McGuinness's less than surprising attitude to booze

James Forsyth says it is "deeply comic" for Martin McGuiness to complain:

“I am not a fan of East-Enders or Coronation Street but my wife and my children, particularly the girls, watch the programme. I am appalled at the drunkenness that is quite clear for everybody to see and all of that before the 9 o’clock watershed when children as young as 8, 9, 10 and 11 are watching. Now I regard that as irresponsible broadcasting and I think something should be done about it.”

Now of course, James is right to point out that Mr McGuiness's role in...

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Filed under: Booze (38 more articles) , Hackery (165 more articles) , Newspapers (208 more articles) , Ulster (27 more articles)

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Depends upon what you mean by "polluter pays"...

Good grief:

THE Scottish Government is preparing to take on supermarkets and off-licences in the battle against alcohol abuse, forcing them to pay a levy under new plans to make retailers meet the social cost of the country's "bevvy culture".

Proposals for a "polluter pays" charge have been extended from pubs and clubs to include every shop that sells alcohol in Scotland, amid a growing perception among ministers and senior officials that retailers are fuelling crime and anti-social behaviour by selling liquor...

Details of the proposed levy will be announced in the spring and will be subject

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Filed under: Booze (38 more articles) , Lunacy (124 more articles) , Scotland (208 more articles)

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Dick Cheney's energy task force is transparent by comparison

Interesting article by Elaine Sciolino in today's New York Times on the brouhaha over the proposed expansion of Champagne's AOC, increasing the number of communes legally permitted to grow grapes to be made into champagne. The reason? Increased demand for the bubbles around the world.

As I say, it's a good piece. But I would wager that the guts of the real story lurk in these two paragraphs (emphasis added):

For the most part, the 40 proposed communes fill in holes in existing Champagne areas, much of it near the Champagne centers of Reims and Épernay, rather than extending

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Filed under: Booze (38 more articles) , France (72 more articles)

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Lock up your daughters: the libertarian carnival is in town

Good lord. further evidence that, despite improvements in recent years, Washington still has work to do. Today's WaPo runs a piece noting that the free minds and free markets crowd at Reason are insidiously recruiting innocent young Washingtonians to the libertarian cult by, yup, throwing a couple of parties a month. The horror! To wit:

Four minutes into Reason magazine's monthly bash at the Big Hunt lounge, and every Libertarian-as-Bacchus fantasy you've entertained plays out before your widening eyes.

Nick Gillespie, the leather-jacketed, Mama-said-you're-dangerous editor of the political rag peers at you intently. "What do you

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Filed under: Booze (38 more articles) , Hackery (165 more articles) , Libertarians (99 more articles) , Newspapers (208 more articles)

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Happy Repeal Day

December 5th, 1933, American becomes a better country as the 18th Amendment to the Constitution is repealed and the Prohibition era ends. Now, about that War on Drugs...?

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Filed under: Americana (255 more articles) , Booze (38 more articles)

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First CAMRA takes Manhattan?

This New York Times piece by Eric Asimov has, for British readers, a certain charm. It's rather like seeing the world through alien eyes. My what strange yet wondrous habits you quaintly old-fashioned humans have:

I WAS sitting at a noisy bar on a beautiful fall afternoon, watching the bartender work, and she was indeed working.

She pulled down on the tap, then pushed back, pulled down and pushed up, in rhythmic repetition like a farmhand at a well. The ale poured slowly into a mug, at first all foam, then turning translucent before suddenly clarifying into a brilliant

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Filed under: Booze (38 more articles)

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