Echoes of the past: There has been a growing sense of deja vu for The Bottom Line amid the ongoing coverage of the effects of the coronavirus on the Scottish licensed trade.
Talk of giant glasshouses in Glasgow’s Finnieston and closing huge thoroughfares such as Argyle Street to allow trading while social distancing is observed has taken your humble correspondent back to 2006, when pubs were preparing for the introduction of the smoking ban.
Back then it was all about maximising outdoor areas and creating “sit-ooteries” to ensure pubs could continue to attract smokers. It was a huge transition, but few then would have thought conditions would one day become even more challenging than that.
Fairway farewell: Like many people, The Bottom Line has been enjoying walking down the fairways of the local golf course with impunity since lockdown measures halted hackers from indulging their pastime.
All that has come to an end, though, with the course now closed to ramblers to allow greenkeepers to prepare for the return of play. With so many clubs struggling to break even, the thought did occur that some should consider walking memberships, for non-peak times, to help ends meet.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here