Staff at one of Scotland’s oldest banks are to stage a one-day strike in protest at the management’s refusal to recognise 2 January as a public holiday. It says customer demand is behind the need to open, but cannot demonstrate where it gets its information from.”Yesterday, the union called on its members working for the Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest’s Scottish branches to strike on Wednesday, although it said it was still willing reach an agreement. Mr Colognori said: “The last thing our members want is to inconvenience customers, but if the action does go ahead, I suppose few customers will be inconvenienced as they would not be expecting the bank to be open in the first place.”A bank spokesman promised that a limited number of branches would be open on 2 January, which is not a holiday anywhere else in Britain.The strike is the latest development in a long-running row between the bank and unions over pay which saw some long-standing employees receive no wage increase.The bank, which is estimated to be worth more than £9bn, includes in its assets a railway company and 900 branches across the world.Founded in Edinburgh in 1727, the bank, which claims to have invented the overdraft, has more than 22,000 employees. It also claims to have been the first bank to introduce a house purchase loan scheme, and to have invented the personal loan.. Thousands of homes across Britain were left without power yesterday as gale-force winds and blizzards swept across the country, causing chaos and devastation. The man, who is in his 40s, suffered a serious leg injury, while the woman, in her 30s, had cuts and bruises.Trees and power cables were brought down across the country, with rural communities in Ayrshire, Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, and Argyll regions worst affected.A spokesman for ScottishPower said: “The loss of power was spread over a number of areas rather than one individual town. We hope to have power restored to most, if not all, of our customers by Saturday morning.” It was a similar story in Northern Ireland, where more than 2,000 homes were left without power.All Stena Sealink ferry crossings between Belfast and Stranraer were cancelled, while ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne suspended several sailings.

On the roads, the Forth road bridge and the Skye bridge were closed to high-sided vehicles. At Kildrummy, near Aberdeen, a gritter lorry was driven off the road by high winds and overturned. Two rescue vehicles sent to help the stranded crew had to be dug out of the snow.Further south, snow was less of a problem but uprooted trees caused the closure of several roads in the Dumfries and Galloway and the Lothian and Borders areas.In northern England, winds of more than 70mph caused an articulated lorry to overturn and block the northbound carriageway of the A1(M) near Durham. The A66 main cross-Pennines route was also closed to high-sided vehicles, as was the Newton Cap viaduct at Bishop Auckland.. Gordon Brown’s wife Sarah gave birth to a baby daughter seven weeks early yesterday after undergoing an emergency Caesarean section. Gordon Brown’s wife, Sarah, gave birth to a daughter seven weeks early yesterday after undergoing an emergency Caesarean section.
The baby, weighing just 2lb 4oz, was delivered after complications with the pregnancy came to light during a routine scan two days ago.The Chancellor was at his wife’s bedside last night at Forth Park Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, near his constituency home.

Mother and baby were said to be doing fine.Mrs Brown, a public relations executive aged 37, is expected to return home in the next few days, although their daughter, who is in an incubator breathing without assistance, will stay in hospital longer until her weight increases.Doctors advised Mrs Brown to have an immediate Caesarean after a scan on Thursday showed low levels of amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. A more detailed scan showed the baby was in perfect health but would not grow sufficiently because of the condition.Mr Brown, who is 50, was with his wife during the operation and both have held the baby, who has not been named.Dr Tahir Mahmood, the consultant obstetrician who delivered the baby, said that she was suffering from intrauterine growth restriction ­ a condition that occurs in 10 per cent of pregnancies and causes the child to have an irregular heart rate.If the pregnancy had been allowed to run its natural course there could have been a risk to mother and child, but she was born healthy and was “doing well”, he said.”She is in an incubator and has a little oxygen mask. She has a good set of lungs and was crying healthily,” he said.Yesterday, a spokesman for the Chancellor said the couple were “delighted with their beautiful baby girl”. He added: “Sarah is recovering well and will go home after the weekend, but, as normal, the baby will remain in hospital to make sure everything remains fine. They would like to thank the doctors and nurses and all the staff at the hospital for all their wonderful care.”.