A welcome sign

WHISKY trade veteran Stewart Laing admits he had forgotten how much was involved in starting a company from scratch when he set up Hunter Laing, the new blending and bottling business he runs with sons Andrew and Scott.

Mr Laing launched the Glasgow-based venture after making the split from brother Fred, with whom he had run Douglas Laing & Co for more than 40 years.

There was a serendipitous aspect to the office move, though. It was love at first sight for Mr Laing when he first visited the grand Victorian building that would ultimately be selected as the operational HQ for Hunter Laing, particularly when he noted the tartan carpet.

"It was a sign," said Mr Laing, who instantly thought it was the perfect backdrop for a whisky business.

Eton rifled

THE Government's decision to appoint two former Goldman Sachs bankers to the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee has irked Treasury Select Committee member George Mudie.

The Labour MP told one, the ex-Barclays chief and former Goldman adviser Martin Taylor: "It seems that Goldman Sachs and Eton are two characteristics of everybody the Government favours these days."

Mr Taylor, who like the current Prime Minister and Archbishop of Canterbury is an old boy of the Windsor school, responded: "The church would not have me."

Merv in a spin

OUTGOING Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King demonstrated that he has an eclectic taste in music when he appeared as a guest on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs this week.

But the custodian of the nation's bullion missed a golden opportunity to nominate money-related tunes.

The Bottom Line suggests "Money's too tight (to mention)" by Simply Red would have been fitting.

Banks hold the aces

TAKING on the banks won solicitor Cat McLean and her firm MBM Commercial top honours in last year's Law Awards of Scotland, and The Herald reported yesterday on a successful defence against RBS by two of the firm's property developer clients.

But at £75,000 to £100,000 to run a commercial case, that doesn't happen often.

"You need access to a fighting fund, and a real appetite for a fight," Ms McLean observes. "The law is not particularly constructed to help litigants in this situation, the way it is set up does tend to favour the banks."

Isn't it funny how the banks always seem to end up on the front foot?

A caring side

STEVE McDonald, a partner at Anderson Strathern Solicitors, has shown that even lawyers have a caring side.

Mr McDonald, who plays with Edinburgh band Einstein's Wardrobe, has produced and co-written a song about life from the perspective of a dementia sufferer.

Picture on the Mantelpiece, co-written by fellow band member David Salvona, has been released to coincide with Dementia Awareness Week, which runs until June 9. All profits to Alzheimer Scotland. Hats off to you, Mr McDonald.