Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has urged MSPs to back her tax and spending plans for the coming year – saying these provide a “solid foundation” from Scotland’s recovery from Covid-19.

I WON’T name the person involved in case my praise embarrasses them.

A GLASGOW ex-serviceman has joined fellow veterans in a call urging former comrades to seek help for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

THE Salmond row has made Nicola Sturgeon’s Government look like a “second-rate tin-pot dictatorship” and the SNP’s “poisonous infighting” is damaging the reputation of Scotland in the eyes of the world, Liam Fox has claimed.

CITY leaders have drawn up plans to transform one of the capital’s most iconic streets into a car-free “European boulevard” in a £32 million flagship project.

INFECTION prevention was ‘weak’ in almost half of the Scots care homes most recently checked by government regulators.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) warned that on its own, the payment will not be enough to meet Scotland’s “ambitious” child poverty targets.

Nearly two thirds of Scots believe there are not enough nursing staff to provide safe and effective care, according to a new poll.

STOP the presses – there is a last minute addition to the paint charts in Scotland. To the likes of elephant’s breath grey and setting plaster pink can now be added “redacted document purple”, a sample of which can be seen covering parts o...

POTENTIALLY life-saving treatment over prostate and neuroendocrine cancers is having to be conducted south of the border, because Scotland has not got the facilities to deal with it, it has emerged.

SCOTTISHPOWER more than doubled the profits it made in the household supply business last year in spite of the fall in demand for energy triggered by the coronavirus crisis.

I WOULD not have thought it a surprise to anyone to read your front-page headline on the latest Covid announcement from Holyrood (“Outcry over Sturgeon’s ‘too cautious’ lockdown exit plan”, The Herald, February 24).

Angry customers of one of Scotland’s best known whisky brands have told of widespread delivery problems, with the firm’s German distributor blaming Brexit “chaos”.

CAMPAIGNERS have called on Scots families to boycott a care home provider which said designated visitors will require to have been vaccinated before they can see loved ones.

RIDING schools owners say they have been forced to sell horses and rely on public donations to stay afloat due to a closure anomaly between Scotland and England.

The Catholic church in the city has begun the search to replace the late Philip Tartaglia, who passed away last month.

Sir Billy Connolly is to publish an autobiography called Windswept And Interesting.

IN a ritual that has become a hallmark of the coronavirus pandemic, Scots gathered around laptops, televisions and radios on Tuesday to eagerly await signs of an end to the misery of lockdown.

THE appeal of windfarms in Scotland has been underlined by deals worth around £100 million in total involving investors based outside the country.

US oil major ExxonMobil is selling a bumper North Sea portfolio in a deal worth up to around $1.3billion (£0.9bn) deal as the shake- up in the area continues.

SCOTLAND’S most notorious murder, the killing of 14-year-old Jodi Jones by her then boyfriend Luke Mitchell, has been thrust back into the spotlight this week with evidence presented that the case is a miscarriage of justice.

Follow our live blog for all the latest news and updates on coronavirus in Scotland.

THE Vysus Group, the global engineering and technology consultancy, has completed its first acquisition following a strategic carve out from Lloyd’s Register at the end of last year.

By Ian McConnell

Raynaud's disease left one Scots woman struggling to walk after she ignored symptoms for years. Now, she wants others to look out for the signs.

SHE didn’t make it to the White House in the 2016 presidential election and now Hillary Clinton is turning her hand to other things - penning an international political thriller. But she is not the first former White House resident - or world le...

AN artist friend who teaches drawing online to children is starting to find themselves increasingly disturbed by the paintings their students are creating. Over recent weeks work by the children – who are around 10 – has taken a dark turn.

Hoopless

MSPs have rejected Conservative plans for local councils to receive a ring-fenced proportion of the Scottish Government’s budget every year – amid fears the strategy would leave NHS services out of pocket by hundreds of millions of pounds.

AMBER Rudd, the former Home Secretary, has said if she were Prime Minister, she would “fire all the men” and have an all-female Cabinet.

THE HOME Office has swerved requests to publish a review into asylum seeker's accommodation in Glasgow for a second time.

THE NAMES of a family of Lochaber ospreys are etched on the Perseverance Rover currently on the surface of Mars, it has emerged.

MSPs have approved councils being given powers to draw up control zones for Airbnb-style short-term lets despite fears raised over ministers being able to veto local decisions.

A woman who faked a pregnancy after a one-night stand has been sentenced to community service.

THE SNP has insisted that any funds earmarked for projects in Scotland should be handed to Holyrood rather than spent directly by Westminster.

SCOTLAND’S top prosecutor has told MSPs he was out of the loop when his department urged the censoring of Alex Salmond’s evidence to a Holyrood inquiry.

THE UK Government has announced plans to spend millions on projects across Scotland by working with councils as part of its levelling-up agenda.

Tell you something odd about Prime Minister’s Questions: the only ones who speak, for good or ill, with any vehemence or passion are the Scottish Nationalists.

SCOTLAND’S prosecution service is to be ordered to release material Alex Salmond claims will show he was the victim of a high-level plot to destroy him.

“Harry, you’ve really upset your granny and destroyed the entire Royal family,” the tabloids screamed, as Prince Andrew slowly chewed a damp cold pizza without breaking a sweat.

Relatives, friends and carers will be able to visit their loved ones in care homes from early next month, the Scottish Government has said.

Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop has said coronavirus "combined with the huge economic uncertainty caused by Brexit" are impacting employment and commerce in Scotland.

LIAM Fox has warned that the ongoing Salmond controversy is threatening to “bring politics in the whole of the United Kingdom into international disrepute".

Dumfries and Galloway Health Board and Lanarkshire Health Boards are among those who have been supplying second doses of vaccines to care homes. 

A Scots city is set to introduce "buffer zones" around abortion clinics to stop women being approached by anti-abortion activists.

Western Isles Council today formally rejected the proposals from Transport Scotland and their contractor CalMac to further reduce the limited winter timetable currently in place and delay a summer timetable indefinitely.

NICOLA Sturgeon has launched a withering personal attack on Alex Salmond, accusing him of creating an “alternative reality” in which he is the victim of a vast conspiracy, rather than confronting his own demons.

IT is famed for being the most remote pub not just in Scotland, but the whole of the UK, accessible only by boat or a two-day trek.

CONSERVATIVE Ministers have been accused of thinking they are "above the law" by awarding coronavirus contracts to firms linked to the Tories, Labour has said.

Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said hundreds of police officers and staff already have benefits from being given “surplus” vaccines.