By happy coincidence Barack Obama delivers the annual State of the Union address on Burns night this year. As usual we are being told that there will be no “laundry list” of policy recommendations and, as usual, we’re likely to hear a laundry list of policy recommendations. This being so, what better platform could there be from which to announce that the United States will lift its unjust emargo on the importation of real haggis?
You may remember that last year there were reports of Change We Can Believe In. Alas, these proved premature. American haggis-makers do their best but it turns out that the lungs are an important part of the noble haggis. They add a certain lightness. Or something. Without them a haggis may run to stodge all too easily. This, anyway, seems to be the fate of much lungless American haggis.
Happily there are signs that the wheels of bureaucracy are moving, albeit slowly. The World Organisation for Animal Health has confirmed what any fule kno: eating sheep lungs will not kill you. Consequently the US Department of Agriculture is in the process, we are told, of reviewing the matter and “there are regulations being drafted”. This being so we may tentatively expect some change by 2020. Which makes it all the more pressing that the President show some leadership on Tuesday night…
Otherwise, what’s the point of the Obama presidency?
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