'Scotland's drink-drive limit set to be slashed amid booze-related health crisis'

"Scotland is in the grip of a health crisis after research revealed that more than half of men and 30 per cent of women drink to excess. Figures reveal the country has the eighth highest alcohol consumption in the world per head and one of the fastest-growing epidemics of liver cirrhosis. It is estimated nearly 50 million litres of pure alcohol, equivalent to 11.8 litres per person over 16, was consumed by Scots in 2007 - almost two litres more than in England and Wales, where the average was 9.9 litres per person. This average of 11.8 litres equates to 570 pints of four per cent beer or 125 bottles of wine - enough for every adult to exceed the sensible drinking guidelines for men, of 21 units a week, every week of the year." - Observer​

"Dr Laurence Gruer, director of public health science at NHS Health Scotland, says hiking the price of booze would cut the number of drink-related illnesses in the country, which has the eighth highest alcohol consumption rate, ahead of Russia: 'The evidence is if price goes up, consumption goes down and the opposite is also the case, as we have found out over the last 30 years of falling prices. The Scottish Government is well aware of this and has suggested a number of measures - such as minimum pricing, banning sales to under-21s and separate check-outs in supermarkets, which make alcohol more expensive and more difficult to get. It remains to be seen whether they will implement them.' - Scotland on Sunday​

"Scottish drink-drive limits are to be slashed by a third in a bid to cut carnage on the roads. Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill wants to bring Britain's drink-driving limits into line with most of Europe. And he told UK Transport Minister Geoff Hoon that if Westminster fails to act, the power to cut the limit should be handed over to the Scottish Parliament. Drink-driving is blamed for 39 deaths and 170 serious injuries a year on Scotland's roads." - Glasgow Sunday Mail​

"The outlook for UK brewing is distinctly uncertain. 'The industry is crying out for a leader,' says John Wakely, a former managing director of investment bank Lehman Brothers, who has been analysing the drinks market for more than 20 years and is now a strategic consultant. 'For too long the breweries have been fighting each other when they should have been fighting the coalition of politicians and forces who are destroying the British pub. We need a fresh initiative to re-instate the British pub as a national institution that has to be cherished. What the industry needs is a new beer-and-pub initiative.'" - Scotland on Sunday​

"Let's raise a glass to Alan Campbell, the Home Office minister behind the government's spectacularly unpopular proposals for pubs. New laws could include reducing the size of drinks and doing away with price-cutting deals. When did he last visit an old-fashioned boozer? 'I am trying to think of the last time that I was in a pub,' he admitted during a Q&A with furious publicans. 'It is probably easier for MPs not to go into pubs because we have work to do when we go in there. I do not mean bar work,' he added. Don't speak too soon, Al. You may need your serving skills after the next election." - Sunday Times​

"A gunman shot and injured three people after 'randomly' opening fire outside a London pub. Police said the gunman got out of a car, which had pulled up outside the North Pole pub, in Greenwich, south London, and began firing indiscriminately in the early hours of Saturday morning. Two men, aged 35 and 30-years-old, and one woman, 44, were injured in the attack. All three are said to be in a stable condition after being taken to hospital. Officers are hunting two men in connection with the shooting." - Times​

"With Heineken's takeover of Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) now more than a year old, some are saying the timing of the deal was fortunate, what with beer sales falling sharply. S&N's UK boss Jeremy Blood acknowledges that critics railed against his company as little more than a lager factory prior to its takeover. 'We lost some of our reverence for beer, we cut corners. It [the takeover] has reinvigorated our passion for beer. We used to call them manufacturing sites. Now we call them breweries or cider mills. It's a small change, but it is significant.'" - Scotland on Sunday​

"Times are certainly tough now with pubs closing at a record rate, but Marston's chief executive Ralph Findlay is certainly not crying into his beer.'Things aren't that jolly, but it's not depressing either,' he says. 'You have to be realistic. Life is difficult for most people in retail and I don't think pubs are any different. In fact, most pubs are probably doing better.' Findlay rails against the image of pubs and drinking in the media. It is unhelpful and unrealistic, he says. 'At the end of the day it's a unique British industry that employs a million people and deserves a positive, not a negative, image.'" - Daily Mail​

"A pub-friendly smoke-free cigarette will go on sale next month. The battery-powered Njoy Weekender is loaded with the nicotine equivalent of 40 normal cigs and has a glowing tip which gives off realistic vapour 'smoke'. But because it's tobacco-free, it gets round the smoking ban." - Sunday Mirror​

"Former Coronation Street heartthrob Rupert Hill is creating his own real-life Rovers Return. Rupert, 30, who played Jamie Baldwin, has taken over a 230-year-old pub and plans to restore it as a traditional boozer. He said: 'I'm putting my heart and soul into it. The place has a lot of history.' The actor, who left the Street in 2007, is the new tenant at the Castle Hotel in Manchester city centre, which has been closed since last summer." - Sunday Mirror​