"It is now vital that the Scottish Government comes forward and does everything it can to support those affected by these job cuts. Ministers must work with local authorities to make sure that all the Diageo staff who lose their jobs are given individually tailored help to ensure they are re-employed or retrained as soon as possible."

A district of north central Glasgow, Port Dundas lies a mile (1.5 km) to the north of the city centre. It developed as a landlocked terminal in the 1790s in association with the linking of the Glasgow branch of the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Monkland Canal. In the 19th century, the emergence of textile mills, chemical works, grain mills, distilleries, glassworks, iron foundries and engineering works turned the site into a flourishing industrial location. By the late 1960s many of these industries had declined, the original Port Dundas basin was drained and the M8 motorway constructed.

Can Labour sink any further or crawl any lower?

Diageo fatcats spent fortune on corporate trip to rugby in South Africa - as they drew up plans to axe Scots jobs

The drinks giants' fatcat executives and their corporate pals went on the trip to watch the British and Irish Lions rugby team.

They flew business class and stayed in five-star hotels during the weeklong freebie.

Days later, the firm announced plans to close the Johnnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock and the Port Dundas distillery in Glasgow.

Whisky is one of Scotland's most important exports and the Scotch Whisky Association estimates that 2% of all jobs in the country depend upon whisky production. The move therefore has political implications and the finance secretary for the ruling SNP party has urged Diageo to reconsider its plans. Harry Donaldson, Scotland secretary for the GMB trade union has suggested that 'strike action cannot be ruled out', but that at the moment the union was 'working with politicians to put together a plan to make Diageo change their minds.'

While the distillation and maturing of Scotch whisky can only be legally done in Scotland, there is now requirement for Diageo to carry out the bottling process in Scotland. Donaldson commented that 'the threat that Diageo could move their bottling and packaging elsewhere has been hanging over us for years' and although Diageo has committed to expanding its Leven bottling plant, the possibility of moving the process so that it takes place closer to its export markets must surely also be under consideration.

While the reduced global demand for Scotch will have had some bearing on Diageo's decision, the sustained growth in Scotch exports between 1998 and 2007 and the enthusiasm for the product in emerging markets would suggest that demand is likely to pick up once global economic conditions improve. The move to consolidate its Scotch facilities is therefore likely to be driven by a desire to cut costs rather than a belief that the current slump in demand will be sustained over the long term. This view is supported by the fact that Diageo has not announced any modifications of its plans to open a major new distillery in Northeast Scotland later this year, which will be the first of its kind to open in almost 30 years.