MINISTERS have pumped in an "eyewatering" £45.1m of public money into the state-owned shipyard at the centre of Scotland's ferry fiasco in just over a year as public spending auditors said they failed to carry out full financial due diligence in nat...

EXTENSIVE proposals to expand Scotland's rail network with the creation of 51 new stations have emerged as Scots were found to be the slowest in the UK to return to trains as Covid restrictions eased.

Last week, for the first time in a month, Ukraine ceased to be top of the news. First it was the P&O lockout then the “biggest drop in living standards” that dominated the front pages and programmes like Question Time.

THE POOREST Scots are going to have to give up a day of food a week in order to meet the soaring cost of living, new analysis has found.

LEN McCluskey has said Scottish Labour is on the verge of extinction under new leader Anas Sarwar and described Keir Starmer as “appalling”.

MINISTERS in Scotland should consider introducing a local inheritance tax to reduce growing wealth inequality, according to the leader of an anti-poverty campaign group.

NICOLA Sturgeon is being cautioned to keep face mask rules in place for a further period and warned easing the measure could be reckless as she prepares to give her latest Covid update to Holyrood.

ONE of the leaders of the 2014 Yes campaign has said it is "not wise" for politicians on both sides of the constitutional divide and experts to "exploit" the war in Ukraine to make points about the independence debate

IT BEGAN with a small idea to do something big. Writer, director, actor and one-time musician Cora Bissett was talking to Jackie Wylie, director of the National Theatre of Scotland, about the possibility of doing a musical.

I WAS out with the dog early morning when I saw it. Ambling through the skinny woods behind my house, a terrifying sight loomed into view: a tree in full blossom. I beat a hasty retreat, imagining menacing clouds of pollen in hot pursuit as I fled in...

A Scots veteran has said how his brother’s death in a hit-and-run made him realise he suffers with survivor’s guilt after fighting in the Falklands War four decades ago.

In a few weeks’ time, seaweed farmer Lawrie Stove will find out just how big this year’s harvest is.

THE National Records of Scotland has denied that the Declaration of Arbroath and other priceless artefacts are in danger, despite concerns from their own staff who say they have been locked out of the archives by management.

A Ukrainian city that has served as a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who fled their hometowns has suffered back-to-back airstrikes.

WHEN the refurbished Burrell Collection opens its doors in Glasgow this week, what will you make a beeline for?

With spring in the air, thoughts of many may well be turning to tackling the garden.

The Abramov family fled Ukraine without any idea where they’d find a home … until the Smith family in Glasgow stepped forward to offer them shelter. Our Writer at Large Neil Mackay recounts a remarkable story of hope and friendship in the shadow ...

HOW to read the mind of a tyrant? Is Vladimir Putin slowly backing down with a change in military strategy or is he preparing to double down in a long war of attrition in Ukraine?

IMAGINE if you could dramatically cut suicide rates and mental health relapses, get hundreds of previously sick people into work, and achieve all this with a fraction of the budget, beds, psychiatric drug prescriptions, and involuntary treatment reli...

One of the soldiers carries a flag while another holds a framed portrait photograph of the fallen comrade they have come to honour and lay to rest.

THE saga surrounding the building of two Calmac ferries at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow seems to go on for ever with each new chapter heralding yet more disclosures of mismanagement and incompetence. With the ships four years behind schedule and l...

Hints and answer for today's Wordle.

ALEX Salmond has criticised Nicola Sturgeon over a failure to yet deliver Indyref2 as he launched a fierce attack on the record of the government led by his successor.

KENNY MacAskill has accused Nicola Sturgeon of dodging responsibility over a controversial ferry contract at the centre of a political storm.

A PETITION calling on Hollywood stars to snub £76,000 Oscars gift bags over a “wounding insult” to Scots has attracted thousands of signatures in under 24 hours.

Born: 11 October 11, 1949;

NICOLA Sturgeon has been urged to explain her knowledge of a controversial ferry contract after it emerged the former minister who she appeared to blame for signing the £97 million deal was on leave at the time.

DOUBTLESS there are many noble lessons to be drawn from The Simpler Life (Channel 4, Tuesday-Wednesday), a reality series in which 24 people adopt an Amish lifestyle to see if it is good for their health. Yet all I could think of as the gaggle arrive...

A LEADING Scottish architect has revealed he is putting his name forward to be the next chairman of Glasgow School of Art and believes he can help reinstate its global reputation as one of the best art schools in the world.

FOR Victoria Robb this Mother's Day will feel extra special when she gets to hug her three-year-old daughter as it comes as she celebrates the end of her treatment for breast cancer.

MINISTERS have come under fire for sanctioning tax avoidance as state-controlled ferry company CalMac used the same loophole as P&O to escape paying National Insurance contributions worth £46m.

Is Gordon Ramsay prime time BBC1 fare? It is the question you assume someone asked before commissioning Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars (BBC1, Thursday, 9pm).

Silence, as a political asset, is woefully neglected. Think of Clement Attlee bluntly advising a truculent comrade, Harold Laski, that a “period of silence” on his part would be welcome.

I DON’T know, one minute you’re the furlough hero, you’ve given the nation the chance to build a gazebo, learn Mandarin and bake sourdough bread and the next you’re reputation’s toast.

Luckless Douglas

THE damning findings of the spending watchdog included a “multitude of failings” in the delivery of two new ferries for Scotland.

Exclusive

A SENIOR Tory MSP says political parties should be stripped of powers to make Holyrood debates less “constrained and scripted”.

THE choreographed attempt to diminish the decline of Glasgow’s most iconic boulevards is underway. Perhaps, having observed the dozens of boarded-up shopfronts and For Sale signs that currently disfigure Sauchiehall Street, you might think that it�...

She was, she says, elected by accident. Margaret George, perhaps cruelly dubbed “Scotland’s laziest councillor”, has decided not to run again this May.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union is planning to blockade the Cairnryan port to protest over the sacking of hundreds of staff by P&O, the body’s Scottish organiser has said.

A married couple killed in a crash on the island of Sanday in Orkney have been named as John and Vikki Drever.

Vladimir Putin was facing the prospect of further setbacks in Ukraine as he appeared to be preparing Russians for a possible scaling back of his ambitions away from seizing Kyiv to fighting for control of the east.

What's the story?

Petrol prices fell by just 2.71p despite a 5p fuel cut announced by Rishi Sunak coming into immediate effect on Wednesday.

Protests are taking place at UK ports over the sacking of hundreds of seafarers, as calls grow for a P&O Ferries’ boss to quit.

Toxic algae that can cause skin rashes has been reported in parts of Loch Lomond amid a spell of warm weather.

Seven public library services are to share more than £200,000 to help them reconnect with their readers in some of Scotland’s most deprived areas.

Sir Rod Stewart helped bring more than a dozen Ukrainian refugees to safety.

Industrial action which was set to close schools and nurseries across Glasgow for two days has been called off.