Take the Government’s handling of, say, the health service or the children’s referendum and one word springs to mind: Omnishambles.

A string of high profile British witnesses who refused to testify at a US Senate hearing into the release of the Lockerbie bomber were today facing accusations of “stonewalling”.

The new coalition government in the UK was engulfed in its first crisis today after Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws was forced to apologise over parliamentary expenses running into tens of thousands of pounds.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg was today facing questions from grassroots party members today regarding his decision to go into coalition with Conservatives.

The Tories tonight offered the Liberal Democrats a referendum on electoral reform in a final bid to secure a coalition that would support David Cameron as prime minister.