Robert Brown MSP is an ignorant fool who brings discredit on his party
I thought the fuss over BrewDog Tokyo* had died down, but now Robert Brown, Lib Dem MSP for Glasgow, has raised a motion calling on the Scottish Parliament to formally condemn it.
It only shows he has not read any of the excellent rebuttals -- by BrewDog themselves, Pete Brown and many others -- to the Prohibitionist health scares. Does someone who does not do such basic research before raising parliamentary motions really belong in Holyrood?
Mr Brown is technically one of my MSPs, so I'll be writing him a letter. He lives in Rutherglen where many people do have alcohol abuse problems, but I rather doubt anyone there is drinking Tokyo*.
It only shows he has not read any of the excellent rebuttals -- by BrewDog themselves, Pete Brown and many others -- to the Prohibitionist health scares. Does someone who does not do such basic research before raising parliamentary motions really belong in Holyrood?
Mr Brown is technically one of my MSPs, so I'll be writing him a letter. He lives in Rutherglen where many people do have alcohol abuse problems, but I rather doubt anyone there is drinking Tokyo*.
Barm,
ReplyDeleteWe need to do further work on this issue, but I'm not sure how. Why is sherry OK and this not? Why is port OK and this not? - because it's beer, that's why.
Good to see you yesterday. Could do with a follow-up on something I thought of later. Can you ping me - dave at woolpack dot co dot uk ?
I think all we can do is spread the word that there is more than one sort of beer with more than one purpose. When people appreciate that, then strong beers will be seen in their proper context instead of people foolishly assuming that something like Tokyo* is intended to be drunk by the pint. And we should promote low-gravity beer as well, but in a way that combats the neo-prohibitionists rather than accepting their arguments.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the whole argument. It's an expensive, strong beer, which is sold at near to the same price as a bottle of whisky. Whisky is produced at a far greater scale than any Brewdog beer, and must be at least 40%ABV by law. I don't see any MSP complaining about whisky in the same way.
ReplyDeleteIf the whole issue is with alcohol abuse (and not actually an anti-competition ploy from the major brewery sponsored Portland Group), and trying to reduce its incidence, then the answer is not to stop the sale of Tokyo*. Consumption of cheaply sold, strong lagers and ciders is much more the issue here.
Amusingly enough, Mr Brown's motion is supported by another MSP who on the same page is listed as supporting a motion to save jobs at Johnnie Walker in Kilmarnock.
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