Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE

THE nightmare of July 6 1988 is etched into minds across all of Aberdeen. The explosion on the Piper Alpha oil platform took the lives of 167 offshore workers and rescue servicemen.
But when Australian oil worker Troy Carter visited the memorial to the dead earlier this month, he was warning that it could still take more. Because, he argued, big oil companies across the world have failed to learn the lessons of the Scottish tragedy.
Carter’s story is extraordinary. He has now spent almost 500 days on strike in a David and Goliath struggle with one of the world’s largest oil firms.

CONRAD LANDIN offers a guide to the diverse shows at Edinburgh Art Festival