All Guinness Will Now Be Served in Sippy Cups

Kerry Howley | June 2, 2006

The list of things banned in Scottish pubs will soon include glass. As in, the brittle material used in the production of drinking vessels. Legislators complain that Scots are too prone to smash glasses into each other's faces, so pub owners may soon be pouring whiskey into plastic. What the hell is wrong with the land of Haggis and tartan? The Economist pondered that question a few weeks back:

Self-government has not merely brought an 18 percent increase in employment in the Scottish Executive's main departments and a 40 percent increase in jobs in quangos, it has also brought a flurry of new regulations. Tourists who struggle all the way to Orkney in the far north to visit Maeshowe, a remarkable neolithic tomb, may, for instance, find it closed by Historic Scotland because of "high winds," even in August. The production of red tape -- the issuance of statutory instruments provides a good proxy -- far outpaces that of Harris tweed.

A face surgeon hails the glass ban as "a major step forward" in public health here.

Sippy cups under fire here.