Scots MP makes calls for law to ensure Scottish banknotes are accepted in UK

From our archives 5 years ago

AN MP has lodged a bid to make it legally binding for Scottish banknotes to be accepted across the UK. The move comes after Judy

Murray tweeted about her Scottish note being refused when she tried to buy doughnuts at a London bakery. The tennis coach, and mother to tennis stars Andy and Jamie Murray said she was told “we only take British ones” when trying to pay with a Scottish banknote. Scottish Liberal Democrat deputy leader Alistair Carmichael has lodged a bill in the House of Commons to have Scottish banknotes accepted throughout the UK and to oblige businesses to accept them as payment.

10 years ago

THE world’s largest genealogy showcase is coming to Scotland for the first time for the country’s year of culture, sport and heritage. Organisers have managed to revive a plan to stage the BBC spin-off Who Do You Think You Are? Live show in Glasgow for Homecoming 2014, with up to 18,000 people expected to take part. Last year, the show was shelved but a deal has been reached after talks between the Scottish Government and organisers and producers Immediate Media. Tourism Minister Fergus Ewing said it would help firms “tap into the ancestral tourism market gold mine this year”.

25 years ago

ORKNEY and Shetland could use clean and locally produced electricity from tidal currents generated in commercial tide farms as soon as 2005, an expert on renewable energy claimed yesterday. Mr Peter Fraenkel, of engineering consultant IT Power Ltd, said it was difficult to predict precisely when such a development could go ahead. He said: “The earliest would be in two or three years if someone was to commission such a project.” The Scottish Office last Friday published a list of 53 companies which had been offered contracts to supply renewable energy into the national grid under the third round of the Scottish Renewables Obligation. Current marine power is not mentioned in the list, but Orkney and Shetland will benefit from four renewable energy projects each.

50 years ago

THE gallery to house the Burrell Collection, which Glasgow Corporation are to build in Pollok Estate, is now expected to cost £8.25m. Previously it had been stated that the gallery, on which site work is to start next spring, would cost about £6m. But yesterday, Councillor Constance Methven, convener of civic amenities committee, said that a projection of costs bearing in mind inflation had produced an estimate of £8.25m by 1978, when the gallery was expected to be open to the public.

100 years ago

A GLASGOW Branch of the recently formed Scottish Association for the Speaking of Verse was inaugurated at a meeting held last night in the Education Offices, Bath Street. As convener ad interim of the Glasgow Executive Committee, Mr J. Clark, Director of Education, occupied the chair, and gave a hearty welcome to the large number of members of the teaching profession and others who had accepted the invitation of the Executive Committee to be present. Mr Clark at the outset referred to the objects of the association, which are mainly to further the use and appreciation of spoken verse and generally to foster the sense of beauty and rhythm in the spoken word.