Aberdeen and North – Wed, 8 Feb, 2012

The Scottish Government’s budget for the coming year has been passed by MSPs today. The Finance Secretary John Swinney made adjustments to his draft budget to ensure a three hundred and eighty two million spend on capital projects over the next three years. Transport and Housing were the spending winners. However opposition politicians say the spending will not deliver much needed jobs and mask deep cuts in the coming years. In other news: The heartbroken parents of a five year old Aberdeenshire boy who choked to death at an after-school club have been speaking of their loss; Caithness man Kevin MacLeod’s heartbroken parents are making a renewed appeal to help establish just how he died on the fifteenth anniversary of his death. In sport: Scotland Head Coach Andy Robinson says it was his decision to call time on Dan Parks’ international career, and not the player himself. Speaking the day after Parks announced his retirement – Robinson paid tribute to the Cardiff Blues stand-off, saying he should be celebrated. Laidlaw will wear the number ten jersey against Wales on Sunday in one of two changes to the starting fifteen.