Top Gun pilot probed after crashing £20million jet while flying over home town, Daily Express

AN Italian air force pilot is under investigation for alleged show boating after he crashed his £20 million jet while flying over his home town.

Top Gun Francesco Sferra, 35, was forced to eject from his single seater AMX fighter plane as he swooped low over rooftops but his flight plan should have taken him no where near the built up area.

The jet, which has a top speed of 600mph, smashed into woods close to the town and miraculously no-one was hurt after Sferra steered it away from houses and he parachuted to safety.

Initially he was hailed a hero but local prosecutors are looking at the possibility the AMX crashed due to a technical fault after Sferra had swooped low over his home town of Carovilli near Isernia in central Italy.

The incident is being compared to the "sail by salute" carried out by cruise ship captain Francesco Schettino when he steered the luxury liner the Costa Concordia past the island of Giglio two years ago - only to strike rocks and cost 32 lives.

A source close to the investigation said: "The pilot should have taken off and flown directly north, instead he headed south east we need to know why."

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Gays Are 1 in 50, Not 1 in 4, Michael Brown, In the Line of Fire. Charisma Magazine

According to a 2011 Gallup poll, Americans thought that 25 percent of the population was gay (meaning one out of every four people), while those aged 18-29 put the figure at closer to 30 percent (meaning almost one in every three people). The reality is that less than 2 percent of the population is gay (meaning fewer than one in 50 people), and many gay leaders know this is true.

People of America, you have been duped.

For many years, we were told that "one in every 10 Americans" was gay, a figure based on the massively flawed 1948 study of Alfred Kinsey. (Kinsey actually relied on data from male prisoners to come up with his statistics.)

Even though gay activists knew the figure was inflated, they used it as a convenient lie, since, as two leading gay strategists noted in the late 1980s, "there is strength in numbers." (For details, go here.) As expressed by a gay leader a few days ago, "The truth is, numbers matter, and political influence matters."

In other words, if Americans realized that less than 2 percent of the population was gay rather 10 percent (let alone 25 percent), they would have a very different view of "gay rights."

To be sure, it is wrong to bully or oppress or mistreat anyone based on gender or ethnicity or romantic attractions, so that is not the question. And whether gays are 1 percent of the population or 90 percent, they should not be mistreated.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Equal Marriage : Just Plain Wrong: A Christian Perspective on the Gay Marriage Debate in the UK Equal Marriage; Just Plain Wrong.

Horror beyond imagination: The most haunting account of the trenches you'll ever read - from a brilliant anthology by Birdsong author Sebastian Faulks . Daily Mail

  Some teenagers clamoured for excitement of war - before realising the truth

  Fast-moving warfare in 1914 quickly bogged down into war of attrition

  Haunting accounts tell of seeing comrades blown apart by artillery fire

  Others speak of fields coated with corpses, whose stench filled everything

  Eyewitness accounts collected in new a book of stories from the front 

One hundred years ago exactly, in the summer of 1914, teenager Len Thompson was thrilled by the prospect of war.

It was a month since the assassination of the Austrian archduke in Sarajevo, and now Russia and Germany were mobilising their armies. Britain was being drawn into the conflict.

‘We were all delighted when war broke out on August 4,’ he would recall, ‘bursting with happiness.’

It was not that the hardy, blue-eyed teenager from East Anglia was particularly blood-thirsty. Or politically minded. Or jingoistic. But soldiering for King and Country held prospects for him that were otherwise far beyond his poverty-stricken reach.

‘There were ten of us in the family and my father was a farm labourer earning 13 shillings [65p] a week. I left school when I was 13 and helped my mother pulling up docks in the Big Field for a shilling an acre.

Thompson’s account of his recruitment - included in a profoundly moving new anthology of memoirs and contemporary letters and diaries collected by Birdsong author Sebastian Faulks and professor of English Hope Wolf reminds us that the eagerness with which a generation of young men offered themselves up for sacrifice was both appalling and fascinating.

In the beginning, the youthful wish for excitement was as important as the rush of bash-Kaiser-Bill patriotism. It would be over by Christmas - everyone said so - so don’t be left behind, get in quickly and grab your piece of the action.

Go with your mates, don the khaki, pick up a rifle, impress the girls.

Or there was, as in Thompson’s case, the prospect of three square-ish meals a day for the first time in his life and less back-breaking labour than he was used to.

Either way, the war that lured in eager recruits from city and shire was presented as a positive experience that a man would be proud to tell his children and grandchildren about.

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Twitter row as Ed Miliband is ridiculed for stark message on WWI centenary wreath in contrast to David Cameron's handwritten note. Daily Mail

  Labour Leader's wreath message said: 'From the Leader of the Opposition'

  His supporters claim he was handed the wreath and note seconds earlier

  David Cameron and Prince Charles left handwritten messages at Cenotaph 

Ed Miliband was ridiculed today after laying a wreath honouring the First World War dead with a scruffy message that read: 'From the Leader of the Opposition'

.

The note, scrawled with a black marker, was left at the Cenotaph in Glasgow today and has been branded 'pathetic' and 'distasteful'.

But the Labour leader's team say he was denied the chance to write his own message and was only handed the wreath by organisers moments before he put it down.  

In contrast David Cameron's message read: 'Our most enduring legacy is our liberty. We must never forget' and was signed personally by the Prime Minister.

The Prince of Wales also wrote his own note, which said: 'In everlasting memory, Charles'.  

Nick Clegg also put down a wreath with a note in the same handwriting, which only said: 'From the Deputy Prime Minister'. 

The incident has led to a row online with some calling Mr Miliband 'pathetic' and others claiming he had been 'stitched up'. 

Sarah Cochrane wrote: 'I think Ed Miliband's message on the wreath is pathetic. He couldn't even be bothered to write his own name'.

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Alex Salmond's must-win fight for independence played out on live TV as Alistair Darling is urged to 'keep it boring' Daily Mail

 

  First Minister to go head-to-head with former Chancellor tomorrow night

  Salmond wanted debate with Cameron but Darling is leading No campaign

  Voters have their say in the independence referendum on September 18 

Alex Salmond will tomorrow face one of the biggest tests of his political career as he prepares for a TV showdown that he must win to have any hope of referendum victory.

The First Minister is under intense pressure going into the STV debate, with a new poll revealing that only a quarter of No voters expect Mr Darling to win the contest.

Failure to land a killer blow could end Mr Salmond's hopes of splitting the United Kingdom, and he is receiving help from taxpayer-funded civil servants and a lifestyle guru in a last throw of the dice before the referendum.

Campaign leaders in both camps are taking the two-hour TV programme very seriously, right down to the colour of tie the two politicians should wear, and the broadcaster is hoping for an audience in seven figures. However, experts have warned such programmes rarely reshape the political landscape.

As an uneasy truce for the Commonwealth Games comes to an end, there will now be open warfare between both sides for the final few weeks of the referendum battle, with families set to be bombarded by mailshots costing taxpayers more than £850,000.

Time is running out for the SNP, with a new poll for The Scottish Mail on Sunday showing Unionist campaign's lead has increased slightly in recent days.

The findings are a massive humiliation for Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who used a Sunday newspaper interview yesterday to claim that Scotland's stunning success in the Commonwealth Games could give the Yes campaign the 'momentum' to win the referendum. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg last night accused her of 'sullying' the Games.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Alex Salmond must leave Alistair Darling 'on the floor' in independence TV debate

Scottish Independence, a Vehicle for Alex Salmond's Grandiose Ego ?

Comment:

To put it quite simply,  Scottish Independence would be both an economic and financial disaster for Scotland and it’s people,  The SNP have no sound economic plan and can’t even decide what currency they want to use,  without the Westminster  Block Grant and the Pound,  any post independence  Scottish Government would either have to borrow heavily from the International Financial Markets and/or raise Taxation. 

Blair Humphreys

Hospitals urged to sack parking pirate squads after it emerges three-quarters of trusts use them to patrol car parks. Daily Mail

  Firms targeting patients with extortionate 'fines' during appointments

  Trusts also using private companies to hound patients for payments

  Government announces formal investigation into parking cowboys

  Politicians call on hospitals to sack companies issuing unfair tickets

Hospitals last night faced huge pressure to sack pirate parking squads after it emerged more than three quarters of NHS  trusts are using them to police their car parks.

Rogue firms have been given free rein across the majority of the country, allowing them to target patients with extortionate ‘fines’ during their medical appointments.

A Daily Mail survey found many trusts are also using private companies to hound patients for payments, with threats of court hearings.

Politicians and campaigners last night called on hospitals to sack firms found to be issuing unfair tickets.

Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the Commons health select committee, said: ‘If they are behaving in an unscrupulous way, targeting the most vulnerable patients, then they should be stripped of their contracts.’ 

The former GP and Tory MP for Totnes added: ‘Patients may end up with fines for something that is no fault of their own. I don’t think the NHS can wash their hands of responsibility.’

Conservative MP Andrew Percy, also on the committee, described tactics used in NHS car parks as ‘totally unacceptable’, adding: ‘The problem the trusts have is that they have to upgrade the parking facilities and if they don’t charge it will come out of the NHS budget.

‘But what they are doing is contracting this work out and then washing their hands of it.’

Campaigner Roger Goss, from Patient Concern, added: ‘We understand they are desperate to raise more money but this is a disreputable way of going about it.’

Read more here:

Further Reading:

We will curb the parking cowboys, says Cabinet Minister: Victory for Mail campaign as official probe is launched into bully boys, Daily Mail

We've lost the faith of public on immigration, says Clegg: Deputy PM thinks people do not believe what ministers tell them as it doesn't tally with what they see on the ground. Daily Mail

  Deputy Prime Minister due to give a speech on immigration tomorrow

  He will say people are 'repeatedly told one thing only to see another'

  Clegg will speak out in favour of free movement of European citizens

  But he will seek reforms ensuring fewer Eastern Europeans move here if more countries are admitted to the EU in future

  Labour's Rachel Reeves will also call for reforms to freedom of movement

The public has lost faith in government claims about tackling immigration because it does not tally with what they see on the ground, Nick Clegg will admit. 

In a speech on immigration tomorrow, the Deputy Prime Minister will say it is ‘no wonder’ that people do not believe what ministers tell them when they have been ‘repeatedly told one thing only to then see another’.

He will speak out in favour of the free movement of European citizens but seek reforms to ensure that fewer Eastern Europeans move here if more countries are admitted to the EU in future.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

Calais in crisis over UK-bound migrants: Tensions at boiling point as riot police prepare to move in on 'Jungle 2', the camp housing thousands desperate to make Britain their home . Daily Mail

  Court deadline for migrants to leave illegal camp expires this morning

  Water supplies at camp cut off and police move in to clear 1,000 migrants

  Migrants started camping at 'Jungle 2' near busy road three months ago

  Mayor of Calais calls for new Sangatte-style accommodation centre

  Original Red Cross camp at Sangatte was shut down in 2002

  Britain accepted some migrants in deal but others moved to makeshift camp

Calais was at crisis point last night as French riot police prepared to raze a camp of East African migrants desperate to make their way to Britain.

Police vans patrolled the town ahead of the imminent crackdown as a court deadline for migrants to leave the illegal camp known as Jungle 2 expired.

It comes as the mayor of Calais called for a new Sangatte-style accommodation centre to be built.

The original was closed in 2002 after triggering a British immigration crisis. 

Last night, tensions at the camp were at breaking point as water supplies were cut off and gendarmes prepared to move in to clear the 1,000 migrants living there.

Numbers have swollen in recent weeks as more and more people from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan make their way to the already crowded settlement and the surrounding countryside. 

But aid workers last night criticised the planned raids, insisting that closing the camp would not deal with the problem if no alternative solution was proposed.

Read more here:

Further Reading:

My Uttermost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers , The Brave Friendship of God, Daily Devotionals

Oh, the bravery of God in trusting us! Do you say, “But He has been unwise to choose me, because there is nothing good in me and I have no value”? That is exactly why He chose you. As long as you think that you are of value to Him He cannot choose you, because you have purposes of your own to serve. But if you will allow Him to take you to the end of your own self-sufficiency, then He can choose you to go with Him “to Jerusalem” (Luke 18:31). And that will mean the fulfilment of purposes which He does not discuss with you.

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Labour MPs tell Ed to sack Balls or we will lost the next Election: Shadow Chancellor under fire after he blocks extra health tax.

  A whispering campaign against Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has started

  Mr Balls is fighting battle with Andy Burnham over their manifesto policies 

  He has categorically ruled out a ring-fenced tax to boost funding for NHS

  MPs have now put Labour's Ed Miliband under pressure to sack Mr Balls

  A whispering campaign against Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has started

  Mr Balls is fighting battle with Andy Burnham over their manifesto policies 

  He has categorically ruled out a ring-fenced tax to boost funding for NHS

  MPs have now put Labour's Ed Miliband under pressure to sack Mr Balls

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Tom Hunter publishes Scottish independence info, The Scotsman

With just weeks to go until Scotland’s historic independence referendum, new leaflets and information booklets are being made available to help voters north of the border make up their minds.

A new e-book has been launched today, featuring contributions from leading academics who have been examining key issues in the debate.

A paperback version of the book, titled Scotland’s Decision - 16 Questions to think about for the referendum on 18 September, is also planned by its producers, which include businessman Sir Tom Hunter’s Hunter Foundation.

At the same time the Scottish Government is spending £550,000 sending a 12 page guide to the opportunities it says independence offers to all 2.5 million homes north of the border.

Meanwhile the UK Government will this week start sending out a leaflet to Scottish homes, setting it out what it believes are the five main benefits of remaining in the Union.

But Sir Tom said the decision voters will make on September 18 was “too important to leave to politicians to inform us”.

The Ayrshire-born entrepreneur said: “Like many voters, I am genuinely undecided, but I don’t feel that the campaigns so far have given me the facts and unbiased assessment to make a properly informed decision. I know I am not alone in thinking this way.

“A recent poll commissioned by the Hunter Foundation and published in early July showed 56% of undecided voters simply don’t feel they have enough impartial information to make a decision. And 45% of all voters claim they don’t trust either the UK or the Scottish Government’s predictions

“This series of papers we hope will bring some light upon the critical issues voters may wish to consider in making up their minds when they put a cross on the ballot paper on September 18.”

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Darling’s ultimate TV test... save the Union in two hours. Daily Mail.

It will be the most important televised clash in British history. On Tuesday night, Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling will debate Scottish independence.

 With only six weeks to go to the referendum, more than a million Scots are expected to tune in. Salmond has two hours to revive the flagging case for Scottish independence – and Darling two hours to secure the Union.

Salmond has been preparing intensively for this debate. The word is that he is relying on a lifestyle coach to help make sure he sounds sufficiently upbeat.

As one of his opponents observes: ‘If shouty Salmond turns up, he’ll turn off women.’

Darling is under a different kind of pressure. One big slip and he puts the entire Union in jeopardy. He will spend this weekend conducting mock debates against people playing Alex Salmond.

His team feels that after two years of public meetings and interviews on independence, he knows what he wants to say and how he wants to say it.

But this hasn’t stopped nervousness in London about how Darling will perform. Some Cabinet Ministers are fretting that Darling isn’t Scottish enough.

This might seem a bizarre thing to say about someone who went to school and university in Scotland and sits for Edinburgh South West in the House of Commons.

But in Salmond’s world, Westminster is a foreign country.

‘Salmond will play dirty,’ warns one Cabinet Minister. ‘He won’t hesitate to try to portray Alistair as an English lackey.’

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Commonwealth Games fail to deliver ‘Braveheart bounce’ to Salmond’s YES drive in favour of Scottish independence. Daily Mail

  First poll of Scottish voters conducted since the Games began puts ‘Yes’ vote on 40% – down one point on last month

  Those in favour of keeping the Union remain static on 46%

  Nationalists hoped Games would lead to surge of anti-UK votes 

Alex Salmond begins the most crucial week yet in the battle for Scotland’s future – without the hoped-for Commonwealth Games ‘bounce’ in favour of independence.

Three days before Mr Salmond’s live TV debate with anti-independence campaign leader Alistair Darling, a poll for The Mail on Sunday revealed no boost for the ‘Yes’ campaign from the Games in Glasgow.

The Survation survey, the first of Scottish voters to be conducted since the Games began, puts the ‘Yes’ vote on 40 per cent – down one point on last month – and ‘No’ unchanged on 46 per cent. The outcome will be a bitter disappointment for Scottish Nationalists, who had hoped that scheduling the independence referendum on September 18 on the back of the Games would lead to a surge of votes to break up the UK.

It also flies in the face of reports that a feel-good factor at Glasgow’s success in staging the Games and Scotland’s record haul of medals would provide a so-called ‘Braveheart bounce’ and revitalise the ‘Yes’ campaign.

But the survey does show that Scottish First Minister Mr Salmond is a clear favourite to win Tuesday night’s debate – the first head-to-head contest between the two campaign leaders.

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Red Len’s right-hand man backs the pro-Putin rebels: Unite union’s chief of staff brands Kiev rulers ‘fascist’ Daily Mail

  Andrew Murray is chief of staff of Britain’s largest trade union Unite

  Mr Murray was chairman of the Stop the War Coalition from 2001 until 2011

  ‘We must demand that our government stops supporting EU and Nato expansion' 

The chief of staff of Britain’s largest trade union Unite has launched a group supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

Rebel groups are now widely suspected of shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in the east of the country.

Andrew Murray, right-hand man to the Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, spoke at the inaugural meeting of a campaign called Solidarity With The Antifascist Resistance In Ukraine (SARU) in June.

‘We must demand that our government stops supporting EU and Nato expansion and stops supporting the Kiev government.’

Since the airliner was shot down last month, with the loss of all 298 people on board, SARU has held a demonstration outside the Ukrainian Embassy in London, against ‘repression in Eastern Ukraine’.

A posting on the SARU website read: ‘Protesters also spoke up against the media coverage of the downed Malaysian flight MH17 over Eastern Ukraine, criticising the haste [sic] attribution of guilt to Russian President Vladimir Putin.’

Elsewhere it suggested that the airliner flew ‘lower than usual over the danger zone at the request of the Ukrainian dispatchers’.

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What We Get Wrong About 'Finding God's Will', Relevant Magazine, via Elim

What is God’s will for your life?

This question tends to haunt us while we go through our college years. We struggle through it by choosing our major, deciding where we will spend our summer, figuring out where to go to grad school, and so many other decisions.

If you are like me, anxiety creeps up on you every time you think about your future plans.

But why do we get so anxious? For me, I start thinking about how I have one opportunity at every decision I make, and when I choose one path, I am saying no to another. But how do I know the path I choose is the right one?

The phrase we have all heard in answer to this question is we need to find God’s will for our life. And for the past 21 years, I thought I had to keep praying for God to open my eyes to the will he had laid out for me. That if I just kept searching long enough and hard enough, I would know exactly what I was supposed to do in the future.

Chandler Vannoy

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Fighting on God's side?

Fighting on God's side?

THE BATTLEFIELD PREACHER

Another young man who died tragically young at Passchendaele was Albert Penn. Penn was not long married, and his wife Florence had just given birth to their daughter when he signed up. Devout and sincere Christians, they’d met at the Wesleyan Methodist chapel in their village, where he ran the boys’ Bible class and she ran the equivalent for girls.  

Penn was refused when he first volunteered because Florence was pregnant. ‘Come back when the baby is three months old,’ he was told. He did. Eight months later, when baby Mary Estelle was just 11 months old, he was dead.  

Penn died on 30 October 1917; he was just 28 years old. His body was never found, but his name is listed among the missing soldiers on the memorial at Tyne Cot, near Ypres in Belgium.  

Businessman sets up private toll road just 340 yards long charging motorists £2 a time to bypass closed section of main road. Daily Mail.

  The A431 Kelston Road between Bath and Bristol was shut in February following a landslip and won;t be repaired until the end of the year

  Local resident Mike Watts put up £150,000 of his own money to build bypass

  The route which opened yesterday is first privately run toll road to be built since cars became a familiar sight more than 100 years ago

  The toll road is just 340 yards in length but avoids a 10-mile detour

  Local council about road unhappy citing health and safety concerns 

A savvy grandfather who was sick of roadworks near his home has defied his council and built his own bypass toll road - the first for more than 100 years.

Businessman Mike Watts decided to open the thoroughfare - made of a mix of asphalt and chippings - to bypass a closed section of the A431 between Bath and Bristol.

The Kelston Road was shut in February following a landslip and officials say that it will not be repaired until the end of the year.

But a new makeshift road, which costs £2 a time to use, re-opens the important 'back road' - which is used by commuters going between the two cities.

Local villagers in nearby Kelston have repeatedly criticised Bath & North East Somerset Council for not re-opening the main road sooner and say it has caused major traffic problems in the area.

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PETER HITCHENS: These vainglorious fools will march us into another inferno. Daily Mail

A

 century ago, stupid and vainglorious politicians dragged us into war. We started it as a great, rich empire and ended it as an indebted husk. 

Soon afterwards, America’s President Woodrow Wilson told aides he would wipe Britain ‘off the face of the map’ in another ‘terrible and bloody war’ unless we ceded our naval supremacy.

And US Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes raged and shouted at Britain’s ambassador in Washington, Auckland Geddes, that America had saved Britain’s bacon and we had better be grateful from now on.

In a voice rising to a scream, Mr Hughes declared: ‘You would not be here to speak for Britain – you would not be speaking anywhere, England would not be able to speak at all! 

'It is the Kaiser who would be heard, if America – seeking nothing for herself but to save England – had not plunged into the war and won it!’

These little-known but important facts should be borne in mind as we look back on this dreadful episode. I for one have had enough of war poets and trench memoirs. Let’s have some proper history – who did what to whom and what it cost. 

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Dark shadow of the Great War: Tomorrow marks 100 years since Europe plunged into the war to end all wars. But as this brilliant analysis argues, we are still living with its appalling legacy in Ukraine and Gaza . Daily Mail Simon Heffer

E

xactly 100 years ago tomorrow, Britain stumbled into a war that would change the face not just of this country but of the whole of Europe, for ever.

Its consequences would spread far beyond the continent where it was fought, initiating almost a century of upheaval, revolution, bloodshed and conflict unimaginable to the Britons who cheered when we decided to fight the Kaiser on August 4, 1914.

It is no exaggeration to say that the effects of the Great War are still being felt. It isn’t just that so many families remember great uncles or grandparents or great-grandparents who lie in what Rupert Brooke called ‘some corner of a foreign field’.

The conflict in Ukraine and the bloody wars in Syria, Iraq and Gaza all have their roots in a war that destroyed the empires that constituted the old world order, and which began a century ago almost to the day.

Ukraine’s troubles were born from the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires, and the horrors of the Middle East from the fall of the Ottoman Empire. These two conflicts have conspired to make the world more dangerous than since the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s, and are direct legacies of the bloodbath which the nation commemorates the centenary of tomorrow.

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My Uttermost for His Highest , Oswald Chambers The Compelling Purpose, Daily Devotionals

J

erusalem, in the life of our Lord, represents the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will. Jesus said, “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). Seeking to do “the will of the Father” was the one dominating concern throughout our Lord’s life. And whatever He encountered along the way, whether joy or sorrow, success or failure, He was never deterred from that purpose. “. . . He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem . . .” (Luke 9:51).

The greatest thing for us to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfil God’s purpose, not our own. In the natural life our ambitions are our own, but in the Christian life we have no goals of our own. We talk so much today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, and our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament the only aspect that is brought out is the compelling purpose of God. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you . . .” (John 15:16).

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Scottish independence would be economic disaster, finance experts warn just as the SNP say the economy is key battleground, Daily Mail

  Businesses and academics warn country would be plunged into turmoil

  Scotland would join the list of impoverished European countries

  Another says there would be 'utter panic' if voters back independence

Finance experts, academics and business leaders have raised fears that independence would destroy the economy, hit investment and force companies to migrate to England.

In an unprecedented survey that will prove devastating for the SNP, analysts believe a Yes vote in the referendum could lead to the loss of thousands of jobs and plunge the country into turmoil.

One finance insider suggested Scotland would be added to the list of impoverished European countries left on their knees. Another said there would be 'utter panic' among finance firms and several warned of a 'disaster' for Scotland.

Alex Salmond's separatist vision was dismissed as 'economically incoherent'; there were warnings that 'skilled labour' would leave; and creating a new border would cut gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 3 per cent. 

The findings are particularly humiliating for Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who yesterday predicted the economy would be the key battleground in the referendum campaign.

The Financial Times asked a number of high-profile economists and eminent university professors to examine the impact of a Nationalist victory in September.

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Keep William Wallace out of it says Danny Alexander, Daily Mail

I am a Highlander. I spent my early years on Colonsay in the Hebrides, then moved to Lochaber and went to high school in Fort William. One of the most powerful memories of this time was seeing the Commando memorial at Spean Bridge twice a day from the school bus.

This imposing monument commemorates the role played by young men from all over the UK in protecting our freedom during the Second World War.

It’s a sight I have in mind as we approach the decision next month on whether Scotland should break away from the UK and become independent.

That memorial, a tribute to the extraordinary strength of our family of nations, is something I will think of when I watch this week’s TV debate between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling.

It’s not often you’ll see a Liberal Democrat rooting for an ex-Labour Cabinet Minister like Darling. But now, more than ever, with only a few weeks until the referendum, is a time to lay down party political differences and stand up for the interests of Scotland – and the UK.

Expect fireworks, rhetorical flourishes and verbal acrobatics from the Scottish First Minister.

Read more here:

New Skoda Fabia 2015 pictures and details | Auto Express

New Skoda Fabia 2015 pictures and details | Auto Express

One Tough Step to Blasting Open Doors for Your Life, Charisma Magazine

The Guillens were a bright, young, cheerful couple--cheerful despite the fact that their daughter was born with a large lump on the side of her neck. The child was beautiful, but the massive growth drew attention away from her pretty features.

Along with our church, they prayed diligently for her healing. Yet their prayers, including ours, did not seem to avail.

Then one day I received a call from this couple. "Pastor, our little girl is healed! The growth is gone!" The next day they shared their wonderful testimony with our church. With my own eyes I could verify this healing. There she was. Perfectly healed! No trace of the growth was there.

The thing that impressed me the most was not the healing, but how the healing took place.

This is the Guillens' testimony:

"The Lord laid upon our hearts to fast for our daughter. We didn't know much about fasting but we did it anyway. Our daughter began to complain that her neck was hurting. Soon she was screaming in pain. The soft growth turned hard. We were concerned, but we knew God had called us to fast for our daughter, and we knew she would be healed. One morning we noticed that the growth was a little smaller. The next day it shrank more. Finally, the growth disappeared altogether."

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