Scottish Labour faces a "bloodbath" this summer as leading figures in the devastated and divided party battle each other to succeed Wendy Alexander as leader.

Thousands of civil servants are preparing to strike over pay this summer in a move that will severely disrupt services to the public.

Labour has been forced to scrap its plans for a costly hike in car tax that would have affected millions of motorists.

One of Britain's biggest supermarkets has warned it could sabotage SNP plans to crack down on cheap alcohol by setting up distribution centres across the border and selling cut-price drink on the internet.

Defence chiefs are spending £2.5m replacing every flag in the British military in a move which has angered troops still fighting for their lives in warzones with outdated and inadequate equipment.

Those English nationalists who claim Scotland is lagging behind the rest of the UK might soon be able to prove their point. Tory MPs are backing a plan to move England ahead of Scotland by an hour, in a bid to resolve a long-standing dispute over the UK's most appropriate time zone.