Red card for Yellow Card drinks

Mitchells & Butlers has been forced to axe the alcohol offers that form part of its Yellow Card student discount scheme at its It's a Scream in Glasgow. Glasgow Licensing Board chairman Gordon Macdiarmid ruled that the scheme breached its policy banning discounts on alcohol. The "It's a Scream Yellow Card" scheme, which has more than 6,000 members in Glasgow, gives students a discount on food and drink purchases. Archie Maciver, for M&B, claimed that the scheme was comparable to the OAP discounts available at some Glasgow pubs. But Macdiarmid told him: "I don't think we were ever terribly concerned about going around the city seeing all sorts of large numbers of drunken OAPs. The same cannot be said at the student end of the market." M&B will continue food offers. The board's policy on alcohol discounting means that operators are having to exclude the city from their national promos. Regent Inns' recent promotion for Castlemaine XXXX, in association with Loaded magazine, offering a voucher for a free pint, stated: "This voucher is not redeemable at Walkabout Glasgow". The city also missed out on much of the promotional activity linked to Southern Comfort's £1m Fat Tuesday promotion. Edinburgh students are warned In Edinburgh, students are being advised to stay away from trouble spots such as the Meadows, Tollcross and Lothian Roads, all heavily populated with pubs. Grassmarket Traders Association spokesman Matt Dale said: "A culture of binge-drinking has been allowed to develop and that's what causes a lot of the fights in the Grassmarket.