From the Scottish Daily Express today:
“Scrooge" supermarkets have been blasted after banning customers from banning Christmas desserts if they contain booze outside licensing hours. Scotland's draconian alcohol rules mean that alcoholic tipples cannot be purchased in shops before 10am in the morning and after 10pm at night.
These regulations put the country at odds with the rest of the UK as booze can be bought at any time, and was brought in almost 20 years ago by the Labour/Lib Dem administration. The curfew means that anything drink containing alcohol cannot be sold in shops late at night or early in the morning.
Now it has been claimed that some shoppers have been banned from buying boozy Christmas puddings outside these times as well. According to the Daily Mail, one shopper in upmarket supermarket Waitrose was told they couldn't buy a tiramisu before 10am, with another customer unable to purchase a Christmas cake.
Usually sweet treats containing booze, such as Christmas pudding and brandy butter, are not restricted and shops do not need an alcohol licence to sell them. But despite this, some festive fare have been flagged to checkout assistant as tills have automatically refused to accept them.
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Stewart Meldrum, from Newton Mearns in Renfrewshire, claimed that his wife Carol was told on a recent trip to Waitrose that buying a tiramisu before 10am was "unlawful." He said: "At the self-service check-out she was notified "assistance required".
Baffled as to why, the assistant told her that the product she was trying to scan through contained alcohol and as it was before 10am the purchase was unlawful. A fellow shopper next to her was having the same issue with a Christmas cake. The assistant was full of apologies but my wife left without her tiramisu."
The 75-year-old added: "What next? Will they cordon off the tiramisu at night? Why do we in Scotland tolerate such ludicrous micro-governance? I'm seething."
The SNP Government have been accused of unfairly penalising Scots who enjoy a tipple through restrictive alcohol curbs. It installed a minimum price per unit of alcohol which did nothing to combat rising levels of booze-related deaths north of the border despite claiming that it would.
This cost was even increased earlier this year from 50p to 65p despite analysis of the scheme showing not much health benefits that are not counterfactual.”
