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 Post subject: New York Times takes Buckfast issue to the world
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:08 am 
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One of the most respected newspapers in the world has devoted a special report to a worrying part of Scotland's culture - the nation's obsession with Buckfast. The New York Times featured an article under the headline "Coatbridge Journal - For Scots, a Scourge Unleashed by a Bottle".

Datelined Coatbridge, the piece explains to American readers why the tonic wine - made by monks at Buckfast Abbey in Devon - has become something of a political football in Scotland. The story - also published on the paper's website, the most popular news site in the world with more than 150million unique visitors every year - tells the world why Scots call Buckfast "loopy juice" and "Coatbridge table wine".


The full story can be read on STV News! Alternatively, check out the New York Times!

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 Post subject: Re: New York Times takes Buckfast issue to the world
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:11 pm 
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Excellent: the sooner these self-righteous hypocrites can be embarrassed into putting the stuff in plastic bottles, the sooner Scotland will be rid of its emblematic totem of shards of green glass everywhere. Check out the bottom left image on this page:

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/e ... index.html

I stop short of pressing for sales of the stuff to be banned. There is no point. There has always been a "drink of choice" for those in Scotland who want to spend their lives blootered: usually it's the particular drink on the market at any given time that offers the highest quantity of alcohol for the minimum price. In the late 1970s it was Carlsberg Special Brew: today it is Buckfast. If Buckfast were banned or withdrawn the drink of choice would just become something else. Sadly the solution to our alcohol problem in this country is far more complex: though the answer to our broken green bottle problem is very simple indeed...

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 Post subject: Re: New York Times takes Buckfast issue to the world
PostPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:25 pm 
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As you say Ken, banning the stuff won't solve the problem... but I agree with you 100% that it should be sold in plastic bottles; I've not seen the green glass at St. Anthony's Chapel, but there was plenty in Ruthven Barracks when we were there and loads of other places that I couldn't even begin to list (including the footpaths around most built up areas!)

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 Post subject: Re: New York Times takes Buckfast issue to the world
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:15 pm 
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bit late on the subject so appoligies, a mate very good mate of mine, infact one of my closest friends has a taste for the "buckie", i myself had it stigmatised as a "NED" drink or one for the alkies or wineos in the local park, but after haveing a swig in the clasiest way possible from the bottle at his last year :oops:, found it was nice drink although sickly but its put in teh freezer for a hour before we have a drink and it does taste rather nice.
how ever me and my mate are probably the flip of the coin to buckie drinkers, were both older than 25, are sensible people, and above all else are sensible drinkers,
buckie is a tour de force tha has been a blight for atleast 15 years in scotland, the glass bottles are absolutly crazy, there was a drink many years ago that was the pre cursor to buckie called MD 20/20 or mad dog, this was transfered to plastic bottles after a campaign by the drinks industry as it was seen as a weapon and not the tonic inside, although still on sale i beleve it has gone back to the glass bottle status, so hope it never become the trend drink again, the abbots of buckfast abbey should take more than there share of responsibilty for the bottles, as a christian group i would think they would feel that since there tonic is now the choice of so many, they should perhaps do that little to help keep the rubbish and glass from becoming a bigger problem than the louts who enjoy making arses of themselfs on a friday and saturday night in local streets and towns :?

jim


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 Post subject: Re: New York Times takes Buckfast issue to the world
PostPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:24 pm 
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Another option to this cry for plastic bottles:

Here in Germany the problem of glass or plastic bottles, or even cans being discarded all over the place was addressed a few years ago by making everything deposit!

The generic deposit for most plastic bottles is €0.25 and the same was enforced for cans.
Overnight, the litter of plastic or glass bottles (galss ones also have various deposits) disappeared.

As for cans, we only really find things like red bull in cans now, coke - almost never and hardly any beer.
So, tin cans pretty well disappeared immediately and all nothing is thrown around any more.

Plus it helps the environment!

I still find the UK to be too much of a 'throw-away' society and attitudes need to change.

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