Letter from the editor: We're going overseas

It’s safe to say that we didn’t take the low road. Otherwise we’d have been in Scotland before now.

Since i launched last October, we have suffered from a number of production constraints that made it impossible to supply every newsagent in every part of Scotland. We have had a constant stream of emails from potential readers in Inverness and Aberdeen and Dumfries, saying that they’d seen our TV ad, but couldn’t find the paper in their local shop.

Even in the Scottish Borders - hardly one of the most inaccessible areas of Britain, I grant you - there were howls of protest. “Why are we an i-free zone?” moaned Nicola Bullock from Berwick-on-Tweed.

Well, good citizens of Caledonia, your wait is soon to be over. We have a very large gentleman (a Sassenach called Darren) in our production department - arms like Popeye, and a collar size the same as Mike Tyson - and we sent him to “have a word” with our printers and distributors.

The upshot is that, from Monday, i will be available in all areas of Scotland, from Auld Reekie to the Granite City and everywhere in between and beyond. Some of my best friends are Scottish (that’s you, John, Charlie and one-eyed Eddie: they’re all in England doing missionary work, they say), and no more will they be able to complain about their homeland being overlooked by the English oppressor. (They’ll find other things to complain about, I’m sure.) While he was at it, Darren also managed to secure distribution across the Irish Sea, so from Monday, too, i will be on sale in Ireland - north and south - for the first time. Cead mile failte roimh i, as they say in Dublin!