Scotch whisky industry: is it a blessing or a curse?

NEXT Wednesday, it is generally expected that Chancellor Alistair Darling will end the ten-year freeze on spirits duty, though few expect more than an excise duty rise in line with inflation.

If so, the move will earn him more brickbats than plaudits. The whisky industry will complain that he is maintaining discriminatory high tax rates, which hamper exports. The public-health lobby will complain that he should have imposed a big increas...