BUSINESS conferences and corporate jollies contribute some £1.9 billion to the Scottish economy, new reserch suggests.

The UK Economic Impact Study (UKEIS), unveiled yesterday at a conference in London, showed that conferences, exhibitions, trade shows and “incentive travel” added £58.4bn to the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011.

In terms of gross value added (GVA), a measure of the value of goods and services, the report found that £17.5bn flowed into England, mainly in London and the West Midlands, compared to £1.9bn in Scotland and £908 million in Wales.

Edinburgh was the main attraction for conference organisers heading to Scotland, hosting 62.5 per cent of meetings north of the Border. Overall, England attracted 86 per cent of all the meetings in the UK while Scotland gained 6.6 per cent.

The study, commissioned by the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Foundation, is the first of its kind and was welcomed by Scottish tourist authorities.

Neil Brownlee, head of Visit-Scotland’s business tourism unit, said: “This long-awaited report is the UK equivalent of similar research commissioned by the US meetings industry two years ago.

“It confirms that the meetings industry, or business tourism as we call it here, is an absolutely key sector supporting not only conference centres and hotels, but thousands of other operators not normally associated with tourism, such as AV companies and activity providers.

“It also reminds us that while tourism is one of the Scottish Government’s key target sectors, business tourism uniquely pulls from all the other sectors such as life sciences, energy and food and drink. It really is a shop window for Scotland.”

UTILITY giant ScottishPower is paying an £890 million dividend to Spanish parent company Iberdrola after the Glasgow-based firm benefited from the cold weather, price hikes and rising customer numbers.

The company’s gas and electricity supply division, which has more than five million customers and has gained several hundred thousand in the past two years, soared back into the black last year with a £170m profit, having lost £22m in 2011.

ScottishPower said that the swing was partly due to margins in the supply business in 2011 being “abnormally low” when some of its contracts to buy power on the wholesale markets were more expensive than the market prices at the time.

It stressed that the overall profit margin for the supply business last year was 4.4 per cent, which it said was “an appropriate level of return given the size of asset base and associated risk of running a large competitive business”.

The group came under fire from consumer groups when it joined other energy companies in increasing prices last autumn, with gas and electricity bills going up by 7 per cent and taking the average annual dual-fuel bill to £1,271.

Accounts filed at Companies House showed that group revenues rose to £7.8bn in 2012 from £7.4bn in 2011 and operating profits increased to £835.2m from £398.5m – a rise of 110 per cent – with the pre-tax surplus also more than doubling to £712.2m from £350m.

The inclusion of the renewables business in the accounts for the first time added around £64m to profits. The 2011 figure had also been hit by a £169m impairment charge in connection with its Longannet station.

The company said the dividend to its Spanish parent was higher than normal to reflect the fact that no dividends had been paid in two of the past five years. Total dividends paid between 2007 and 2012 stand at £1.8 billion and the firm said in the same period more than £4bn had been invested in the UK.

Keith Anderson, who took on the role of chief corporate officer in 2011 after former chief executive Nick Horler left, received £373,000 in salary during his first full year at the helm plus a £129,000 bonus.

The accounts also reveal that the company paid out £7,000 to each of the Scottish National, Labour and Conservative parties for the sponsorship of conferences and events. Staff numbers dipped to 7,526 at the year end, from 7,814.

Total taxes paid in 2012, including corporation and employment levies, rose to £414m against £369m in 2011.

The UK accounted for 28 per cent of profits at Iberdrola last year, only slightly below the 30 per cent achieved from its home market in Spain. Around two-fifths of the total Iberdrola is spending on investment is being directed to the UK, including a record £1.3bn this year, of which £550m will go towards renewable energy projects.

Earlier this month the group unveiled the largest-ever investment plan for its distribution network, spending £5.2bn to reduce the risk of power cuts in rural areas.

The firm will reinforce cables and substations across the Central Belt, Merseyside and North Wales, including some infrastructure from the 1950s. If the company is given the green light to invest the cash by energy regulator Ofgem then it will create about 2,500 jobs in its supply chain.

ANYONE who has encountered Perth-based duo Pumajaw in the past decade will appreciate that they have always had a noirish element.

Whether they are mining the gothic melodrama of a sea shanty or creating original spectral soundscapes, their music combines the alluring torch-song vocals of Pinkie Maclure with distorted guitar backdrops created by John Wills (of recently reformed psych rockers Loop).

But now they are making their noir allegiances official by producing an atmospheric audio-visual show for the Fringe. Song Noir features a setlist of songs, many of which have appeared in cult films from Night Of The Hunter to Kill Bill, with a emphasis on film noir. “It’s amazing how much music is in those films,” says Maclure, who researched the show via marathon viewing sessions.

“The song we’re opening with is from Kiss Me Deadly. Through that whole film, there is this glowing box and nobody knows what’s in it. Appropriately, the song is called I’d Rather Have The Blues Than What I’ve Got – what have you got? We don’t want to know! That’s the theme that runs through Song Noir. It’s about danger lurking round the corner or some hidden, dark, mysterious thing that you’re not quite sure about.”

In addition to the soundtrack, the duo have made on abstract films to use as a backdrop. “We want to have a fully rounded show with lots of ups and downs and mood changes and a few bangs here and there.” To that end, they have landed the ideal venue in Summerhall’s Red Lecture Theatre. “It’s so seedy,” says an excited Maclure. “It’s like walking into this slightly sinister old 70s cinema. It’s got these quite unpleasant teak veneer walls and red chairs and horrible little tables in front of them. It’s pretty grim really so it’s absolutely perfect for what we wanted to do.” The duo are recording the music from Song Noir and aim to have an album ready in January.

• Pumajaw are at Electric Dark in the Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, tomorrow. Song Noir plays at Summerhall, Edinburgh from 2-25 August

I GET asked lots of questions about the independence referendum, and one that comes up regularly is: “Why are you so confident about winning?”

One part of the answer is that Yes Scotland knows from our research that people who regard themselves as well-informed about the independence debate are more likely to be voting Yes.

This direct correlation between feeling you have enough information and being more likely to vote for an independent Scotland will prove very important as we head into the final year of the campaign. We have enough time to have conversations in every part of the country, to present the full facts, to get the fictional roadblocks of the No campaign out of the way of the debate, and to explain that the people of Scotland are coming to a fork in the road where we have to choose one of two paths. There are two different futures on offer next year and voters in Scotland should examine both very closely.

As people move towards Yes, they begin to see themselves as part of something bigger – a Scotland-wide grassroots movement and community groundswell with a shared purpose, where individuals look typically not just to their own interests but also to what is right for the society of which they are a part.

When people (always in their own time) become more engaged with the debate, the two futures on offer will be compared side by side. Which will people prefer – a superficial “choice” between two UK parties in a 2015 General Election with little difference between them in terms of economic and social policy; or the wide-ranging debate with competing and compelling visions to be enjoyed and evaluated in the first elections to an independent Scottish parliament in 2016?

The first part of the campaign has been dominated by the mechanics of independence – how we get things set up after a Yes vote. In the weeks and months ahead we will see many new ideas about how an independent Scotland can build on its strong foundations and address its challenges, using our great economic strengths and tackling our legacy of social injustice and inequality. This fresh thinking will come not just from the political parties, but also from bodies like the Jimmy Reid Foundation with their emerging vision of Common Weal, from the imaginations of Scotland’s artistic and creative community, and from the many business figures who think the future looks brighter with independence. The Yes movement is much bigger and broader than the party political framework.

There is a consensus for economic and social development in Scotland that is markedly different from the divisive and socially unjust model that has dominated Westminster politics for more than 30 years. We need to move away from being a low-pay and high-anxiety economy, where people are disposable units of labour and the majority of Scots live with a constant sense of jeopardy and insecurity. We can do much better than this. We must do much better than this.

With independence we will enjoy the benefits of a written constitution with guaranteed rights, a commitment to the cradle-to-grave welfare state and much greater certainty on the continuation of high-quality public services. We can scrap Trident and the bedroom tax. For the first time in a long time, we can link housing supply to housing benefit and have a joined-up policy on decent homes for all our people. We can adjust business taxes and incentives to grow our existing industries and attract more inward investment.

Within the UK, voters in Scotland have very little influence on the choice of governments or policies. Our democracy will benefit from voters no longer feeling helpless and marginalised, from an end to the attacks on the living standards of working people and their families, and from a departure from the austerity agenda that stifles growth and destroys jobs. I have no doubt that any elected Scottish government in an independent parliament will have a stronger commitment to social justice than any UK government has had for several decades.

Westminster isn’t working. Going even further, it can also be argued that in some respects Westminster has for a generation been pursuing policies that are the antithesis of mainstream values, and are designed to serve the City of London at the expense of everybody else. These are policies which have seen inequality among working age adults increase faster in the UK than in any other developed country in the period since 1975.

A Yes vote is a rejection of Westminster politics and power and a preference for Scotland’s future being in Scotland’s hands. Scotland already has most of the structures in place for independent statehood. We are almost certainly better prepared for independence than any other European country pursuing self-determination in the last 100 years. We have the experience of devolution, great financial strengths and a clear transition process.

We have a great deal to gain from independence. And more and more people in Scotland are beginning to realise what we will lose if we don’t vote Yes next year. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to create the kind of society that we would wish to have, an economy where there is enterprise and reward, but also a country where we support equality of opportunity. A No vote would lead to deep feelings of regret, the real sense of loss that follows a missed opportunity, and the painful awareness of the benefits and gains that we have squandered. I don’t believe Scotland will make that mistake.

• Blair Jenkins is chief executive of Yes Scotland

IN years to come people will ask: ‘Where were you when Andy Murray won the men’s singles at Wimbledon beating the number one-ranked tennis player in the world?’

The answers will be many and various but they will have a unifying theme – the utter joy and some relief that he has won the “home” grand slam at the All England tennis club.

Centre Court must rank with the most famous of worldwide sporting theatres. Sydney’s Olympic Park qualifies. The day before Murray’s triumph, rugby witnessed the utter vindication of sporting selection as Warren Gatland’s British and Irish Lions clinched a 2-1 series win against the Australians. Gatland had dropped Irish legend Brian O’Driscoll for the match, and yet won by a huge margin.

Back in London amidst the Murray entourage was Sir Chris Hoy, another Scot who knows how to win against the world’s best in the greatest show on earth – the Olympics. Thousands of column inches will analyse success in sport and with a year to go before Scotland decides its future, what sporting success means for politics.

Not much seems the lesson of political history. But rather more important to the millions who revelled in Murray’s fantastic performance is future success. Winning breeds winning. Do not go backwards observed a kiwi friend in sports administration. He cited the fall in Australia’s Olympic medals after Sydney as government funding and private sponsorship dried up. Australian medals were markedly less in Beijing and London.

So a podium finish to those who lobbied and won the argument for Team GB sports funding to be maintained. Tennis benefits as Andy Murray will defend his gold medal from London 2012 at Rio in 2016. The runners, rowers, cyclists and other sports who brought home victories last year will have funding maintained on a Team GB basis. A Scottish sporting leader looking forward with optimism to Glasgow’s 2014 Commonwealth Games observed he needs the UK-wide lottery funding, the Team GB approach and the commercial sponsorship which all that attracts. It is an overall package.

This issue remains an unanswered question about independence. The national lottery is run on a UK basis by Camelot. The income from the lottery is funding many projects across the UK. But with sport, the funding is absolutely crucial. It is the basis for the elite athletes’ programmes focused on winning world championships and Olympic medals. Yet when Camelot were recently in the Scottish Parliament explaining their business it transpired neither the Scottish Government nor the independence campaign had bothered to get in touch. So how come the government machine mobilised to deliver for independence has chosen to ignore yet another significant factor?

Scottish sport needs to know what independence means. If the SNP state they will maintain sports funding without the lottery, then it comes from general taxation. What is cut to pay Murray’s airfare to Rio – or is sport all the more richer with what we have?

WE’VE all been there. You’re out and about, minding your own business – you only popped out for a pint of milk, so you’ve just thrown your scruffiest coat over your jim-jams and you’re making Robert Smith from The Cure look positively elegant – when along the street towards you comes your ex, with his/her latest squeeze.

You have two options: you can throw yourself into the nearest hedge and wait there until they’ve gone past; or you can say hello, make desperately stilted conversation punctuated with overly-shrill laughter, and try to pretend this isn’t in the least bit embarrassing. Either way, when the horror is over, you scurry home and spend the next half hour howling “No, no, NO!!!” into a cushion.

The good news is that the technology now exists to prevent such toe-curling encounters from ever blighting our existence again. Scott Garner, a student on New York University’s interactive telecommunications programme, has created an app called Hell Is Other People (HIOP). Manhattan-based Garner, who admits to having “social anxiety” and a “disdain for social media”, calls his app “an experiment in anti-social media” because it tracks the whereabouts of friends and acquaintances, specifically to enable you to avoid them.

HIOP essentially piggy-backs on to the Foursquare social networking site, which was developed to help people connect with each other and meet up in the same places, by using maps and a check-in system. HIOP reverses this completely, so once you can see where everybody is, you can high-tail it in the opposite direction.

However, you may have noticed a teensy-weensy irony here. That’s right: you have to be a member of the Foursquare network to enable you to get away from other people on – you got it – the Foursquare network.

As Garner himself admits: “I had to sign up for a social media site and talk to people to get them to be my friends on that site so I could avoid them.” Ouch.

To be honest, I would’ve thought that the best way to avoid people in Manhattan would be to move to New Jersey, but I understand where Garner is coming from. Imagine the liberation of being absolutely sure you aren’t going to bump into anybody you don’t want to see.

Imagine never having to duck down behind a wall, or feeling obliged to painstakingly tie another pair of imaginary shoelaces, ever again. No more dull, awkward conversations about the weather, before suddenly noticing: “Oh no! Is that the time?” No more intense examinations of fingernails, contents of pockets, or pavement cracks, in the forlorn hope of not being noticed.

Quite apart from being a gift to adulterers – and perhaps even criminals – everywhere, this app could potentially lift the burden of unwanted sociability from the shoulders of millions of grumpy misanthropes.

Obviously, as Garner found, you would have to meet people in the first place in order to add them to your must-avoid list, but this could even bring a measure of refreshing honesty to our social interactions. After a lousy evening, you could turn to your companion and say with disarming candour: “Do you loathe me as much as I loathe you? You do? Great, shall we HIOP each other?”

Perhaps one day, the social and anti-social apps could be combined. With helpful colour coding – friends in green, enemies in red – you’ll be able to see exactly where everybody is and make your decisions about where to go accordingly. For example, if you’ve arranged to meet Steve (green) at the pub, but at the last minute you see that he’s with Dave (red), you would still have time to text and say: “Sorry can’t make it. Dog ate my tricycle.”

Even if you’re such a sociopath that you prefer to stay at home to eliminate even the slightest risk of meeting people, HIOP will be able to help you by warning you when unwanted guests are approaching. Then you can hide under the bed until the knocking on the front door stops.

Having said all this, I must admit that even though Edinburgh is a small city, I hardly ever have accidental or unwelcome encounters. In fact, it’s amazing how infrequently I bump into people I know. It’s almost as though all of them have rushed out to get this app and now they’re avoiding me! Oh, wait…

SCOTLAND may have escaped the latest ECHR decision but creeping encroachment casts a long shadow, writes Bill Jamieson

ON A narrow interpretation Scotland could be said to have little to fear from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling that whole-of-life sentences are a breach of human rights. It only applies to England and Wales. In Scotland, there is no provision for a whole-life tariff.

And are we not in any case a more liberal and progressive people, and generally more supportive of the workings of the ECHR? It is England that has the problem. Its objection to the ECHR can be seen to spring from its wider Euro-scepticism and the “law ‘n’ order” element that has been a highly vocal part of the Conservative vote.

So, it’s not our problem, is it? However, you do not need to be a paid-up member of the League of Union Loyalists to be troubled about this latest ruling. Indeed, there will be many SNP supporters who are watching the growing encroachment of the Strasbourg court with some trepidation.

What are the limits – if any – on the writ of the ECHR? How wide and how deep does its jurisdiction run? And how far does that other fundamental principle – the right of people to determine their own laws in their own countries – have to be ceded before a widespread public frustration and rejection kick in?

And it is for this reason that the ever expanding writ of the ECHR should be of considerable concern to us here. Scotland has always prided itself on its separate and distinctive legal system. It is one of the defining characteristics of our difference and distinction. We guard it with pride and would resist encroachment from London. Why should the prospect of encroachment from Strasbourg be treated any differently?

That the Scottish legal system does not have a whole-of-life sentencing capacity may be fortuitous in this instance. But it does not provide us with any guarantee of future encroachment in other areas. And that encroachment we may well find disagreeable and indeed profoundly offensive. We are swift to uphold our right to a separate system of jurisprudence reflective of local conditions and preferences. By the same token we would be sensitive and respectful of the right of other countries to have differences in their legal approach and application, particularly when those differences have been overwhelmingly endorsed in an act of parliament enjoying wide cross-party support.

So, consider the broader picture of the ruling this week that the life sentences given to murderer Jeremy Bamber and two other killers breached their human rights. The judges ruled by 16 to one there had to be a review of the sentence and while stipulating this did not mean “any prospect of imminent release” did endorse release as a possibility.

Whole-of-life sentencing in England and Wales is not some barbaric hangover from mediaeval times. It was adopted by a substantial majority in the UK parliament as recently as 2003 in response to particularly heinous and brutal slayings. And the resort to whole-of-life sentencing is specifically limited to those, fortunately very few, instances where a convicted criminal has not only taken someone’s life in exceptionally barbaric and heinous circumstances, but has done so intentionally. The loss of life has been no unintended consequence or sudden impulse. Whole-of-life sentencing also has regard to the protection of citizens from attack by dangerous criminals who are liable to re-offend on release – a particularly important consideration given recent instances of savage re-offending.

Consider the cases of the three whose appeal the ECHR has now upheld. Bamber was found guilty in 1986 of murdering his wealthy adoptive parents June and Neville. He also slayed his sister Sheila Caffell and her twin sons, Daniel and Nicholas, aged six. The bodies of all five of his victims were riddled with bullets. The motive was the prospect of inheriting a £435,000 family fortune. He claimed that his sister had carried out the massacre, a claim police were minded to consider until his ex-girlfriend told them he had discussed having his parents murdered by a contract killer. The trial judge described him as “evil, almost beyond belief”. A court of appeal rejected his case.

A second murderer, Douglas Vintner, admitted killing his wife in 2008 after having served a sentence for a previous murder. The third appellant, Peter Moore, murdered four men in the space of four months in 1995. The ECHR has now ruled that their sentences are a breach of their human rights and their treatment “inhuman and degrading”. One might consider this a far more apt summary of the treatment the murderers meted out to their victims, who are in no position to launch appeals to the ECHR.

Apologists for the Strasbourg court argue that there has to be an alternative to “prison for life”. But in fact there was one for a very long period: the death sentence. When that was abolished, a life sentence in prison was seen by abolitionists to be altogether more humane.

There are currently 49 murderers facing whole-life sentences who could be affected by this ruling. They include Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, Ian Brady, the Moors murderer, Levi Bellfield, the killer of Milly Dowler and Dale Cregan who shot dead two unarmed police officers in Manchester.

All have enjoyed right of appeal against their sentences. But there is one party that has no such right. This is the UK government, which cannot appeal this ruling by the ECHR.

By ruling as it has, the ECHR, says Martin Howe QC, a member of the government’s Commission on a Bill of Rights, “has restricted the legitimate right of states to take their own decisions in accordance with their own democratic processes, about the balance that their laws should strike between different interests”.

The creeping jurisdiction of the ECHR seems beyond question or challenge, as indeed is the consistency of its rulings, bearing in mind a previous ruling that states can lock up dangerous killers forever.

The ECHR, Howe adds, has moved well away from its original purposes and “rather than imposing minimum standards has put a straitjacket on the judgements of democratic governments on difficult issues where there are legitimate differences of view”. And this coming on top of the legal farrago over the deportation of the radical cleric Abu Qatada, may well further inflame public opinion to the point where withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights becomes a significant vote-catcher in the next UK general election.

That danger was well highlighted by former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett speaking this week. “Whatever the technical justification the Strasbourg court may have”, he warned, “it is the right of the British parliament to determine the sentence of those who have committed such crimes. To do otherwise can only lead to disillusionment, mistrust of, and a dangerous alienation from, our democracy itself.” It is a warning as applicable to the Scottish Parliament as to the UK.

An unchecked ECHR risks bringing into public disrespect the founding principles which were once universally supported, and why its latest ruling is very much an issue for us all.

SEE ALSO:

• Michael Kelly: Salmond’s flag-waving mars Murray’s win

• From Friends of the Scotsman - The problems of ‘voluntourism’ need to be addressed

WHERE Margaret Thatcher, the arch-privatiser feared to tread, Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary, is boldly going.

Baroness Thatcher drew the line, she said at the time, at “privatising the Queen’s head”. Arguably, Mr Cable is not doing that either as the Post Office, which issues stamps, is not to be privatised. But Royal Mail, which delivers letters and parcels, is to be sold to private investors.

The distinction may well be lost on many people. Royal Mail vans and post boxes in their bright red livery and bearing the royal arms are as familiar a part of the landscape and culture of Britain. The thought that they will be in private hands will stick in many throats.

The rationale behind much of the late Baroness Thatcher’s ­privatisations was to relieve taxpayers of the need to keep subsidising loss-making industries which could be made profitable in the private sector. That is not the case with Royal Mail which, admittedly after several years of losses, is now profitable.

The argument now is that Royal Mail has to adapt to a world which has embraced the internet for the sending of written messages, steadily reducing the number of letters being sent, and for shopping, increasing the number of parcels requiring ­delivery.

This entails big investment in equipment, the cost of which would otherwise fall on the taxpayer. But when sold by the state, private investors will have to pick up that cost while the government collects a handy few billion, some of which it says it will invest in post offices.

Most people will be a lot less concerned by these matters of high finance than by the worry of what will happen to the postal service. While businesses can make use of competing delivery services, it is extremely difficult for individuals to do so, which leaves them at the mercy of what will be a private monopoly.

Mr Cable has said that Royal Mail’s universal service obligation – which means, among other things, that it is obliged to deliver to every household, no matter how remote, for the same price – will be maintained.

It may be that the eventual owners are able to produce some improvements to the service, though this is hard to imagine given the tendency to dwindling revenues. But Scotland will have some special concerns, given that postal deliveries to remoter areas as they are now will probably never make money, and a legal underpinning today does not give a legal underpinning in perpetuity. What guarantees are there that they will not see a diminuation of the six day service or face some premium in price if the company who runs the mail service makes demands at some point in the future? And in many communities, the postie is a far greater part of the community than just a mail delivery system.

Scots will have to see the fine detail in this plan to be convinced it is in their best interests.

A9 upgrade must start earlier

TRAGICALLY, the A9 has claimed more lives. A mother and daughter and a man died and three more people were injured in a collision between two vehicles on a single-carriageway section of the road near Kingussie on Tuesday evening.

The victims, according to police, were all visitors to the area and so may have been unaware of the lethal reputation of the road. They may have been attracted to the Highlands because of the region’s beauty. There is only one solution to prevent this kind of carnage on the main artery between the Highland capital and central Scotland, which is for it to become dual carriageway its entire length. The Scottish Government has embarked on the process of achieving this, but it will be fully a decade and perhaps even longer before it is complete.

This dreadful accident should, however, prompt a reassessment of the timetable. The first section scheduled for dualling is a stretch between Kincraig and Dalraddy in the long single carriageway stretch between Kingussie and the Slochd summit, which is where the frustrations of drivers stuck in long queues behind slower-moving lorries and buses with little chance of overtaking are probably greatest, raising the risk of accidents.

Work is not due to start, however, until 2015-16, which means it could be five years before this upgrade is completed. These fatalities should surely mean that the case for an earlier start should be examined.

The same applies to the rest of the route, where a complete dual carriageway between Perth and Inverness is not foreseen before 2025. The economic case for swifter dualling is already strong; reducing the death and injury toll should make it imperative.

The Scotsman, 11 July 1950

THE new National Library of Scotland building in Edinburgh is likely to be finished late in 1954 or early in 1955. These were the dates that had been given them, said the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, when he presided at a meeting of the Board of Trustees in Parliament House. It was 25 years since the Faculty of Advocates handed over to the nation their world-famous library, he pointed out. It was 22 years since that gift was matched by Sir Alexander Grant in supplying money for a building worthy of that great library, and worthy of Scotland. “The skeleton of that building has too long remained,” added Lord Crawford. “But viewed as a commentary of the way our lords and masters accept a most generous gift, I hope it may not be considered as a symbol of the way they treat, or wish to treat all questions of scholarship of mind, research, and art.” The trustees had exerted all possible pressure to speed up the matter.

EVENTS, birthdays and anniversaries for 11 July

National day of Mongolia

1533: Pope Clement VII excommunicated King Henry VIII.

1572: Sir Humphrey Gilbert landed in the Netherlands with a band of English volunteers to fight the Spanish.

1776: Captain Cook sailed from Portsmouth in the Resolution, accompanied by the Discovery, on his third and last expedition.

1810: Napoleonic Empire annexed Holland.

1859: The chime of Big Ben in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament was heard for the first time.

1881: The “ghost-ship” Flying Dutchman was sighted at 4am 50 miles off the Cape of Good Hope, by the crew of HMS Inconstant.

1950: Puppets Andy Pandy, Teddy and Looby Loo first appeared on BBC television. The episodes were repeated for more than 25 years.

1962: American Fred Baldassare became first to swim the English Channel underwater with scuba equipment.

1963: Army in Ecuador ousted president Carlos Julio Arosemena, saying he was a Communist sympathiser.

1975: China’s great terracotta army was uncovered near the ancient capital of Xian. More than 6,000 life-sized warriors were made in about 206 BC to guard the tomb of the first emperor.

1979: America’s Skylab I returned to earth after 34,981 orbits since its launch on 14 May, 1973.

1990: Hundreds of thousands of miners in Ukraine held a one-day strike to protest against the policies of the Soviet government.

1994: A report said that women in Glasgow have the world’s highest rate of heart disease.

1995: Actor Hugh Grant was fined £750 by a Los Angeles court and put on probation for two years when he admitted lewd conduct with a prostitute.

1995: More than 8,000 Bosnian men and children (all Bosniaks) were killed by Serbian troops commanded by Ratko Mladic in Potocari near Srebrenica Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2006: 209 people were killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India.

2007: Four suicide bomber refugees found guilty of plotting to detonate explosions on three Tube trains and a bus in London in 2005 were jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 40 years. All the bombs failed to go off.

BIRTHDAYS

Suzanne Vega, singer-songwriter, 54; Giorgio Armani, fashion designer, 79; Nadeem Aslam, novelist, 47; Craig Charles, comedian, 49; John Kettley, weatherman, 61; Lil’ Kim, rapper, 38; Mark Lester, actor and singer, 55; Lord Levy, 69; Dean Richards, rugby player and coach, 50; Richie Sambora, rock guitarist (Bon Jovi), 54; Peter de Savary, businessman and yachtsman, 69; Kellie Shirley, actress, 32; Leon Spinks, former world heavyweight boxing champion, 60; John Stride, actor, 77.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1274 Robert the Bruce, King of Scots (at Turnberry); 1754 Thomas Bowdler, Scottish physician and publisher; 1767 John Quincy Adams, 6th United States president; 1862 Liza Lehmann, composer and singer; 1916 Reg Varney, actor); 1917 Yul Brynner, actor.

Deaths: 1937 George Gershwin, composer; 1941 Sir Arthur Evans, archaeologist; 1989 Lord Olivier, actor; 1992 Albert Pierrepoint, hangman; 2000 Right-Reverend Lord Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury 1980-91; 2011 George Henry Hubert Lascelles KBE, 7th Earl of Harewood, artistic director of the Edinburgh Festival 1961-65.

LEADING Scottish egg producer Glenrath Farms of Peebles is about to invest more than £3.5 million in a new cracking and processing facility in an attempt to add value to its second-quality eggs.

Speaking yesterday, the founder of the company, John Campbell, said the move had been driven by past experiences when egg surpluses had driven the value of seconds down to just 7.5p per dozen.

Currently Glenrath produce about 1.5 million eggs every day and Campbell said that around 10 per cent of that production is either seconds or cracks. “It is a big part of the market and we have been working at doing something along these lines project for some time,” he said.

“There are a lot of free-range seconds around at the moment and we thought, we can’t let that happen again. But there is no egg processing facility in Scotland. All eggs for processing have to be sent south to England or shipped over to Ireland.”

He added that Glenrath had tried to buy an egg processing facility from another company which had a disused site in Scotland, but the company would not sell for professional reasons. “So we decided to do it ourselves.”

The final stages of planning permission are currently being dealt with and he hoped work would shortly begin on the new factory, which will be on one of Glenrath’s existing farms in Peeblesshire.

“We will be starting in a small way, just using our own seconds,” he said. But once any teething problems were sorted out, he hoped to build that part of the business up.”

He estimated that up to 30 jobs could be created when the new facility is fully working. With regard to sales of the product, which will be pasteurized, Campbell said he had already been approached by three large-scale potential customers.

Last year the turnover at Glenrath rose to £55M from the previous year’s figure of £50M. Campbell was speaking on a trip to London supermarkets where he reported sales of Kitty Campbell’s Free Range eggs were “exceeding our predictions”.

To help fund the new facility the company has been awarded a £575,000 grant under the Scottish Government’s food processing, marketing and co-operation grant scheme.

One of the country’s largest supermarket chains has increased its commitment to Beef Shorthorn cattle, with Morrisons announcing it will be increasing the premium paid to producers by 10p per kilo to encourage even more farmers to rear the breed.

Almost two years ago, the retailer, with just under 500 stores throughout the country ,launched its Traditional Beef Scheme with a 20p per kilo premium for Beef Shorthorn sired stock. This week’s announcement increases that to 30p per kilo,w worth between £30 to £40 per animal.

The pull through effect of the premium scheme is reflected in the increased popularity of the breed. In the short time the scheme has been running, registrations with the Beef Shorthorn breed society have risen 26 per cent and new record prices have been set for both Shorthorn bulls – 15,000gn – and cows – 13,000gn.

Andrew Loftus, Morrisons’ agriculture manager, said: “The Beef Shorthorn is now numerically Britain’s fastest-growing native breed and accounts for between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of our traditional breeds range.

“Offering a payment premium for the Beef Shorthorn has undoubtedly encouraged farmers to invest in this breed and reflects Morrisons’ longstanding commitment to the Beef Shorthorn breed.”

The scheme, which pays a lesser premium of 10p per kilo for other native breeds, sees the cattle processed at the three Morrisons’ abattoirs in Turriff, Spalding and Colne.

Beef Shorthorn Society secretary Frank Milnes said: “We are delighted about the Traditional Beef Scheme’s success and Morrisons’ subsequent further commitment to Beef Shorthorn.

“The initiative, which has helped to increase the value of Beef Shorthorn bred steers, has brought a very welcome boost for the breed.”

The announcement of the increased premium coincided with the launch of the Beef Shorthorn bull Rothesay Eildon in Cogent’s latest Signature Beef Range.

The bull was bred at the Morrisons Farm at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, and his presence with a major artificial insemination company will allow commercial suckler producers access to a high-ranking bull with the versatility to produce replacement heifers and fast-growing steers for finishing.

His Estimated Breeding Values reflect the breed’s maternal characteristics and combined this with growth and conformation figures that have placed him in the top 1 per cent of the breed.

Plans for the Royal Mail’s future feature in today’s cartoon

Illustration by Iain Green

SCOTLAND has some of the highest childcare costs in Europe which results in a huge detrimental impact on employment, child poverty and gender equality.

But the provision of universal, affordable childcare could enable parents to return to work, reducing unemployment and economic inactivity.

Among many of the families living in poverty in Scotland at least one of the parents is working, but if both parents could earn a wage without being heavily penalised by the costs of childcare, it would substantially increase family incomes and reduce child poverty. This is particularly important for single parents who are disproportionately penalised by the high cost of childcare.

High-quality early years education provides a good foundation for the child’s future learning.

In the long-term, this improves the skill base of the workforce and boosts economic productivity. It also helps to reduce inequality and shape socially well-adjusted individuals. Focusing on children’s well-being and education is a long-term investment which benefits us all.

Access to affordable childcare also furthers gender equality and reduces the “motherhood penalty” – the detachment of mothers from the workforce due to long periods of unpaid childcare, followed by the crowding of women into low paid part-time jobs when they return to work. This can hamper women’s earnings and career progression.

Universal childcare would allow women to return to work. When combined with more generous leave policies and more flexibility, parents could meet childcare demands and continue to work.

There’s a lot to learn from the Danish approach to childcare. In Denmark all children are entitled to a childcare place (from 8am-6pm, including school holidays) from the age of one until they start school. A mixture of centre-based care and child-minders is in place, run by the public, private and voluntary sectors. There is also the option for what’s called “private day care”, whereby parents are paid a token wage to look after their own child for one year beyond maternity leave.

The costs to Danish parents are set according to family income and capped at a low level (a maximum of 25 per cent of the price of childcare). Parents pay the equivalent of 7-10 per cent of their annual income and it’s completely free for those on low incomes. In comparison, recent OECD research indicates that UK parents currently pay on average 33 per cent of their net income on childcare and this disproportionately affects families on low incomes. Denmark does not have child tax credits, preferring instead to fund services rather than cash transfer.

Funding universal services is more suitable for ensuring that high-quality childcare is available for everyone, regardless of their location, socio-economic background or specialised needs. In Denmark, high quality childcare is considered to be a central plank of child development, especially in areas such as language, literacy and behaviour. Consequently, the childcare workforce is well trained and well paid. Sixty per cent of childcare staff hold pedagogical university level training, reflecting the value of childcare workers’ contribution to society.

In March 2013 Alex Salmond announced that he wanted a “transformational shift” in childcare provision so that it was more comparable to European levels of provision. However, exactly what policies would be put in place remains vague. According to his previous pledge in 2012, it would include 600 hours of free childcare for all three and four-year-olds. This would fall far short of the levels of childcare provided in other European countries. Clearly, a much more comprehensive reform in childcare provision is needed if Scotland wants to truly to become a fairer and dynamic society. Central to this reform should be universal childcare for all children from ages one to four and the development of a more long-term approach towards childcare and early year’s education. It’s high time the motherhood penalty was consigned to the history books.

• Louise Settle recently finished a PhD in history at the University of Edinburgh. She has also completed a Third Sector Internships Scotland placement with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

• Click here for more information about Friends of the Scotsman

PROVIDING businesses with the means to grow is an advance on the misguided approach of the ‘voluntourism’ trade, says Amy Bodel

REMEMBER the highly praised, purple-shirted Games Makers of London 2012? They kick-started a wave of enthusiasm for volunteering in the UK, and it’s encouraging that this seems to be continuing with recruitment for Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games. More than 50,000 people have applied to play a part in next year’s events, and half of those are currently being interviewed before the final 15,000 are selected.

The Games Makers developed a reputation as a dedicated volunteer workforce, giving up their time to make a valuable and worthwhile contribution. Some have even gone on to complete a national qualification – the Level 2 City & Guilds Award in the Principles of Customer Service – which recognises skills they developed last summer. This is a boost to their employability, to the hospitality sector, and has also done wonders to increase the profile of volunteering as a rewarding experience.

Things, however, aren’t as rosy when it comes to volunteering internationally. There has been great debate in international development circles over what constitutes a useful, constructive volunteering opportunity. Although those satirical “Gap Yah” sketches featuring Orlando – dubbed the private-school equivalent of Little Britain’s Vicky Pollard – on his travels or organising fundraisers for “Haiti, in Africa” elicit a chuckle, they do raise a valid point.

The “voluntourism” trade where volunteers of all ages travel to developing countries – albeit under well-intentioned premises of supporting charitable organisations – is a cause for concern. Volunteers, and even the organisations themselves behind such trips, can have worryingly little understanding and it’s unsurprising that these opportunities can in fact be detrimental to the communities they aim to support.

For instance, take the horror stories of orphanages where managers are actually incentivised to keep children looking poor in order to keep support and finance from voluntourists coming in. Yes, of course that’s an extreme example, but it happens.

Here at Challenges Worldwide, we’re a not-for-profit social enterprise and we provide volunteering opportunities that have a lasting positive impact on communities. We partner with local and international organisations such as Oxfam and Christian Aid to deliver projects which support the development of fair and inclusive local economies.

Our volunteers assist enterprises and entrepreneurs in low and middle-income countries to strengthen their skills and abilities, which in turn helps them to grow businesses that generate income, sustainable economic growth and alleviate poverty.

Rather than taking the voluntourism approach of tailoring activities to suit volunteers, our assignments are dictated by needs of the organisations we work with. From scoping visits and dissertation research to providing support on areas like business planning, financial management or marketing, our volunteers know they are an integral part of process in building local capacity and improving the resilience and sustainability of these organisations

Take SolarNow, a business selling solar kits to households and businesses in off-grid areas of Uganda. They needed help to implement processes that would allow them to offer customers a 12-month credit term. Volunteer Kevin Kennedy, an experienced consultant, spent time working with the local team to identify and implement new initiatives, develop a business plan and provided sales training:

“It is rare to see hard-won experience have such a direct impact,” he said. “In my case I was able to directly fill a management gap in operations and vendor financing. This allowed SolarNow to move from a consultancy with expert marketing and microfinance knowledge to a fully integrated distribution and financing company.”

The company is now a market leader in Uganda and operates franchises in Tanzania, Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal.

Or take Jerry Comyn, who left behind a career in corporate advertising and is now on his fifth business mentoring assignment with us. Speaking about his time with Eco-Fuel Africa, a business which manufactures an environmentally-friendly alternative to charcoal, Comyn said: “I have agreed a schedule of deadlines with their director, Sanga. It’s a heavy list but he appreciates everything we are working towards. I have great respect for his vision and have no doubt he will achieve everything he sets out to do. I feel privileged to be part of that.”

We’ve now supported hundreds of organisations in over forty low and middle-income countries and we hope that more talented individuals will opt to participate in placements with proven impact instead of the gap year-style voluntourism options on offer.

• Click here for more information about Friends of the Scotsman

MINERS dragged the Footsie lower yesterday after weak export data from China stoked fears of a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.

Traders held their fire ahead of last night’s interest rate decision from the United States Federal Reserve and a speech by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, both of which came after the London market had closed. The FTSE 100 index closed down 8.12 points at 6,504.96.

Chris Beauchamp at IG Index said: “When faced with a Fed-related event, the most prudent course of action is to sit on one’s hands. Traders have followed this rule diligently.

“We are still in the midst of the healthy bounce that has allowed markets to recover plenty of lost ground, but it all now hangs on the outcome of the Fed minutes. Grudging acceptance is the best way to describe the market’s reaction to tapering, but if the minutes come out as hawkish then it could throw its toys out of the pram once again.”

Banking stocks dipped despite credit ratings agency Moody’s saying Britain’s lenders are now strong enough to survive another financial crisis.

Royal Bank of Scotland fell by 3.1p to 300.5p, Lloyds Banking Group was down 0.25p to 66.1p and Barclays dropped by 0.3p to close at 302.05p.

Luxury fashion label Burberry climbed 4.8 per cent or 69p to 1,510p after it hailed a “standout season” for sales.

Other retail stocks on the front foot included Tesco after analysts at Exane BNP Paribas said the supermarket group’s attempts to refresh its food offer were gathering pace.

BNP raised its target price, leading to a gain in Tesco shares of 5.9p to 349.5p, while Morrisons also benefited from an upgrade from the same brokerage as its shares lifted 4p to 282p.

NEW YORK: The Dow and the S&P 500 ended little changed last night as investors tried to gauge when the Federal Reserve may scale back on its economic stimulus.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 8.68 points, or 0.06 per cent, to end at 15,291.66 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 Index inched up 0.30 of a point, or 0.02 per cent, to finish at 1,652.62. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 16.50 points, or 0.47 per cent, to close at 3,520.76.

MUCH has been written about the state of the construction industry in Scotland over the past few years. Unfortunately not enough of that has been good news.

There is no doubt the sector has experienced the full force of the economic problems that have rocked a number of our key industries since the credit crunch hit in 2008.

It is simply no longer an option for traditional construction companies in Scotland to stand still and just hope the good times come back at some point.

They must find ways of innovating and developing new products and services that can make them money both now and long into the future.

One way of doing that is to start thinking global rather than local.

We already have companies who are doing some very, very clever things and making inroads into foreign markets such as the United States and Asia.

They have developed products and services at a local level, then found buyers for them abroad in regions where levels of construction activity are higher than at home.

One area in particular where Scottish firms have already made a strong impression is in the low carbon technology market.

New regulations and incentives around low carbon and environmental building practices will increasingly influence the design and construction of infrastructure both at home and abroad.

Scotland already leads the market in simulation software for building modeling, and it is innovations like this along with combined heat and power generation and heat exchange and recovery systems, the use of sustainable building materials and modern methods of construction that will drive the sector forward.

With overall sales in the low carbon sector predicted to increase from £1.1bn to around £1.9bn by 2020 it is essential that Scottish companies take a claim for a slice of that growing market.

Therefore it is essential that Scotland’s construction industry redoubles its efforts to think smart and think big, and support is available for those who wish to make the leap on to the world stage.

The question is; who is ready to seize the opportunity?

• Alistair McKinnon is head of construction at Scottish Enterprise

• Click here for more information about Friends of the Scotsman

SCOTTISH forests will be sprayed with fungicide in the first trial of its kind in the UK, aimed at saving the nation’s iconic Caledonian pinewoods from a deadly needle-blight disease.

Permission has been granted by the UK government’s chemicals regulation directorate for the aerial spraying of a copper fungicide to small areas of woodlands in Scotland, over the next three years, in an attempt to fight Dothistroma needle blight, which poses a serious threat to Scotland’s pine forests.

Copper oxychloride has long been used to combat fungal diseases in agriculture and is routinely used against needle blight in New Zealand.

The first UK trial is set to take place later this month in Monaughty Forest in Moray.

Though the fungicide is not considered harmful to humans and animals, unless swallowed or applied to the eyes, part of the Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) trial will also assess its impact on non-target species such as lichens, insects and plants.

Hugh Clayden, tree health policy adviser for FCS, said: “We may soon reach a point where we need to consider the targeted aerial application of fungicide to some pine woodlands as part of a suite of wider measures.”

BURNING trees and other plants, combined with artifical methods of carbon capture and storage, could help reverse ­global warming in the future, experts will say today.

Scientists in Sweden have ­predicted that greater use of trees in biomass could help push down temperatures.

Trees naturally take in carbon dioxide while they grow, and when they are burned, they do not release any more cabon ­dioxide than they absorbed.

The researchers believe ­greater use of biomass, requiring more trees, combined with ­carbon capture initiatives, would reduce the emissions which trigger global warming.

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology found that even if nations fail in their joint pledge to keep temperatures to a global limit of 2C above pre-industrial levels, large-scale use of bioenergy, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) by 2050 could reverse that trend within 100 years. However, environmentalists warned that increasing use of biofuels would “trash” what was left of the world’s forests and jeopardise key farmland needed to grow crops to feed rising populations.

And even the study’s authors warned their findings, which are based on computerised ­models forecasting future scenarios, should not be used as an excuse for governments failing to do more to cut emissions in the short term.

Professor Christian Azar, who co-authored the study, said: “What we demonstrate in our paper is that even if we fail to keep temperature increases below 2C, then we can reverse the warming trend and push temperatures back below the 2C target by 2150.

“The most policy-relevant implication of our study is that even if current political gridlock causes global warming in excess of 2C, we can reverse the ­temperature trend and reach ­targets later.”

But he cautioned that temperatures could also only be reduced by around 0.6C per ­century by taking carbon out of the atmosphere in this way.

This means that the method could not be used as an “emergency brake” if the ­damage was already too great.

Burning trees and plants as a source of energy on a large scale in around 30 to 50 years could allow the world to meet targets to limit temperature rises at a lower cost, the study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters found.

However Lang Banks, director of WWF Scotland, said: “Intensifying our use of bioenergy at the scale ­proposed by this study would be a surefire way of making sure we trash what remains of already threatened forests and put at risk precious land and water needed to grow food.”

Dr Vivian Scott, an expert at the Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage Centre in Edinburgh, added: “This should not be seen as a get out of jail free card.

“Modelling studies like this are interesting but these are just scenarios which are not ­guaranteed by any means.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said biofuels were part of the solution but stressed that they should be used on an “appropriate” scale.

The UK government is ­looking at a number of carbon capture options, such as the Captain Clean Energy Project, at Grangemouth, which would ­involve storing carbon offshore in depleted gas fields

A NEW drug to help extend the lives of patients with advanced prostate cancer has been launched after tests on men in Scotland.

Xtandi – also known as enzalutamide – has been licensed to treat men in the advanced stages of the disease after they have already tried other treatments such as chemotherapy and become resistant to hormone therapies.

Trials, which involved Glasgow patients, found that the once-a-day tablet reduced the risk of dying by 37 per cent, helping extend the lives of the men by valuable extra months.

But the drug will not be immediately available to patients in Scotland until it has been assessed for use on the NHS by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), probably before the end of year.

However, English patients will be able to access it immediately through the Cancer Drugs Fund south of the Border.

Campaigners have called for a quick decision to make sure Scottish patients were not disadvantaged in accessing the drug. Researcher Dr Rob Jones, from Glasgow University, said the trial his patients were involved in had seen average survival increase by 4.8 months among those taking Xtandi compared to men using a placebo.

“Some people may say that 4.8 months does not sound like very much but when it’s your last 4.8 months, they are quite important,” he said.

But Dr Jones said the treatment was also good at reducing the symptoms patients suffered in their final months.

“These are men with very advanced cancer who are all going to die of that cancer,” he said.

“Prostate cancer tends to spread to the bones which causes a lot of symptoms in the last year of life, with bone pain and more devastating complications such as paralysis.

“But what the trial found was that whatever way you measured the benefits of the drug, it improved these. It improved pain control. It delayed the time to developing further significant pain. It improved quality of life and it delayed quality of life deteriorating.”

Dr Jones said another benefit was that the new drug had virtually no side-effects.

Since the trials of Xtandi, made by Astellas Pharma, another drug called abiraterone has been launched, also to treat patients with advanced prostate cancer. Dr Jones said both drugs had similar benefits, but doctors would like to have a choice of treatments to offer patients.

Ahead of approval by the SMC, patients in Scotland will have to go through the process of an individual patient treatment request to get Xtandi.

The Scottish Government is currently in the process of reviewing access to drugs in the hope of improving the system to make it fairer and more 
transparent.