S4M-12302 World Whisky Day 2015

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Elaine Smith): The final item of business today is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-12302, in the name of Kevin Stewart, on world whisky day 2015. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.

Motion debated,

That the Parliament notes that the 4th World Whisky Day will take place on 16 May 2015; understands that this global celebration of whisky last year saw 250,000 people attend whisky-themed events in over 40 countries; notes that the event is now managed by the Edinburgh-based Hot Rum Cow Publishing, supported by the founder of World Whisky Day, Blair Bowman; considers that World Whisky Day provides an amazing opportunity to highlight and promote Scotland’s national drink, and raises a dram to the event’s continued success.

17:03
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The Deputy Presiding Officer: Last in the open debate—although I am sure not least—is Stewart Stevenson.

17:29
Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP):

Thank you very much, Presiding Officer; I will try not to let you down.

I am pleased in particular that world whisky day is now anchored in the calendar for years ahead as the third Saturday in May. That will be a huge disappointment for Sarah Boyack, because it will not be on her birthday until 2020. The rest of us, however, will celebrate the day every year—on 21 May next year, then on 20 May and so on and so forth.

The day will come two Saturdays after the next Scottish parliamentary election, when there will be those of us who are celebrating a release from this place and those of us who are celebrating our reappointment to this place. Some might be celebrating their departure with less than a glad spirit, but we will all have an excuse to taste one of Scotland’s finest materials.

Mary Scanlon talked about Bill Walker’s act of Parliament. That is trivial by comparison with the Immature Spirits (Restriction) Act 1915, which my father’s cousin James Stevenson took through the Westminster Parliament. That act is responsible for whisky under three years old not being permitted to be sold, which has created the quality that we depend on in the industry today.

Like others, I congratulate Kevin Stewart on securing the debate. It is timely, appropriate and interesting, and I will go away having learned something.

Mary Scanlon spoke about the distilleries on Islay. I am a private pilot and one of the things about flying to Islay is that all the distilleries have their names painted in huge letters on their roofs. Air traffic control at the airport on Islay navigates aircraft to the airport by reference to the distilleries’ names, on the basis that pilots can look out of the window and see that they are at the right one. That helps many people who have to be stone cold sober in what they do.

Kevin Stewart mentioned Antarctica but did not tell us the whole story. There were two events on Antarctica. One was at Davis station, which is one of the few places in the world without a postcode. On 16 May, between 7 o’clock and 10 o’clock, the expedition team celebrated world whisky day by hosting a whisky appreciation evening, when it sampled a variety of whiskies from the personal collections of the wintering expedition team. At Mawson station, between 6 o’clock and 8 o’clock, there was a whisky tasting between each course of dinner.

Around the world, people have been celebrating, including people in Nairobi, Kenya, and people in Cambodia, in the warehouse in Siem Reap’s old market area. In Kiev—troubled as Ukraine currently is—people were able to make time in Sofiivs’ka Street for whisky tasting. In a traditional gentleman’s bar in my niece’s home town of Townsville in Queensland, there was a whisky menu from which one could select a wide range of whiskies.

I am surprised that an event in this city has not been mentioned. At the Coach House at Newliston, under the aegis of the Edinburgh School of Food & Wine, there was a gourmet cookery school for men—that particularly attracted my attention—where a one-day cookery course was followed by a tutored whisky tasting. I am sure that that would have been an excellent event. However, I particularly favoured a Glasgow event called “Spirit of Independence Tasting”. To be fair, that was not a political reference; it was about the independent distilleries that are not owned by the big boys. People there seem to have had a terrific time, if the adverts are anything to go by.

I am jealous of Mary Scanlon and even more jealous of my colleague to the west of me, Richard Lochhead, who will respond to the debate. I celebrated world whisky day on Saturday with a refreshing draught of anCnoc from the distillery at Knock. I welcome the constituency boundary changes in 2011 that gave me that distillery to add to the couple that I already had, but I am looking forward to making a takeover bid for Moray at the next election, because I want more of them. You cannae get enough.

17:34