Deadly party drug mephedrone is becoming bigger than ecstasy in pubs and clubs across Scotland, experts warned yesterday. Police are reporting an alarming rise in the numbers of people suffering bad reactions to the substance - a powerful stimulant. The drug, known as Meow Meow to users, has already claimed its first victim in Scotland, civilian police worker Liz Clayton, 49. Last week the drug was banned in pubs and clubs in Aberdeen despite its legal status. - Daily Record
Don't heed the prohibitionists - we should teach our children to drink. Depending on the context, boozers can feel elated or depressed, slobberingly sentimental or savagely violent. It is not, after all, the drink that does it. What matters is the culture around drinking. We are quick to damn teenage binge drinking, but still reluctant to address the culture that produces it. Most of us know from experience that there are other societies where alcohol is associated with eating and with intergenerational social life. We also know that in those cultures, drinking does less harm. If we were a little less pious and a lot more honest, we may eventually learn to pass those lessons on to our children. - Fintan O'Toole, writing in the Observer
Scotland's national theatre is inviting its audiences to a series of pub "lock-ins" as part of its new season. The Border Ballads, some of the most memorable works in the Scots language, are to be performed in a new series of performances by the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) - and set in public houses. Four pubs - Big Owens Bar in Coatbridge, the Maltings in ¬Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Pheasant in Jedburgh and the Ceilidh Place in Ullapool - have been confirmed, but more are to follow in a tour that will take in more than 20 establishments nationwide. - The Herald
Two Labour MPs took part in a champagne drinking contest on an official Commons junket to Paris, which led to one of them being violently ill. Left-winger Bill Etherington drank so much that a doctor was called. It was feared the MP might die after he defeated fellow Labour MP Geraldine Smith in the expenses-fuelled boozing competition. Anti-monarchist and former miners' union leader Mr Etherington outraged senior politicians from across the Continent when he projectile vomited at a dinner. The conduct of Labour's self-styled 'champion drinker' was reported to Downing Street, but Labour Party leaders ordered a cover-up to prevent a major scandal. - Mail On Sunday
It's clear that comments from Simon Laffin, Mitchells & Butlers ex-chairman, ousted after a tussle with shareholders, have irked outgoing Takeover Panel boss Robert Hingley. "People are wrong when they claim that we have changed the rules to make it more difficult to prove a concert party [ie that shareholders are working together]. The rules being used now are completely unchanged. We did review them last year in the context of the Walker Review, but nothing has altered. We put out a practice statement reiterating that the code is not about stopping shareholder activism, that's all." - Independent on Sunday