Henry McLeish and Jack McConnell will be laughing all the way to the bank . MSPs are set to axe one of the biggest perks of leaving Bute House: the £38,000-a-year pension enjoyed by former First Ministers from the moment they leave office.

One of Scotland's greatest Olympians has issued a scathing attack on SNP ministers over their decision to scrap an elite sporting body credited with training dozens of champions. 

Scots suffering from life-threatening diseases are being denied many of the latest and most effective drugs because of foot-dragging by health chiefs and doctors.

A Minister will this week appeal to MSPs not to block a Scottish Government move to impose big increases in the cost of alcohol licences for pubs. 

The damning report by MPs into the Ministry of Defence, to be published next week , will only confirm what everyone already knows: the entire defence industry in Britain is under the financial cosh – and it is beginning to hurt.

Britain should be turned into a federal nation in order to end the country's constitutional war , one of Scottish Labour's most senior figures has declared.