Comment & Opinion

FORGIVE me, dear reader, for this moment of reflection. After 11 and a half years on the trade beat, and occupying the editor’s chair for nearly the past eight, I’m moving to a new journalistic parish. On a personal level, it’s the right time for a fresh challenge, but it’s with a treasure trove of memories, and a healthy dose of gratitude, that I make the move. The trade was a different place when I was introduced to its intoxicating mix of people and politics in the summer of 2001. Back then anything seemed possible.

DEPENDING on your political perspective, the Coalition is either correct in its determination to see out its austerity programme, or it is time to...

DEJA vu. That’s a sense Scotland’s licensed trade is probably feeling a lot at the moment. 2013 may be a new year, but...

For many it’s a dream combination, but how do home deliveries of food and drink by pubs play out in licensing terms? I AM aware...

EVER since he assumed the licensing brief in 2007, justice minister Kenny MacAskill has often praised the value of the on-trade and the wider...

I WAS very sad to learn through the pages of the SLTN (December 13, 2012) of the tragic death of John Morton, who must...

AS Christmas ‘gifts’ go, it would have been as welcome as an ill-fitting woolly jumper from grandma. In normal circumstances, licensed operators spend the final...

IN an age of controlled media pronouncements, with politicians rarely allowed to stray ‘off message’, it’s always pleasing, if rare, to hear an elected...