G&T On the train? I'd say that's the least we deserve! Emma Cowing on why ... trends now
I must say I was surprised to learn that more than 70 per cent of Scots support lifting the alcohol ban on ScotRail trains.
This may be because the firm’s chief operating officer Joanne Maguire claimed just weeks ago there was a 50/50 split (whoops).
Or possibly it’s because most regular train travellers have had at least one unpleasant experience involving a group of teenagers and several bottles of Buckfast.
It later dawned on me: this survey is not about craving a plastic cup of poorly chilled white wine en route to Inverness – it is about freedom.
It is about a nation fed up with bans being enforced on a regular basis.
A glass of wine on the train is the very least we deserve
If I had been surveyed by ScotRail I’d probably have voted to lift the ban too, despite my concerns about the aforementioned youths.
Why? Because I’m thoroughly sick of being told what to do.
Every week now – or so it seems – the nanny state that calls itself the Scottish Government is busily banning something new.
This week it was wood-burning stoves. Last week it was speaking freely in our homes.
Next week it might be keeping the lights on after 10pm, or chips for tea on a Friday.
Honestly, I’ve given up trying to predict what nonsense they’re going to trot out next.
Low Emission Zones (now in place in Glasgow and coming soon to Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen), criminalising what we put in our bins, the impending ban on gas boilers, alcohol advertising, junk food advertising... it’s an endless slew of ‘don’t do this’ and ‘stop doing that’.
All this coming from a group of politicians I wouldn’t trust to run a community council, never mind a proper grown-up government.
And that’s the problem. Those in power in Holyrood, now including the Greens – who I suspect would happily ban every motorway and airport in the country and make cycling mandatory for everyone under 90 – are not grown-ups.
The SNP has been in power for an eye-watering 17 years (not one of which has flown by), and what we are left with now are the dregs.
A First Minister as hapless as they come, who in a desperate attempt to cling on to power – because he knows a bloody nose is coming in the next general election – is attempting to force authority over a country in a range of bizarre ways because he has lost control.
All of which points to another interesting story this week. One in three SNP voters have deserted the party since the last election. It’s a damning indictment.
Scots are sick of being controlled and told what to do, by a government that cannot get its own house in order – that fritters money away on ludicrous policies that nobody wants while ignoring the real problems needing urgent attention.
The NHS. Our crumbling schools. Care for the elderly. The cost of living. The state of our roads.
Why are they the only ones who don’t seem to realise that, to most of us, these are the things that really matter?
The people of Scotland are so utterly sick of this dying government attempting to control every last facet of our lives, down to not only what we say in the privacy of our own homes but how we heat them, that they are starting to bite back. Good.
No wonder a majority voted to enjoy a G&T on the delayed 4.40pm from
