'Last orders for Sky as pubs snub price hike'

Pubs across Edinburgh are calling time on their Sky subscriptions after facing a price hike by the broadcasting giant. A shake-up of how annual fees...

Pubs across Edinburgh are calling time on their Sky subscriptions after facing a price hike by the broadcasting giant. A shake-up of how annual fees for the digital service are calculated for the bar industry means that today some publicans are seeing their Sky bill soar. The broadcaster has said it will tailor subscription charges to individual bars so as to "reflect more closely the value that Sky subscription brings to their business" - Scotsman

Police in Scotland have caught almost 100 people drink or drug driving during the first week of a summer crackdown. A total of 96 motorists have been stopped for offences since 5 July, compared with 122 for the same period last year, as part of the campaign co-ordinated by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) - Scotsman

Bootleggers who made a fortune while dodging £10million in tax distilling fake vodka were jailed for 57 and a half years yesterday. The six used a Polish workforce to make the hooch and distributed it as top brands like Smirnoff and Kirov - Mirror

Ex-Chancellor Alistair Darling wanted to put up VAT twice while in power, Lord Mandelson has revealed. Mr Darling - who as Shadow Chancellor is now opposing the new government's tax rise - was blocked by Gordon Brown. Lord Mandelson said the plan - for a VAT increase to 18 per cent last November then a rise to 19 per cent in March - was "vetoed point blank" by the former Prime Minister - The Sun

The part-time workforce reached record levels in the three months to May as people struggled to find permanent jobs in the recession, official figures have shown. The figures showed a 148,000 quarterly rise in part-timers to 7.82 million, the highest level since Office for National Statistics (ONS) records began in 1992 - Western Mail