With financial doom and gloom all around it is encouraging to hear that almost 300 Scottish projects will benefit from the first round of the 2007-13 European Structural Funds programme. Something in the region of £200 million has been allocated to support economic development, enhance skills, increase turnover and help create new jobs.
Projects cover a [...]
The Scottish Government has announced its plan to make Scotland’s schools greener under a new initiative to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. To tie in with the requirements of the Scottish Climate Change Bill the local government education departments will have to work closely with ‘Carbon Trust’ in order to acquire the necessary knowledge [...]
Some fascinating research has shown that here in Scotland we still like our Christmas traditions to include turkey and steak pie; and that we actually want to, and like to, buy local produce despite the overwhelming range of goodies offered by the supermarkets.
66% of Scots will choose a traditional roast turkey lunch on Christmas Day
27% [...]
The political leaders in Holyrood joined together to announce the release of an updated events guide for Homecoming Scotland 2009.
More than 300 events and festivals are planned, all aimed at celebrating Homecoming through culture, heritage,Burns, whisky, golf, innovation and ancestry.
Among the many new events just announced is ‘Iconic Burns’, an outdoor event in Alloway as [...]
The UK government looks set to legalise the use of the saltire on car registration plates. The department for transport hope the rules will be changed to allow UK motorists to show national flags by next year. It is currently illegal and drivers can be fined for displaying flags on their number plates. Scottish Secretary, [...]
In a delightfully Scottish twist on ‘charity begins at home’ the makers of the world famous “Grouse” whisky have released a new blend called “Black Grouse”, all in the name of charity and conservation. Money from every bottle of whisky sold will go to the RSPB campaign to protect the black grouse, native to the [...]
In a bid to establish a ‘worldwide online identity’ for Scotland, First Minister Alex Salmond will be a guest of the Catalan Government next week and will learn first hand of the success of Catalonia’s ‘.cat’ domain. It is hoped that similar success would come to Scotland with the introduction of a ‘.scot’ domain. Preliminary [...]
The 2008 Christmas Card from First Minister Alex Salmond celebrates the forthcoming Year of Homecoming and will raise funds for four key Scottish charities; Aberdeen Cyrenians, Islamic Relief, Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund and the RNLI. The canvas donated by artist John Bellany has not been met with huge excitement as it is rather lacking [...]
The results of the first-ever comprehensive research on village halls, undertaken on behalf of the government by the Scottish Agricultural College, was published today. The database shows where they are, who uses them, who runs them and what state they are in.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said that village halls play a central role [...]
If you do only one thing today you should go to the VisitScotland website and watch and listen to the excellent anthem produced for The Gathering next year. To celebrate the year of Homecoming a host of Scottish celebrities have joined together to sing the iconic Dougie Maclean song “Caledonia”, which has the perfect lyrics [...]
