HERE’S a counter-factual to reflect upon this week. If Scotland had voted Yes in 2014, would Brexit have happened in 2016? I very much doubt it.

CLIMATE campaigners are urging MSPs to commit to a transition away from the oil and gas sector ahead of today's Holyrood debate.

WE are getting in a terrible muddle when it comes to free speech. With feminists being charged for defending women’s rights. With academics being suspended for expressing views that upset their students. With police time being wasted, investigat...

Hundreds of UK passengers have been told they will not be allowed to disembark when they arrive in Scotland on Wednesday

THE Brexit minister Lord Frost has urged the EU to show “pragmatism and common sense” as time runs out to end the dispute over the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement in Northern Ireland.

The current school qualifications system is “in many ways” poorer than its predecessor and “singularly fails” to deliver key curricular aims, according to the leader of Scotland’s largest teaching union.

THERE had been high hopes among the likes of airlines, holiday companies, travel agents and airports as well as consumers

LIQUIDATORS of Rangers suggest Ibrox and Murray Park training ground should have been sold off separately when the club went into administration after it emerged they ended up being bought for just £1.5m.

We will be bringing you the latest Covid-19 news for Scotland and beyond.

AN extra 26,250 construction workers will be needed in Scotland by the end of 2025, as the sector bounces back from the pandemic effects and undertakes huge infrastructure projects, a study reveals.

Glasgow going into Covid Level 2 means some business is coming back to the much-needed crippled hospitality sector.

An Imam who was sacked after blowing the whistle on his mosque over financial irregularities has been awarded almost £30,000 by an employment tribunal.

THE UK Government claims it’s been forced by the economic effects of the pandemic to make a “hard decision” to cut foreign aid.

GOOD luck to soft play business owners from much of Scotland who demonstrated outside Holyrood yesterday against their continuing shut-down. They have been treated appallingly.

SOME years ago, I was allowed into Aberdeen’s mortuary. It’s a place where normally, unless you’re a medic or crime writer, you would hope never to enter. The smell struck me first – the faintly sweet, sickly tang of chemicals I couldn’t...

A FERRY has had to be brought in to deal with a backlog of passengers, vehicles and vital freight following problems with access to two islands and after repairs to one of Scotland's oldest publicly owned lifeline vessel.

CARBON capture and storage (CCS) expertise developed in Scotland is set to be harnessed to help deal with emissions in the US.

PROPERTY developer Artisan Real Estate has underlined its belief in the potential of the Scottish market by recruiting a heavy hitter to lead its operations in the country.

Painful discovery

MARKETING company Digitonic is set to double its revenues to £16 million after a record 2020, while also having increased its workforce by 50 per cent with further expansion in the pipeline.

HARRY and Meghan’s decision to name their daughter after the Queen divided columnists, with it seen as contrived and presumptuous but also as a touching family tribute.

WHAT’S that coming over the hill? Is it an Australotitan cooperensis? Possibly not, as it’s been extinct for at least 95 million years. But Australian palaeontologists have now confirmed its existence and said that it was one of the largest di...

Pallet packaging has long been a traditional villain in the story of plastic waste but a firm is directing a system that's put reusing, reducing and recycling in starring roles.

UK Ministers have said they have “no plans” to give MPs a vote on foreign aid cuts despite a backbench Conservative rebellion and pressure from the Commons speaker.

THE SNP MSP who replaced the disgraced former finance secretary Derek Mackay has failed to mention him in her maiden speech despite working for him for years.

NICOLA Sturgeon has defended the continued closure of soft play centres in large parts of Scotland despite growing desperation from owners worried about going bust.

THE SNP'S Social Justice Secretary has claimed the UK Government ending the £20 Universal Credit uplift would be a “callous act” which will push thousands of children into poverty.

CONSERVATIVE and Labour MSPs have criticised Nicola Sturgeon for giving Covid-19 updates live on television but not facing opponents in Holyrood – accusing the First Minister of showing “apparent disrespect” to the Scottish Parliament.

A FORMER diplomat sentenced to eight months in jail for contempt of court during the Alex Salmond trial has been refused leave to appeal to the UK Supreme Court by three judges at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Gleneagles’ Edinburgh hotel development’s “garden room” restaurant extension has been granted planning permission.

Three more people have been arrested and charged in connection with disorder caused by Rangers fans in George Square as they celebrated their title win last month.

HEALTH Secretary Humza Yousaf has insisted Glasgow’s Euro 2020 fan zone will open without mandatory testing taking place – pointing to ethical and equalities issues.

Now Dominic Cummings v the UK Government is heading for a sequel this Thursday when it is the turn of Matt Hancock, England’s Health Secretary, to appear before the same joint committee of MPs. 

Three men have been jailed for smuggling cocaine and cannabis through Scotland.

The big screen televisions for the Euro 2020 fanzone will cost more than £84,000 in taxpayers’ money

AT the end of last week, there was the return of a familiar sound that had been subdued, if never entirely absent, during the pandemic. It was the cheery din of sabre-rattling by “senior EU diplomats” warning the UK of impending “punitive ac...

NHS Fife has said that 38 people linked to the Styx Pool Hall in Victoria Road, Kirkcaldy

HOSPITAL admissions for Covid patients have doubled, but are continuing to lag behind the levels seen during the beginning of the second wave in September.

A large number of South Ayrshire schools have been caught up in the Covid surge currently hitting the area.

Constitutional expert Adam Tomkins is joining The Herald as a columnist.

AN SNP MSP has been loudly jeered at Holyrood after promoting independence as Nicola Sturgeon gave an update on the Covid pandemic.

There have been 695  new cases of Covid-19 reported in Scotland in the past 24 hours.

A HOTEL in St Andrews which overlooks the Old Course has changed hands for the first time in 34 years.

Schools should look at splitting the day into two so blended learning can be incorporated on an ongoing basis, according to expert analysis that envisages the end of the traditional classroom.

AROUND two thirds of people in Scotland think the UK Government should draw up a plan to wind down oil and gas production in the North Sea and redirect related spending to ‘green’ industries, a survey has found.

Sites including Amazon, Twitter, Google, Spotify, eBay, PayPal and Reddit are currently experiencing problems, with thousands reporting problems.

A FEW days ago members of the Poverty & Inequality Commission for Scotland met online with asylum seekers housed in Glasgow. We heard harrowing first-hand accounts of the hunger and destitution caused by the Aspen Card scandal – the comprehensiv...

A police officer has accepted responsibility for killing Sarah Everard, a court heard.

THE pandemic has reached a precarious juncture with cases on the rise UK-wide but lingering uncertainty over how much further it is safe to progress back towards normality.

Jamie Shuttleworth Born: April 18, 1992; Died: May 24, 2021.