'Punch Taverns in Hall of Shame'

Pub group Punch Taverns, media firm Trinity Mirror and mining giant Xstrata have been named in a "hall of shame" by a specialist financial information firm. They are the worst performing companies in their sectors over the last year, with all suffering falls to their stock market valuations of more than 80 per cent, according to DigitalLook - The Daily Express​

Oscar winner Kate Winslet revealed the honour was the second award won by her family - after her mother had been hailed for her pickled onions. Sally Winslet won a pickling competition at local pub The Retreat in Reading, Berkshire - BBC​

Like-for-like sales in the pub and restaurant sector rose by 5.6 per cent in January against a year earlier, helped by heavy promotional activity, according to the new Peach Business Tracker, run in conjunction with UBS and KPMG. It uses trading figures supplied by 11 of Britain's biggest operators, including Mitchells & Butlers and Whitbread - The Times​

Wet barmaid's towels at dawn for two of our most prominent pub entrepreneurs. Tim Martin, founder of JD Wetherspoon, has launched an attack on Hugh Osmond, who used to run the Punch chain and was quoted the other day attacking David Cameron for criticising bankers' bonuses - The Times​

A disgruntled customer caused £700,000 of damage to a pub, two supermarkets and a bookshop by spraying human waste inside them, a court heard yesterday. Sahnoun Daifallah allegedly first struck at a pub in Cheltenham when a barmaid called police after he asked how much it would cost to rape her. He then hit other places in the county, leaving a terrible stench - The Mirror​

Despite ever-stronger statistics showing Scotland's damaging relationship with alcohol, they are failing to have the desired effect on public policy and its implementation. The latest ones continue the disturbing trend: Scots have the eighth highest level of alcohol consumption in the world. The proposals for outlawing cut-price offers and establishing minimum prices will face practical difficulties, but the evidence is that alcohol-related problems, from anti-social behaviour to ill health, have risen as the price of alcohol in relation to income has decreased. - The Herald​