Couldn't organise a pis..er..drink up in a distillery?

Earlier this week it was reported that the Scottish Government had postponed the implementation of a new requirement for "personal" licences for managers of premises selling alcohol; a huge backlog of applications had meant that a significant number of licensed premises would be forced to close when the new regime came into force on 1 September. Now applicants will be able to continue trading even if they haven't been granted the relevant licence, provided they've applied before the end of August.

The relevant legislation was passed by the previous Labour/Lib Dem administration, but its implementation was of necessity the responsibility of the current SNP government. However, irrespective of the politics, it's self-evident that officialdom has had plenty of time to plan for this and ensure as seamless an implementation process as possible, but it's equally clear that this simply hasn't happened.

Moreover, the postponement smacks of pandering to irresponsible licensees, since part of the problem is a failure of significant numbers to timeously apply for a licence, which meant local authorities wouldn't be able to process the many applications that will inevitably be submitted at the last minute. Indeed, Cllr Rod Wallace, chairman of Dundee's licensing board said:

I'm really disappointed in the Scottish Government. We've been calling for establishments to apply for these licences for around 20 months. It's a case of moving the goalposts to suit people who haven't bothered to do anything about the fact that the licensing law is about to change.

We've called them, written to them and emailed them and still they did nothing about it. In my opinion this is simply a cop out.

The theory behind the new personal licences is sound enough - to encourage greater responsibility from the licensee - but given the lamentable failure to enforce existing licensing laws there was clearly a danger that the new provisions were simply more government spin and bureaucracy that would barely amount to a sticking plaster.

But as well as the administrative chaos evident in implementing the new regime - why wasn't an earlier date set for the submission of applications to provide a gap between this and the granting of the licences and thus allow sufficient time for them to be processed, since licensing authorities should be well aware of the eleventh hour nature of many applications for renewal under existing legislation? - Mr Wallace makes it clear the Scottish Government's last-minute postponement of the reforms is kowtowing to the very people the new provisions were intended to address: irresponsible licensees.

And today the Herald reports that the new regime has been further undermined by a court decision which thwarts the Government's attempt to prevent filling stations selling alcohol; an exemption intended to apply to rural outlets was deemed by the sheriff to be drafted with insufficient clarity and thus in effect all filling stations will be exempt.

Of course, with even more liquor licensing legislation being one of the major planks of the Scottish Government's remaining period in office it's clear that the SNP considered the Labour/Lib Dem coalition's reforms inadequate, but it's also self-evident that neither the political parties/civil service nor local authorities seem capable of organising a drink up in a distillery.

So what's new? These same people created the current mess, so they shouldn't be relied upon to get Scotland out of it.