Scotland's brave new world
Tuesday, November 26, 2013 at 7:45 Currently at Edinburgh airport following the first of two trips to Scotland this week.
This morning first minister Alex Salmond will reveal the SNP's "blueprint for independence".
It follows the weekend announcement that if a majority vote 'yes' to independence in next year's referendum then Independence Day will be March 24, 2016.
Keen observers will note that this is just two days before the tenth anniversary of the smoking ban which was introduced in Scotland on March 26, 2006.
If the 'Yes' campaign win the referendum it should be quite a party.
Not quite the party it would have been without the smoking ban, of course. I've lost count of the number of pubs that have closed since 2006.
If I remember correctly Scotland lost eleven per cent of its entire pub estate in the four years following the ban.
Perhaps Salmond will 'celebrate' independence by introducing plain packaging for tobacco, minimum pricing of alcohol and calorie limits for convenience food.
But why stop there?
When I grew up in Scotland in the Seventies pubs still had frosted glass and customers were forbidden from taking their drinks outside in case children saw them.
For the average 14-year-old this made the pub our Holy Grail.
Given the anti-smoking movement will do anything to stop children seeing adults smoking, it does make you wonder if similar regulations will make a comeback in Salmond's brave new world.
For the moment Westminster (plain packaging) and even Brussels (minimum pricing) appear to be acting as a break to Scotland's more Calvinist tendencies.
Who'd have thought?
Reader Comments (6)
No doubt a wonderful party if revellers have had to pay an exorbitant minimum price for their booze and are being watched like hawks by government health inspectors to ensure they don't exceed their daily alcohol unit allowance.
Rooted in hatred of the English, but I'd be surprised if the majority of Scots are stupid enough to actually vote for this. Can't say I'm that bothered (despite my 25% of Scottish genes), but if they do I hope it's a one way ticket.
It's up to the Scots to make their own minds up once and for all, you're either in the UK or outside. We can then get on with more important things in life. One thing for certain is that if Scotland break away, then the chances of a Labour government in Westminster is diminished, which is something to celebrate. Salmond and the Scots Nats are still socialists in all but name and the Scots will be welcome to their overbearing plans for more state control of people's so called bad habits.
Easy for me to say but ... cut 'em loose. Let the loonies play well away from us down here. ;)
Went for my C.O.P.D. test at the hospital this month. I am 82years. Nurse informed me that I had the lungs and oxygen capacity of a 71year old. She was stunned to learn that I had been a smoker since my teens and will continue to smoke. I did stop once in my thirties for six months . Went through sheer hell (so did my husband). Asked my doctor for advice and was told to go and buy a packet of cigs and give my husband a break. Bliss !!!
I think this is an elaborate bluff by Salmond to gain more devolved powers without losing the benefits of the Union.
If I were allowed to vote I wouldn't vote for - it would be wall-to-wall "White Heather Club" and "The Moira Anderson Show" on the telly :)