‘Advice’ trade could do without
Comment By Gillian McKenzie JUST as the proposal to introduce a ‘reducing consumption of alcohol’ licensing objective seems to have hit the buffers, …
Volume of legislation is no joke
Comment By Gillian McKenzie At first I assumed it was an ill-judged April Fool; surely yet more licensing legislation had not been tabled. But it had. Labour …
Skills scheme bringing trade benefits
THREE hundred young people in Scotland have completed the course, almost three quarters of graduates go into employment, and it is being rolled out to a total …
Time to act as lower limit takes its toll
“VITAL to the Scottish economy”, “one of our biggest employers” – the praise for our tourism industry just kept on coming from deputy first minister …
New limit driving pubs to the edge
By Gillian McKenzie IT had been in place for a little over a week but it was already making its mark on the trade. Operators I spoke to the week before …
Further twist in the beer tie debate
By Gillian McKenzie ITS removal has been the end-goal for pubco reform campaigners for many years. Pub companies, on the other hand, say scrapping it will …
Chance to surrender brought some reprieve
By Gillian McKenzie IT offered a faint glimmer of hope to a few in what was a pretty grim situation. Some licensing boards, including Dundee, Edinburgh and …
Lessons must be learned from refresher meltdown
By Gillian McKenzie IT has loomed large on the Scottish trade’s horizon for some time now. And as the deadlines by which the first ‘batch’ of personal …
Beer tie loosened after Bill amendment?
By Gillian McKenzie IT has spanned several years, dividing opinion and polarising the industry; and, last week, the debate over the ‘beer tie’ took another …
Health report highlights alcohol pricing gulf
Comment by Gillian McKenzie It seems barely a week goes by without the publication of a report about alcohol. Last week it was the turn of NHS Health Scotland, …