New anti-sectarian laws branded a success as high prosecution rate revealed
PROSECUTORS have insisted controversial anti-sectarian laws are working after new figures revealed 34 people have been convicted since the powers came into force.The Crown Office said Offensive...
View ArticleBanker who conned Brian Souter and Anne Gloag out of £5m each is jailed
A STOCKBROKER who defrauded some of Britain’s shrewdest business people – including stagecoach tycoon Sir Brian Souter and his sister Ann Gloag – was jailed yesterday for 13 years.Nicholas Levene, 48,...
View ArticleGovernment and NHS workers to get pay rise as living wage increased to £7.45
THOUSANDS of low-paid government and NHS workers will see their pay rise next year, after the living wage rate was increased to £7.45 an hour, finance secretary John Swinney announced yesterday.•...
View ArticleMarkets: US election puts a damper on markets
The prospect of a knife-edge US election kept world markets in check yesterday, with poor service sector data from the UK and China also weighing on the Footsie.Angus Campbell, head of market analysis...
View ArticleHugh Reilly: Brought to book over social media studies
LAST WEEK, further evidence emerged that reading has become a minority activity for our young people.According to the Scottish Qualifications Authority, the number of candidates writing essays and...
View ArticleRoyal Mail sorts out new centres on online boom
ROYAL Mail has announced it will open eight parcel handling centres across the UK in the run-up to Christmas to deal with a boom in the number of shoppers buying presents online. Two of the depots will...
View ArticleNetwork Rail do not know when normal services will resume after train derailment
NETWORK rail have admitted that they do not know when normal services will be resumed after a train carrying 36 passengers derailed on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen line at the weekendBut ScotRail and...
View ArticleDundee-based I-Design targets our favourites
DUNDEE-BASED I-Design has claimed an industry first by updating its cash machine software to remember cardholders’ favourite transactions.The Aim-quoted company, which runs marketing software on ATMs...
View ArticleCraig Mathieson: Second-hand car dealers are in taxman’s sights
ANY aspiring Arthur Daleys should consider themselves duly warned – special units from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are targeting the second-hand motor trade in Scotland.A task force has been...
View ArticleRyanair profits to take off after summer sun
BUDGET airline Ryanair has hiked its forecasts for annual profits after a better-than-expected summer for the low-cost carrier.Passenger numbers rose 7 per cent to 48 million in the six months to 30...
View ArticleAngel Biotechnology’s new ReNeuron contract
Angel Biotechnology is to increase its contracted work for ReNeuron Group, the life sciences company conducting stem cell trials at Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital. Edinburgh-based Angel said it...
View ArticleCroma secures two more deals as it builds on growth after acquisitions
Croma, the Dumfries security firm founded by former soldiers from the Black Watch, yesterday unveiled two contracts after saying its full-year revenue grew by 17 per cent to £9.9 million.The firm won a...
View ArticleEastern woes for L’Oreal
L’Oreal, the world’s biggest cosmetics group, is feeling the effects of the slowdown in China and “brutal” trading conditions in South Korea and Taiwan, the company said.The group’s turnover from...
View ArticleBusiness news in brief: Mitie | Hiscox | Standard Life
Mitie has been awarded a ten-year repair and maintenance contract with a housing association in Kent that could be worth up to £120 million to the outsourcing specialist.The contract, to look after...
View ArticleCocaine is perfect drug for heart attack, say researchers
Cocaine is “the perfect heart attack drug” with users at much greater risk of suffering cardiac arrest than people who do not take it, a new study has revealed.Researchers found recreational cocaine...
View ArticlePru in £368m swoop to drive its insurance business in Thailand
Life and pensions giant Prudential is set to grow its presence in Thailand after agreeing to buy the life insurance arm of Thanachart, the country’s fifth-largest retail bank, for up to £368...
View ArticleLeaders: Obama is the right choice, for US and the world
FORMER New York Governor Mario Cuomo’s dictum that politicians campaign in poetry but govern in prose was never more apposite than when applied to Barack Obama’s presidency.After the soaring “yes, we...
View ArticleComment: Sectors labouring under different conditions
HOW the other half lives. On the day that the living wage was raised to £7.45 an hour for those working in the public sector, it was revealed that the average salary in the North Sea oil and gas...
View ArticleS&P faces £20m cost in court
Australia’s Federal court has issued a landmark judgment against ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, saying it misled investors by giving its highest rating to derivatives that lost almost all their...
View ArticleScottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson pledges to cut income tax
Ruth Davidson has used a keynote speech marking the first anniversary of her becoming leader of the Scottish Conservatives to attack what she claims is an “overbearing” SNP government that “overtaxes”...
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