As an inordinately proud Scotsman, whose chest swells at the merest thought of this great land and its remarkable achievements, there is only one place on the planet where I feel ashamed of my countrymen and women...and that is Glasgow Airport.

And by that I don't mean whoever came up with the larcenous price and policy of charging people  to pick up and drop off passengers. That's a drone for another day.

Although an avowed morning person, there is no way you'd catch me drinking anything other than strong coffee first thing. Those among us who start their holiday with the obligatory airport social media pint picture before boarding their budget airline flight to the sun, make me shudder.

Yes, I know I drink too much, but I don't drink before the hours of darkness, and I don't drink during the week. I certainly don't blow the froth off a cold one at four am to start my holiday.

Enter stage left Michael O'Leary, the CEO of budget airline Ryanair. I interviewed him some years ago when I was a jobbing journalist.

I had an agenda and I set out to do a number on him. However, after five minutes in his company, if there were any cold ones on the go, I would be buying one for him. I couldn't help but like him and I've been a fan of his ever since.

He makes the perfectly valid point that airport drinking rules have to be enforced to end in-flight incidents of violence and unruly behaviour.

He suggests a two drink rule. And I think he is quite right. Happily my days of boarding a Balearic-bound Boeing are long gone. I prefer to transit the Atlantic on flights where passengers are much more couth and you never see an angry man.

Happily those ale-addled pax can no longer smoke themselves, and the rest of us, to an early grave at the same time as they are pouring lager on their cornflakes.

Being the enlightened country it is, Scotland banned smoking in public places nearly 20 years ago and a year before the rest of the UK followed suit. And quite right too.

Smokers are the most selfish people you'll ever meet and I'm delighted to hear they may be banned from smoking in beer gardens and tables outside pubs. Kipper yourselves to death, by all means, but I don't want to sit in the fresh air and have to inhale your snout reek.

Your right to smoke is nowhere nearly as important as my right not to breathe in your poisonous fumes. I hope the government imposes this rule and make their own homes the only place smokers can smoke.

Big government? Nanny state? Yes! And bring it on. We pay enough for it.