Raise a glass to Scots, Welsh, Irish, English...

It's rum that England's relationship with Scots has soured further over whisky. It began earlier this month when Trump spoke about a united Ireland. That suddenly galvanised Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, leading them to gang up not only on that issue, but now also dram up regional unity on whisky/whiskey, irked by London issuing a geographical indication status to protect England's own 'water of life' this month.

The three 'nations' may well have rekindled the independence issue because they can't scotch England's whisky protection plan. What seems to have really got them in a ferment is the small concession London granted England's growing number of single malt makers: the whisky has to be only distilled at a single distillery, rather than have every stage of production - including sourcing, mashing and fermentation - at the same site. Watering down that crucial condition has clearly put the 'intra-UK' relationship on the rocks.

But will this hasten a full-fledged dismantling of 'United' Kingdom? That would be peaty. Especially as such a step would go against the grain of their connected histories and geography. British PM Andy Burnham knows the memo isn't legally binding. But they do have him over a barrel. We, here in India, can raise a glass to Cyril Radcliffe, and have a chuckle over the Brit obsession to draw a line or two.