First Minister Alex Salmond announces tourist trains for Borders Railway
First Minister Alex Salmond has announced that discussions are underway to secure symbolic trains to attract more tourists to use the Borders Railway.Speaking from Hawick as part of the Scottish...
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Galashiels Academy’s sponsorship deal with a tyre firm has hit the skids after advertising signs had to be pulled down.Senior staff at the school agreed a financial package with the local company...
View ArticleSite switch for Peebles Show gains visitors’ plaudits
A Beltex ewe swept all the competition aside at the weekend to take the champion of champions title at this year’s Peebles Show.But the big talking point was whether the switch of venue to a field at...
View ArticleMarket Prices
WOOLERAt their weekly Primestock Sale John Swan Ltd had forward and sold 1,390 lambs, 26 hoggs and 353 ewes.Lamb numbers tighter, similar returns achieve within national averages.Leading prices per...
View ArticleBumblebee airport in my garden
I received an email recently from T. R. of Kelso about bees, who told me: “There has been general discussion over the last few months about disappearing bees.“Well, you will be pleased to know that...
View ArticleTaking the Mickey at Family Fun Day
The rain cleared, the sun shone, the crowds came, the bands played, prizes were won, bargains were found at the car boots, Mickey Mouse even led a conga – everyone had a great day.This was the Family...
View ArticleDistrict News
ASHKIRKLunchAt the village hall on August 24, a baguette lunch (noon-2pm) will be held in aid of Ashkirk Parish Church.BarbecueThe parish church has organised a barbecue outside the village hall on...
View ArticleKnife was brandished at police officers
Spotting a shadow in the darkness, Nicola Hardie reached for a kitchen knife, Selkirk Sheriff Court, pictured, was told on Monday.The 32-year-old claimed she didn’t realise it was a police officer,...
View ArticleParent behaved badly in school
A mother has pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at Tweedbank Primary School.Angered by a school exclusion order, Caroline McLaren, 40, ripped up the paperwork and stormed out...
View ArticleGalashiels teenager’s rape threat
A 16-year-old threatened to rape a man’s dead mother via a social networking site.Jamie Mitchell, of Albert Place, Galashiels, admitted sending grossly offensive messages to a man and repeatedly making...
View ArticleNumbers game for NHS Borders
It seems that almost every other week at the moment we have been giving local health chiefs what is colloquially known as ‘a right good shoe-ing’.And sadly, this week we have to pick on NHS Borders...
View ArticleAssault claim puts taxi driver’s licence under threat
Police have called for a Galashiels taxi driver to have his licence suspended after he allegedly punched a council worker.Scottish Borders Council’s civic government licensing committee will consider...
View ArticleStars still escaping to the country
It was the Young Master’s birthday ‘party’ this week – I use the term loosely, as it was more of a ‘day oot’ than a party – a trip to the cinema in the company of a few other seven-to-10-year-old boys....
View ArticleH2O hopes extended hours bid not sunk
A Galashiels bar, previously subjected to an alcohol sales ban, has applied for a licence extension next month.H2O wishes to close its doors at 1am rather than midnight on September 8, 9 and 10 to...
View ArticleDead end fears for Peebles roads petition
The campaigner behind a 600-strong petition to introduce road safety measures around Peebles schools has rejected a council report.The paper, produced after Helen Wallace presented her petition for...
View ArticleWhen English fringes on the pedantic
Itook a trip to Edinburgh on Friday just to get a flavour of the International Festival, or, more properly, the Fringe.Part of the Royal Mile is closed to traffic and given over to entertainers who...
View ArticleLooks are skin deep
If looks could kill, Elysium is suicide. Big budget sci-fi flicks are judged against Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic, Blade Runner. Neill Blomkamp, director of District 9, takes up the challenge and wins –...
View ArticleKick-Ass 2 (15) Pavilion, Galashiels
To kick or not to kick, that is the question. Answer: better not.First time around, the idea of a nerdy teenager dressing up as a flaky superhero and going out into the streets to be beaten senseless...
View ArticleBehind The Candelabra (15) Heart of Hawick
Liberace was a showman, pianist, homosexual (denied during his lifetime) and the highest paid entertainer in the world during the Sixties and Seventies. Who remembers him now?Steven Soderbergh’s film...
View ArticleTHE DEEP (12A) Heart of Hawick
Fact is stranger than fiction, they say, and The Deep is an example you won’t forget.Gulli (Olafur Dari Olafsson) is an Icelandic fisherman, the giant of a man whose size intimidates and yet whose...
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