Licensed retailers may have seen sales of the hard stuff slump last month as drinkers desperately tried to salvage the remains of their post-Christmas livers by taking part in what UTC mockingly refers to as “yon Dry January nonsense”.
Readers won’t be surprised, then, to learn that the Auld Boy did not participate. He likes to bring in the bells with a wee dram of Famous Grouse, which pretty much bursts the whole Dry January bubble one second into the month.
What may surprise readers, though, is that Under The Counter has a kindred spirit in none other than Emmanuel Macron.
For no fewer than 50 French addiction specialists have put le boot into Manu via an open letter accusing him of not getting behind the Gallic equivalent of Dry January, Défi de Janvier.
One addictologist (yes, that’s apparently a real word) even suggested Le Pres was in the pocket of France’s multi-billion-euro wine industry just because he is on record saying that he drinks the stuff every day, at lunch and at dinner.
Under The Counter’s alcohol consumption pattern is broadly similar. If you swap the wine for Tennent’s. Then make it a chaser for Grouse. And skip the food.
This unfortunately paints a somewhat unflattering picture of the Auld Boy as a borderline functioning alcoholic. Which is unfair, if only because nobody is really sure what his function is.
