Tesco is bringing back the iconic blue-and-white striped "Value" branding that it scrapped over a decade ago. The reintroduction is part of a major marketing push to highlight low prices amid the ongoing cost of living crisis and it started on 5 January 2026.
When Scotland's Finance Secretary stands up next week (Tuesday 13 January 2026) to deliver the Budget, the biggest danger may not be what is announced but what quietly disappears. Behind the headlines on tax and public services lies a looming problem that threatens roads, housing, hospitals and long-term growth: Scotland's capital budget is under severe strain, and the numbers no longer add up.
Buying a house is stressful enough without worrying about how much tax you'll owe on top of the purchase price. In the UK, the rules differ sharply between England (where Stamp Duty Land Tax, SDLT applies) and Scotland (where the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, LBTT applies).
or decades, income tax has been one of the most visible ways governments influence wealth distribution. In the UK, the system is now split.
For decades, the "Saturday job" was more than a way for teenagers to earn pocket money — it was an important bridge into the world of work, teaching responsibility, teamwork and basic workplace skills. But those jobs — shelf-stacking, cafe shifts, newspaper rounds and shop errands — are vanishing.
Fewer people entering the workforce means less tax income. Immigration especially of working-age people boosts the size of the labour force.
If you've been to a supermarket recently, you're not imagining it — everyday food prices in the UK have been climbing again after a period of relative calm, and some staples are experiencing surprisingly steep increases that go well beyond the usual suspects of bread, milk, cheese and meat. According to the latest shop-price indexes, overall food price inflation is running at over 3%-4% — higher than general inflation and higher than many households would like to see.
As Scotland awaits next Tuesday's Budget, a familiar anxiety is resurfacing in households across the country: how much more will council tax rise — and how much worse can it get?. Nowhere is that question more pressing than in Highland, where the council's finances are already stretched to breaking point.
It's official - Britain's hospitality sector is bleeding out. More than 3,000 pubs and restaurants have vanished in the past three years, with closures accelerating in 2025.
Buying a home is rarely a simple decision, and in Scotland, the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) adds another layer of complexity. Introduced in 2015, LBTT replaced the UK-wide Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) for residential property transactions in Scotland.
From Tariffs to defence Trump is spending the same dollars over and over. Spending more on defence than the next nine countries combined.
Law change will give social landlords greater control to transfer tenancies from abusers to victims. Regulations have been laid in Parliament that will make it easier for victims of domestic abuse to remain safely in their homes with the tenancy in their name.
It's the tax nobody talks about until it's too late and for thousands of young Scots trying to buy their first proper home, Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) is the silent sledgehammer that turns a dream into a debt spiral. House Prices Up.
If you have 15 minutes to watch this video you will probably learn more about Donald Trumps threats, rare earths and who can really use them. Europe has a lot of the cards.
From the windswept moors of Caithness, at the very top of mainland Britain, electricity will flow south to keep taps running in London and the South East. In an era of volatile energy prices and fragile infrastructure, Thames Water's long-term deal to buy wind power from RWE's Camster wind farm is a quietly significant reminder of how deeply the UK’s essential services are now tied to the Highlands.
Resident Doctors have called off proposed strike action across Scotland after the British Medical Association (BMA) Scottish Resident Doctors Committee agreed to ballot members on an offer of 4.25% in 2025-26 and 3.75% in 2026-27. The committee is recommending that their members accept the two-year pay deal offered by the Scottish Government - that matches one already accepted by nurses and other healthcare staff - alongside a separate package of contractual reform.
You pick up the phone, say "Hello?"... and all you hear is dead silence before they finally hang up.
Modern states run on numbers. Interest rates, budgets, welfare systems, public services, and even democratic accountability depend on a steady supply of trusted, timely, and detailed statistics.
Interest on savings - watch this..
Hundreds of thousands of Canadian forestry workers are hoping for quick government action to save their struggling industry. Punishing U.S.