Scottish news bulletin: 19th November 2008
- Reform Scotland
- 19 November 2008
Economy
Inflation: Cheaper fuel prices helped cause inflation to fall at its fastest level for 16 years during last month. The Consumer Prices Index slowed to 4.5% in October from 5.2% in September. (Scotsman page 9, George Kerevan in the Scotsman, Martin Flanagan in the Scotsman, The Herald Page B27, The Guardian page 11, Daily Mail page 2, Daily Express page 1, The Times page 3, The Daily Telegraph page 6, FT page 3, Courier & Advertiser page 1)
Conservative spending plans: Leader of the opposition, David Cameron, yesterday promised to change current Labour spending plans in order to cut taxes. However, the government responded by claiming that they already plan to cut £30Billion in wasted spending by the time of the next election and therefore the Conservatives’ planned cuts would only affect education and the NHS.
(The Sun page 2, Daily Mirror page 12, The Herald page 6, The Guardian page 1, The Daily Record page 2, Daily Mail page 10, The Times page 10, Simon Heffer in Daily Telegraph, Daily Telegraph page 1, FT page 4, John Eaglesham and George Parker in FT, The P&J page 15, Courier & Advertiser page 8)
HBOS: Last night the Chancellor said that the Treasury would not match its offer to buy shares in a stand alone HBOS at the same rate as that for the takeover by Lloyds TSB.
Lloyds TSB shareholders are due to vote on the takeover in Glasgow today. (Scotsman page 8, Bill Jamieson in the Scotsman, The Herald page B1, Daily Mail page 4, The Times page 11, FT page 2, The P&J page 1)
Post Office: Ross Lydall in the Scotsman (page 24) comments on the possibility of the Post Office becoming “the people’s bank”.
Retail: The Scottish Retail Consortium has said that Scottish shoppers are cutting back on everything other than the essentials and reports the largest drop in non-food sales in eight years. (Scotsman page 29, The Herald page 7, Daily Mail page 2, Daily Express page 4, The P&J page 15)
Restaurant tips legislation: Lord Mandelson is expected to announce new legislation today meaning that all gratuity given to restaurants and bars by customers be given to the staff.
(The Sun page 2)
Higher education funding: The Scottish Government was criticised by university leaders yesterday over proposals to commit 11% of funding to schemes that are claimed to support their economic priorities.
(The Herald page 5)
Financial powers: John Swinney, Finance Secretary, writing in the Daily Express (page 12) has called for full fiscal autonomy for Scotland as opposed to the current Barnett Formula.
Crime
Rape: Ian Duguid QC, Chairman of the Faculty of Advocates Criminal Bar Association, has called for jurors to be questioned on why so few men are convicted of rape. (Scotsman page 10, Daily Express page 10)
Child Protection: Labour have made calls for the Scottish Government to strengthen child protection legislation.
This follows plans for the establishment of multi-agency Children’s Trust Boards in local authority areas throughout England in light of the recent ‘Baby P’ case.
(The Herald page 6)
Domestic abuse list: A new national database is being set up which will list people vulnerable to domestic abuse in order to help detect and prevent it.
It is claimed that up to 46000 Scots, mainly women, will be named on the system which will be running early next year. (The Herald page 1)
Knife crime education: In a latest bid to prevent knife crime in Scotland, surgeons will visit schools across Glasgow and Inverclyde to educate 13-14 year old pupils on the impact that it has. (Daily Express page 2, Courier & Advertiser page 7)
Education
Bullying: Claire Smith in the Scotsman (page 38) comments on a Place2Be scheme operating in 11 Scottish schools which is a school based counselling service offering guidance to primary pupils being bullied.
Health
Operation first: British doctors have been involved in a successful operation which has seen a patient in Spain receive the world’s first organ created in a laboratory.
Claudia Castillo’s windpipe was grown from stem cells harvested from her bone marrow. (Scotsman page 1, The Daily Mirror page 29, The Herald page 5, The Guardian page 3, Daily Mail page 1, Daily Express page 8, The Times page 5, The Daily Telegraph page 1, The P&J page 18)
Blood donations: Hugh McLaughlan in the Scotsman (page 28) argues against the ban on gay men giving blood.
Cancer waiting times: Figures released yesterday demonstrate that waiting times for the treatment of cancer patients has risen with a drop by 1.4% of those who receive it within the target time.
(The Sun page 2, The Herald page 10, The Daily Record page 4, Daily Mail page 15, Daily Express page 10)
Local Government
Council staff advice: 8000 local authority workers were given advice on how to avoid tripping or falling in the workplace by Renfrewshire Council following an incident where an employee broke his collar bone whilst clearing up hedge trimmings.
(The Sun page 17, Daily Mail page 15, Daily Express page 7)
Politics
BNP: The far right British National Party has called for a police investigation after a full list of party members, including their contact details, was published on the internet. (Scotsman page 5, The Daily Mirror page 1, The Guardian page 1, The Daily Record page 2, Daily Mail page 22, The Times page 1)
Parking fines: Finance minister, John Swinney, claimed that Ministers have incurred parking fines reimbursed by the taxpayer five times since the SNP came to power last year costing a total of up to £171.50.
(The Sun page 6)
Brown poll gain: Figures released yesterday show that Labour’s gap in the polls has narrowed leaving them only 3 points behind the Conservatives’ lead of 40%. (The Herald page 6)
Independence: Angus Macleod continues the discussion on independence. (The Times)
All newspaper references refer to Scottish editions.
All data courtesy of Reform Scotland.
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Reform Scotland is an independent, non-party think tank that aims to set out a better way to deliver increased economic prosperity and more effective public services based on the traditional Scottish principles of limited government, diversity and personal responsibility.