FROM OUR ARCHIVES

5 YEARS AGO

Fewer than one in 12 entrants to law degree courses at Scottish universities come from deprived backgrounds, raising fears the profession is still a middle-class preserve. New National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland figures show only 115 out of a total of 1430 students on Bachelor of Law (LLB) courses in 2010/11 were from the 20 per cent most deprived backgrounds – just eight per cent. Nearly 13 per cent of all university entrants come from the 20 per cent most deprived backgrounds. In the wake of the figures, Scottish universities have been urged to accept more students from college with HND qualifications on to law courses to widen access.

10 YEARS AGO

A coroner was praised last night for striking a blow for public openness after he refused to return “highly sensitive” Ministry of Defence documents relating to the Nimrod spy plane crash in Afghanistan that killed 14 servicemen. Andrew Walker, Oxfordshire assistant deputy coroner, also refused a request not to read the confidential documents after the MoD claimed it had released them in error. His intervention marks the latest row over the UK Government’s alleged reluctance to disclose information about the disaster, which was the heaviest loss of life suffered by British forces in a single incident since the Falklands War.

25 YEARS AGO

Scottish newspaper editors were last night united in their condemnation of the Calcutt report on press conduct, describing it as draconian and a threat to the public’s right to information. Evening Times editor George McKechnie said the Calcutt report contained no surprises but plenty disappointments. He said: “The aim is quite clearly to supress the press. There is no reference to the role of the press in defending the public interest, there is no reference to freedom of information.”

50 YEARS AGO

Mr Malcolm Muggeridge announced last night he has asked the Principal of Edinburgh University to accept his resignation as rector, following the controversy between him and the Students’ Representative Council about making the contraceptive pill available to students. Mr Muggeridge said he understood the principal, Professor Michael Swann, had accepted the resignation “because nothing would alter my opinion that this was the right thing to do”.

150 YEARS AGO

Snow fell heavily in Glasgow yesterday, and towards evening it lay so deeply in the streets that vehicular traffic was much impeded. Considerable delays took place in the tramway service, cars having to be held up occasionally until the snow could be cleared away from the “points” which it had jammed. On the outskirts of the city the snow lay to a depth of about six inches.