FORMER telecoms monopoly BT yesterday launched a vigorous defence of its broadband strategy after the industry watchdog floated the idea of a possible break-up of the group.

Ofcom said it was looking into whether spinning out the Openreach copper and fibre broadband network from BT may be the best way to improve competition in the sector.

It follows complaints that the network’s performance on behalf of other providers has often been poor, leading to new rules on faster line installations and repairs.

However, BT said customers of all telecoms providers had enjoyed higher speeds and lower prices due to its investment in a new ultra-fast fibre network. It argued that would not have been possible if the company had been split in two a decade ago following a similar industry investigation.

“Ofcom have overseen a regime that has balanced investment with competition and we hope they will once again put the needs of the UK and its consumers ahead of those who have tried to keep the UK in the digital dark ages,” BT said.

Other possibilities under consideration by the regulator include retaining the current model, applying new rules forcing BT to strengthen it, or deregulating and allowing different networks to provide phone and broadband services without using BT’s network at all.

Virgin Media and some smaller operators currently own their own networks, but Ofcom said this model of “end-to-end” competition could lead to duplication of networks and weak competition.

An Ofcom spokesman said: “Ofcom believes UK consumers are likely to get better services at lower prices if there is a sufficient number of effective ­competitors.

“Ofcom therefore starts from a pro-competition position and believes that end-to-end competition should be maintained where it is effective and sustainable.

“The review is considering the implications for the UK of international trends towards consolidation.

“It will also examine converging media services – offered over different platforms, or as a ‘bundle’ by the same operator.”

Analysts played down the prospect of a full separation any time soon, and shares in BT closed up fractionally at just over 472p.

Ovum analyst Matthew Howett said: “While Ofcom recognises there are challenges with Openreach, in particular in relation to service quality, it heavily suggests that further separation will not address these, and could ultimately be disproportionate.”

The watchdog said its review will lead to a statement at the turn of the year on the priorities and action which will shape its approach for the next decade.

Stuart Mackinnon, a spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Scotland, said: “Ofcom is right to look at how the digital market operates and how it could be improved for small businesses. The FSB in Scotland is particularly concerned about mobile coverage north of the Border.”

Mai Fyfield, Sky’s chief strategy officer, said: “It is welcome news that Ofcom is putting the future of Openreach at the centre of its review.

“For too long, consumers and businesses have been suffering because the existing structure does not deliver the innovation, competition and quality of service that they need. We believe Ofcom should now move quickly to ask the Competition & Markets Authority to undertake a full competition ­inquiry.”

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 17 July

1453: The Hundred Years’ War ended after the defeat of the English at Castillon.

1537: John, Master of Forbes, was executed at Edinburgh Castle.

1585: Secret service agents discovered Anthony Babington’s plot to murder Elizabeth I.

1603: Sir Walter Raleigh was arrested by the forces of King James VI and charged with assisting Spain in attempting to put Arabella Stuart on the throne.

1652: The Great Fire of Glasgow destroyed almost one-third of the city.

1695: Bank of Scotland was established.

1762: Catherine II became Tsar of Russia following the murder of Peter III.

1791: Members of the French National Guard, under the command of General Lafayette, opened fire on a crowd of radicals in Paris, killing around 50 people.

1832: Scottish Reform Bill became law.

1841: The first issue of the magazine Punch was published.

1895: The east coast express train from London to Aberdeen set a record time of 10 hours 21 minutes for the 540 miles.

1917: The Royal Family changed its name from the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the House of Windsor.

1936: Spanish Civil War started as General Francisco Franco led army forces in revolt against Spain’s government.

1944: The largest convoy of the Second World War embarked from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.

1945: The Potsdam Conference involving Allied leaders Harry S Truman, Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill began.

1948: The Israeli army captured Nazareth.

1955: Walt Disney’s Disneyland was opened in California.

1958: King Hussein declared himself head of the Jordan/Iraq federation.

1959: Paleoanthropologist Dr Mary Leakey discovered the 600,000-year-old skull of an early human ancestor, who lived in Africa.

1962: New altitude record for winged aircraft was established by US Major RM White, who piloted an X-15 rocket to a height of 354,300ft (more than 67 miles).

1964: Donald Campbell attained a world speed record of more than 403mph – by a wheel-driven car, Bluebird – on the salt flats at Lake Eyre in South Australia.

1973: Afghanistan was proclaimed republic after palace coup which ended 40-year rule of King Mohammed Zahir Shah.

1975: Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 made the first US/USSR link-up in space.

1979: Sebastian Coe set a new world record of 3 minutes 49 seconds for running the mile in Oslo.

1988: Florence Griffith Joyner set a new world record of 10.49 seconds for the women’s 100 metres.

1994: Brazil defeated Italy in a penalty shoot-out to win their fourth World Cup.

1995: 150,000 people watched a fireworks display at Leith Docks, Edinburgh, to celebrate the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race. The next day thousands more crowded vantage points as the 90 ships left the Forth under sail for Germany.

1998: The remains of Tsar Nicholas II and his family were buried in St Petersburg.

2005: Tiger Woods won the Open at St Andrews – his tenth major – to become only the second golfer after Jack Nicklaus to have won each of the four majors more than once.

BIRTHDAYS

Konnie Huq, television presenter, 40; Wayne Sleep OBE, dancer, actor and choreographer, 67; Donald Sutherland, actor, 80; Alun Armstrong, actor, 69; Tim Brooke-Taylor OBE, actor, 75; Darren Day, British actor and singer, 47; Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, 68; Diahann Carroll, actress, 80; Ray Galton OBE, British scriptwriter (Hancock’s Half Hour), 85; David Hasselhoff, actor, 63; Lord Patten, MP 1979-92, governor of Hong Kong 1992-7, 70; Peter Sissons, television presenter, 73; Angela Merkel, German chancellor 2005-, 61; Gino D’Acampo, TV chef, 39.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1889 Erle Stanley Gardner, author who created Perry Mason; 1899 James Cagney, actor; 1909 Sir Hardy Amies, couturier; 1912 Art Linkletter, radio and TV presenter; 1917 Phyllis Diller, comedienne.

Deaths: 924 King Edward the Elder of England; 1537 Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis (burnt at the stake in Edinburgh); 1645 Robert Carr, first Earl of Somerset, Scottish politician; 1790 Adam Smith, Kirkcaldy-born economist; 1953 Maude Adams, actress; 1959 Billie Holiday, jazz singer; 1967 John Coltrane, jazz musician and composer; 2005 Geraldine Fitzgerald, actress; 2005 Sir Edward Heath MBE, British prime minister 1970-1974; 2009 Walter Cronkite, US broadcaster and journalist; 2009 Gordon Waller, Scottish singer/songwriter; 2014: Elaine Stritch, actress and singer.

Let’s laud summertime in the city, suggests Roddy Smith

It’s summertime – and as the classic George Gershwin song goes, “fish are jumpin’ an’ the cotton is high”. Gershwin’s lullaby from the opera Porgy and Bess speaks of the revitalising nature of summer, but while it may be too much to say the “livin’ is easy,” Summer in the City is a time that provides sustainability and opportunity for shops, restaurants, bars and hotels.

Festival time is upon us, and with it comes an influx of visitors vital to our essential hospitality, tourism and retail sectors – all major city centre employers. The importance of our festivals – the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe Festival are the two most famous – cannot be overstated.

Clearly, the city’s reputation as the festival capital of the world is one we all want to hold on to, because:

• The festivals create jobs and wealth for local people and businesses

• The festivals have an international cultural impact

• They promote cultural diversity and community cohesion

• They promote our city around the world

• They create pride and well-being in citizens

For Essential Edinburgh – as an organisation dedicated to serving and representing the interests of our 600 levy-paying businesses who commit around £1 million a year to promote and enhance our world-class city centre through the Business Improvement District – a key to our unswerving support for the Festivals is rooted in the enormous economic benefits they generate.

That was illustrated as recently as May with the publication of Thundering Hooves 2, a ten-year strategy devised to sustain and develop our festivals, commissioned by Festivals Edinburgh, Creative Scotland, City of Edinburgh Council, the Scottish Government, Event Scotland and Scottish Enterprise. The report – titled to reflect the sound of competitor cities running hard to catch up – is welcomed by Essential Edinburgh in laying out what needs to be done to sustain our pre-eminent position.

Consider a few key figures:

• In Edinburgh, our festivals generate in excess of £250 million a year of gross expenditure by visitors

• Many of the visitors come from outwith Scotland and stay in our hotels, inns, self-catering and guest houses

• Other than tickets, the biggest areas of spending are accommodation, food and drink and entertainment

• The Festivals are reckoned to support around 5,500 full time equivalent jobs in the city

These few bullet points, gained from an impact study published four years ago, clearly demonstrate the enormous positive impact that the festivals have on our city, and the tremendous benefit they create for the people of the city.

To these already persuasive figures we now also need to add Edinburgh’s Christmas, which has demonstrated that it is a vigorous and worthy addition to the capital’s festival calendar. A much more recent study showed that this relative newcomer had almost £120m of direct economic impact in Edinburgh.

A survey carried out on behalf of Essential Edinburgh looked at all kinds of businesses in the city centre to fully gauge the impact Edinburgh’s Christmas and Hogmanay.

The proof of the Christmas pudding came in response to the question, “Do you think that Edinburgh’s Christmas 2014 was good for your business?” Some 69 per cent of businesses said it was, up from 53 per cent the previous year. Asked if they felt it was good for the city centre as a whole, that figure rose to 85 per cent, with only 2 per cent stating that they felt it was not beneficial for Edinburgh. Although some businesses did not feel that they benefitted directly from the Christmas activities (19 per cent) they did see the benefit of the activities for the whole city centre. So the numbers and arguments are chunky. But a key number to bear in mind is the employment one. Around 5,500 jobs – that is a lot of local people whose livelihoods depend on festivals.

At Essential Edinburgh, we support the work of Festivals Edinburgh, which represents the organisers of all 12 of the city’s major festivals. St Andrew Square Garden, which we manage, has become one of the best-loved hubs for festival-goers, creating an atmospheric, scenic venue in the heart of the city, and driving footfall to a part of the city which previously missed out on festival traffic.

Similarly, the work we have done on George Street will help businesses maximise the opportunities of the busy festivals period, while providing visitors and locals with a more enjoyable experience and tremendous ambience.

• Roddy Smith is Chief Executive, Essential Edinburgh

Making sure Edinburgh keeps its reputation as one of the world’s best places to visit or live takes a lot of hard work, writes Gordon Robertson

Edinburgh is the UK’s most prosperous city outside London. Measure it against any indicator you like – visitor numbers, international investment, employment rates, entrepreneurial start-ups – Edinburgh’s performance is strong. Its solid reputation as one of the top places in the world to live, work, visit and invest continues to build momentum.

So why bother proactively promoting a city that “sells itself”?

The reality is very different. Edinburgh operates on a global stage and competes for business against many other successful UK, European and worldwide cities. This fierce environment demands that we have to continually improve if we even want to maintain our current position in this marketplace. The world isn’t sitting waiting to see what Edinburgh is going to do.

It takes a lot of hard work, creativity and diplomacy to promote our city. Collaboration, particularly between public and private sector is critical. This is the crucial role Marketing Edinburgh plays in our city’s development. Acting as a catalyst and facilitator, diving economic activity, it is its responsibility to showcase Edinburgh as an inspirational destination to the rest of the UK and globally.

There have been challenges over recent years, but thanks to a cohesive three-year strategy, implemented and led by Marketing Edinburgh’s chief executive John Donnelly, the organisation has come a long way in a short space of time. Building a solid reputation and delivering tangible, measureable results for the city.

2014 was one of Marketing Edinburgh’s strongest to date, seeing a significant and positive shift upwards for the organisation as we built on the confidence and credibility gained in 2013. Thanks to the hard work of Convention Edinburgh and its members, for example, 208 new conference bid wins were secured last year. This equates to 65,000 delegates coming to Edinburgh, over the next few years and generating an estimated £91.5m plus to the local economy. Edinburgh is now ranked the 31st global city in the prestigious ICCA world rankings, nine places higher than last year.

The This is Edinburgh campaign, spearheaded by Marketing Edinburgh in partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council and Essential Edinburgh, is another strong example. The campaign has played a pivotal role in wooing shoppers and residents back to the city centre. Through TV advertising, special offers, partnerships and exciting events, such as Edinburgh Fashion Week, Film in the City and the Edinburgh Restaurant Festival, This is Edinburgh has had an overwhelmingly positive impact on the city.

Not only has it brought a significant increase in footfall and retail sales, but people are genuinely more positive about their home city. A survey conducted earlier this year found 95.6 per cent of people interviewed felt much better and prouder about Edinburgh’s city centre than they did at the start of the campaign in 2014.

These results have vindicated Marketing Edinburgh’s key role in the creation and delivery of the campaign, and confidence in the organisation has moved significantly forward as a result. It also demonstrates the opportunity and future potential we can unleash as a city by working more effectively together, for the benefit of all.

2015 is an evolutionary year for Marketing Edinburgh, one in which we are shifting resource and focus. We’re all acutely aware of the current and future, fiscal restrictions that the public sector faces. As such we have to be inventive and creative in how we secure additional funding to augment the public investment in promoting the city, and to a level which elevates us, at least, to an equal level with our UK and International competitors.

The Corporate Partnership Programme is one way Marketing Edinburgh is addressing this challenge. With prestigious organisations such as the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Airport and Edinburgh Hotels Association already signed up, we are actively seeking new corporate partnerships with a range of private sector organisations, who also recognise the benefits a strong Edinburgh brings to their own company and its employees.

From airlines and train operators, to construction, technology and professional services sectors, this is about building and cementing Marketing Edinburgh’s relationship with the city and its stakeholders.

By investing emotionally, as well as financially in their home-town, businesses can play a proactive role in helping grow their city.

In return, Marketing Edinburgh can work with Partners, closely aligning Edinburgh’s assets to create joint campaign activity around shared, common objectives for the city and business.

This can range from helping to attract fresh talent to work in the city’s growing tech industries, to raising awareness in North America of the city’s unique and diverse business tourism offering.

One such corporate partnership campaign, for example, has already secured over £17m worth of potential enquiries for hotel and conference partners.

Marketing Edinburgh one driving ambition is promotion of the city. There is no ulterior motive. This puts the organisation in a unique position, enabling it to rally partners, build collaboration and give Edinburgh one cohesive voice that can cut through the noise of the global marketplace and in turn, help its partners’ businesses flourish. Marketing Edinburgh is the conduit, the honest broker in the middle of all that – if the city does well, we all do.

• Gordon Robertson is Chairman, Marketing Edinburgh

THOUSANDS of Sports Direct workers will share in a £150 million bonus scheme after the retailer yesterday posted a surge in profits, but also cut current year targets after admitting expansion plans had fallen short.

Employees eligible for the award will receive the first tranche of shares in September, although the scheme only applies to 2,000 of the retailer’s 27,000-strong workforce.

It comes after the group met the last of a series of targets set under a 2011 bonus plan, as underlying earnings rose 15.7 per cent to £383.2m for the year ended 26 April. Pre-tax profits rose 30.9 per cent to £313.4m.

Chief executive Dave Forsey said the “solid set of results” came despite performance being hit by England’s early exit from the World Cup and mild weather in the autumn reducing footfall at stores.

But the group – which is controlled by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley – admitted that during the year “planned acquisitions… did not materialise”.

Sports Direct bosses have now decided that a target under the bonus scheme for underlying earnings of £480m in 2015-16 was “unreasonably challenging” and cut it to £420m.

The retailer has been criticised over its employment practices for casual workers, though chairman Keith Hellawell said “much of the comment regarding the group’s use of zero hours contracts has been unfounded and inaccurate”.

He added: “We comply fully with all legal requirements which relate to casual workers, including sick pay, holiday pay, and freedom to gain other employment. Casual workers also participate in general incentive schemes.”

Hellawell said the group’s share bonus schemes were among the most generous in the country and were “key tools in motivation and retention”.

The first award under the 2011 scheme will vest in September, giving around five million shares to some 2,000 employees, currently worth around £36m – or on average £18,000 each.

A further 16 million are due to vest in 2017. At the current share price the total stock to vest in both tranches is worth more than £150m.

Participating employees are eligible for awards on a “pro-rata” basis depending on their length of service with the group.

Forsey said: “We owe our continued success to the commitment and hard work of those participants and we are delighted that we are able to reward them in this way.”

Meanwhile an additional three million shares are to be shared by the group’s executive director and two other members of senior management in 2017.

During the year, Sports Direct saw revenues rise 4.7 per cent to £2.8 billion mainly due to its sports retail sales which were led higher by the performance in the UK – where the number of stores grew by 23 to 440. Same-store sales in sports retail grew by 7.4 per cent, a slowdown from last year’s 10.4 per cent. Online revenue grew 14.4 per cent, driven by the launch of click-and-collect in the UK.

Tony Shiret, an analyst at BESI Research, said: “Overall we believe these were good results. We retain our ‘buy’ recommendation based on the combination of long-term scale prospects and improving profitability across the existing group.

“We note that the company’s cash flow characteristics are likely to give rise to net cash balances of over £100m this year in the absence of acquisition activity.

“This allows it significant acquisition capacity. The prospect of meaningful acquisitions should allow investors to get a more tangible feel for how the long-term growth path will ­develop.”

THE taxpayer stake in Lloyds Banking Group has fallen to below 15 per cent after the UK government sold another tranche of shares in the lender.

The disposal of almost 657 million shares, reducing the state’s holding to 14.98 per cent, will have raised about £563 million for the Treasury.

George Osborne, who is aiming to return Lloyds to private hands over the coming year, said the latest sale means the taxpayer has now recouped more than £13 billion of the £20.5bn spent bailing out the group during the financial crash of 2008.

He added: “I am determined to build on this success, and to continue to return Lloyds to the private sector and reduce our national debt.”

The government has been gradually selling its holding in Lloyds to institutional investors through a trading plan that will run until the end of the year. It also plans to launch a multi-billion pound “Tell Sid”-style share sale, open to retail investors, with speculation that the move could take place in March.

Dixons Carphone yesterday hailed a “terrific year” as it revealed a 21 per cent surge in profits in its first set of annual results since being created following a merger between two of the high street’s biggest names.

The group behind Carphone Warehouse and Currys PC World said underlying pre-tax profits leapt to £381 million in the 13 months to 2 May after robust trading for both its electricals and mobile business.

UK and Ireland like-for-like sales rose 8 per cent over the year helped by the firm’s “most competitive ever” pricing on electricals, while its mobile business was also given a boost by the demise of rival Phones 4U.

Sebastian James, group chief executive, said: “This has been a terrific first year for Dixons Carphone. We have seen excellent increases in both sales and profitability and we have made very encouraging progress with the tricky job of integrating these two great companies.”

The group said it would meet £80m in cost savings targets from its merger a year earlier than planned, adding that work to combine the two companies was “progressing well”.

Despite recent concerns that its Greek arm Kotsovolos would be impacted by the bailout crisis in the country, Dixons said strong sales of large-screen TVs helped boosted like-for-like sales.

HILLARY Rodham Clinton spent more than $18 million hiring hundreds of employees in the first three months of her presidential campaign, creating a national operation that vastly outpaces her rivals in both parties.

Ms Clinton has the money for it, having raised more than $46 million for the Democratic primary contest.

Since announcing her White House bid in April, the former secretary of state has positioned staff in all 50 states – with the majority working out of an expensive 80,000-square-foot Brooklyn headquarters.

Beyond paying salaries for 343 employees, her campaign purchased lists of voters in four early primary states, paid six figures to an action committee devoted to defending her record and spent heavily on building a digital team, according to campaign finance documents filed on Wednesday with federal regulators.

The strategy is aimed at a contest nearly a year away. The overwhelming favourite for her party’s nomination, her team has set its sights on building the massive infrastructure they will need for the general election.

The outlay is nearly four times what Ms Clinton spent in the first three months of her last presidential campaign, when she faced a far more competitive primary race against then-
Senator Barack Obama.

During that 2008 campaign, Ms Clinton and her team faced charges from donors that they were wasting money on ineffective strategic choices – such as spending nearly $100,000 on party platters and groceries before the Iowa caucus, a contest she lost.

This time, her staff has emphasised its “cheapskate” mentality – particularly to contributors. At her first national finance meeting in May, top donors were instructed to purchase their own lunches and fund their own transportation to various gatherings in Brooklyn.

Campaign aides like to brag about taking the bus from New York to Washington, rather than the more expensive Acela train. Even so, her campaign spent at least $8,700 on train tickets and just a few hundred dollars on bus fare, the Federal Election Commission report shows.

All told, Ms Clinton has spent a far greater portion of her early funds during this campaign than she did eight years ago.

During the first three months of her 2008 bid, Ms Clinton spent 14 per cent of the $36m she raised, according to FEC documents. In the launch of this campaign, she has spent nearly 40 per cent of what she has taken in. Her campaign also reported that she received more than 250,000 contributions, with an average donation of $144.89. About 17 per cent of her contributions were $200 or less.

By comparison Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has fuelled an insurgent challenge to Ms Clinton with small donations. He pulled in more than $15.2m through the end of June, and three-quarters of his donations were $200 or less.

Though they have highlighted their lower-dollar contributions, Ms Clinton’s team also released a list of campaign bundlers who each raised more than $100,000 for her primary bid.

Some of the donors included Clinton’s most ardent financial backers, including Hollywood media mogul Haim Saban; Susie Tompkins Buell, a wealthy California investor who was a major donor to the Ready for Hillary super PAC; Las Vegas publisher Brian Greenspun, a longtime friend and college classmate of Bill Clinton; and Alan Patricof, a New York financier who was Clinton’s finance chair when she first ran for Senate in New York.

Youngsters are better off if they are kept busy, writes Julie Rollo

After another year of school runs, exams, homework, music lessons, shows and awards presentations, both children and their parents/guardians need a break. The summer holidays are the light at the end of the tunnel – even if the sun only makes a cameo appearance. While this is a great time for the whole family to unwind, it is also vital for children to keep healthy and active during this hiatus from the classroom.

As a mother to two teenage daughters, I am a veteran of the summer holidays, and, as marketing manager for Edinburgh Leisure, I am also keenly aware of the importance of physical activity for youngsters, come rain or shine. It is one of the reasons why Edinburgh Leisure offers such a varied roster of different activities for the children of Edinburgh every summer.

Don’t just take our word for it, though. The experts also back up our opinion: the chief medical officer advocated at least an hour of “moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity” for those aged 5-18 every day in its 2011 UK Physical Activity Guidelines.

The World Health Organisation also classes the effects of an inactive way of life as an “emerging issue” for young people, too, impacting on “physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development”. This highlights just how important it is to make sure our children are out there enjoying all the benefits of physical activity, both for their body and mind.

That is why our summer offerings ensure that children will be kept busy, both physically and mentally. Take our free Summer In the Meadows activities for five to 16-year-olds, for example. Here you will find activities as diverse as boccia and gymnastics on offer by the Pavilion Café every Wednesday and Friday, 2pm to 4pm. Taking on new sporting challenges keeps young bodies and brains busy at a time when they might otherwise be lying on the sofa during the long summer break.

Edinburgh Leisure also runs Summer Activator Multi-Activity Holiday Camps. For primary school-age children, these will run at a large selection of our venues, including Ainslie Park, Drumbrae and Meadowbank. Children can take part in activities like athletics or badminton, or even jump into the wonderful world of bouncy castles and trampolining. And for all the young people inspired by Wimbledon, we have a summer of tennis coaching and camps on offer, too. Again, youngsters can enjoy the physical benefits of sport, but also make new friends.

It is also important to Edinburgh Leisure that we have an inclusive approach to activities for children. No-one should miss out on the joy of living a happy and healthy lifestyle, and that is why we offer a Disability Athletics Summer Camp at Meadowbank. Running in July and August, it caters to 8 to 17-year-olds with physical, learning and sensory impairments, encouraging participants to experience the positive impact sport can have on anyone’s life.

In the past few years Scotland has shown improvement in the physical activity levels of its young people, but there is still work to be done, and that is why we are so passionate about getting children moving. 2013

Scottish Government figures reveal 75 per cent of children achieved the physical activity recommendations set out by the body. This was up from 71 per cent in the 2008-9 year. While it is great to see more children becoming active, this still means that a quarter of children aren’t getting access to the myriad of benefits of physical activity. Ensuring the good habits picked up in PE during term time are not abandoned in the summer months is essential for keeping young people active all year.

In short, make sure your children get all they can out of their summer. Keeping children active can help them in so many ways, it is a great investment for any parent/guardian. School may be out for summer, but physical activity is definitely in this season.

• Julie Rollo is Marketing Manager for Edinburgh Leisure

A NEWLY identified species of feathered dinosaur is the largest ever discovered to have a well-preserved set of bird-like wings, a study suggests.

Palaeontologists working in China unearthed the fossil remains of the winged dinosaur – a close cousin of the Velociraptor made famous by the Jurassic Park films.

The near-complete skeleton, which is described as being remarkably well preserved, was studied by scientists from the University of Edinburgh and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.

The fossil reveals dense feathers covered the dinosaur’s wings and tail, and the team said larger feathered dinosaurs have been identified before but none have possessed such complex wings.

Belonging to a family of feathered carnivores that was widespread during the Cretaceous Period, the species lived around 125 million years ago.

Its wings were very short compared with other dinosaurs in the same family and consisted of multiple layers of large feathers, researchers said.

Named Zhenyuanlong suni, the species grew to more than 5ft in length but probably could not fly, at least not using the same type of powerful muscle-driven flight as modern birds, according to the team who found that the feathers were complex structures made up of fine branches stemming from a central shaft.

Dr Steve Brusatte, of the University of Edinburgh’s school of geosciences, who co-authored the study, said: “This new dinosaur is one of the closest cousins of Velociraptor, but it looks just like a bird.

“It’s a dinosaur with huge wings made up of quill pen feathers, just like an eagle or a vulture. The movies have it wrong – this is what Velociraptor would have looked like too.”

Scientists have known for some time that many species of dinosaur had feathers, but most of these were covered with simple filaments that looked more like hair than modern bird feathers.

This latest discovery suggests winged dinosaurs with larger and more complex feathers were more diverse than previously thought.

The researchers said it is unclear what function the short wings served but believe they might have evolved from ancestors that could fly and used their wings solely for display purposes – in a similar way to how peacocks use their colourful tails.

Professor Junchang Lu, of the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, who led the study, said: “The western part of Liaoning Province in China is one of the most famous places in the world for finding dinosaurs. The first feathered dinosaurs were found here and now our discovery of Zhenyuanlong indicates that there is an even higher diversity of feathered dinosaurs than we thought. ”

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports, with the research supported by Natural Science Foundation of China.

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a right-to-die case brought by a paralysed former builder and the widow of man who had locked-in syndrome.

Paul Lamb and Jane Nicklinson, whose 58-year-old husband Tony died more than two years ago, brought the case at the court in Strasbourg in the culmination of their campaign that disabled people should have the right to be helped to die with dignity.

Mr Lamb, who comes from Bramley, Leeds, was left paralysed after a road accident more than 20 years ago.

But yesterday, in a written judgment, the court said: “In its decision in the case of Nicklinson and Lamb v the United Kingdom the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously declared the applications inadmissible. The decision is final.”

Mr Lamb and Mrs Nicklinson went to the European Court of Human Rights after the Supreme Court – the highest court in the UK – rejected their claim in June last year.

The court was asked to decide whether a prohibition on assisted suicide – outlined in the 1961 Suicide Act – was compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Supreme Court judges ruled against Mr Lamb and Mrs Nicklinson, both 58, by a seven-two majority, following a hearing in London.

But five of the nine justices concluded that the court had the “constitutional authority’’ to declare that a general prohibition on assisted suicide was incompatible with the human right to private and family life enshrined in the convention.

In the landmark ruling Lord Neuberger, president of the Supreme Court, said that if MPs and peers did not give serious consideration to legalising assisted suicide, there was a “real prospect” a future legal challenge would succeed.

Mr Nicklinson, who suffered from locked-in syndrome, died in 2012 aged 58 – days after losing a High Court case to allow doctors to end his life.

The civil engineer was paralysed from the neck down following a stroke in 2005 and described his life as a “living nightmare”. He could only communicate using a special computer which tracked his eye movements, and consistently said he wanted to die.

But because he would need a doctor to administer a lethal injection, the former rugby player was unable to even travel to Switzerland for assisted dying, and he mounted a long legal challenge to overturn centuries-old laws on murder and manslaughter.

Mrs Nicklinson took up her husband’s campaign following his death.

In yesterday’s judgment, the European Court (ECtHR) said: “Mrs Nicklinson, the wife of Tony Nicklinson (now deceased) who was suffering from locked-in syndrome and wished to end his life, complained that the domestic courts had failed to determine the compatibility of the law in the UK on assisted suicide with her and her husband’s right to respect for private and family life.

“The ECtHR declared this application inadmissible.”

People who speak two or more languages have better functioning brains, a study found.

Being bilingual increased the size of the part of the brain responsible for processing thoughts than those that speak their mother tongue, researchers found.

In the past it had been thought children who spoke two languages at home did less well at school. But recent research found bilingual children perform better on tasks that require attention, inhibition and short-term memory, collectively termed “executive control” than their monolingual peers.

A study by Georgetown University Medical Centre found adults who are polyglots do have more grey matter but those who used sign language did not.

It adds to a growing understanding of how long-term experience with a particular skill – in this case fluency in two languages – changes the brain.

Dr Guinevere Eden, from the university, said: “Inconsistencies in the reports about the bilingual advantage stem primarily from the variety of tasks that are used in attempts to elicit the ­advantage.

“Given this concern, we took a different approach and instead compared grey matter volume between adult bilinguals and monolinguals.

“We reasoned that the experience with two languages and the increased need for cognitive control to use them appropriately would result in brain changes in Spanish-English bilinguals when compared with English-speaking monolinguals.

“And in fact greater grey matter for bilinguals was observed in frontal and parietal brain regions that are involved in executive control.”

The study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex explored why differences in grey matter in people was based on experiences.

Dr Olumide Olulade, a co-author of the study, said: “Our aim was to address whether the constant management of two spoken languages leads to cognitive advantages and the larger grey matter we observed in Spanish-English bilinguals, or whether other aspects of being bilingual, such as the large vocabulary associated with having two languages, could account for this.”

It compared the grey matter in bilinguals of American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken English with monolingual users of English.

Both ASL-English and Spanish-English bilinguals share qualities associated with bilingualism, such as vocabulary size.

Unlike bilinguals of two spoken languages, ASL-English bilinguals can sign and speak simultaneously, allowing the researchers to test whether the need to inhibit the other language might explain the bilingual advantage.

THE BBC has warned that plans for a radical shake-up of the broadcaster will pave the way to “a much diminished, less popular service”.

Culture secretary John Whittingdale said yesterday that an upcoming review of the BBC’s Royal Charter will look at whether the broadcaster should continue to be “all things to all people” or should have a more “precisely targeted” mission in terms of its output.

Launching a green paper setting out the terms of the review, Mr Whittingdale said the process would consider both the “mixture and quality” of the programmes broadcast by the BBC, as well as the way they are produced.

“With so much more choice in what to consume and how to consume it, we must at least question whether the BBC should try to be all things to all people, to serve everyone across every platform, or if should have a more precisely targeted mission,” Mr Whittingdale told the House of Commons.

“The upcoming Charter review will look at whether the scale and scope of the BBC is right for the current and future media environment and delivers what audiences are willing to pay for.”

Scotland’s culture secretary, Fiona Hyslop, said the review should be used as an opportunity to improve services and deliver better coverage north of the Border, and that the Green Paper on the corporation’s future must not be used as a cover “to slash and diminish” the broadcaster.

In an apparent reprieve for the licence fee, Mr Whittingdale told MPs a subscription model for paying for the BBC “could well be an option in the longer term, but would not work in the short term”.

The review will look at three options for changing funding arrangements for the BBC – a reformed licence fee, a household levy or a “hybrid” funding model. Consideration should be given to the case for a full subscription model in the longer term, he said.

The BBC said: “We believe that this green paper would appear to herald a much diminished, less popular, BBC. That would be bad for Britain and would not be the BBC that the public has known and loved for over 90 years.

“It is important that we hear what the public want. It should be for the public to decide whether programmes like Strictly or Bake Off, or stations like Radio 1 or 2, should continue.

“As the director-general said on Tuesday, the BBC is not owned by its staff or by politicians, it is owned by the public. They are our shareholders. They pay the licence fee.

“Their voice should be heard the loudest.”

Mr Whittingdale confirmed that the BBC will take over responsibility for funding free TV licences for over-75s from 2018-19. He told MPs there was no “easy solution” to the problem of funding the BBC. The current £145.50 licence fee was “regressive” because it was charged at the same rate on every household with a TV set, he said.

The Charter review will look at whether the BBC’s current range of services “best serves licence fee payers” and whether the scale of its output is adversely affecting commercial rivals, said the culture secretary.

He cited Olympic coverage and “world-beating dramas” like Sherlock and Doctor Who as examples of why the corporation remained “cherished and admired – not only in this country but around the world”.

SNP MPs have been urged to hand over a controversial inflation-busting 10 per cent pay rise worth £7,000 to charity.

The Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ispa) decided to press ahead yesterday with a pay increase far above the 1 per cent going to public sector workers over the next four years.

The decision, made against the wishes of Prime Minister David Cameron and other party leaders, will take MPs salaries up to £74,000 but will also see their expenses curtailed in a bid to make the rise “cash neutral”.

SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson made it clear the extra pay for the party’s 56 MPs should go to charity or local good causes.

He said: “Now is a time of austerity and huge financial difficulties for far too many people. It is not right for MPs to have a pay-rise in these circumstances.

“As IPSA has gone ahead with these changes, I think it would be right to use the funds to support good causes.’’

An SNP spokesman said salaries are set independently by Ipsa and automatically paid to MPs, who cannot opt out of them.

A spokesman for Conservative Scottish Secretary David Mundell said that what he does with his salary increase is “a private matter”. But he pointed out that Mr Mundell “gives a lot of money to charity, like many MPs, and will increase this amount”.

Labour’s shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said: “It was right for parliament to give all issues with regards to MPs pay and condition to an independent body but they have simply got this wrong. At a time when public sector pay is restricted, MPs pay should continue to be restricted to those increases.

“Anything else would show IPSA is out of touch with the public and therefore doing the public a disservice.”

Liberal Democrat former Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said: “I have said in the past that I would not want my pay to rise by anything over that which is allowed to other public sector workers.

“I shall therefore look to find a means of using the extra money to contribute towards my parliamentary running costs.”

Of the SNP MPs contacted by The Scotsman, all said they would spend the salary increase on local good causes or charities in their constituencies.

East Lothian MP and former Scotsman associate editor George Kerevan said: “I take only the Scottish median wage which is circa £27,000. I also have a state teaching pension. My earnings in excess of these, including earnings from journalism, are used to further constituency or parliamentary work, or given to good causes locally. This is a purely personal decision. Other folk have different personal and family circumstances.”

Edinburgh East SNP MP Tommy Sheppard said he would take the same salary increase as public sector workers and donate the rest to local groups and charities. He added: “I will make an immediate donation to Our Forth, which is an organisation campaigning against fracking.” Downing Street has refused to say whether David Cameron will donate to charity the £7,000 rise he will receive in his pay as an MP, insisting that how he spends his salary is “a private matter”.

The Prime Minister previously branded the substantial boost, backdated to 8 May and tied to cuts in pensions and expenses, “unacceptable” at a time of austerity.

Asked whether Mr Cameron would accept the rise or hand it to charity – as MPs including Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and three Labour leadership contenders have said they will – the spokeswoman said: “It is Ipsa that determines MPs’ pay and therefore how much the PM earns as an MP. How he spends his salary is a private matter.”

Labour leadership candidate Yvette Cooper called on the Prime Minister to intervene to stop the increase, something which would require a change in the law.

Ms Cooper, along with fellow-contenders Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall, has said she will donate any extra cash to a good cause.

She said: “This is crazy. How on earth has David Cameron allowed this to happen? He needs to step in urgently and stop this MPs’ pay rise going ahead,”

“The idea of increasing MPs’ pay by 10 per cent at a time when nurses, care workers, police officers and our armed forces face another five years’ pay freeze is completely unfair.”

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “If pay restraint is at an end for politicians – who are public servants too – it should also be over for nurses, teaching assistants, hospital cleaners, council staff and other public sector workers.”

But Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy defended the rise: “Over the last Parliament, MPs’ pay increased by 2 per cent, compared to 5 per cent in the public sector and 10 per cent in the whole economy.

“It is right that we make this one-off increase and then formally link MPs’ pay to public sector pay.”

Marks & Spencer today said John Dixon, executive director for general merchandise, has quit the board with immediate effect to “pursue career opportunities outside of the company”.

Dixon, who said he is set to become chief executive of another company, will be replaced by food boss Steve Rowe, who has been with the group for more than 26 years.

The change in leadership at the general merchandise operation, which includes clothing, comes after figure last week showed a 0.4 per cent fall in like-for-like sales, resuming a pattern of declining sales at the division.

In comparison, the food division saw sales rise 0.3 per cent in the first quarter amid tough competition in the groceries sector.

Dixon said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed many happy and successful years at M&S.

“I now have the opportunity to become a chief executive and have therefore resigned from this great company. I wish it, and all my colleagues, every continued success.”

Bank of England governor Mark Carney has hinted strongly that interest rates could begin to rise at the turn of the year.

Carney said he expected the bank base rate to rise over the next three years from its current all-time low of 0.5 per cent.

He said rates would likely rise slowly, reaching a level that is “about half as high as historical averages” of 5 per cent.

But he said shocks to the economy and shifts in the exchange rate could impact on the timing and size of any interest rate increases.

His prediction builds on comments he made to the Treasury select committee earlier this week, in which he indicated the UK is “moving closer” to a rise in rates after more than six years at historical lows.

Carney told MPs that Britain is edging towards being able to raise rates based on the strength of the recovering UK economy, which was the fastest growing of the G7 nations last year.

In a speech at Lincoln Cathedral last night, Carney said the monetary policy committee “will have to feel its way as it goes”, adding: “There is, in fact, a wide distribution of possible outcomes around any expected path for bank rate, reflecting the inevitability that the economy will be buffeted by shocks and that monetary policy will have to adjust accordingly.

“Short-term interest rates have averaged around 4.5 per cent since around the Bank’s inception three centuries ago, the same average as during the pre-crisis period when inflation was at target…

“It would not seem unreasonable to me to expect that, once normalisation begins, interest rate increases would proceed slowly and rise to a level in the medium term that is perhaps about half as high as historic averages.

“In my view, the decision as to when to start such a process of adjustment will likely come into sharper relief around the turn of this year.”

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said Carney had reinforced comments from the Bank of England “seemingly preparing consumers and businesses for an interest rate hike”.

He said: “For the time being, we are maintaining the view that the Bank of England will lift interest rates from 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent in February 2016.

“But we have become markedly less confident in this call, and there is clearly now a very real possibility that the MPC could act before the end of 2015, most likely in November.”

Carney’s remarks will have further bolstered the pound. A rise in rates – which have been at the historic low of 0.5 per cent for more than six years – had previously not been expected until the middle of 2016.

The pound has already been strengthening against the euro as the fall-out from the Greek debt crisis means the European Central Bank is seen as unlikely to curtail its monetary support for the single currency support any time soon.

AVERAGE speed cameras are due to be used to enforce lower speed limits during a £500 million upgrade of motorways around Glasgow for nearly two years from Monday, it was announced today.

The cameras, which record speeds over set distances, will initially be used on the M74, followed by the M73, M8 and A8 until spring 2017.

The normal 70mph limit will be cut to 50mph, or lower “where required to maintain safety”. The 100,000 vehicles a day which use the roads also face contraflows and narrowed lanes.

The first section to be covered will be between junction three at Carmyle and junction six at Hamilton on the M74.

That will be followed by the M73 between junction one at Maryville and junction two at Baillieston.

Cameras will then be used on the M8 between junction ten at Easterhouse and junction eight at Baillieston.

They will also cover the A8 between Baillieston and Newhouse, where a new section of motorway is being built.

Graeme Reid, of the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency, said: “Not only do the cameras create a safer environment, they can also help improve the flow of traffic.”

NINE rail workers had a brush with death after a passenger train sped past them at almost 100mph as they worked on a section of track.

The workers were repairing a section of the West Coast Main Line in Lancashire when the near-miss occurred.

An investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) found the incident was caused largely by human error.

The group was working on a bend with a restricted view and relied on warnings of any approaching trains over a radio from lookout colleagues who had a clear view of the track.

But the workers did not receive any warnings and after seeing the approaching Edinburgh to Manchester Airport train, jumped clear, just four seconds before it hurtled past them at 98mph (158kmh).

Some staff were unable to reach a safe position and had to press themselves against a bridge parapet.

None was injured but they were left shaken and work was stopped for the remainder of the shift.

The RAIB said: “The incident was caused because a lookout did not give a warning, either because he operated the wrong switch on his radio transmitter by mistake, or because he forgot about the need to send a warning during an intended delay period between seeing the train and operating the warning switches.

“This delay was because he was positioned on a long section of straight track and could see approaching trains for significantly longer than the time required for the work group to move into a position of safety.

“A previous RAIB recommendation intended to mitigate this risk had not been implemented due to administrative errors.

“It is probable that the lookout’s vigilance had degraded as he had been working continuously for almost two hours.”

The incident happened on September 22 last year on a stretch of line south of Hest Bank between Carnforth and Lancaster.

The RAIB said the track workers comprised contract staff and a controller of site safety employed by Network Rail (NR).

They were packing ballast under sleepers on the up (towards London) main line on a small bridge.

A lookout-operated warning system (LOWS) was being used to give warning of approaching trains because of the gang’s restricted view.

This system is designed to allow lookouts to signal the approach of a train by operating two toggle switches on an LOWS lookout unit. This then transmits a radio signal to a LOWS static unit which then gives both visual and audible warnings.

The RAIB said that on the afternoon of the near-miss, the LOWS equipment was being operated by two NR lookouts, one on each side of the site of work and each equipped with an LOWS lookout unit.

The lookout watching for trains on the “up” line was located about half a mile from the site of work, in a position which gave him a good view of trains approaching from the north.

The static unit was located near the track workers. The LOWS is reported to have been both tested and operating normally prior to the incident.

As a result of its investigation the RAIB has made two recommendations to Network Rail, covering the management of working time for tasks which depend on vigilance and the circumstances in which LOWS should be used.

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• {http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/axe-wielding-cable-thieves-threaten-rail-workers-1-3741956|Axe-wielding cable thieves threaten rail workers|Link to article}

The developer behind technology that boosts power production and cuts fuel consumption has been awarded the UK’s premier engineering prize, scooping £50,000 in the process.

Edinburgh-based Artemis Intelligent Power received the MacRobert Award last night in London after seeing off competitors from Cambridge and Blackpool. Judging chair Dame Sue Ion cited the “truly compelling” story of the company’s digital displacement power system, which uses hydraulics to improve the capacity and reliability of wind turbines.

“The company has achieved a technical advance of global importance, making significant power delivery from offshore wind considerably more credible and reliable, and facilitating the global goal of reducing CO2 emissions,” Ion said.

“This is not simply evolutionary improvement but a complete step change, and one that took years of commitment to achieve.”

Known for spotting the “next big thing”, the MacRobert Award has previously been bestowed on now-indispensable technologies such as the catalytic converter and the CT scanner.

Originally a spin-out from the University of Edinburgh, Artemis was acquired by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2010.

Led by managing director Niall Caldwell, who has been with the company since its inception in 1994, Artemis’ digital hydraulic power system replaces the mechanical gearbox on conventional wind turbines. This improves the connection between a turbine and the electricity grid, and is currently in use in the world’s largest floating wind turbine off the coast of Japan.

The same technology is also being used to reduce the fuel consumption of commuter trains by up to 10 per cent. It has also been used in hybrid buses.

A chip shop takeaway driver has been attacked with a golf club and robbed of the food he was delivering.

Three men targeted the driver as he made a delivery in Willow Grove, Livingston, last night.

They hit him with a golf club in the common stairwell of the building, then stole the food he was delivering and tried to steal his cash.

The 32-year-old victim suffered a minor facial injury and called police, who urged anyone with information to contact them.

The incident happened at around 10.30pm yesterday in the West Lothian town.

Detective Constable Craig Waddell said: “Thankfully, the victim did not sustain serious injuries during this opportunistic attack and we are conducting local inquiries in the area to identify those responsible.

“Anyone who recognises the description of these men and can help trace them is asked to contact police immediately.

“In addition, anyone who remembers seeing anything suspicious in Willow Grove on Thursday evening should also get in touch.”

All three suspects are described as being white, aged in their 30s, of medium build with Scottish accents.

One of the men is between 6ft and 6ft 2in and was wearing a white T-shirt.

Another is around 5ft 10in with medium-length, spiked, light hair and he was wearing a dark shirt. He also had a golf club.

The third suspect is around 5ft 10in with a front tooth missing. He was wearing a grey hooded top with the hood up.