Kilty as charged

Scots troops must share their kilts
By Kate DevlinLast Updated: 2:35am GMT 18/12/2006 

Soldiers in Scotland’s new “super regiment” have to share kilts because of a shortage of the ceremonial dress. The Royal Regiment of Scotland has 5,000 soldiers but just 320 kilts, just one for every 15 men.The kilts are worn during ceremonial or public duties. The shortage comes after the Army decided to end its 150-year association with Borders-based kilt makers Robert Noble, which has produced military tartan since 1850. The Army has put to tender a £1 million contract for the new kilts. It has received 320 “trial” kilts but will not receive a full set until 2008.

Daily Telegraph

Fly by night

British envoy caught up in butterfly row
By Jeremy McDermott in
MedellinLast Updated: 4:04am GMT 14/12/2006 

The British ambassador to Colombia’s passion for butterflies has caused a flap amid claims that he has been wealding his net without the proper permits. Haydon Warren-Gash, 57, hit the jackpot when he landed his job in Colombia, the country with the greatest selection of butterflies in the world. But the avid lepidopterist, who has had about 12 species named after him or members of his family, was accused by El Tiempo newspaper of taking rare species from the Tayrona National Park last month without a licence. Insisting that he was not “a nut with a net”, Mr Warren-Gash stated in a written explanation of his actions that he was working in conjunction with Colombian authorities. “These allegations are untrue. I’m less than chuffed with the paper.” Sources within the British embassy have said that the ambassador has turned one of the rooms in his residence in Bogota into a shrine to his hobby.

Daily Telegraph