'Punch boss Ian Dyson in line for £4m shares'

The new boss of Punch, Britain's largest pub group, could earn nearly £4.6m this year as a result of a controversial pay package. Ian Dyson, the former finance director of Marks & Spencer, who joined the debt-laden pub company in September, received a "golden hello" worth 300% of his £675,000-a-year salary - The Guardian​

The increase in VAT to 20 per cent will not be reversed, George Osborne said last night. The Chancellor dashed hopes that the looming increase from 17.5 to 20 per cent was a temporary measure, insisting it was a 'structural' change to the tax system - Daily Mail ​

More than 100,000 people are expected to be made redundant over Christmas as councils and public services slash jobs before the end of the financial year. The coalition's cuts will force local authorities, police forces and other public bodies to cut 100,000 posts by early next year, it was claimed - Daily Telegraph ​

Blizzards threaten to bury parts of Britain under 12 inches of snow today. Chaos looms as 60mph winds whip up massive 6ft drifts. Experts fear the worst blizzards in nearly a century as up to a foot of snow is dumped across Scotland and north and west England from this morning. The south could also be hit - The Sun ​

Every year tourists flock to Scotland to take in the country's many attractions: the stunning landscape, historic attractions and championship golf courses to name but three. However, according to a new survey examining the habits of visitors to the UK, when tourists come north of the Border the one thing they do more than in almost any other part of the UK is spend time drinking and eating. The research, carried out by VisitBritain, shows that 67 per cent of foreign visitors visited pubs while in Scotland, matched only by the north east of England, while 89 per cent spent time in restaurants, the highest in the UK, beating London by six per cent - Scotsman​

Fire crews are continuing to monitor a blaze in a country pub. The fire at the Wern Inn, Llangynog, near Carmarthen broke out at around 10.55pm on Wednesday night and took five fire crews to bring it under control, who battled through the night - Western Mail ​

Miffed Simon Cowell had to fork out £100 in extra duty to Customs officers - to take his favourite beer on holiday. The X Factor guru, 51, was stopped as he tried to import ten cases of Sapporo to Barbados - The Sun ​