There are many noble Scottish traditions - St Andrews Day, the Edinburgh Festival, for example, and it's important not to forget drinking. Whether it's three litres of cheap cider in a supermarket carpark or an expensive single malt in an upmarket bar, we're much better at it north of the border. But the current Scottish Government - the Scottish Nationalist Party, no less - are set on introducing a flotilla of measures aimed at combating the nation's, uh, complicated relationship with the bottle. Funnily enough, not everybody is impressed.
Joining the entirety of Scotland in the problem-drinker club this week - members of the world's orchestras. C'mon in boys, there's beer for everyone!
Bad news for anyone planning on releasing a whisky in 2009, as Whisky Magazine name their Icons of Whisky for 2009 while I try to include the words "whisky" and "2009" as many times as I can in one sentence without it sounding weird