GIVE us a break. We've been through two years of a global pandemic where the furthest most of us got was a week away in rainy old Scotland and now we're told that the time-honoured tradition of a pint at the airport could be outlawed.

Unusually, it's not the Scottish Government indulging in this latest bit of nanny statism but their counterparts at Westminster which is considering proposals to restrict pub hours and has suggested banning alcohol sales from 4am to 8am.

Pub chain Wetherspoon's claims that restricting pub hours would “adversely affect the tourist industry” is laughable but it is worth asking what's behind the breakfast booze ban.

Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said Covid pub closures should act as a catalyst for change.

Why? Many people will wonder what Covid has got to do with pubs in airports. Others will suspect that Covid is being used as a form of social engineering – to push through behavioural change in the masses with no discussion.

Dr Linda de Caestecker, Glasgow’s director of public health, said the current laws were contributing to the normalisation of “drinking to mark every social occasion”.

I'm afraid many people will feel alcohol is a part of Scottish culture and that life would be immeasurably duller without it.

It's already a criminal offence to be drunk on an aircraft...and the airport staff will stop you at the gate if you try to board when you are blotto.

A fly pint before flying off is the start of a holiday for many people. People who have worked hard all year to afford a holiday and a break for the norm.

Why should the vast majority of sensible adults pay the price of a few half-wits?