Swivel-eyed loons or not, embattled Prime Minister David Cameron needs to shore up all the support he can get from grassroots Tories

To a slightly bemused watching world, the pace with which the Church of Scotland is facing up to issues of sexuality seems painfully slow.

Religious convictions, because they derive from faith in the Word of God as revealed in the Bible, are the most unshakeable of beliefs.

Celebrity photographer Rankin has snapped the most attractive and famous people in the world: Kate Moss, Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Craig and George Clooney are just some of the beautiful people he has immortalised in their prime.

Pensions are rapidly looking like being the key vote-determining issue of the independence referendum. And for the SNP right now, it looks like being a real killer. Unless Alex Salmond can come up with some really convincing evidence and arguments to show that pensions will be not just safe, but also better, in an independent Scotland, then he will lose the referendum.

In the last of our series in association with the University of Glasgow’s Vox Populi lectures, Brian Taylor looks back at the referendum of 1997

On one Scottish island, there is a centre of academic excellence which predates the University of the Highlands and Islands by fully a century. That island is Cumbrae in the Firth of Clyde.

When I joined Strathclyde Police in 1975, many of my older colleagues hailed from the Highlands or one of the many Hebridean gulag archipelagos.

Obama’s broken promises may prove a turning point in support for US, says Jackie Kemp

WITH the latest UK government paper out yesterday saying why Scottish independence really is not a good idea, it is easy to forget the emotional side in the trading and counter-trading of facts and non-facts across the two sides of the debate.

Monday’s cartoon features David Cameron and the ‘swivel-eyed loons’

Last week at the Scottish Parliament, the presence of bowel cancer patient Maureen Fleming at First Minister’s Questions presented every single MSP in the chamber with a challenge: why are patients in Scotland three times less likely than patients in England to get access to cancer medicines, prescribed by their doctor but not routinely funded through the NHS?

PURPLE is the colour of Epilepsy Week and that is the colour which will be most visible this week as fundraisers for epilepsy charities call on the public for much needed support.

If Scotland is ‘better’ than the rest of the UK, then Salmond should be condemning Ukip’s treatment here, writes Brian Monteith

Has the time come to halt the demonisation of bankers? Outgoing Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King thinks so. His point is not simply that it has gone on long enough and that it is time to move on.

The General Assembly has the chance to show that it too can take hard decisions without flinching, writes Lesley Riddoch

When my aunt’s pedigree dog entered into a clandestine relationship with a farm collie, my aunt was left with nice offspring she didn’t want and couldn’t sell for the type of fee they might have otherwise attracted had the sire been properly selected.

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 20 May

THE windfall in Scotland’s grasp from offshore renewable energy has been unveiled for the first time in a major new report that reveals it could power the country seven times over within four decades.

Ben was about the poorest sheepdog around, and I can say that from pretty close observation as he was the shepherd’s dog on my father’s farm.