The Peerage of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Moraireachd na h-Alba) is the division of the British Peerage for those peers created in the Kingdom of Scotland before 1707. With that year's Act of Union, the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England were combined into the Kingdom of Great Britain, and a new Peerage of Great Britain was introduced in which subsequent titles were granted.

After the Union, the old Scottish Peers elected 16 representative peers to sit in the House of Lords. The Peerage Act 1963 allowed all Scottish Peers to sit in the House of Lords, a right which was lost along with all other hereditary peers after the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999. Unlike most other peerage titles, many Scottish titles can pass through female lines, and in the case of daughters only, these pass to the eldest daughter rather than go into abeyance.^{[citation needed]}

The ranks of the Scottish Peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, Lord of Parliament (lord baron). Scottish Viscounts differ from those of the other Peerages (of England, Great Britain, Ireland and the United Kingdom) in using of in their title, as in Viscount of Oxfuird. Though this is the theoretical form, most Viscounts drop the "of". The Viscount of Arbuthnott and to a lesser extent the Viscount of Oxfuird still actively use of. Scottish Peers had the right to sit in the Parliament of Scotland.

Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Alba ([ˈalˠ̪apə]  listen (help·info))) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland constitutes over 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

Edinburgh, the country's capital and second largest city, is one of Europe's largest financial centres. Edinburgh was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, which transformed Scotland into one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, was once one of the world's leading industrial cities and now lies at the centre of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third largest city in Scotland, the title of Europe's oil capital.

Stephen House QPM (born 1957, Glasgow) is the current Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police.

He was appointed in 2007 and joined the force in the November of that year, replacing retiring Chief Constable, Sir Willie Rae.

Prior to joining Strathclyde Police, Stephen was an officer with Metropolitan Police, during which time he held top posts including: Assistant Commissioner and was the Commander of the Specialist Crime Directorate. Before that he was an Assistant Chief Constable at Staffordshire Police.

His time in Strathclyde has seen a substantial rise in officer numbers and a marked decrease in crime - most notably violent crime.

Stephen House is a member of the Joint Action Group on football which was established after he called on the First Minister of Scotland to host a football summit in March 2011. The summit was held following a number of high profile incidents at Old Firm football games and a steady increase in incidents of crime and anti social behaviour taking place across the Force area on days in which Old Firm games were taking place.

Moira Anderson, OBE (born 5 June 1938, Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire) is a Scottish singer.

Following an education at Lenzie Academy, Anderson quickly established herself at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow before getting her big break in the media after a successful audition at the BBC.

She landed her first job in the media, presenting the radio programme Can't Help Singing where she sang with some prestigious names from the world of opera. She went on to make many appearances in the TV series The White Heather Club hosted by Andy Stewart.

She went on to host her own television show, the popular Moira Anderson Sings on BBC 1, 1968. By 1970 she had signed up with the Decca Record Company, performed at the London Palladium and was hosting yet another show Stars On Sunday which ran from 1969 to 1977. Anderson has gone on to create many albums and is renowned for her charity work.^{[citation needed]}

In her early career Anderson made frequent appearances alongside fellow Scottish music stars, Kenneth McKellar and other Scottish stars. In the early 1980s she made a successful album of duets with Sir Harry Secombe. She recorded "A Perfect Day" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond.

James Francis "Jim" Murphy (born 23 August 1967) is a British Labour Party politician and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Renfrewshire.

He is currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence. From October 2008 to May 2010 he served in government as Secretary of State for Scotland. Prior to this, he served as Minister for Europe from 2007–08, the Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform from 2006–07, and as Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office from 2005–06.

Murphy was the co-chair of the Review of the Labour Party in Scotland, commissioned by Ed Miliband in May 2011.

Murphy was raised in a two-bedroom flat in Arden, Glasgow, until the age of twelve, when he emigrated to Cape Town, South Africa, after his father became unemployed.

Murphy returned to Britain at the age of eighteen to study Politics and European Law at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow where he worked as a waiter in order to fund his studies.

During his time at university, he was elected President of the National Union of Students Scotland, the Scottish 'special region' organisation within the NUS, in 1992 and served a term of office until 1994.