I DO like the Scots. Fiercely independent and rightly proud of the things for which they are famous, they don’t take any messing.

And when faced with people trying to tell them what to do, their innate bloody-mindedness comes rushing to the fore.

So I had a good old chuckle when I discovered this week how our friends in the north had reacted to the introduction earlier this year of a minimum price on alcohol.

In April, the SNP-led Scottish government brought in a minimum 50p per unit price on off-licence alcohol sales, with the stated aim of cracking down on problem drinking and thereby improving the health (and, more specifically, the livers) of the nation.

In 2013, the then SNP health secretary Alex Neil declared: “Minimum pricing will begin saving lives within months of its introduction.”

Or possibly not. What has actually happened within months of the introduction of minimum pricing in Scotland is this: compared to the same period last year, those thirsty Scots have consumed the equivalent of four million cans of lager or two million bottles of wine MORE.

According to data specialist Neilson, the volume of alcohol consumed from shops in the three months after the imposition of minimum pricing was the highest for three years, with a surge in the sale of gin, vodka and cans of ready-mixed drinks such as rum and Coke or G&T.

And that presumably doesn’t take into account the added incentive for Scottish hordes to embark upon booze runs into Carlisle (where the Sassenach offie owners must be laughing all the way to the bank) to stock up on English alcohol which is of course not subject to minimum pricing. It seems we may be showing the way when it comes to the successful operation of a hard (liquor) border.

All the Scottish minimum pricing rule seems to have achieved thus far is to prove yet again that we Brits - kilt-wearing or otherwise - don’t like having our freedoms messed with. It is in our nature to reject nanny state interference of any kind, especially when it comes to our enjoyment.

We don’t like rules being imposed on us by our we-know-best elites; and one wonders if the SNP leaders have much grasp on history beyond Scotland. We all know what happened during Prohibition in the United States during the 1930s. If people want to drink, by golly, they will, minimum pricing or no.

Finger-wagging politicians like those in the SNP don’t go down well with the great British public. Any more than do, say, bullying European bureaucrats or MPs who think they know better than their constituents on matters of national importance such as... oh, sovereignty and respecting referendum results.

The Scottish minimum alcohol pricing debacle should be a sobering thought for all our politicians, even though it most certainly hasn’t proved to be one for our booze-loving neighbours over the border.