The many Scottish whisky makers are teetering awkwardly between two deadly highlands precipices at the moment, according to one key workers' union; to the left, the bottomless chasm of Brexit, and to the right a hole singlehandedly dug by warring US president Trump.

Both menaces could ruin the whisky industry that's done so much to benefit rural communities where every town now has its own little distillery knocking out the golden stuff to various levels of acclaim, with GMB Scotland leader Gary Smith saying: "We are facing the Covid crisis and work paralysis in the hospitality sector, the Trump tariffs and if there is a botched Brexit we could turn the success story of whisky into an absolute disaster in terms of job creation and protection. We need action from the UK Government to get those tariffs removed."

The tariff in question is the addition of a huge25 per cent levy on single malt Scotch whisky exports to the US, ordered into being last October by Trump in some spam-fisted retaliatory spat of fury over EU subsidies handed to Airbus. And Brexit, you may have heard, is the process by which old people get to feel like they're in charge of their decaying lives by not being told what to do by people in authority, even if it means their grandchildren live poorer lives as a result. [Herald]

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Unions Warn Trump and Brexit May Smash the Scottish Whisky Industry - Gizmodo UK