PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE explains why opposing war is inseparable from defending jobs, wages and public services – and why readers should come to the London Peace Conference on Saturday June 20
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Could Scotland be about to gain a new ferry service to Scandinavia?
A lighthouse in Scotland
As protests erupt over Henry Nowak’s murder, ANDREW MURRAY argues that anger is being exploited to advance a wider racist and anti-immigration agenda
CARLOS MARTINEZ explains the sound case for car manufacturing co-operation with China
The National Emergency Briefing outlines the need for urgent action to address environmental crisis, says PAUL DONOVAN, warning that there’s no time to indulge the arguments of the fossil-fuel-funded climate-change deniers
Campaigners say criticism of Labour MP Stephen Morgan’s position on Gaza has been met with police intervention and cancelled opportunities for debate. HESTER WOLFE reports
The Committee for the Defence of Iranian People’s Rights warns of escalation danger in Iran war
JO GRIMOND, the Liberal Party leader from 1956 to 1967, was asked to give the name of his nearest railway station on a form for parliamentary expenses — or so the story goes. Being the MP for Orkney and Shetland, he reportedly wrote “Bergen, Norway.”
Norway’s imperial control of parts of Scotland waned after the inconclusive battle of Largs in 1263, after which King Haakon retreated to Orkney — which, along with Shetland, remained under Norwegian sovereignty until 1468.
But that was not the end of the affinity felt with Scandinavia north of the border. Many Scots words still in common usage — such as bairn and midden — derive from Old Norse. And more recently Scottish crime writers and screenwriters have placed themselves in the tradition of Nordic noir rather than the English golden age of fictional murder.
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As bus builder Alexander Dennis threatens Falkirk closure and Grangemouth faces ruthless shutdown by tax exile Jim Ratcliffe, RICHARD LEONARD MSP warns that global corporations must be resisted by a bold industrial strategy based on public ownership