Free Republic

A SHAMED teacher was caught leering at young girls outside a Clydebank school while using a home made self-pleasuring device.Married dad, Guy Milford — who had worked in schools in the area for 10 years — had the “bizarre” electrical sex toy plugged into his car’s cigarette lighter as he watched pupils going into Clydebank High. The weirdo 34-year-old was due to be working at Clydemuir Primary, in Dalmuir, on the day of the sickening incident. Cops rumbled Milford near the high school gates at around 8.30am as pupils arrived for classes. Milford later told Dumbarton Sheriff Court he was...

TROPICAL STORM LAURA ADVISORY NUMBER 6 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL122008 1100 AM AST TUE SEP 30 2008 ...LAURA BECOMES TROPICAL...BUT NOT FOR LONG... AT 1100 AM AST...1500Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM LAURA WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 41.2 NORTH...LONGITUDE 48.8 WEST OR ABOUT 435 MILES...700 KM...SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF CAPE RACE NEWFOUNDLAND. LAURA IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH NEAR 13 MPH...20 KM/HR. LAURA CONTINUES TO ACCELERATE...AND A TURN TO THE NORTH-NORTHEAST IS EXPECTED TONIGHT OR WEDNESDAY. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 60 MPH...95 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. GRADUAL WEAKENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS...AND LAURA COULD LOSE TROPICAL...

SCOTLAND has taken a major step towards leading the way in marine renewable energy with the announcement that the world's first tidal farms could be built within three years. Two tidal projects, each with up to 20 turbines, could be installed on the seabed in the Pentland Firth and the Sound of Islay. A third is planned off the North Antrim coast in Northern Ireland. The aim is that all the underwater turbines would be constructed in Scotland, kickstarting the renewables industry in this country. ScottishPower Renewables will apply for planning permission for the three tidal projects next summer. If...

People should be able to say if they wish to die, Baroness Warnock says People with dementia should be able to end their lives if they feel they are a burden to others or to the NHS, according to a respected ethicist. Baroness Mary Warnock, who has made similar calls in recent years, first made her remarks in a Church of Scotland magazine. She told the BBC she believed there were many who "sank into dementia when they would very much prefer to die". But Alzheimer's charities called her remarks "insensitive and ignorant". Around 700,000 people in the UK...

Excerpt- For Scotland's oldest bank, it was the suddenness of its rout that stunned. That and the silence at the top. That and the invisibility of leadership. That and the short-selling frenzy that descended on HBOS shares yesterday, like vultures on a corpse. This was the blackest day in Scottish banking. An appalling day of shock, confusion and disbelief. Many this morning will still be aghast at the speed of the bank's share collapse. Anger and a reckoning will come later. Today, the fate of HBOS, the savings of its 22 million customers, the prospects for its 72,000 staff and...

Irish In Protest At Gers Chant Sep 16 2008 By Paul Drury AN IRISH diplomat has raised a complaint with the Scottish government over a song sung by Rangers fans at an Old Firm game. They were heard singing "The Famine Song" during the match at Ibrox a fortnight ago. It includes the line: "The famine is over, why don't you go home?", and refers to the Irish potato famine of 1845-49, in which more than a million people died. A Celtic fan protested to the Irish Embassy in London and Consul General Cliona Manahan raised the issue with...

ANIMAL rights campaigners will call on MSPs this week to ban the Islamic and Jewish method of slaughtering animals, claiming there can be no exemptions purely on the grounds of religious belief. A petition will be heard, backed by the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA), arguing that animals can only be killed in Scotland if pre-stunned first. Jews and Muslims believe that animals should be slaughtered using methods known as the 'schechita' and 'dhabiha' respectively. A sharp knife is used to cut its throat. The meat must then be 'purified' by the blood being drained...

I thought of “Sweetness” last week. He was the Drum Major of the Yale Band, back when ice covered the Earth and I was in college. I’m not saying that the Yale Band was inadequate. But they did run onto the field like a rabble, rather than march. The Co-op Book Store did have a card which said on the front, “Today, in your honor, the Yale Band will play....” Inside, it said, “... in tune.” But one part of that organization was absolutely perfect. That was George Levendis, a 6-foot 4-inch Drum Major who bent over backwards until the...

Archaeologists have uncovered a small - but vital - clue to the use of a chariot in Moray. The piece for a horse harness was found during the latest dig at an Iron Age site at Birnie, near Elgin. Dr Fraser Hunter, of the National Museums of Scotland, said it was further evidence of the high status of its inhabitants. Excavations would have been unlikely at Birnie if not for the discovery of Roman coins 10 years ago. Glass beads that may have been made at Culbin Sands, near Nairn, in the Highlands, a dagger and quern stones for making...

A millennium-old mystery may soon be at a close after archaeologists began investigating a unique Pictish stone near Glamis... It is thought the stone once marked the western edge of Forfar Loch. If, as is thought, the stone has remained unmoved at the same site for more than 1100 years then it could provide a unique window into the past. Most stones of its type have been moved from their original sites -- destroying their link to the land and hindering the work of those trying to decipher what messages they were intended to convey. St Orland's stone also bares...

Every serious sportsman knows that by late August, the Scottish Highlands offer an array of riches. Grouse season is a couple weeks under way. Deer stalking is at its peak, and the fly-fishing doesn't get any better. Sotheby's annual sale of antique sporting guns at the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland is popular this time of year because winning bidders can walk out the door and take to the field with their elegantly engraved rifles and shotguns. City bankers and sundry members of the English upper class have always favored the Highlands in August (and the golf is phenomenal, too). But...

Jahingir Hanif was shown to have handled a military style rifle during a trip to Pakistan three years ago, in 2005. The video may have been leaked to the net because of an acrimonious divorce. His party has been one of the most vocal with irrational hatred of firearms, and reacted to the video by suspending him from the party, even though he is out of the country and cannot present a defense. It is rumored that he even allowed some of his children to learn to use firearms. While Mr. Hanif is not alleged to have done anything illegal,...

Draconian rules imposed by the Chinese authorities mean that flags of any non-competing nation are likely to be confiscated from fans, who could be barred from venues if they refuse to comply. Athletes could even be disqualified from competing if they break the rules. Because Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland are not individually represented at the games, only the Union Flag of Great Britain will be allowed inside the stadiums. The regulation is widely believed to be aimed at preventing supporters of an independent Tibet from making political statements by waving its flag, but it will be enforced...

Britain's second largest bank expected to reveal it has lost £1 billion in first half THE Royal Bank of Scotland is poised to unveil the biggest loss in UK banking history after taking a hit of almost £6 billion from the credit crisis. Britain’s second-largest bank is this week expected to reveal a pre-tax loss of at least £1 billion for the first six months of the year, with analysts warning it could slide to as much as £1.7 billion in the red. The loss would be roughly five times higher than the deficit racked up by Barclays in 1992...

Gordon Brown is being openly undermined by Cabinet ministers who are now publicly questioning his future as Prime Minister. The Labour Party has no option but to replace him as leader or face certain defeat at the next general election, said one. Should he be forced to step down, Mr Brown would be the first Prime Minister since Neville Chamberlain not to fight a general election "We cannot go any lower," the minister said, following Labour's disastrous defeat in the Glasgow East by-election, one of the biggest upsets in political history. "We are at rock bottom. The evidence is there...

Gordon Brown’s worst nightmare was realised early today as the Scottish National Party triumphed by taking Glasgow East, one of Labour’s safest seats. The hopes of Labour strategists that their disastrous run of electoral setbacks was about to end were dashed as the SNP’s John Mason achieved the enormous 22 per cent swing required to topple the long-time stronghold. Mr Mason, a Glasgow councillor, overturned a 13,507 Labour majority at the general election in 2005 to win by 365 votes from Labour’s Margaret Curran. Turnout was just over 42 per cent. Earlier in the day, Labour had requested a recount,...

    Major gongs for heroic Our Boys   Award ... Captain Paul Britton is congratulated by Major General Gary Robison    By TOM NEWTON DUNN Defence Editor Published: Today     AN Army officer who led a battle despite a lump of burning shrapnel in his shoulder was one of 19 forces heroes awarded the Military Cross yesterday.   Praise ... Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb  Captain Paul Britton, 28, refused morphine so he could control artillery and air strikes to beat off Taliban attackers in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The Royal Artillery officer was wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade...

Underwater archaeologists are taking to Loch Tay to try to uncover more about a submerged prehistoric woodland. The stumps of about 50 trees were discovered in 2005 - some of them are thought to be about 6,000 years old. The experts are now aiming to find their root system and establish the depth to which the trees are buried. Meanwhile, a campaign has been launched to help restore the reconstructed crannog, an ancient loch dwelling, which attracts thousands of visitors. The Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology will spend the next two weeks inspecting the drowned forest. They will be focusing...

When my wife, Dinah, and I accepted a commission to write a guidebook about family travel in Scotland we had visions of staring moodily across tree-lined lochs, introducing art to our two-year-old daughter, Phoebe, in countless galleries, growing to appreciate the squeak and bellow of pipe bands and maybe even the savoury intricacies of regional haggis. And our son, Charlie, was only six weeks old. He would be easy. Covering 4,000 miles, and assessing 60 hotels, 70 restaurants and more than 300 attractions for their child-friendliness, our Scottish travels would be a great contrast to our normal working lives —...

A prominent Muslim leader of Scotland is facing jail after being found guilty of sexually abusing teenage girls. Farooq Hussain, who owned a string of restaurants and held high-profile charity events, was convicted after a weeklong trial at Perth Sheriff Court. The jury found that Hussain, 56, had sexually assaulted a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old girl. Sentence was deferred for background reports. Hussain's name was added to the sex offenders' register, the BBC reported. The married restaurant owner, who held high-profile charity events with politicians, attacked a 15-year-old girl in 2002 and twice assaulted a 14-year-old girl last year. Outside...

The mother of a young Irishman who was shot and killed by police last week in the US is travelling to Oregon to meet with Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau. The meeting is expected to be on Friday, The Oregonian newspaper said today. The death of Andrew “A.J.” Hanlon has sparked a public outcry in Ireland, and Dorothea Carroll is travelling to Oregon alongside some members of the Irish media. Doug Hansen, a deputy district attorney, said earlier his office expects to convene a grand jury on the June 30 shooting death once an investigation is completed. Mr Hanlon,...

The "peaceful and tolerant" Muslims in Scotland have their knickers in a twist over an advertisement for the local police department that featured a small black puppy sitting in a policeman's hat. Isn't it amazing that these folks won't get outraged over the brutal jihadist murder of innocent people in the name of Allah but DO get bent out of shape over a puppy? CLICK HERE for story.Maybe if he was sitting in a turban

<p>College girls who turned the tables on builders by wolf-whistling at them have been warned their behaviour is ‘harassment’.</p> <p>The students singled out contractors working on an extension to West Kent College for amorous comments and cheeky remarks.</p> <p>But the joke has become so persistent that the pupils have been threatened with disciplinary action.</p>

Thousands of primary pupils were prevented from making Father's Day cards at school for fear of embarrassing classmates who live with single mothers and lesbians. The politically correct policy was quietly adopted at schools "in the interests of sensitivity" over the growing number of lone-parent and same-sex households.

Stone of Destiny is fake, claims Alex Salmond By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent Last Updated: 1:41PM BST 16/06/2008 Alex Salmond dropped a cultural bombshell yesterday when he claimed that the Stone of Destiny, one of Scotland's most famous relics, was a medieval fake. Alex Salmond arriving at the Scottish Grand Committee in Dumfries carrying the Stone of Destiny Scottish, English and British monarchs have been crowned on the ancient coronation stone since the ninth century. It spent 700 years under the chair in Westminster Abbey after it was seized in 1296 by King Edward I, and was finally returned to...

Bill Clinton will be a no show for a speech in Scotland this week. The Aberdeen officials have their panties in a bind over a solution for Bubba’s no show.

MUSLIM scholars are working on a plan to find new followers in the Western Isles: they want to translate the Koran into Gaelic. They hope the £50,000 project will show Muslims' commitment to Scotland and Scottish culture and promote understanding between faiths. However, the move has received a cool reception from some Gaels, especially in the language's heartland, the emphatically church-going Western Isles. The project has been set up by a British-based Muslim publishing organisation, the Muslim Academic Trust, which is looking for Gaelic writers and scholars who can help them translate the Koran into the language. So far, they...

TWO Muslim supporters of "violent jihad" discussed setting up a secret Islamic state in a remote part of Scotland, a court heard yesterday. Away from the prying eyes of the authorities, it would provide a safe haven for those who felt "oppressed", jurors were told. The community would be run according to Sharia law and eventually be used as a base to "discreetly train" for attacks agADVERTISEMENTainst non-believers. The only drawback Aabid Khan allegedly identified was the availability of weapons. Blackfriars Crown Court in London heard the online exchange was part of a "mass" of allegedly incriminating material found by...

The historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, who died in 2003, was often depicted as hostile to the Scots (or 'Scotch', as he insisted on calling them). Yet, as he would sometimes remark, he had a long association with Scotland and its people. He was brought up in Northumberland, only 20 miles or so from the border. As a boy he had been cared for by a Scots nanny, before attending a preparatory school in Dunbar. After an interval, he married a Scots wife, and together they bought a home near Melrose, where he lived during the university vacations for almost 30 years....

Glasgow, Scotland (LifeNews.com) -- Officials in Scotland have unveiled a plan to cut the waiting time for women having abortions while news reports from just months ago show British maternity wards are turning away women because they're full. While women seeking to have a baby may not get help, the government is pushing abortions forward.The new Scotland rules say women who want an abortion within the first nine weeks of pregnancy will be guaranteed access to a physician for one.The hope of the National Health Service, the British taxpayer-funded, government-run health system, is to reach the goal of having...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

Orkney Islanders have Siberian relatives Last Updated: 12:01am BST 23/05/2008 A new study on ancient human migrations suggests that Orcadians and Siberians are closely related, writes Roger Highfield. Orkney Islanders are more closely related to people in Siberia and in Pakistan than those in Africa and the near East, according to a novel method to chart human migrations. The surprising findings come from a new way to infer ancient human movements from the variation of DNA in people today, conducted by a team from the University of Oxford and University College Cork, which has pioneered a technique that analyses the...

Eminent historian debunks Scottish history as largely fabricationA book by the late Hugh Trevor-Roperand due to be published five years after his death argues that Scottish history is based on myths and falsehoods Stuart MacDonald SCOTLAND’S history is weaved from a “fraudulent” fabric of “myths and falsehoods”, according to an explosive new study by one of the world’s most eminent historians. The Invention of Scotland: Myth and History, is the last book, and one of the most controversial, written by the late Hugh Trevor-Roper. Now, five years after his death, the book is to be published at one of the...

Organisers of the main celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary in Scotland last week decided not to raise the Israeli flag for fear of provoking pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Ten years ago — for Israel’s 50th — the flag was raised on a flagpole in a ceremony outside the premises of East Renfrewshire Council where the event had been staged. But after discussions between local organisers and the council, the decision was taken not to repeat the exercise this time. The 60th event was held at the same venue, in the south of Glasgow. Adele Conn, co-chair of the Israel at 60 committee,...

Leo McKinstry says the current craze for genealogy reflects an unhealthy combination of snobbery and inverse snobbery, and is a poor replacement for national history When I visited the National Archives at Kew last week the place was full of them, scurrying about with their plastic wallets in hand, a look of eager concentration on their faces. It was impossible to escape their busy presence as they whispered noisily to relatives or whooped over the discovery of some new piece of information. These were the followers of one of Britain’s fastest-growing craze, the mania for researching family history. Studying bloodlines...

Hundreds of workers at Scotland's only oil refinery on Sunday began a 48-hour strike that has forced BP PLC to shut a pipeline system that delivers almost a third of Britain's North Sea oil. BP said it had completed the closure of the Forties Pipeline System by 6 a.m., when 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth refinery in central Scotland walked off the job. The pipeline brings in 700,000 barrels of oil a day from the North Sea to BP's Kinneil plant, which is powered from the Grangemouth site. Energy industry group Oil & Gas U.K. said the strike, over pension...

LONDON (Reuters) - A pipeline carrying nearly half of Britain's oil was closed on Sunday as a strike over pensions began at the neighboring Grangemouth refinery in Scotland, operator BP said. The refinery, owned by international chemical company Ineos, produces a tenth of Britain's petrol and diesel but also supplies vital steam to BP's Kinneil plant that starts to process the crude oil coming ashore from 70 North Sea fields. Unions have rejected pleas to operate the steam plant at the level necessary to keep Kinneil functioning during the two-day stoppage which began at 6 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT)....

Highland bagpipe is a recent invention for nostalgic Scotish émigrés, expert claims By Patrick Sawer Last Updated: 9:34am BST 19/04/2008 Whisper it if you dare, but the age-old Highland bagpipe - beloved of sentimental Scots and American tourists in search of their Highland roots - is in fact a recent invention. Queen Victoria appointed a 'personal piper to the sovereign' A controversial new study has claimed that far from being the time-honoured instrument which led the clans into battle against the Auld Enemy, the bagpipe as we know it was developed in the early 1800s. It now seems that, like...

A STRIPPER'S truncheon is an offensive weapon even though he uses it as a prop in his policeman act, prosecutors claimed yesterday. Student Stuart Kennedy was hauled into court after two female plain-clothes cops spotted him in a fake police uniform. They followed him into the Paramount Bar in Aberdeen and watched him perform as "Sergeant Eros" before charging him with carrying offensive weapons, which also included a fake CS cas canister He was cleared at the city's sheriff court - but yesterday the Crown challenged the ruling at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh. Sheriff Kenneth Stewart had ruled Stuart's...

Royal Bank of Scotland in fresh cash plea By Katherine Griffiths and Robert Winnett Last Updated: 11:12pm BST 17/04/2008 Britain's second biggest bank is to make a plea to the City to try to raise billions of pounds to help shore up its finances, which have been hit by the global credit crisis. The Royal Bank of Scotland, which owns NatWest, is to launch a rights issue for at least £5 billion. The move by RBS could lead to pressure on Sir Fred Goodwin to step aside as chief executive It is the first major British bank to concede that...

Scots, who helped inspire such an ideal in the first place, are debating whether to reach for it again. There are few more-cherished American ideals than independence. With the recent celebration of Tartan Day, established as April 6 by a U.S. Senate resolution in 1998 to commemorate one of the inspirations for the Declaration of Independence -- Scotland's Declaration of Arbroath -- it is as good a time as any to tell the uniquely Scottish story of independence. In 1320, Scots penned the Declaration of Arbroath. In lines that would echo through the ages, they wrote, "It is in truth...

Act repeal could make Franz Herzog von Bayern new King of England and Scotland By Richard Alleyne and Harry de Quetteville Last Updated: 2:48am BST 07/04/2008 Gordon Brown is considering repealing the 1701 Act of Settlement as a way of healing a historic injustice by ending the prohibition against Catholics taking the throne. The Duke of Bavaria, with his niece Elisabeth, is a descendant of King Charles I But doing so would have the unforeseen consequence of making a 74-year-old German aristocrat the new King of England and Scotland. Without the Act, Franz Herzog von Bayern, the current Duke of...

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America Americans of Scottish descent have made enduring contributions to our Nation with their hard work, faith, and values. On National Tartan Day, we celebrate the spirit and character of Scottish Americans and recognize their many contributions to our culture and our way of life. Scotland and the United States have long shared ties of family and friendship, and many of our country's most cherished customs and ideals first grew to maturity on Scotland's soil. The Declaration of Arbroath, the Scottish Declaration of Independence signed in 1320, embodied the Scots'...

The political leader of Scotland told a packed crowd at the University of Virginia on Tuesday that his nation deserves independence from Britain. During his appearance in the Dome Room of the Rotunda, Alex Salmond, first minister of Scotland, praised Thomas Jefferson’s principles of self-governance and liberty, saying they underscore his argument that Scotland should secede and become its own country. “Today, within the present constitutional arrangement, we do our utmost to improve the lives of the people of Scotland,” Salmond said. “And we know that, tomorrow, with full responsibility for our destiny, Scotland can become an even better nation....

A senior Church of Scotland minister has questioned the wisdom of spending large amounts of money keeping older people alive. The Reverend Maxwell Craig, 76, feels funding could be better spent helping the young stay out of trouble.

London - You might want to take that vacation in England just as soon as you can – before its 1,000-year run as a sovereign nation comes to an end. This winter, 27 nations of the European Union (EU) signed the Treaty of Lisbon. You may think, "Innocuous enough," as Portuguese-inspired visions of the Tagus River and chicken piri-piri swirl before your eyes. But for England (Britain, actually) the Treaty of Lisbon isn't that appetizing. That's because, if ratified, it will become the decisive act in this creation of a federal European superstate with its capital in Brussels. Britain would...

Older than the pyramids, buried for centuries – found by an Orkney plumber Tristan Stewart-Robertson A RARE piece of Neolithic art has been discovered on a beach in Orkney. The 6,000-year-old relic, thought to be a fragment from a larger piece, was left exposed by storms which swept across the country last week. Local plumber David Barnes, who found the stone on the beach in Sandwick Bay, South Ronaldsay, said circular markings had shown up in the late-afternoon winter sun, drawing his attention to the piece. Archeologists last night heralded the discovery as a "once-in- 50-years event". But they warned...

The Orkney Islands, where the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean violently meet, last gained fame in 1725 when the pirate ship Revenge was captured there. Today a handful of startups and big companies including General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) are hoping to capture a different prize in Scotland's northernmost waters: marine energy. With waves that travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic before battering its coastline and tidal flows that exceed eight knots, the Scots are poised to become the world leader in this renewable energy source - a market potentially worth billions. By 2020, according to some estimates,...

The people of Scotland will vote in referendum set for 2010 which if successful will lead them to independence from England. Speaking to the members of the international media at the Foreign Press Association on Tuesday afternoon, the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said the feeling for independence now has been greater than in the past. Since leading his Scottish National Party (SNP) into power last year and becoming the first non-English party to govern the region, the 54-year old economist has led the campaign of independence. The SNP Government has issued a White Paper called ‘Choosing Scotland’s Future-A national...

The 77-year-old former James Bond actor, who lives in the Bahamas, says Scotland is "within touching distance" of achieving independence. Writing for the Scottish Sunday Express, Sir Sean praises the work of the SNP government which gained power in the devolved parliament last year. He has been the SNP's most high-profile supporter, donating thousands to funds. Sir Sean, who was born in Edinburgh, has previously sworn not to return to the country until it is independent. In the article, Sir Sean praises Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond and the work of the SNP government since it came into power in...