"Scottish licensing chiefs have called for a controversial new law on alcohol sales to be entirely scrapped amid growing warnings from shop owners that they are being overwhelmed in bureaucratic chaos. The new law, set to be introduced from 1 September, is forcing all pubs, shops and restaurants that want to sell alcohol to be licensed in triplicate and to pay thousands of pounds to ensure that they are legally above board. As many as one in five premises will fail to meet the rules, despite moves by ministers to relax the regulations last week, the leading legal expert on the law warned last night. Smaller shops and restaurants are simply deciding that it is easier to scrap alcohol sales rather than comply with the cost and hassle of the act." - Scotland on Sunday
"A flood of legal claims could blow a massive new hole in the public finances. In the past month alone, 300 High Court claims have been lodged against Revenue & Customs by companies and local authorities - three times the figure in the same month last year. When the Revenue makes a repayment to a company it must pay interest on the money it has held. Until recently this has been calculated as a straightforward one-off percentage of the sum in question. But a group of motor dealers went to the High Court to claim that such payments should include compound interest. This is calculated on the sum plus previously accrued interest and leads to far higher costs. Now more companies, including managed pub group Mitchells & Butlers are following suit. The cases involved could date back years and the sums involved may run into tens of millions of pounds." - Mail On Sunday
"As soldiers continue to battle for half-decent compensation from the MoD, how thrilled they must be to hear of the wodge of cash that's just been thrown at Selena Gilder. The 40-year-old former hospital cleaner was on a night out with the girls in her local when she stepped outside for a fag. The three-inch heel of her stiletto shoe caught in a gap in the concrete paving and she tipped backwards, snapping two bones in her right leg. It's tough being on the pub frontline, what with all those gaps waiting to attack you, so Selena took the Albion pub in Tewkesbury to court and has just walked away with £18,000 compensation. That is roughly twice the amount awarded to soldiers who have been shot in the leg in Iraq.' - Fiona McIntosh, writing in the Sunday Mirror
"Game, for centuries the fare of royalty and the aristocracy, is making its way on to menus in humbler kitchens as pubs, supermarkets, and celebrity chefs encourage people to be more adventurous in their choice of meat. They have now been joined by one of the year's more unlikely culinary champions, Norman Tebbit, the political polecat is now a cordon bleu chef and has written a novice's guide to navigating the game counter. The former cabinet minister wrote his cookbook to encourage people to cook pheasant instead of 'rubber-boned, tasteless chicken'. Young's, Greene King and Spirit are among the big pub landlords swapping beef for venison burgers at their pubs." - Independent on Sunday
"Hollywood star Russell Crowe has been barred from returning to a pub near where he is filming a £200m Robin Hood epic. Crowe offered to pay to drink after hours at the Brickmakers pub in sedate Windlesham, Surrey, but his offer was refused. 'It's just not the way we do things here,' said one local. An argument broke out and he left the pub. A duty manager at The Brickmakers confirmed that the actor had been barred. He added: 'I'm not exactly sure what he's supposed to have done but there was apparently trouble and he's been asked not to return. 'It's not the only place he's been barred from. There are at least two others I know of, one here in Windlesham and another in Sunningdale.' - Sunday Express