It’s a long time since I was in South Uist, Eriskay, North Uist or Benbecula, but the posting of this menu took me back there to these beautiful islands. I know it’s impossible to go back there at the moment. The Covid pandemic, quarantines and lockdowns forbid it. But I can almost smell the odour of freshly cooked food that’s on offer at A M Politician. I’ve done a few stories in my time about Whisky Galore and Sir Compton Mackenzie and the sinking of the MV Politician, loaded with cases of Ballantine’s whisky from their distillery in Dumbarton, which was once described by Lord Alcluith when he was a common or garden MP as “the Scotch whisky capital of the world”. If I recall right that was when he made his maiden speech back in 1997. I was in South Uist and Eriskay, where I dined with the parish priest in the chapel house of St Michael’s at the top of the hill above the pier. There were no fast food takeaways then and we enjoyed a lunch of freshly caught, beautifully cooked fish. It was to die for. I’d like to go back there one day. Perhaps the MacPhees, the jeweller Billy and his piper brother Iain, will put me up for the night? The hospitality in South Uist is legendary. Whisky galore indeed. Bill Heaney
The MV Politician, scenes from Whisky Galore and a diver recovering bottles of whisky off Eriskay.