Industry leaders told MPs investigating the implications of the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, amid fears a similar event could occur here, that the regulatory regime in the UK was “very, very strong”.

Malcolm Webb, chief executive of industry bo

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dy Oil and Gas UK said this country’s regulation is “superior” to the US system under which the Deepwater Horizon well was operating when it blew up in April, killing 11 workers and causing a huge oil spill.

He warned that preventing drilling of wells in the waters of the UK continental shelf would send a very negative message to industry investors who needed to pour 60 billion into exploration and extraction to support UK energy security.

“These investment funds will be prejudiced if the regime is stop-go, switch on, switch off, particularly if there’s no good reason for the switch off,” he told the Energy and Climate Change select committee.

Mr Webb told the MPs there was no case for a moratorium “given the strength of the regulatory regime we have here”.

“Just because an event has happened in another part of the world, doesn’t mean to say a regime such as ours, because that has happened, should stop doing what we’re doing in what I believe is an entirely safe and proper way,” he said.

Paul King, managing director of Transocean, the drilling company operating BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig when it exploded, insisted that the firm took safety seriously, saying his company “cares deeply” that all its staff “work safely”.

The annual event kicked off yesterday with a “parade of nations” and opening ceremony outside the Scottish Parliament.

The duathletes were decked out in the home country’s colours, as they paraded past the parliament and through Holyrood Park ahe

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ad of the first race at 2.30pm.

The event caused widespread traffic congestion around the area, however, with roads leading to the park closed off until Sunday morning.

Over the weekend, almost 1,000 competitors will each complete a duathlon circuit, involving a 10km run followed by a 40km cycle and then a 5km run, in the hope of being crowned world champion.

Edinburgh previously hosted the European duathlon championships in 2007, while the last world championships were held in North Carolina, in the United States.

The circuit consists of multiple laps around Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat, close to the Scottish Parliament – said to be one of the most challenging ever used on the international circuit.

The event runs all weekend, where the athletes will compete for six world championship titles, 27 age group gold medals and a total prize fund of 62,600.

Catriona Morrison, former world and European duathlon champion, from Broxburn, West Lothian, hopes to grab the title once more, in front of a home crowd.

She said: “The chance to compete around Arthur’s Seat is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“It will be a really tough fight to see who’s going to be crowned 2010 world champion.”

She and her fellow Scotland and Great Britain participants were joined by athletes from across the globe, including Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and the US.

Duathlon is a combination of two individual sports – running and cycling.

A typical duathlon consists of three stages.

It starts with a run, followed by a cycle section and finishing off with another run, all completed as a continuous activity.

There is a strong duathlon scene throughout the UK, including a British championships as well as Scottish and Welsh duathlon championships.

He also said Scotland’s world-leading expertise and experience in financial services could help to fuel “green” growth during a speech in Aberdeen.

The global low carbon economy was worth 3 billion in 2007/08 and is forecast to grow to 4.3 trill

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ion by 2015. An estimated 60,000 green jobs could be created by 2020 in low carbon industries and businesses across Scotland.

Mr Salmond said: “Scotland has an outstanding reputation for financial innovation and significant opportunities lie ahead from harnessing investment from developing economies such as China.

“Creating a sustainable low carbon economy and tackling the global climate change challenge presents enormous opportunities.

“The financial industry can deliver real gains for their investors and our environment by funding the renewables revolution and financing low carbon developments.”

Later this month the First Minister will open the two-day Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference in Edinburgh.

This aims to bring together leaders from finance, energy and government with investors and developers of low carbon projects to examine ways of capitalising on Scotland’s natural energy resources and financial expertise to deliver a new green economy.

Mr Salmond added: “Global climate change is the most pressing issue of our generation.

“It is crucial that our business leaders understand both the challenges and opportunities climate change presents so that we can work together to ensure a positive future for our economy, environment and society.”

The 60-strong medical team from 205 (Scottish) Field Hospital (Volunteers), was awarded campaign medals by the Countess of Wessex after a four-month tour of Afghanistan.

The team was based at Camp Bastion, the British military base near Lashkar G

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ah, the capital of Helmand, and treated both military and civilian casualties of all nationalities, including British, American and Afghan soldiers.

The majority of the unit, Scotland’s only Territorial Army field hospital, is made up of professional health workers, but others include a TV engineer, a funeral director and a medical secretary.

Commanding Officer Col David McArthur said it had been a challenging and demanding tour of duty. During the ceremony at Cameron Barracks in Inverness he told the unit: “The achievements were many, the failures thankfully few. It was a job well done in very testing circumstances.”

He said that it was physically and mentally exhausting work, but he was satisfied that they had done the best they could.

Col McArthur, who is chief executive of the Trefoil charity which helps children and young people with special needs, said some of the team were on their fourth or fifth tour and most would be willing to go back.

He later told The Scotsman the medal ceremony was a symbolic culmination of nearly two years of training and operational duty.

“You cannot fully prepare for the type of events we saw in Afghanistan. But as healthcare professionals we look at the task in hand and focus entirely on that. We are there to save lives, that is the bottom line, and we worry about the impact on us later.”

He said training and the support of colleagues mean that impact is not as great as it could be: “We prepare emotionally for the job and are supported emotionally by each other. That mutual support often gets you through. Everyone comes back changed, whether positively or negatively depends on the individual.”

Col McArthur said the field hospital had about 100 American clinician and 150 British medical staff and dealt with soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict.

From Scotland’s hospitals to a distant war zone – the soldiers’ stories:

Our training helps to focus the mind

Major Alan Millarvie, 35, and his wife of three years Major Nicola McCullough, 31, (below) both work at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and were working in the same field hospital in Afghanistan.

He was a dispensary pharmacist in outpatients’ prescriptions and now works as a surgical team pharmacist, while his wife is an A&E registrar.

Maj Millarvie said it was comforting to have his wife on site at the same time: “It was difficult as you’re both there at the same time and can’t spend any time together. Generally in the morning I would walk past the A&E and give her a wave, as both of us were pretty busy.”

Maj McCullough said on one occasion a bicycle bomb attack resulted in 18 casualties coming into the hospital in the space of about 15 minutes: “All of them were civilians and the vast majority were children. That was hard but most of them did very well.

“You could say that some of the soldiers we were looking after were children also, as most of them were 18 or 19.”

She said nothing could prepare them for the war environment but added: “You fall back on both your medical and military training. At the end of the day we are there to do a job and that focuses minds. When you come home you may think about things you have seen but you won’t be able to do the job if you can’t see past that.”

We help each other to cope with stress

CAPTAIN Venetia Price, 33, swapped the accident and emergency department at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary for the war zone of Helmand.

She said she prepared for the experience with the help of Amputees in Action, a service that provides amputees to work with medical staff to train them in dealing with severe injuries.

“It just means the first time you see an amputation for real, you will have experienced something similar in training. It helps take the edge off things, but you still see some very distressing situations. However, it’s amazing how quickly you get used to something that has initially taken you aback.”

She said dealing with patients with particularly serious wounds, or with those who do not survive, can be very stressful for medics.

“We talk through things afterwards and make sure we did everything right. Even though it’s an awful situation, it’s incredibly helpful to talk things through and know that we did everything we could have done.”

We brought some back from brink

LT COL Alasdair Macmillan, 43, normally carries out surgery at Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline. But for eight weeks this year he was at the British base in Helmand Province dealing with major war injuries. “We were dealing with people that you would not expect to live normally, but we have in some cases been able to bring them back from the brink and get them home.”

Within days the fighting which had begun the previous month escalated as RAF pilots fought a pivotal battle with the might of the Luftwaffe to thwart Hitler’s plans to invade Britain. The fate of the free world hung in the balance.

Next week marks the 70th anniversary of what was later to become known as The Battle of Britain. But amid the high-profile events taking place across the country and with replays of prime minister Winston Churchill’s speech containing the stirring line “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”, it is easy to overlook the “voices” of the young men who risked all in the battle.

But their spirit, their initial sheer excitement and the feeling that they could never be killed, is captured by the fascinating story of 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron RAuxAF.

The Auxiliary Air Force squadron which had built itself up with volunteers, “weekend flyers” – “men from “the city desks of Edinburgh and the fields of the Lothians” – went on to receive the accolade of being deemed “The Greatest Squadron of Them All” by Group Captain “Boy” Bouchier the Commanding Officer of RAF Hornchurch, a significant Battle of Britain base and one to which 603 were sent for the duration of the Battle.

By the end of the Battle of Britain 603 Squadron was the top scoring squadron in the whole of the RAF, having shot down the greatest number of Germans. Factors contributing to this extraordinary achievement included their strong local identity and sprit de corps.

The wealthy young Edinburgh professionals and students who joined 603 Squadron after it was founded in 1925 were the cream of society, the “young tearaways” of their day who could afford to pay for flying lessons to indulge their love of aviation, the craze of the 1920s and 1930s. They delighted in taking to the air in the squadron’s biplanes.

Typical of the elite pilots were “Bubble” Waterston and Ken and Don Macdonald.

Waterston from Trinity, who worked for an insurance firm, was the son of the director of George Waterston & Sons, the Edinburgh firm of stationers and printers in the city’s George Street.

• From left, Sgt Ian Anderson, Cpl Tony Moore, who lost a leg during a training accident, and Sgt Mark Fairbrother from 2 Scots (Royal Highland Fusiliers) run repeated laps round Glasgow’s George Square to raise funds for the troops Picture: Robert Perry

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Joe Parker, 89, served with 602 Glasgow City Squadron throughout the conflict after joining the RAF as a 16-year-old.

He recalled cheering as then prime minister Neville Chamberlain announced that Britain was at war with Germany.

He said: “Myself and my mates were in the canteen having a cup of tea when the announcement came over the radio by the prime minister (Neville Chamberlain) that we were now at war with Germany and we all cheered.

“We thought it was great. We thought it would be a great adventure.

“It is sad to think we sat and cheered and thought it was going to be a wonderful time when you think of all the sons and daughters and fathers and mothers that gave their life because of this war.

“It was a terrible time. It seemed glorious and glamorous and funny things happened at times, but it was an experience I don’t wish on anyone.”

And he described the loss of British service personnel in the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as “terrible”.

He added: “It is my experience that war has to be avoided if at all possible.”

Mr Clegg wants to hold the referendum introducing the alternative vote system (AV) on 5 May next year.

Opponents of the plan point out that it could distort the result of the referendum, because elections are not taking place across the UK. It als

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o goes against recommendation about holding different votes on the same day, following the 2007 fiasco in Scotland, when 147,000 ballot papers were spoiled because of confusion between the Holyrood and council elections.

An amendment seeking a change of date by Dunfermline and West Fife MP Thomas Docherty will be laid down on Monday, as the government tries to push through the second stage of its constitutional reform bill.

While the amendment is unlikely to succeed next week, with Tory rebels abstaining, it is understood that they are planning to use it to force Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg into a humiliating climbdown.

One discontented Tory of up to 70 back-bench rebels said: “We have decided that the committee stage and third reading are the points to force to changes. We want to approach this constructively.”

Mr Docherty, who has the backing of his party’s leadership, who are putting a three-line whip on the votes, will hold talks on Monday with the SNP, as well as Tory rebels, to agree an alternative date.

He told The Scotsman: “The respect agenda is not just about knowing the name of the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – it also means knowing what their phone numbers are and being prepared to speak to them before taking steps that will directly impact on these elections.”

While happiness increases along with annual household incomes up to about $75,000, beyond that, earning more money has no effect on day-to-day contentment, according to the study.

But that doesn’t mean you should give up trying to get that promotion. While making more won’t help your emotional state on any given day, people who had household incomes above $75,000 were more apt to say they were satisfied overall with their life.

Those who made, say, $120,000 reported more satisfaction with their lives and had a higher assessment of their life overall than those who made less, while those who made $160,000 evaluated their lives even better still.

“It’s really important to recognize that the word ‘happiness’ covers a lot of ground,” said study author Angus Deaton, a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University. “There is your overall evaluation of how your life is going, while the other has to do more with emotional well-being at the moment. Higher incomes don’t seem to have any effect on well-being after around $75,000, whereas your evaluation of your life keeps going up along with income.”

The study is in the Sept. 6 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers used data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which surveyed 450,000 Americans in 2008 and 2009 about their household income, emotional state during the prior day and overall feelings about their life and well-being.

Both measures of happiness are getting at something different, Deaton noted. You might be feeling blue or unhappy one day because your boss hassled you or you got a speeding ticket, but overall, you think life is going pretty well.

Conversely, you might have felt happy, even joyful, on an outing with your friends and family, but are overall not satisfied with your life or the direction it’s going.

So which measure of happiness matters more?

That’s a philosophical question and perhaps one only the individual can answer, Deaton said. “That’s a really deep, hard question. [Both measures] are important. But if you’re unhappy now, the fact your life may be going well doesn’t make up for that.”

Social scientists and psychologists have long grappled with how to measure happiness, said James Maddux, a psychology professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., who was not involved with the study.

The new study does a good job teasing apart the different aspects of emotional well-being, including more immediate emotions vs. bigger-picture life evaluations, Maddux said.

“This study is consistent with a lot of other studies on the relationship between income and happiness or overall life satisfaction,” Maddux said. “What other studies have also shown is that money matters up to a point. But after a certain point, having additional money doesn’t make people like their lives better or feel better about themselves on a day to day basis.”

This holds true in other countries around the world as well, he noted. Once per capita GDP rises to a point in which people are no longer struggling to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and healthcare, additional increases in overall national wealth don’t seem to make much of a difference in happiness, Maddux said.

Maddux urged America’s beleaguered workers not to get too hung up on the $75,000 figure. That income level can mean very different things depending on how many people are in the family, what sorts of financial responsibilities you have and where you live, he said.

“$75,000 is not a magical figure people need to achieve to be at their happiest,” Maddux said. “The point is there is a threshold at which people probably are not going to be substantially happier if they keep making more money.”

In 2008, average U.S household income was about $71,500, while the median — or the point at which half of incomes are higher and half are lower — was $52,000. The average skews higher than the median because of a few very high incomes, Deaton explained.

While people with household incomes of more than $75,000 probably won’t feel an enduring happiness boost if they are able to earn more, losing substantial income would likely not be good for their emotional well being, the study suggested. As income dropped, respondents reported declining happiness and increased sadness and stress.

And,according to the study, poverty exacerbated the emotional impact of negative life events such as illness and divorce. Nor did the poor get as much of a happiness boost from weekends as those who were better-off, according to the researchers.

“Life is unfair for the poor in all sort of dimensions,” Deaton said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more information on anxiety and other mental health conditions.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) called for the immediate withdrawal of rosiglitazone, marketed as Avandia, saying the top-selling drug should never have been licensed.

An investigation revealed the Commission on Human Medicines had advised an ex

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pert committee of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in July to withdraw the drug, as the “risks of rosiglitazone outweigh its benefits”. They said it “no longer has a place on the UK market”.

Rosiglitazone, which is manufactured by Glaxo SmithKline (GSK), was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2000 to help lower blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes.

GSK said its “extensive research” showed the drug was “safe and effective when it was prescribed appropriately”. But since its approval, several studies have suggested the drug may lead to a small overall increase in the risk of heart attacks and the BMJ’s investigations editor, Dr Deborah Cohen, said the European approval process had not been rigorous enough.

She also raised concerns about the quality of the data used by GSK, the lack of publicly available trial results for independent scientific scrutiny, and failures to act swiftly on emerging safety fears.

The journal said doctors were advising no new patients should start taking the drug and that patients already using rosiglitazone should review their options. Those at higher risk of heart disease should be advised to stop taking it.

Professor Nick Freemantle, of the University of Birmingham, called for an overhaul in the standards of regulatory trials, saying: “In order to learn from our mistakes, we must improve the quality of safety data from clinical trials on all new health care interventions, not just antidiabetic drugs.”

Professor John Yudkin, of University College London, said: “Ten years after the release of rosiglitazone, we still cannot accurately quantify the harm to which we were exposing our patients.

They believe the research could produce tests and potential interventions to help give women in their late thirties and forties a better chance to produce healthy babies.

However, a Scottish Down’s syndrome charity has voiced concern about the res

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earch, saying that it could constitute another step towards the creation of “designer babies”.

While researchers have long known that women having babies later in life posed an increased risk of disability due to eggs containing the wrong number of chromosomes, the underlying cause has not been known.

Research by Newcastle University, published in the journal Current Biology, has now shed new light on why this happens.

The key is declining levels of proteins called cohesins, which hold chromosomes together by entrapping them in a ring. This is essential for chromosomes to split evenly when cells divide.

All the cells in the body, except for sperm and eggs, contain two copies of each chromosome. Sperm and eggs must lose exactly one copy in preparation for fertilisation.

This halving of chromosome number requires a complex form of cell division. In eggs the problem is compounded by the fact that the physical attachments that hold chromosomes together are established before birth and must be maintained by cohesins until the egg divides just before ovulation.

In a study led by Dr Mary Herbert, and funded primarily by Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children, Infertility Research Trust, and the MRC, researchers at Newcastle University and Newcastle Fertility Centre, used eggs from young and old mice to show that cohesin levels decline gradually as females get older.

This results in weakened cohesion between chromosomes and failure to divide equally during the halving of chromosome number in eggs of older females.

By tracking chromosomes during division in the egg, the Newcastle team found that the reduced cohesin in eggs from older females resulted in some chromosomes becoming trapped and being unable to divide properly.

Eggs that are defective in this way may fail to develop resulting in infertility, or they may give rise to a pregnancy with a high risk of miscarriage, or to the birth of a baby with Down’s syndrome.

Dr Herbert, a reader in reproductive biology at the Institute of Ageing and Health, cautioned that while the research was positive, it was still in its early stages: “The first thing to stress is we’re nowhere near a treatment we’ve just managed to identify what goes wrong, we understand yet what’s causing that to go wrong.

“So we have some way to go before we know if something can be done to prevent the loss of Cohesin.