SO, THEY are looking for something else to ban. This time Scottish Executive Health Minister Andy Kerr has his eye on the Buckie (Briefing, September 25) describing Buckfast Tonic Wine as "a seriously bad drink" that "does something, particularly to our young people". Mr Kerr has written to the company that distributes it demanding a meeting. Has he done the same for the distributors of other tonic wines? If not, why not?
These disgusting drinks were always a hypocritical con, targeted originally at temperance-minded old dears who could enjoy a tipple "for medicinal purposes". Buckfast has become, in the past decade or two, a smash hit (so to speak) with Scottish neds. In the 1960s it was fortified wines such as VP, Four Crown and Eldorado, all of which were knocked off their perch, first by QC and then by the mighty Lanliq, which dominated this market in the 1970s.
They all had one thing in common, other than being cheap and revolting: they were enjoyed only by ignorant people who did not know how to drink and who used alcohol as a drug, consuming it with one aim only: to get drunk fast and cheap. Ban Buckie and something else will fill the gap.
If Andy Kerr has time on his hands he would be better investigating why the increased billions Gordon Brown gives him is not matched by anything like a corresponding improvement in our health services.
Might the reason be that Andy Kerr is a hopeless dud, completely out of his depth in trying to manage Scotland's health budget? His Buckfast stunt does nothing to discourage this thought.
Thomas McLaughlin, 4 Munro Road, Glasgow.
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