Det er vel ikke bare vi som sliter

Snabel og Alf har lenge hatt en noe fordekt interesse i alkoholpolitikk, og selv om vi ikke er totalt uenig i den nasjonale alkoholpolitikken vår (kanskje på noe feil grunnlag), så er vi veldig kritisk til det som foregår lokalt, rundt elefantens pailabber so to speak.

Vi deler derfor med dere en gullbit fra en debatt fra tistlenes land:

Jamie Stone (liberal democrat):

Culture has been mentioned. The word whisky comes from the Gaelic uisge-beatha, which means the water of life. That illustrates how much drink is part of our culture. I have lived and worked in two other cultures: Italy and the Faroe Islands. Italy and France have already been mentioned and there is no doubt that a liberal regime prevails in Italy. Although alcoholism is a problem there, it is on nothing like the scale that we face in Scotland. In the Faroes, there may be a connection between drinking and the amount of daylight—that issue has been mentioned—which in turn is a result of the latitude. When I lived there, one of the most draconian regimes I have ever known was in place. One could not buy alcohol under the age of 21, and even then one could buy it only quarterly, when one paid one’s taxes. When the booze came in from Copenhagen—the Carlsberg Elephant and the aquavit—I saw people I worked with get not just drunk, but deadly blind drunk for days on end, until the booze was finished. I have seen people walking, yet nearer to death than I thought was possible. The draconian regime did not work and a different regime prevails today. My plea to ministers is to consider closely what happens in the Faroes and in Sweden, Norway and Finland, because it is relevant to our discussion in Scotland.

Så kanskje det er på tide at vi ser litt på hva vi driver med her, hvis vi vil ha en “kontinental drikkekultur” kanskje vi burde legge samme “kontinentale regelverk” til grunn?

Nå skal det sies at Snabel og Alf ikke har sjekket opp om det faktisk stemmer det vår Right Honorable’ sier om Færøyene, men historien er uansett morsom; og høres unektelig for god ut til å ikke være sann :-).