.

Business Gazetteer

ENRIE'S LARGESSE SPURNED GBP 35 million of prizes unclaimed

International Festival Review: Ricercar Consort

MUSIC, RICERCAR CONSORT, GREYFRIARS KIRK **** THE Bach cantata series continued on Friday with a second appearance by the slick Ricercar Consort. The most enjoyable feature of this series - centring on Bach's smaller-scale cantatas - has been to witness the infinite inventiveness of the composer's instrumental writing, while working with slender resources.

International Festival Review: Romeo Et Juliette

MUSIC, ROMO ET JULIETTE **** USHER HALL

International Festival Review: The Yalta Game

THEATRE, THE YALTA GAME, KING'S THEATRE **** WHAT IS the Yalta game? According to Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, the hero of Chekhov's short story, it is the game of imagining the truth of other people's lives, while watching them promenade through the Black Sea resort well known for its affairs and intrigues.

Consumer Choice Threatened by Britannia Move, Warns Law Guild

A MOVE to strike sole practitioner lawyers from the approved panel of Britannia Insurance will restrict consumer choice, the Law Society of Scotland has warned. The insurance firm recently wrote to more than 3,600 lawyers across the UK giving them one month's notice of removal from its approved list of conveyancing solicitors.

Lawyers to Donate Will Charges to Scottish Charities During Month- Long Campaign

WITH endorsements from the First Minister and one of Scotland's leading entrepreneurs, Will Relief Scotland will be officially launched in Glasgow today. The project, which sees solicitors across the country forgo their fees for preparing a will in return for a donation to charity, runs throughout September.

In Dispute Over Extent of Credit Crunch Boost to Litigation

IF CONVENTIONAL wisdom is to be believed, litigation rates rise in a recession, as insolvencies mount and commercial deals turn sour. Many disputes that might, in the good times, not be worth fighting, suddenly become strategically important to companies and individuals seeking to protect the assets they have. Being a defensive discipline, the litigation departments of many firms have become increasingly important to them as transactional work has dried up. Some have re-deployed lawyers from ...

Analysis: Nuances Are Drowned Out by the Blunt Assertion That They Did a Deal, so They're All at It

A LIE goes half-way round the world before the truth can get its boots on, goes the truism. But a conspiracy makes a lie look comparatively sluggish. And with fresh revelations this weekend of how the UK government made the Lockerbie bomber eligible for release so as not to put a spanner in the works of talks with Libya, another outbreak of conspiracy is set to emerge.

Monday Interview: David Shearer: Shearer Isn't Buying Into the Idea That It's All Gloom

IF DAVID SHEARER, the head of Scotland's largest media buying agency, is glum he doesn't show it. Although from his perspective, overseeing the grim state of the country's media landscape, it could be argued that he would have good reason to be. Not that his business, Mediacom Scotland, is doing that badly. Shearer says billings - which are around GBP 70 million a year - have fallen 5 per cent as his clients rein in the amount they spend on advertising.