Joy Yates, Editorial Director

Dear Voornaam,

Welcome to your latest newsletter featuring stories from our teams on all the issues you need to know about.

And so we return to lockdown.

The ‘stay-at-home’ order imposed on mainland Scotland this month amid rising concern – and rising numbers of cases – about the new strain of Covid-19 will be tough, particularly given all the recent good news about effective vaccines.

However, the situation is now clearly extremely serious and so drastic action is warranted to buy time for people to be vaccinated. We have no other option but to push through the lockdown, to observe the rules, knowing that they are designed to save lives, to make the best of a bad situation, and to look after ourselves and each other.

Our staff are going through this pandemic with you. We know it is tough and like you have found the last year deeply challenging.

But it hasn’t all been restrictions, crackdowns and coronavirus cases on our website. We’ve offered up plenty of stories to take your mind off the pandemic. The most shocking of these were the events at the US Capitol when rioters stormed the seat of American democracy. 

The fallout from those ugly scenes were felt in Scotland - President Trump’s ancestral homeland - as we reported on the growing calls to ban the so-called 'dangerous criminal' Donald Trump from visiting Scotland.

Meanwhile, we explored the chilling mystery of the child’s bones hidden in Edinburgh castle and the peculiar case of the '1950s' car abandoned in a Scottish national park.

As always, I’m taking this opportunity to thank you so much for continuing to read The Scotsman - it is much appreciated by me and my team.

I have enjoyed all your feedback, you can email me anytime at joy.yates@jpimedia.co.uk.

Thank you.

Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy start to 2021.

Joy

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