After Mr S reported earlier this year that the Tory peer Lord McColl was reigniting the fight to bring haggis to an American audience by urging the government to ‘press the US government to change their position on the ban on haggis’, there is fresh hope for Scotland’s great repressed minority.
Although haggis has been banned in the US since 1971 — over the inclusion of certain ingredients including sheep lungs, Richard Lochhead, the Scottish environment minister, is leading a trip to Washington this week where he plans to have the ban overturned. As a cause close to Mr S’s heart (and stomach), Steerpike is pleased by the news, yet die-hard haggis fans may have to take any victory with a pinch of salt. It is thought that manufacturers may get around the ban by omitting sheep lungs from the recipe.
However, given that Stan Phillips, the Councillor for Agricultural Affairs from the US Embassy, described haggis as merely ‘alright’ earlier this year when he tried the Scottish delicacy for the first time, Mr S suspects there is still work to do.
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