Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, is having a run of bad luck this month. There’s that referendum on independence which nobody seems to want, but which he’s apparently determined to deliver – and then there was that announcement on minimum pricing.
The min pricing saga has been on the go so long that the actual announcement has been a complete anticlimax, particularly as the SNP’s political opponents have decided they’re having nothing to do with it.
It takes an odd sort of issue like this (or independence referendums) to unite inveterate enemies Labour and the Conservatives, and of course each party has its own reason for saying no.
In this case one unstated reason may be that they would simply like to wipe the grin from Mr Salmond’s face for a moment, given the incredible run of success he has enjoyed with a majority of just a single vote over the past year.
As earlier stated, min pricing isn’t the whole story. Oh no. There’s to be an attempt to revive the bid to oblige licensing boards to say whether they’ve a problem with off sales-derived under-age drinking in their area.
If they say yes the idea is to bring in a local “not under 21” regime, meaning the thirsty 18 year old would have to go to all the trouble of taking a five minute bus ride to a neighbouring authority where no such regime applies.
If anything this scheme is even more unpopular than min pricing (and an independence referendum), and can safely be regarded as a non-starter.
For the full article go to: The Publican
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