Scottish Government considering downsizing estate by 40% in bid to save cash

A Bonhill snapper has revealed his surprise when his famous pal asked him to photograph his wedding.

West Lothian teachers will be taking part in a fresh round of strikes later this month.

A hiker has been rushed to hospital after slipping on a rock in horror conditions . Mountain rescue teams raced to Steall Falls, near near Ben Nevis, after the alarm was raised at around 2.15pm on Thursday.

Love Island’s only Scots winner Paige Turley is ready to give up her crown, joking: “We’ve kind of milked it enough.” The West Lothian star won the first winter spin-off in 2020 with Finley Tapp.

An East Lothian schoolboy has been left blind in one eye after a dangerous "deodorant bomb" playground craze went horribly wrong.

A popular snack bar have announced their sad closure due to rising energy bills and cost of food supplies.

Katie Melua has announced that she will release her ninth studio album, ‘Love & Money’, this spring.Out now is new single ‘Golden Record’, of which she says: “It’s about the scene changing and being a woman in the music industry and how strange and lucky I feel to have a job I’m addicted to”.“This approach for nearly 20 years led me to being very dogmatic and leaving very little space for my life at home”, she goes on. “Before I knew it, the years had flown and I was 36, newly divorced, still pedalling like mad with music, while around me, friends were all married, making babies”.“And while the draw of making records and getting up on stage still did everything I thought I needed for my soul”, she explains, “I knew not having a stable relationship at home and starting a family was gradually gnawing away at me”.“Writing ‘Golden Record’”, she concludes, “it was like I was finally making peace with it all, accepting how things have changed in the industry, being happy with my lot at home and ready to face the fear of letting go of the forever funfair of the music industry”.‘Love & Money’ will be out on 23 Mar and you can watch the video for ‘Golden Record’ here:Melua will also be touring the UK in May.

Lisa Marie Presley – the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley – has died, aged 54. She was taken to hospital in California following a cardiac arrest yesterday morning, but died later in the day.“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us”, said Priscilla Presley in a statement. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.

Lisa Marie Presley's life in her final years has come to light following her death aged 54.The only child of Elvis Presley was said to be living a reclusive life after being "racked with grief" after her son Benjamin Keough took his own life.The 27-year-old, who was the grandson of Elvis Presley, died by suicide in 2020.A source close to the family said: "In her final years, she was racked with grief over Ben, he was her baby, and he relied on her heavily. Her world completely fell apart when he died."She was comforted having her ex Danny [Keough] around again, they weren’t romantic but they were close."The source continued that Lisa was finding it "so difficult" to cope with the grief.They concluded to The Sun: "But she found it so difficult to cope and barely left the house for months after his death."They would just be holed up in there and she'd stay in her bedroom."Lisa wrote an emotional essay about her sons passing last summer to mark America's National Grief Awareness Day.She wrote that she had learned "grief does not stop or go away in any sense" and it is something you carry "for the rest of your life".She added that it was "lonely" and that she felt she was "judged and blamed" for her son’s death.Lisa thought this as she admitted that she herself used to "low-key judge" parents who had lost children, swearing she would never make the mistakes she assumed they did.She added: "It’s a real choice to keep going, one that I have to make every single day and one that is constantly challenging, to say the least...

Scottish actor Gerard Butler, 53, has opened up about how he accidentally burnt himself with phosphoric acid whilst filming his new film, Plane.The 300 star appeared on US chat show Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday, where he recalled the terrifying ordeal.The Hollywood actor recalled how shooting one particularly crucial scene for the new action-thriller led to an unexpected medical emergency.He told talk show host Seth, 49, how had been filming on a plane in Puerto Rico when things started to go seriously wrong. "I'm trying to find something that's wrong with the plane before we can take off for this final sequence and it's something in the wheel, so it's a brake,” he explained.“So, I'm sticking my hand between these two wheels, pretending I know what I'm doing.

The nominations are out for this year’s BRIT Awards. Once again, the focus has fallen on how diverse the shortlists are – or not – in particular now that the UK’s big music awards bash doesn’t have gender specific categories like Best Female and Best Male.One of the concerns raised when the BRITs decided to get rid of the gender specific categories was that it could result in less gender diversity overall.

RELEASESMiley Cyrus has released new single ‘Flowers’. She announced earlier this week that her eighth studio album, ‘Endless Vacation’, will be out on 10 Mar.Paramore have released new single ‘C’est Comme Ça’. “I’m trying to get un-addicted to a survival narrative”, says vocalist Hayley Williams.

Three years on from their last album, ‘Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible’, Enter Shikari have announced that they will return with new LP ‘A Kiss For The Whole World’ this spring.The album, says frontman Rou Reynold, sees the band invigorated after he found himself unable to make music during the period of inactivity brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.“At the time it felt like we ourselves, as musicians, were experiencing the death of our band”, he says. “I just didn’t realise that the human and physical connection to other people were so central to how I write”.“Honestly, I thought I was fucked”, he goes on.

A woman who was banned from contacting her ex partner has appeared in court again after threatening to murder him via messages to his dog's Facebook account. Paula Higman, 38, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday for breaching the terms of a suspended sentence handed to her in August 2021.

Basic and New State Pension payments will increase this year by 10.1 per cent for some 12.5million older people across the UK, including 992,052 living in Scotland. The honouring of the Triple Lock rule was confirmed last month by the UK Government and means that older people are set for an income boost of up to £75 per month from April.

Nicola Sturgeon’s Government is poised for a massive £80m overspend on its running costs despite raising taxes and backing cuts.

Scotland’s Deputy First Minster has said the budget he laid out to parliament on Thursday was “bleak” and the delivery of public services will likely require reform.

The Scottish Government has been accused of failing children by watering down plans for free school meals and leaving thousands hungry over Christmas.

A demand for more funding for council across Scotland to tackle unprecedented budget problems has been publicly backed by Falkirk councillors, after they gave the COSLA Save Our Services campaign unanimous support.