MALCOLM BURNS reviews the latest goings-on north of the border.
No booze til you're 21
IN WHAT has been referred to as its "smoking ban" moment, the Scottish government proposed a range of possible measures to try to tackle Scotland's drink problem last week.
The main idea from SNP Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon is to increase the minimum age for buying booze from off-licences from 18 to 21, though the minimum age for pubs and clubs would remain 18.
Also suggested in the consultation paper Changing Scotland's Relationship With Alcohol are measures to affect the price of drink.
These include the banning of loss-leading drinks promotions, setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol and a "polluter pays" social responsibility fee on retailers to help pay for damaging consequences of alcohol misuse.
It is certainly true that Scotland has a problematic drinking culture. The evidence is in the streets and there are plenty of statistics as well.
Alcohol-related deaths have almost doubled over the last 10 years. Alcohol is a significant factor in Scottish rates of suicide and murder, which are much higher than in England and Wales. And cirrhosis of the liver is a fast-growing problem.
The SNP government's proposals all have problems.
Pilot schemes where off-licence alcohol sales to 18-21-year-olds were banned are credited with reductions in anti-social behaviour. However, it is clearly discriminatory to end a right enjoyed by people who, for virtually all other purposes, are classed as adults and expected to face adult responsibilities.
Pricing measures may fall foul of competition laws and cross-border trafficking.
And the highly profitable drinks industry will resist any attempt to get it to pay for damages.
The smoking ban seemed draconian to many, even people who were happy enough to order youngsters into battle in an illegal war, like former Blair cabinet utility player Dr John Reid.
But it appears to have worked. Certainly, Scotland's public places are cleaner and fresher for the ban. Early evidence on health benefits suggests that this is true for our lungs and hearts as well.
It would be good to change the hard-drinking culture in Scotland. Personally, I doubt if the discriminatory 18-21 off sales ban is going to really address the problem.
As a Scottish drinker myself, I predict that changing Scotland's relationship with alcohol is going to be a harder, more complex task than even the banning of smoking.
Big Culture Bill cock-up poses questions
IT WAS a merry dance in the Holyrood parliament on Wednesday last week. Actually, the fact that the SNP government and opposition parties managed to scupper the Culture Bill was more of a cock-up than anything else.
I won't bore you with the much-disputed and highly arcane way that this happened.
I do point out that, after 13 months, Alex Salmond's government has just suffered its first defeat, not on a point of principle or through Labour's stalwart defence of the interests of its core vote but on a Bill which the opposition parties actually supported.
The SNP was just pushing forward a Bill which the previous Labour-led executive had initiated.
Though it is now much reduced, the Bill retains its main proposal to set up a new cultural development body called Creative Scotland formed from the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, which was once the Scottish Film Council.
In the topsy-turvy world of modern politics, the Culture Bill, though defeated, is not dead. Despite much gnashing of teeth and even wailing, it appears that the creation of Creative Scotland may be delayed only six months by this bizarre parliamentary reverse. So, was the Culture Bill really necessary? Clearly not, if its provisions can be delivered without legislation.
Other, more powerful questions might be: What was the point of the Culture Bill in the first place? Why abolish Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen at all? What is Creative Scotland for?
The parliamentary committee scrutinising the Culture Bill asked questions like these and heavily criticised the Bill promoted by both Labour and SNP for "lack of clarity" in its purpose.
It looks as though the politicians of all parties have got hung up trying to pass legislation rather than just providing the support and funding which the arts in Scotland really require.
One public inquiry that is worth attending
IN THE possibly appropriate surrounding of the Court Room in Clydebank Town Hall on Wednesday, the controversial issue of "regeneration" will be subject to a public inquiry.
It will ask what "regeneration" means in reality for working-class people and communities.
It's not the official kind of public inquiry, of course, but an even more important sort - a trade union and community-led public examination of how far the massive government-subsidised schemes for regeneration along the Clyde are benefiting the property developers more than local residents and the real economy.
The speakers will be STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham and academic Chik Collins, who has written widely on the subject.
The meeting kicks off at 7.30pm. Organised by Clydebank TUC, it should whet appetites for the Scottish TUC communities conference, which will be held in tandem with the trade union councils conference in September.
Chik Collins's book The Right to Exist - The Story of the Clydebank Independent Resource Centre was published in May and is available from the CIRC, 627 Dumbarton Road, Dalmuir, Clydebank, G81 4ET.
It's alright with the kids
IT'S nice to see that the STUC youth conference which takes place this weekend is being held in Perth's Salutation Hotel.
The venue for many a trade union and labour movement conference, the Salutation has seen plenty of late-night political arguments, not to mention back-room deals.
This year's STUC youth conference will debate a wide variety of contemporary motions relating to workers' rights, living wages, taxes, the future of the public sector and, in line with the key theme, access to education and training across Scotland.
You can find out more about the youth conference and the STUC youth committee at www.stuc.org.uk or contact Ian Tasker by email at itasker@stuc.org.uk or phone on (0141) 337-8100.
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