When, two weeks ago, the Scottish Government consulted on increasing the minimum price of a unit of alcohol, as the current policy expires next year, the Scottish media coverage was positively shocking:
Today, as the UK Conservative Government imposes a 10% increase on Scottish whisky to echo their recent plans to ‘max-out’ Scotland’s oil and gas supplies and as BBC UK headline the alcohol rise news with an extended but entirely whisky-free report, in an English pub, Reporting Scotland seems not to have noticed any this at all.
They prefer a WhatsApp leak, dirty Glasgow and a disgraced MP.
A story about Scottish jobs and the economy being harmed by UK Government policies?
“We don’t think that’s important, do we, team?”
BBC Alba, BBC Highlands and Islands? Not a word.
Meanwhile in Northern Ireland, BBC NI have: Alcohol duty increase ‘sickening’ for pub industry in NI
Only the National, down the screen at 8th, with no need to be parenthetical, has: Tories ‘betray’ Scots Whisky Industry.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
As far as the BBC is concerned, this tax increase is a ‘sensible’ action as are ALL the decisions of Westminster. The country is so used to ‘good governance’ that the tax rise does not need to be mentioned because it will be, by definition a good thing.
MUP in Scotland is a BAD THING, because it is Scottish and they are not genetically programmed to make good governance decisions.
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Anything to damage Scotland’s whisky industry, it’s an economic boost in Scotland. The English BritNat state have damaged Scottish tourism, with their constant faux ferries(!) stories, what next I wonder. They are determined to wreck the Scottish economy, while thieving Scotland’s massive resources, Sunak has connections to BP I hear, who’d of thought eh.
Thanks for your hard work John, debunking their lies and propaganda is our only way to make sure people are not kept in the dark about the British state’s underhand tactics to keep Scotland shackled to the UknotOK.
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Aye, and where does this extra hike go ? HM Treasury…
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It’s not just an attack on Scotland’s whisky industry, it’s a further attack on the peoples of these islands and a further ramping up of austerity. UK is governed by a Tory Party which is waging class-war: how else do you explain the continuing intentional draining of money from the economy when it’s blatantly obvious that more money needs to be pumped into it. This money, like the money they won’t pay to nurses, doctors, teachers, transport workers etc, could easily be created by Quantitive Easing without causing inflation if managed sensibly, but instead they shrink the economy by Quantitative Tightening, raising the bank rate and now penalising the public by increasing alcohol duty. It’s the famed trickle-up effect: capital exploits labour, the ultra-rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Welcome to fascist feudalism.
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Candidly it gets harder and harder to believe what the BBC feels able to get away with in Scotland regarding editorial decisions over its news coverage.
The change introduced today by the Westminster government to duties on alcoholic drinks is a big deal: it’s an announcement that’s getting lots of news coverage. This includes an article on the BBC News website entitled ‘ Tax jumps on wine and spirits but falls on fizz’. And yes the article is featured on the site’s Scotland Business page.
Beer, red wine, sparkling wine, cider, vodka, port, sherry – all mentioned by name in the piece. But unbelievable, whisky, especially Scotch – a sector supported by one of the most powerful and effective lobbying organisations in the UK and internationally, the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) – gets no mention by the BBC.
Perhaps the SWA had nothing to say!
This is from an article on the STV News website headlines: ‘Warning as ‘crippling’ alcohol prices to rise as much as 20% – The new tax increases aim to encourage people to cut back but have been described as a ‘a hammer blow for distillers and consumers’.
And from the SWA? ‘Scotch Whisky Association director of strategy Graeme Littlejohn said: “The 10.1% duty increase is a hammer blow for distillers and consumers.
“At a time when inflation has only just started to creep downwards, THIS TAX INCREASE WILL CONTINUE TO FUEL INFLATION AND MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT FOR THE SCOTCH WHISKY INDUSTRY TO INVEST IN GROWTH AND JOB CREATION IN SCOTLAND and across the UK supply chain.
“RATHER THAN CHOOSING TO BACK AN INDUSTRY WHICH THE UK GOVERNMENT PROMISED TO SUPPORT through the tax system, the Government has chosen to IMPOSE THE LARGEST DUTY INCREASE IN ALMOST HALF A CENTURY, increasing the cost of every bottle of Scotch Whisky sold in the UK by almost a pound and taking the tax burden on the average priced bottle to 75%.
“In a further blow, distillers will now face a further competitive disadvantage in pubs, restaurants and bars by being unfairly excluded from tax breaks available to beer and cider.’ (my emphasis)
It’s not difficult to see why the BBC article featuring on the Scotland page of its News website would NOT use that long damning quote from the SWA at this time is it?
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Meanwhile the Proud Scots…BUTS….turn a blind eye too….while forensically scrutinising any #SNPBAD news via the BBC and other MSM that they , as Proud Scots BUTS, can then misinform others about….while conveniently deflecting attention away from all of the damage being done by the bad and damaging decisions being made by the Tory UK government………
The news that is CHOSEN to be reported via the MSM and those who CHOOSE to rely upon that news and thus communicate all that they hear, see and read about via their preferred choice of MSM …..is ‘news’ that is supposed to represent what is happening in Scotland and the rest of the UK….but currently tis obvious it is ONLY for those with a very very selective and narrow scope of what should be yet will NOT be reported …via the so called providers of the supposed ‘news’ and too those watchers, listeners and readers who prefer to source their news from that same biased and partisan source of MSM…..
The BBC may suppress the whisky tax hike….alas the distilleries will know…. thus all who live in and on the highlands and islands will too…so #Fail
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written almost a hundred years ago, things it seem, just don’t change.
Twelve And A Tanner A Bottle
(MacKenzie / Will Fyffe)
Chorus:
It’s twelve and a tanner a bottle
That’s what it’s costin’ today
Twelve and a tanner a bottle
Man it tak’s a’ your pleasure away
Afore ye can hae a wee drappie
You have to spend a’ that you’ve got
How can a fella be happy
When happiness costs such a lot
It’s really high time something is done
To alter the way the country is run
They’re no daein’ things the way that they should
Just take for instance the price of the food
There’s taxes on this, taxes on that
While the people grow lean, the officials grow fat
You have to admit it’s a bit underhand
Puttin’ a tax on the breath of the land
I used to meet old pals o’ mine
When whisky was cheap, went doon like wine
Noo I don’t see them I’m sorry to tell
I slip roon’ the corner and drink by masel’
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Whisky companies tax evade.
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