Boozed up firebug jailed over garage blaze

By Paul Thornton

A GARAGE manager who downed 20 pints in a nine-hour binge before torching the tyre-centre he ran has been jailed.

Colin McReadie, 22, caused hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage after he set fire to a Budget Tyre Centre in Edinburgh.

McReadie had recently been promoted to manager but claims he was struggling to deal with the responsibility of the job.

And after being told he was to have a meeting with bosses McReadie set light to the Piershill Place premises causing over £700,000 worth of damage.

Dozens of firefighters fought the inferno as highly flammable gas cylinders threatened to ignite and the garage was closed for weeks following the fire on September 29 last year.

New laws force council to buy ‘Porsche of lawnmowers’

By ALEXANDER LAWRIE

HEALTH and Safety laws are forcing a cash-strapped Scots council to buy new lawnmowers which cost more than a top of the range car.

Fife Council is contemplating shelling out nearly £30,000 for each of the armchair-sized remote-controlled mowers.

New safety guidelines will now restrict council staff to use the machines if the gradient of a piece of land is deemed greater that 15 degrees.

Any strip of land over that gradient would automatically trigger a risk assessment and require workers to wear and use specialist equipment.

Gloria Hunniford to front Angels show

By Cara Sulieman

TV PRESENTER Gloria Hunniford was in Scotland yesterday to unveil her latest on screen project – a new programme about guardian angels.

‘Angels’ aims to explore the concept of guardian angels and ‘angelic power’ as well as explaining the history of the phenomenon and debating their existence.

With stories from people who believe they have been visited by angels, the show’s experts will look at the cases and try to explain what really happened.

A psychologist, who will challenge the encounters and provide a common sense reason for the sighting, will join Glennyce Eckersley, an expert on the spiritual interpretation of angels.

“I’m lucky to be alive”

By Cara Sulieman

A MAN who survived a head-on crash in a £80,000 Porsche in the Austrian Alps that killed two people admits he is “lucky to be alive”.

Andrew Cathro, 25, was on holiday with his sister Jennifer when they borrowed a friend’s sports car for a drive.

Jennifer, 26, was driving in torrential rain when the car skidded on to the wrong side of the road.

The Porche then smashed head-on into a Ford, killing its two Austrian passengers, Erika Yelinda, 62 and Siglinde Mitsche, 82.

Nursery rhyme row splits island community

By ALEXANDER LAWRIE

A REMOTE Scots island community has been ripped apart after a pub quiz row about what Old Mrs Hubbard kept in her cupboard.

The islander’s bickering over a bone has led Colonsay’s only pub to cancel its long-running quiz night – usually the social highlight of the week on the tiny Hebridean island.

The trouble erupted last Thursday when one team of quizzers lost by a single point after their answer of bones was ruled wrong.

Local shop assistant Keir Johnston refused to accept the official decision and started up an island-wide petition asking people to sign up if they thought the legendary nursery rhyme character did indeed keep bones in her cupboard.

But furious quizmaster Angus MacPhee then retorted by putting up posters in the hotel bar and general store announcing the cancellation of the popular quiz night.

Jaguar burnt out by hooded yob

What's left of Kenneth's Jaguar

By Cara Sulieman

A HOODED arsonist is being hunted after setting fire to a £22,000 Jaguar sports car parked just feet away from the home of an elderly couple.

Kenneth McIlroy, 52, who owns the car, needed oxygen on the scene after suffering from shock as he watched his “pride and joy” engulfed in flames.

A firebomber smashed the car window before dropping in a bottle of flammable liquid and setting it alight.

Neighbours said they saw a hooded suspect run down the street before getting into another car that screeched off.

Transatlantic flight celebrates 90th anniversary

The R34 at East Fortune

By Cara Sulieman

RESIDENTS of a tiny town in America have been invited to Scotland to mark the 90th anniversary of the first return flight across the Atlantic.

The giant Glasgow-built R34 airship set off from East Fortune in East Lothian bound for Mineola on Long Island on July 2 1919.

And the National Museum of Flight, which is based at the East Fortune site, have waived the admission fee for any of the 19,000 residents of the US town.

The airship’s flight was an adventurous and exciting event and hit the headlines on both sides of the Atlantic.

Shocked onlookers dial 999 as yobs attack “whale”

By Cara Sulieman

SHOCKED onlookers called out the coastguard when they saw a crowd of yobs beating what looked like a whale that had been washed up on to the beach.

Worried that the six savages were going to kill the animal, people in East Lothian dialled 999 to get help for the beast.

But when the coastguard arrived they soon realised it was a false alarm.

Instead of a stranded whale, the group had surrounded a wave generator that they were experimenting with.

Scots comic writer moves to LA

By ALEXANDER LAWRIE

A TOP Scots comic book writer is moving to Los Angeles – because he claims he doesn’t have any friends in Scotland.

Grant Morrison, 49, from Glasgow, who writes the scripts for the Batman comic strips, has recently been voted the number two comic book writer of all time.

But the writer has decided to up sticks and move out to the Californian city from his Scots home on Dunoon.

Morrison was being interviewed by classic horror author Clive Barker last week when he dropped the bombshell he had recently purchased a new home in the City of Angels.

Scots republican praises the Queen

By ALEXANDER LAWRIE

SCOTLAND’S most outspoken republican has leaped to the defence of the Queen and claims that the 49 MSPs who snubbed her visit to Holyrood’s 10th anniversary celebrations had shamed themselves.

Ian Hamilton QC, 82, one of the four students who famously stole the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey in 1950, also praised Her Majesty – saying she behaved “impeccably” during the Royal visit despite the empty seats before her.

The outspoken and self-confessed nationalist also believes the Queen’s attendance at Holyrood will only reinforce the nationalist’s cause for independence.

Writing on his blog, Mr Hamilton said: “I have more cause than most to dislike the House of Windsor but when things change, I change.

“Instead of the resolutely hostile Queen of England she once was we may have a friend in Elizabeth, Queen of Scots.