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1997 In Scotland
Events from the year 1997 in Scotland. Incumbents * Secretary of State for Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal – Michael Forsyth until 2 May; then Donald Dewar Law officers * Lord Advocate – Lord Mackay of Drumadoon; then Lord Hardie * Solicitor General for Scotland – Paul Cullen; then Colin Boyd Judiciary * Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General – Lord Rodger of Earlsferry * Lord Justice Clerk – Lord Ross, then Lord Cullen * Chairman of the Scottish Land Court – Lord McGhie Events * 22 February – Scientists at the Roslin Institute announce the birth of a cloned sheep named Dolly seven months after the fact. * 31 March – train operating company ScotRail (operated by National Express) begins operation of its passenger service franchise in Scotland as part of the privatisation of British Rail, the last company to be sold. * April–October – in the Outer Hebrides, the Northern Lighthouse Board constructs a new li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secretary Of State For Scotland
The secretary of state for Scotland ( gd, Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba; sco, Secretar o State fir Scotland), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Scotland Office. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office holder works alongside the other Scotland Office#Ministers, Scotland Office ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, shadow secretary of state for Scotland. The incumbent is Alister Jack, following his appointment by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July 2019 and who was reappointed by Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. History Prior to devolution (before 1999) The post was first created after the Acts of Union 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain from the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland. It was abolished in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James McGhie, Lord McGhie
James Marshall McGhie, Lord McGhie is a Scottish lawyer who until 2014 was the Chairman of the Scottish Land Court and President of the Lands Tribunal for Scotland, and a Senator of the College of Justice. Personal life McGhie was educated at Perth Academy, and studied at the School of Law of the University of Edinburgh. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1969. He married Anne Cockburn in 1968, with whom he has a son and a daughter. Legal career McGhie was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1983, and served as an Advocate Depute from 1983 to 1986. From 1987 to 1992, he was part-time Chairman of the Medical Appeal Tribunal, and from 1992 to 1996 was a Member of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. In 1996, he was appointed Chairman of the Scottish Land Court and President of the Lands Tribunal for Scotland, with the judicial title, Lord McGhie. See also *Scottish Land Court *Lands Tribunal for Scotland *List of Senators of the College of Justice The senators of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides () or Western Isles ( gd, Na h-Eileanan Siar or or ("islands of the strangers"); sco, Waster Isles), sometimes known as the Long Isle/Long Island ( gd, An t-Eilean Fada, links=no), is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. The islands are geographically coextensive with , one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. They form part of the archipelago of the Hebrides, separated from the Scottish mainland and from the Inner Hebrides by the waters of the Minch, the Little Minch, and the Sea of the Hebrides. Scottish Gaelic is the predominant spoken language, although in a few areas English speakers form a majority. Most of the islands have a bedrock formed from ancient metamorphic rocks, and the climate is mild and oceanic. The 15 inhabited islands have a total population of and there are more than 50 substantial uninhabited islands. The distance from Barra Head to the Butt of Lewis is roughly . There are various important prehisto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Privatisation Of British Rail
The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the industry was initiated by EU Directive 91/440 in 1991, which aimed to create a more efficient rail network by creating greater competition. British Railways (BR) had been in state ownership since 1948, under the control of the British Railways Board (BRB). Under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher elected in 1979, various state-owned businesses were sold off, including various functions related to the railways – Sealink ferries and British Transport Hotels by 1984, Travellers Fare catering by 1988 and British Rail Engineering Limited (train building) by 1989. It was under Thatcher's successor John Major that the railways themselves were privatised, using the Railways Act 1993. The operations of the BRB were broken up and sold o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail Franchising In Great Britain
Passenger rail franchising in Great Britain is the system of contracting the operation of the passenger services on the railways of Great Britain to private companies, which has been in effect since 1996 and was greatly altered in 2020, with rail franchising being effectively abolished in May 2021. The system was created as part of the privatisation of British Rail, the former state-owned railway operator, and involved franchises being awarded by the government to train operating companies (TOCs) through a process of competitive tendering. Franchises usually lasted for a minimum of seven years and covered a defined geographic area or service type; by design, franchises were not awarded on an exclusive basis, and day-to-day competition with other franchises and open access operators was possible, albeit occurring on a limited number of services. Over the years, the system evolved, most notably reducing the initial 25 franchises to 17 through a series of mergers. Four franchises ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Express
National Express Group is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It operates bus, coach, train and tram services in the United Kingdom, Ireland (National Express operates Eurolines in conjunction with Bus Éireann), United States, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Germany, Bahrain, and Morocco and long-distance coach services across Europe. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History In 1972, the state-owned National Bus Company decided to bring together the scheduled coach services operated by its bus operating companies in the United Kingdom under one brand. Sir Frederick Wood, a prominent businessman and industrialist, was asked to oversee the creation of this new business model and led the group as its chairman from 1972 to 1978. Initially branded as ''National'', the ''National Express'' brand was first used in 1974.Tram and V/Line Passenger rail franchises in the Australi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ScotRail (National Express)
ScotRail was a train operating company in Scotland owned by National Express that operated the ScotRail franchise from March 1997 until October 2004. Prior to March 1997 ScotRail (British Rail) ran the trains and after October 2004 First ScotRail ran them. Services ScotRail operated all passenger train services in Scotland, with the exception of the Arriva Trains Northern, GNER, Virgin CrossCountry and Virgin Trains West Coast services from England. ScotRail operated services into England with services to Carlisle and Newcastle, and the Caledonian Sleeper services between Scotland and London. Rolling stock ScotRail inherited a fleet of Class 101, Class 117 Class 150, Class 156, Class 158, Class 303, Class 305, Class 314, Class 318 and Class 320s from British Rail as well as Mark 2 carriages and Mark 3 sleepers for use on the Caledonian Sleepers and on some other passenger services. ScotRail contracted English Welsh & Scottish to haul the Caledonian Sleeper servic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Train Operating Company
A train operating company (TOC) is a business operating Passenger Trains, passenger trains on the Rail transport in Great Britain, railway system of Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the Privatisation of British Rail, privatisation of the network under the Railways Act 1993. There are two types of TOC: most hold Passenger rail franchising in Great Britain, franchises let by the Department for Transport through a tendering system, to operate services on certain routes for a specified duration, while a small number of open-access operators hold licences to provide supplementary services on chosen routes. These operators can run services for the duration of the licence validity. The franchised operators have changed considerably since privatisation: previous franchises have been divided, merged, re-let to new operators, or renamed. Some operators have been taken over by a government-owned operator of last resort, due either to failing exp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
31 March
Events Pre-1600 * 307 – After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, daughter of the retired Roman emperor Maximian. *1146 – Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade. *1492 – Queen Isabella of Castile issues the Alhambra Decree, ordering her 150,000 Jewish and Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity or face expulsion. * 1521 – Ferdinand Magellan and fifty of his men came ashore to present-day Limasawa to participate in the first Catholic mass in the Philippines. 1601–1900 *1657 – The Long Parliament presents the Humble Petition and Advice offering Oliver Cromwell the British throne, which he eventually declines. *1717 – A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, preached in the presence of King George I of Great Britain, provokes the Bangorian Controvers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dolly The Sheep
Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female Finnish Dorset sheep and the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. She was cloned by associates of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using the process of nuclear transfer from a cell taken from a mammary gland. Her cloning proved that a cloned organism could be produced from a mature cell from a specific body part. Contrary to popular belief, she was not the first animal to be cloned. The employment of adult somatic cells in lieu of embryonic stem cells for cloning emerged from the foundational work of John Gurdon, who cloned African clawed frogs in 1958 with this approach. The successful cloning of Dolly led to widespread advancements within stem cell research, including the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells. Dolly lived at the Roslin Institute throughout her life and produced several lambs. She was euthanized at the age of six years due to a progressive lung disease. No cause which linked the disea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheep
Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated sheep. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female is referred to as a ''ewe'' (), an intact male as a ''ram'', occasionally a ''tup'', a castrated male as a ''wether'', and a young sheep as a ''lamb''. Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe and Asia, with Iran being a geographic envelope of the domestication center. One of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleeces, meat (lamb, hogget or mutton) and milk. A sheep's wool is the most widely used animal fiber, and is usually harvested by shearing. In Commonw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cloning
Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, cloning is the process of creating cloned organisms (copies) of Cell (biology), cells and of DNA fragments (molecular cloning). Etymology Coined by Herbert J. Webber, the term clone derives from the Ancient Greek word (), ''twig'', which is the process whereby a new plant is created from a twig. In botany, the term ''lusus'' was used. In horticulture, the spelling ''clon'' was used until the early twentieth century; the final ''e'' came into use to indicate the vowel is a "long o" instead of a "short o". Since the term entered the popular lexicon in a more general context, the spelling ''clone'' has been used exclusively. Natural cloning Cloning is a natural form of reproduction that has allowed life forms to spread for hundreds of millio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
