The year in review: January to March

Thousands marched against the Iraq war

In the first of a four-part series, BBC News Online Scotland's Steve Brocklehurst looks back at some of the major events in 2003.

The looming war with Iraq cast a shadow over the start of the year.

Weeks before conflict began, thousands of people took to the streets to declare their opposition to war.

In Glasgow, a rally outside the Scottish and Exhibition Conference Centre (SECC), where Labour was staging a spring conference, attracted tens of thousands.

Strathclyde Police estimated that 30,000 people took part in the march, which the force described as the biggest protest in the city since the anti-poll tax demonstrations in March 1990.

However, David Mackenzie of march organisers Scottish Coalition for Justice Not War put the figure at more than 80,000.

Offering advice

As protesters gathered, Mr Blair told a Labour conference in Glasgow that "unpopularity was sometimes the price of leadership and cost of conviction".

Scotland's First Minister Jack McConnell gave his backing to the prime minister's stance on Iraq despite the anti-war protests.

Other pressing matters in the Scottish Parliament included the precise shade of blue in Scotland's national flag.

The white Cross of St Andrew's should ideally have an azure background - Pantone 300 in the international colour code.

Holyrood's Education, Culture and Sport Committee stressed it was merely offering advice.

MSPs advised on the proper colour of the Saltire

The cost of the Holyrood Parliament continued to be in the news.

The £88,000 price tag for a reception desk in the new parliament was described as "a ludicrous waste of public money" by Tory leader David McLetchie.

It was condemned as "exorbitant and extravagant" by Scottish National Party leader John Swinney.

However, Holyrood officials said the desk represented "extraordinary value for money".

They said the desk, which is 11 metres (36ft) long and made of oak and sycamore, would last at least 100 years.

Home ownership

House prices across Scotland also spiralled in cost showing a massive increase over the year.

The Scottish obsession with home ownership was revealed in a survey which showed that twice as many people owned their own home as did 20 years ago.

The rise from 747,000 at the end of 1982 to 1,526,000 last year has been more rapid than in other parts of the UK.

In percentage terms, owner-occupation in Scotland has risen from 38% to 63% - closing the gap on the rest of the UK, where owner rates have jumped from 59% to 70%.

One woman racked up £28,000 in parking fines

Property ownership of a different kind was celebrated by islanders on North Harris who secured the latest and probably the largest ever community buy-out of a Scottish estate.

The 50,000-acre Amhuinnsuidhe Castle estate was put up for sale in April 2002 by cider millionaire Johnathan Bulmer.

A trust set up by the 800-strong Western Isles community helped raise the £4.5m price.

A series of riots got the year off to a bad start at one of Scotland's prisons.

In January, two riots left prison chiefs at Shotts in Lanarkshire with a repair bill of £1m.

On 2 January, two prison officers were injured in a 19-hour rampage involving some 80 inmates in the main part of the prison.

The second disturbance occurred less than a week later at a special unit for problem prisoners.

Parking fines

While in jail, at least prisoners do not have to worry about the cost of parking their cars.

It emerged that one driver in Glasgow city centre regularly left her three vehicles in controlled spaces without paying.

Over three years the woman clocked up £28,000 worth of parking fines.

Politicians joined the parents of baby Alannah Dunipace in calling for an inquiry after claims that the child sustained a 5in cut to her forehead when a surgeon in Dundee apparently cut too far into the womb during a Caesarean birth.

Three members of the same family died following a house fire in the Fife village of Kennoway.

Violent riots broke out at Shotts prison

Efforts to save 43-year-old Sidney Lennon, his 44-year-old wife Linda and their son Paul, 21, were in vain.

Massive cuts in fish catch quotas imposed by the European Commission came into effect on 1 February.

The crisis-hit fishing industry was awarded a £50m compensation package designed to ensure its survival.

However, most of the cash went towards scrapping 15% of the Scottish white fish fleet, just two years after an earlier 10% cut in the number of boats.

Quest for justice

Elgin businessman Nat Fraser was convicted of killing his wife Arlene who disappeared almost five years earlier.

The case was the largest investigation Grampian Police had ever carried out and the absence of a body and any forensic evidence always hampered the force's quest for justice.

February began with snow and blizzards causing havoc on the roads and power cuts in many areas of the country.

The harsh economic climate was more of a concern in Airdrie where Boots announced the closure of its cosmetics factory, with the loss of 1,000 jobs.

Alannah Dunipace with mother Joanne Keir

Boots, which has been in the town for more than 50 years, said it intended to transfer production from Lanarkshire to Nottingham over the next two years as part of a cost-cutting plan.

The decision was described as "devastating" by the local MP Helen Liddell, who was also Scottish Secretary at the time.

Scottish academic Lesley McCulloch was released from prison in Indonesia after spending five months behind bars for visa violations.

She said she planned to resume her political campaigning against the Indonesian regime and its treatment of the rebellious Aceh province.

Gaelic speakers

New figures revealed that the number of Gaelic speakers had reached an all-time low.

According to the 2001 census, the number of Gaelic speakers fell by 11% over 10 years to a figure of 58,650.

Census results also showed that 42% of Scots regarded themselves as being members of the Church of Scotland, compared to 16% who said they were Roman Catholics.

More than a quarter said they had no religion.

A court martial in Helensburgh cleared an air traffic controller of causing the deaths of two US fighter pilots in March 2001.

Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Williams had faced charges after the American pilots were killed when they crashed their F15 jets into Ben MacDui in the Cairngorms.

Nat Fraser was convicted of killing his wife Arlene

Plans to move up to 270 Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) jobs from Edinburgh to Inverness were questioned by the conservation body's board.

Board members called for Environment Minister Ross Finnie to set out the reasoning behind the controversial move.

They said that the executive-funded organisation faced major disruption over the next few years under the plans.

The relocation of headquarters jobs from Edinburgh to Inverness was the latest in a programme of decentralising government posts to spread economic benefits around the country.

Fatal violence

A weekend of violence at the beginning of March left five men dead in the west of Scotland.

Four violent deaths in Glasgow and one in Port Glasgow, near Greenock, Inverclyde, occurred within a 26-hour period.

Strathclyde Police assistant chief constable Graeme Pearson said it had been one of the worst weekends in the force's history for fatal violence.

In Edinburgh, a man who killed his 11-week-old baby son by shaking him was jailed for 11 years.

Alexander Ness, 53, shook baby Caleb to death.

He originally faced a charge of murder, but his guilty plea to a charge of culpable homicide was accepted during his trial.

Boots announced the closure of its Airdrie plant

Questions were asked of the city's social work department after it emerged that Caleb had been on an at-risk register.

His father had previously been jailed for crimes of violence and drug dealing and Caleb had spent three weeks in hospital withdrawing from the methadone his mother took during her pregnancy.

Anger grew throughout the year at the detention of the children of asylum seekers at a former prison in Lanarkshire.

Opposition grew to the practice of detaining children in Dungavel detention centre near Strathaven before the families are deported.

War with Iraq

Roman Catholic bishops in Scotland described it a "disgrace" and Labour MP for Falkirk East Michael Connarty raised a motion in the House of Commons and sought answers from the Home Office.

Oil giant Shell announced it was to cut 350 jobs in its North Sea operations following a review.

Staff and unions were stunned by the scale of the job losses.

As March drew to a close the war with Iraq began and Scottish-based regiments were among those in the front line.

Scotland's first minister urged the country to rally behind the UK's armed forces in the Gulf.

Lance Corporal Barry Stephen died in Iraq

Speaking after coalition forces launched initial missile strikes on Iraq, Jack McConnell said the UK's forces were professional, thorough and well prepared and the public should give them their full support.

It was just a few days before the first soldier from a Scottish battalion was killed in southern Iraq.

Lance Corporal Barry Stephen, 31, from Perth, was the second British serviceman to die in action and was killed in an operation near al-Zubayr, south of Basra.

He belonged to the 1st Battalion The Black Watch.