Could lifting US haggis ban help Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump? Hopefully – Scotsman comment

For half a century, the US has prevented the imports and sale of traditional haggis. Could that be about to change?

It was under President Richard Nixon that haggis was first banned in the US in 1971. And that act of prohibition has survived ever since, prompting some intrepid epicures to turn to small-scale haggis smuggling to ensure Americans could celebrate Burns Night in the proper way.

However, changes could finally be afoot. In the Commons, Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael condemned this shocking embargo on the “Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race” as a “scandal” and challenged Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch to act. He warned that she could become known as a “cowrin, tim'rous beastie” if she failed to do so.

The Press Association reported that she appeared somewhat flummoxed by what she called his “very esoteric question”, but Badenoch still agreed to look into the matter, saying the UK was continually looking to remove barriers to trade.

In a tight presidential race, Joe Biden could win support from the Scottish diaspora in the US by lifting the needless ban, while also contrasting his economic strategy with Donald Trump’s almost mercantilist approach. A haggis-induced Trump defeat? The democratic world would raise a dram to that!