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A mother claims her son was banned from wearing shorts to school - despite there being a heatwave - and was told he could opt for a skirt instead. Toni Hurst from Stockport says she was baffled when Hazel Grove High School told her that Tom Foster, 13, would be put in isolation if he didn't follow the rules. She explained that a member of staff initially told her that 'boys are free to wear skirts instead of long trousers' over the phone. .....

ONE of Scotland’s oldest Highland games will get underway today. Organisers are expecting crowds to flock to the public park for Tomintoul Highland Games, which is now in its 173rd year. Competition begins at 11am, with the massed pipes and drums marching into the park from the village square at midday, led by games chieftain James Fraser. The bands will play throughout the afternoon, with drum majors competing to throw their maces over a banner in time to the music. Heavy events are a particular attraction for foreign visitors, with athletes taking part in hammer and stone throwing as well...

The stirring sounds and colourful spectacle of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will come to Dundee for the first time next month. The free event in the city centre will showcase more than 600 performers coming from as far afield as Canada, Australia and Singapore. The line-up for the Taste of the Tattoo show will include the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force Steel Orchestra, Highland dancers, military bands, an Indian cultural troupe and the inimitable Massed Pipes and Drums.

A new season of Perthshire Highland Games opens this weekend with one of the most spectacular events on the annual calendar — the Atholl Gathering and Highland Games. The two-day extravaganza is the first of 14 events that will see tens of thousands of spectators descend on the region over the next four months. The summer of tradition and sport begins today with the Atholl Highlanders Parade — the annual inspection of Europe’s last remaining private army.

You might credit the legendary Scottish male virility of past time to single malt whiskey, or the sometimes brutal weather, or the fact that haggis is the national dish, but a Dutch researcher is proposing another answer: It was the kilts. Kilts, worn as they were meant to be worn, without underwear, lets our laddies swing freely in the breeze, creating, according to researcher Erwin Kompanje, the “ideal physiological scrotal environment.” Exposed to the bracing Highland coolness, testicles will make robust sperm. The modern man’s “scrotal environment” is pretty confined these days, what with underwear and pants that hold our...

TULSA, Okla.,- An Oklahoma auto shop owner said he has embraced the shop's Irish theme -- and beat the summer heat -- by wearing a kilt to work. David O'Brien, proprietor of O'Brien Auto Performance in Tulsa, said his shop plays Irish jig music during the work day and has a shamrock in its logo, so switching his summer garb from pants to a kilt four years ago seemed like a logical way to cool off in the summer heat, KOTV, Tulsa, Okla., reported Thursday. "This is physically cooler than shorts," O'Brien said. He said the mode of dress comes...

I'm fair puckled! Another day. Another reason to deny my Scottish heritage. From the Telegraph, London (so it must be politely explained): The Scottish Tartans Authority has decreed that refusing to put on underwear beneath a kilt is "childish and unhygienic". It also warned that "going commando" flies in the face of decency. Tartans Authority director Brian Wilton said kilt wearers should have the "common sense" to realise they should wear underwear beneath their country's national dress. He said "The idea that you are not a real Scot unless you are bare under your kilt should be thrown into the...

The undercover British officer crept silently through the bushes, his tartan kilt a bizarre form of dress for a man who did not want to be conspicuous. Then he stopped to take in the awesome might of the enemy. Through the gloom, he could make out the 15,000 battle-scarred men and 200 machines of the cruellest and most feared of all the SS forces in war-torn France in the summer of 1944. Parked up for the night, their tanks, half-tracks and heavy guns stretched as far as his eyes could see. How could he and the tiny band of amateurish...

A Missouri high school student who was barred from a school dance because he was wearing a Scottish kilt has received an apology from school officials after the action sparked outrage among Scottish heritage supporters In a letter dated January 9, Jackson School District Superintendent Ron Anderson apologized to Jackson High School senior Nathan Warmack and said the district would train staffers how to properly apply the school dress code. The letter came after more than two months of debate and discussion about the actions of school officials when they asked Warmack, who is of Scottish descent, to change into...

Anyone else have issue with this? Banning a kilt? http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/12/22/student.kilt.ap/index.html A petition in support of the student.. http://www.petitiononline.com/kilt05/

Nathan Warmack poses in the living room of his home in Jackson, Mo. (AP Photo/James A. Finley)JACKSON, Mo. (AP) — Nathan Warmack wanted to honour his heritage by wearing a Scottish kilt to his high school dance. Then a principal told him to change into a pair of pants. What began with a few yards of tartan has sparked an international debate about freedom, symbols and cultural dress. More than 1,600 people have signed an Internet petition seeking an apology for the high school senior. Scots in the United States are assembling a traditional ensemble they hope the student will...

Culture clash as American school bans kilt WILL SPRINGER THE NICKNAME for Missouri is the "Show Me State", which is to mean that people from America's conservative heartland are stalwart, a bit stubborn and have a devotion to common sense. The stalwart and stubborn aspects of the state moniker might explain what happened when a school principal confronted one of his students who was dressed in a kilt.Nathan Warmack is a popular student at Jackson High School. The 18-year-old is an outstanding defensive lineman on the American football team and - at 6ft, 4in and 250lbs - you can't miss...

How come everyone is so bent out of shape about Jim Kilts of Gillette absconding with $162 million he basically didn't earn, after a mere 18 months or so at the helm of another expiring Boston-based corporation? Granted, Kilts is a greed-crazed corporado, but it's not like he's the only guy living off big bucks that he had nothing to do with accumulating. How about the two United States senators from Massachusetts, passing yet another pleasant Cape summer with the Beautiful People? Here are the numbers on just their vacation residences: Sen. John F. Kerry's mansion at 5 Hulbert Ave....

Eric Schulzetenberg doesn't quite seem to be Scottish, but the 17-year-old Minnesotan who bears a German-sounding name is exceedingly proud of his great-grandmother's Highlands heritage, her genetic gift to him. Clan Mitchell blood thus flows comfortably throughout Eric's Scots-American body and soul. That's why a few nights ago, when handsome Eric excitedly picked up his prom date, the gorgeous Jena Schoniger, he was not wearing a boring black-and-white tuxedo outfit. Instead of looking like an uncomfortable Antarctic penguin waddling about in a too-tight cummerbund, the youngster was joyfully and sartorially ablaze in a muted pattern of blue, green, black, red...

SIERRA VISTA - The green-clad and kilted folk of Sierra Vista tinkered down Fry Boulevard in perfect parade weather during the sixth-annual St. Patrick's Day Parade on Saturday. Participants from U.S. Border Patrol agents to youngsters seemed to enjoy themselves. Sierra Vista Irish-American Committee director Gerry Campbell said the annual parade is essentially the whole reason for his committee. There were 40 parade entries registered by Saturday morning. "And then, sometimes, people just show up. We just squeeze 'em in there at the end," Campbell said. The Cochise College Irish literature class joined in the morning's march. Class instructor Mary...

Queen is exposed to Highland game By Anil Dawar, Daily Mail 10 November 2004 Having one's picture taken sitting next to the Queen is usually no sniggering matter. Particularly when it's an official photograph of the battalion in full uniform and Her Majesty is there in her role as commander of the armed forces. But Colonel Simon West didn't appear to be taking the occasion too seriously yesterday. ******** Click for bigger image the picture will be a bit too revealing for the Queen's liking In his cap, jacket and spats, his hands on his knees and his ankles crossed,...

Austria claims to have invented tartan kilts Tartan kilts have become fashionable in Austria after archaeologists claimed the country invented them. Many Austrian stores are now selling "traditional Austrian" kilts and sporrans as well as lederhosen. The Austrian claim is based on the discovery of what they claim is the oldest piece of tartan in the world.The host of the Austrian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire is the latest convert to the trend. Armin Assinger turned up at the studio wearing one of the Carinthian kilts. Thomas Rettl, whose clothing company is based close to where scraps...

Posted on Wed, Jan. 15, 2003 He's confident to the hilt (and online selling kilts)Michael Butler markets the men's garment as casual wear. The business has begun to break even.By Reid KanaleyInquirer Staff Writer Please note: It is not a skirt.It is a kilt, the anti-trouser, pleated but undivided, airy, and a little scary.And it is absolutely not about cross-dressing. "It's a men's garment," Michael Butler, co-owner of AmeriKilt Co., said as he stood, 6-foot-4, broad of shoulder, bearded and hairy-legged in a cotton kilt of basic black."I love the kilt," Butler, 44, said. "When you see a man...