en-uk Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:37:29 GMT Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd. custserv@timesonline.co.uk http://www.timesonline.co.uk Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:16:42 GMT Newspapers 144 21 http://www.timesonline.co.uk http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,116979,00.gif Magnus Linklater, Scotland Editor Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:01:00 GMT 2010-01-28T10:32:52Z Andy Murray has done Scotland a huge service. Not by proving that he is a great Scottish player. But by disposing — for ever, we hope — of the tired old argument about whether he should be claimed as a Brit or a Scot. Commentary: Magnus Linklater Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:01:00 GMT 2010-01-27T09:45:45Z It is hard to feel hugely sympathetic to the Society of Law Agents, representing Scotland’s independent solictors. They have been slow in realising what is about to happen to their profession; they have failed to turn out their members to vote against the reforms at the operative period; and their complaints now smack of whingeing rather than principled opposition. Magnus Linklater: Holyrood Sketch Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:01:00 GMT 2010-01-21T10:58:21Z The things that really get MSPs going are the ones that are massively irrelevant. Ask them about measures to improve the Scottish economy, or whether enough schools are being built, and they will furrow their brows and put on a display of dutiful concern. But offer them the chance of embarrassing a minister caught up in some minor gaffe and the whole place lights up. Commentary: Magnus Linklater Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:01:00 GMT 2010-01-13T11:12:49Z There are, it seems, no “sink” schools in Scotland, no “bog standard comprehensives,” none of the falling standards that first prompted Labour, under Tony Blair, to place “education, education, education” at the top of the party’s list of priorities and introduce the draconian reforms that have so sharply divided the two systems north and south of the border. Comment: Magnus Linklater Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:01:00 GMT 2010-01-12T11:10:23Z Not only are these new drink statistics horrifying, they should finally convince Scotland’s opposition parties that the time has come to treat the issue of alcohol abuse with the seriousness it merits. Hitherto, Scottish Labour and Conservatives have opposed the SNP government’s attempts to introduce a law on minimum pricing for alcohol — despite the almost universal consensus of medical opinion that this is the only proven way to reduce sales of strong drink. Alcohol is too cheap, and too readily available. Everyone knows that. Taking steps to reverse that is basic common sense.