SLTN View

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...

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...

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...

AS I sit at my computer, stroking my (Movember only) moustache and contemplating the latest developments in the trade, I find myself becoming more...

IT wasn’t so long ago that it seemed positive steps would finally be taken to improve the tempestuous relationship pub tenants often have with...

OCTOBER 8, 2012 will go down as a dark day in the Scottish licensed trade’s history. Administrators acting on behalf of WaverleyTBS announced that there...

THE rise and rise of Scotland’s small brewers has been something to savour in recent years. And happily, there’s still no sign of the...

PUBS around the country were teeming with Tartan Army foot soldiers last weekend as Scotland began its qualification campaign for the World Cup in...