House of Lords rocked... by the battle of the haggis
Anger as peer calls chieftain o’ the puddin’ race revolting
IT is the much-loved traditional dish at a Burns Supper, but rarely considered a health food.
Now a Labour peer has suggested it could be just that – in a provocative attack on Scotland’s health and diet.
In a debate in the House of Lords yesterday, Lord Winston not only dismissed haggis as ‘revolting’ – but suggested it should be trialled in Glasgow as a way of tackling obesity.
The TV doctor and scientist was quickly rebuked by the SNP. Perth and North Perthshire Nationalist MP Pete Wishart
‘An insult to our
national dish’
said: ‘If Robert Burns was around today, no doubt he’d brand Lord Winston a ‘sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie’ for this affront to a haggis.
‘What’s really revolting is the millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money spent funding the bloated House of Lords year on year, which seems to serve little purpose other than to allow unelected peers to insult our national dish.’
Obesity costs Scotland £12.6million a day and Glasgow has the lowest life expectancy in the UK.
The debate was on the ban on haggis exports to the US – the only country with a higher obesity rate than Scotland.
Asking a question about pressure being put on the US to end the ban, Tory peer Lord McColl of Dulwich, a retired Scottish professor of surgery, said 24million American- Scots were being deprived of a ‘wholesome’ food.
Haggis is more nutritious and lower in fat than a Big Mac or pork sausages and a good source of vitamins A and B and iron.
Lord McColl said it ‘satisfies hunger very much more than the junk food Americans consume’. He added: ‘ This would help to deal with the greatest epidemic they have, the obesity epidemic.’
Lord Winston said: ‘I confess to being a little bit surprised that one of the most senior qualified medical practitioners i n the chamber is asking this question, seeing there is a questionable issue about haggis, which I find personally a revolting food.
‘Would charity be better at home and if it does really deal with obesity maybe we should be promoting it a little bit in Glasgow?’
‘What a good idea,’ replied Food Minister Lord de Mauley, before recommending ‘a large tot of whisky’ to help enjoy it.
The US introduced an embargo on haggis imports in 1971 and all British lamb has been banned since 1989. The UK haggis market is worth £15million and the US could be far more lucrative.
Lord de Mauley said there were two hurdles to getting access to the US. ‘First, the US restrictions on the import of lamb. We are working with the US authorities towards achieving approval to lift those restrictions with, I think, good prospects.
‘Second, the US’s unwillingness to recognise animal lungs as an acceptable food stuff. In this regard the most promising avenue in the short term is the production of haggis omitting the inclusion of lung and the Scottish Government recognises this.’
Former Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth of Drumlean j oked: ‘Should the Government not consider appointing a special envoy with energy and imagination to go to the United States and stay there until this matter is resolved? Could I suggest that Alex Salmond is currently looking for a job?’
Lord de Mauley said it was an ‘eminently sensible suggestion’.