An invitation from the Editor

IHOPE you are enjoying these new Friends of The Scotsman pages. I see it as a section that strengthens and develops The Scotsman’s long and proud history of providing a platform for national debate.

Here we present articles written by our Friends, with them setting their own agenda, using their own words. Over the past few weeks we have carried articles on many interesting topics and have received much positive feedback.

I want to put the debates and issues that face every sector of Scotland in front of the tens of thousands of people who read T he Scotsman every day.

The pages appear from Monday to Friday and also on our website where others can make comments.

Being a Friend of The Scotsman is open to institutions, trade associations, professional bodies, societies, interest groups, charities and others.

Individuals are not eligible (we have very lively letters pages and we don’t want to take away from that) nor, generally, are individual companies or political parties. The Friends pages are a forum for discussion and debate and for the transfer of information rather than a marketplace.

We do, of course, reserve the right to pick who we will be Friends with, to ensure it does not give us any conflicts.

In return, the Friends sign up to a subscription package that ensures a supply of T he Scotsman at a discount rate to the people in the organisation who require it.

This is an exciting innovation for T he Scotsman that is opening up new channels of information and debate across Scotland and beyond, highlighting work and issues that currently struggle to get heard. I would appeal to you to get involved and support it. Yours sincerely Ian Stewart, Editor l For more information on becoming a Friend of The Scotsman, e-mail Ben Wallace on bwallace@scotsman.com or visit www.scotsman.com