News.Scotland.Org

Three years ago the Whisky Gods smiled and three crates of the now extinct blend of Mackinlay whisky were discovered, encased in ice for more than a century! The crates have now been recovered from where they lay buried under Ernest Shackleton’s hut during the failed expedition to the South Pole 1909.

And White and Mackay company which now owns the McKinley brand is waiting for a sample with hopes of recreating the famous blend.

The alcohol was removed from the ice by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, which had initially believed there were only two crates. However three crates of whisky and two crates of brandy have been recovered abandoned in the hut the team used on their daring expedition in 1907 -1909.

Had Shackleton and his team reached the South Pole he would have been the first person to reach it ahead of Amundsen who finally reached it in 1917.

For whisky-lovers it’s a chance to hopefully enjoy a long-lost blend IF the master blenders at Whyte and Mackay manage to recreate the blend.  Here’s a toast to Ernest Shackelton, he’s back in the news a hundred years later with the discovery of “Shackleton’s Whisky” as it is being called now! Cheers!

Pic. Source: guardian.co.uk

Those of you who are heading for a Glasgow vacation will be interested to learn that the world’s strongest beer is now available in the Scottish city. Glasgow is the first city in the UK to offer the German beer, Schorschbock 40, which measures a head-spinning 40 per cent by volume rate. The whiskey-like brew has gone on sale where it sells for 10 pounds a glass.

Reviewed on rate beer.com- It is a beer very strong and intense but with fruity beer notes. Sold in .33 litre ceramic bottles, it is signed and hand-numbered by the braumeister. With a transparent window on one side the bottles come in a wooden case and are sealed with wax by hand. Till date around 40 bottles have only been made.

Run by Bavarian Petra Wetzel, it is on offer at the independent WEST bar in Glasgow. However,the pub restricts the brave to just one 25cl measure of the beer with the drinkers urged to try this super brew responsibly. It has a totally unique flavour that will appeal to any beer connoisseur with an exceptional strength and rarity.

Scotland is no stranger to strong beers after it had hit the headlines with an Aberdeenshire brewery with its controversial 32 per cent BrewDog. So whoever would like a sip of this new strongest beer should probably take a visit to Glasgow. Cheers!

In a recent study it was found that more than one in ten Scot fathers do drugs. This horrifying report has raised eyebrows of the Scottish government passing directives to hold an urgent inquiry in regard to this findings. Experts suggests that this a raging issue and needs to be sort out, in order to counter the growing issues among children being brought up by such drug addict parents, new policies have been made.

The number of such drug abuse cases among  parents has gone up this year, its the need of the hour to control this situation soon or else it  may end up ruining the life of many more innocent children. Reports even reveal that about 11 per cent father and 6 per cent of mothers are victims of drug abuse, along with that many cases of children harassment and murder has been reported in recent years.

Problems faced by the children living with drug abuse parents

• Lack of care and protection.
• Vulnerability to child abuse.
• Cruel treatment by parents.

Government is designing strategies to tackle this growing issue and step are been taken to make sure  such children gets a healthy environment to live. It is felt that soon this raging issue will be controlled.

A major study into Scotland’s ‘booze and blades culture’ was ordered last year by ministers to halt

a growing tide of violent crime, which had caused the loss of 54 lives. According to estimates, at least 1400 Scots find themselves victims of knife attacks every year.  West Central Scotland is then forced to spend £3.5 m a year for treating these victims.

The government, in its bid to combat this growing menace, had then sought the help of those skilled in researching crime.

Now it seems that the government is finally ready to act, if Scotland’s Community Safety Minister Fergus E wing is to be believed. Changing Scotland’s “booze and blade culture” seems easy, he said recently, but emphasized that “we cannot go on as we are,” while announcing funding to the tune of £30,0000 to supply metal detectors to pubs and clubs which have won the Best Bar None Award for the first time ever.

The Best Bar None Awards Scheme began set off in Manchester and made its debut in Glasgow in 2005. Since then,  it has expanded to Aberdeen, Aberdeen shire, Angus, Dundee, Falk irk, Fife, Inverness, Perth, Stirling and West Lothario.

The metal detectors to be supplied free of cost are expected to act as watchdogs and help keep customers safe and prevent knife crime.

July20

Have you ever wondered that music and drinks do have some connection, well if not then you might be amazed to known that loud music can make you drink more. It sounds a bit strange but research has revealed that ear-splitting music in bars and pubs do make people to drink more heavily and quickly.

In the study it was found that these drinking centres usually have a loud atmosphere with thunderous music which some how affect the patrons drinking habits. In the study done on a group of men it was found the men tended to drink more and in short time when they were exposed to high sound levels.

Another essential factor which has been known during the study was that loud music not only makes one to drink more and quick but it also makes the patron spend more time in these bar. According to Prof. Nicolas Gueguen the research head, higher sound levels may cause higher arousal which in-turn led to drink faster and more. Also this loud music doesn’t give the patrons much chance to talk too much which also adds to the quantity they drink.

It very well known that Scotland is badly affected by binge drinking and in such a situation this study has raised a question as to how much these clubs and bars are contributing to this problem.

July, 14

A fresh campaign is all set to be launched to crackdown the increasing alcohol-fuelled violence in Scotland. It was quite evident how underage-drinking and binge drinking has been on a rise in Scotland and has taken shape of a major issue these days. This campaign will help to reduce the anti-social behaviour among youths and will also try to curb the under-age drinking.

It is been found that drinking mainly surges during school holidays and that brings in more tensions in the form of alcohol-fuelled violence. The campaign will focus on to reduce the increasing street drinking culture and will deal with this serious issue using byelaws. Apart from this a two-week drink/drug driving campaign will also be started which will focus on men aged from 17-29. Police patrols will also be tightened and more frequent to combat any such drinking driving incidents.

The check on the drinking driving will help to curb the growing numbers of accidents in which many innocent lives are lost daily. The campaign will convince such drivers that the conviction in these cases can ruin their lives by affecting their future prospects and professional life.

To make sure that the under-age drinking problem is dealt properly, it is necessary that the parents take some interest to known what’s happening in their wards life. The parents should keep an eye on their children’s and should prevent them from falling into the trap of this drinking culture. Now time will tell how this campaign gets on and helps to crackdown this rising incidents of alcohol-fuelled violence and under-age drinking.

July, 10

If you find graphic images of diseased livers on alcohol bottles then don’t be surprised, as the docs have proposed the use of such graphic images as a warning for drinkers. This proposal came as a result of the trend of excessive consumption of alcohol in the UK. In the BMA conference in Edinburgh it was known that the alcohol consumption in the UK had doubled since 1960. It is expected that such warnings on the bottles of beer and wine will help to reduce the consumption to some extent.

It is clearly known that in recent times their has been a major upward trend in the drinking culture in the UK. This in turn is resulting to more and more alcohol related ailments and also is giving rise to more crimes. Doctors have raised the need to use graphic images on alcohol products and also such posters in pubs and clubs where alcohol is largely served.

UK has been fighting with the severe problem of binge drinking from a long time and also in recent year’s cases of under age drinking has come up as a major concern. With such an easy availability of alcohol to all, this problem has become a major problem now. To overcome this problem such unpleasant images on alcohol bottles, can and posters will help to some extent.

According to doctor Raj Narula, a urologist at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, Wales, excessive consumption of alcohol causes cirrhosis of the liver which leads to cancer. Its time to take some decisive step to combat this problem, slowly this problem is taking shape of an epidemic and we need to fight it out before its too late. He said we have to start from an early age targeting teenagers who are more vulnerable to this drinking culture.

So the day is not far when we can see images displaying the hazards of consuming alcohol on liquor bottles.

June, 18

Healthy news for all Scots, a recent research has revealed that Scottish children are eating a whole lot of fruits and are also doing a whole lot of exercising than other youngsters in the world. The survey undertaken in 41 countries including over 200,000 children revealed that Scottish children’s are following a healthy lifestyle than the rest.

This positive and healthy fact came as a relief for the Scots who were battling it quite hard with the drug and alcohol addiction among the under age children’s. The research suggested that, the trend of the healthy lifestyle was up in the early age group between the 11-13 years, while the graph dipped slightly with age group of 13-15 years.

Scotland 15-years old stood 8th in the list of youngsters reporting first being drunk before 13. While the 13-years old Scottish children’s were ranked second when they were asked if they had been drunk at least twice. The research also showed that about 9 percent of the 15-year-old in Scotland was regular cannabis users.

The study not only highlighted the healthy lifestyle of the Scottish children’s who have taken up with eating more healthy foods and also taken exercising seriously. But the study also revealed the grey areas of the young generation of Scotland who have taken up to drugs and alcohol.

The experts have said that children taking up to drugs and alcohol is a real serious issue and needs to be tackled at an early stage. Now the responsibility of the parents has increased a bit more as they now need to be more watchful and concerned about their kids and what they are up to these days. Also the behaviour of the parents do have an influence on the kids, so the patents should be cautious about their habits, as this could have an adverse impact on the child’s likings and attitude.

June, 17

The on going row over the alcohol sales has taken a new turn today with political parties opposing the proposal of making 21 years as the new legal age for buying alcohol. This new proposal for increasing the age for buying alcohol in an off-license shop or supermarket was opposed by both the conservatives and the Liberal Democrats strongly.

It was also thought to ban the huge promotions of such alcoholic products which give a false impact to the society. The refusal by both the groups came as a major setback, meanwhile it was urged that this new proposal with help to sought out the rising health and social problem related with alcohol. It will also help to fight out the under-age drinking threat which is a main issue these days.

Both the Conservatives and the Liberals felt that this scheme will not work out properly and also its not fair to stigmatise the under 21s. They flayed the new proposal and stood against it in chorus.

Meanwhile it was known that the government’s wide-ranging package will be made public on Tuesday and will come in the light of a pilot scheme in Armadale. It is to be seen that what impact this package will have on public.

June, 14

Scots are facing a real tough time these days, first with the dip in the prices of alcoholic drinks by the supermarket creating a threat for more under-age drinking cases. What more? To add more woes, the prices of food items also showed an upward trend, which has made the situation more adverse. It is quite a shocker to note that the prices of kitchen essentials have risen by 20 percent with in a year; on the other hand the cost of alcohol is dipping substantially. This unpredicted market trend has been a set back for the people of Scotland.

With such a current trend created by these retail giants, they are encouraging the drinking culture in Scotland which the country is still fighting out with. Such a promotion of alcoholic drinks in supermarkets will push people to drink too much; also it will be a threat for under-age drinkers who can now easily afford to buy such alcoholic stuffs.

It is known that Scotland is still copping up with its drinking culture and such a move will put the situation out of hands. Such an over promotion of alcohol in these supermarkets is not a positive style of marketing, on the contrary the prices of bread and dairy products is rising day by day without which Scot’s can’t even imagine to start their day.

Even though campaigners are trying their level best to force these retail giants to stop this price war and not to drive people to the drinking culture. Now its time for the SNP administration to step forward and handle this serious issue bravely before it gets out of hands. Also a line should be drawn for these supermarkets for promoting such alcoholic products.