W.O.B

Stands for the War on Buckfast. Buckfast is a tonic wine made by Benedictine monks of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England and drunk in disproportionate quantities by my pupils who then go on to take their understandable dislike of each other out with the empty receptacle.

Our Executive has decided this is so much of a problem that they had a summit about it. But some have come to the conclusion that this is having the opposite effect than the one intended:

"THE Executive's high-profile campaign against Buckfast is backfiring, critics warned last night, as every effort to demonise it turns the tonic wine into a "cult" drink among the young.

Andy Kerr, the health minister, met the distributor of Buckfast yesterday in the latest in a series of attempts to tackle Scotland's worsening alcohol problem. But his efforts were dismissed as "extremely naive" and offering nothing more than "cheap platitudes" by his political opponents when it emerged that the minister had not asked for specific steps to reduce the cheap availability of the product."

It's bound to. I mean, there's me - a pillar of the community, raising attainment and combatting social exclusion in one of Glasgow's premier 'faith schools' - and even I was compelled to go out and buy a hoodie after all that guff we had from various NuLabour ministers. Got one for the boy too.

Same with this. If the Executive wanted to advertise a product, they could scarcely have done a more efficient job. It's a bit like the triangle that Channel Four used to put at the top of the screen when they were showing some 'artistic' porno nonsense in their earlier days. Anyone remember that? Anyway, need to pop out and get me a bottle. In a shop that sells veils. Need one of them too.



Picture stolen from the elegantly-named Bawbags.