FORMER Scotland and Manchester United defender Gordon McQueen is battling throat cancer.

The 59-year-old sporting legend and television pundit will undergo treatment in Yorkshire to overcome the life-threatening disease.

And his daughter, Sky sports presenter Hayley McQueen, is confident he will beat it...

(From the page 23 lead story of the 8 October 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)

WHEN one of Scotland’s longest established family bakeries shut up shop, its customers took matters into their own hands.

Faced with a long trek to buy their favourite freshly-baked bread, pastries and cakes, they decided to open their own bakery.

Now residents of Dunbar in East Lothian have become the first town north of the Border to set up a community-owned bakery after 300 people raised almost £40,000 through the sale of community shares.

The bakery, which opened yesterday, has been hailed as a prototype for other towns seeking to revive their own High Streets...

The bakery intends to provide training and create jobs and apprenticeships for local people while supporting local schools by sharing baking skills...

(Extracted from the page 34 lead story of the 7 October 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)

IT was once an abandoned ruin with missing floorboards and a collapsing roof.

But now it is one of Scotland’s top hotels – with a Michelin starred restaurant to prove it.

Glenapp Castle, near Ballantrae in Ayreshire, has just been awarded one of three new Michelin stars in Scotland, along with the Castle Terrace Restaurant in Edinburgh and Martin Wishart at Loch Lomond...

While three restaurants became Michelin-starred, two establishments in Scotland lost their accolades – the Plumed Horse in Edinburgh and the Champany Inn in Linlithgow, West Lothian.

The changes took the number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Scotland to 16.

(Excerpt from the page 45 lead of the 7 October 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)

SCOTLAND’S drinkers are paying the second-highest price for beer in the UK, with the average cost of a pint now more than £3.

The average cost of a pint in Scotland is £3.11, only 4p less than London and 24p more expensive than a pint of bitter in North-West England.

Publicans blame the price rises on the burden of new regulations requiring staff training, and the higher cost of heating and electricity during long winter months...

The Licensing Act 2005 was designed to clamp down on ‘irresponsible promotions’ such as happy hours.

All drinks since then have had to be offered at the same price for 72 consecutive hours.

(From the page 27 lead of the 6 October 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)

IT is not every day you stumble across a six-foot fish washed up on Scotland’s shoreline.

But a beach walker on Mull was shocked to discover a giant bluefin tuna on the island’s Laggan Sands.

The fish had strayed far from its normal migratory route and was found already decomposed, which suggested it had died several days before it was found.

Scientists said the tuna had been spawned in hotter climates, most likely in the gulf of Mexico or in the Mediterranean Sea, before heading out into the Atlantic.

The fish, which is very rare in Scottish waters, was likely to have been following shoals of herring...

(From the page 37 lead story of the 6 October 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)

HIS trademark dishevelled look has carried him from humble beginnings as a folk-club singer to one of the world’s best-loved comedians.

But Billy Connolly has revealed a new clean-cut Image after shaving off his famous beard and trimming his long mop of grey hair.

Walking arm in arm with wife Pamela Stephenson, the 68-year-old unveiled his latest look as he arrived for the world premiere of George Harrison: Living in the Material World at the British Film Institute in London on Sunday...

(From the page 30 lead story for the Scottish Daily Mail of 5 October 2011.)

ENJOYING a steaming bowl of home-made chicken soup with her mother, Lorraine Kelly looks like she’s taken a step back to her childhood

But the TV personality is not in her family home but on her popular day-time show Lorraine – revealing to viewers a special recipe passed down through the generations.

On the ITV programme to launch the hunt for Britain’s best soup yesterday, the chat show queen nominated the soup made by her mother Anne during her childhood in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire...

Miss Kelly maintains a strong bond with her Scottish roots, as well as her soup, commuting from her home in Broughty Ferry, near Dundee, to film her show in London.

(From the page 21 lead story of the 4 October 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)

SCOTLAND’S big booze crackdown will descend into farce today as supermarkets start selling alcohol even cheaper than before.

Customers previously tempted by multi-buy offers, such as three bottles of wine for £10, will find they can now get the bottles individually for less.

And the prices of beer, wine and spirits are being slashed so heavily that today’s legislation outlawing discounts on multiple purchases of alcohol has been made into a mockery...

Barbara O’Donnell, director of operations at anti-alcohol abuse charity Alcohol Focus Scotland, said supermarkets were ‘putting profits before the health’ of customers.

Referring to the SNP’s plan, rejected by rival parties last year but revived following May’s landslide election win, she added: ‘This would be further evidence (in support of) minimum pricing per unit of alcohol.’

(Story excerpt from page 10 of the 1 October 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)

SUPERMARKETS are set to make a mockery of Alex Salmond’s crackdown on cheap alcohol by slashing the price of drink.

Legislation outlawing discounts on beer, wine and spirits comes into force tomorrow, raising fears responsible drinkers could be hit with big rises in the cost of their favourite tipple.

But yesterday it emerged that retailers intend to defy the new rules.

They are ready simply to cut the cost of alcohol, encourage customers to buy cheap multipacks and offer cut-price deals via the internet from England, where the legislation does not apply.

Critics warned the scheme would ‘do nothing’ to prevent alcohol abuse and may even encourage people to drink more...

Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: ‘Any sidestepping of this new rule on price promotions would make it obvious retailers are not serious about social responsibility. It would simply show stronger legislation is called for.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The measures are to stop retailers offering irresponsible promotions and remove any cost-based incentives in bulk-buying alcohol.

‘Internet sales represent only a very small proportion of the alcohol sold in Scotland but it is an area we will watch closely to see if further action is necessary.’

(From the front page headline story of the Scottish Daily Mail for 30 September 2011.)

LOOKING relaxed and fit, Hollywood star Michael Douglas put his battle with throat cancer and worries over his wife’s health behind him to tackle the world's most famous golf course yesterday.

The 67-year old teamed up with Scots Ryder Cup hero Colin Montgomerie to play the Old Course at St Andrews, Fife, for the first time in six years.

He is in Scotland to compete in the annual Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which starts tomorrow and features top golfers and a host of celebrities...

(From the page 17 lead story of the 28 September 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)

SCOTLAND got a rare glimpse of a four-centuries-old gem yesterday when the royal Darnley Jewel was opened.

The locket, also know as the Lennox Jewel, normally lies in a sealed glass cabinet and is rarely handled, let alone opened.

But its inner glory was revealed for the first time in five years prior to a much more public airing when it appears on TV.

As part of BBC TV’s The Queen’s Palaces series, presenter Fiona Bruce will explore the potent symbolism of the heart-shaped locket...

Deborah Clarke, curator at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where the locket is held, said: ‘The Darnley Jewel is one of the most important early jewels in the Royal Collection. Fiona was very excited to be able to hold it and open it. Most of the filming was done after hours, so it was very atmospheric - and since it snowed at the time, it was often quite magical...

(Story excerpt from page 38 of the 24 September 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)

WHEN the SS Politician ran aground and presented a group of Scottish islanders with a harvest of free whisky, it spawned a classic film comedy.

But for well over half a century the people of Barra have never been able to see Whisky Galore! on the big screen.

Now, 62 years after the film was first shown in manland cinemas in 1949, the first screening on the island is about to take place...

The film, adapted from the book by Compton MacKenzie, was inspired by the 1941 wreck of the Politician, bound for Jamaica with 28,000 cases of whisky when she came to grief off Eriskay.

Even now, bottles from the wreck are occasionally found in the sand or in the sea.

(Excerpt from page 28 of the 22 September 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)

IT is the Scottish sweetie brand loved by generations of children – and grown-ups, too.

But the famous Highland Toffee bar could soon disappear from our shops.

There are fears that its makers, New McCowans Ltd, could become a victim of the recession.

The firm, based at Stenhousemuir, Stirlingshire, has been been thrown into administration and its 193 workers left fearing for their jobs as New McCowans seek a buyer...

Isabel Robertson, a 55-year-old mother-of-two who has lived opposite the factory for 22 years, said: ‘It would be a sin if it closed.

‘I remember buying the Penny Dainty when I was a kid and having to crack it open on the pavement because it was so hard.’

(Story extract from page 13 of the 21 September 2011 edition of the Scottish Daily Mail.)