Ice Cream Wars

I am old enough to remember the 'Ice cream wars' of Scotland, which if I recall were centred around the city of Glasgow, where rival drug gangs in the East End of the city in the 1980's, were fighting a drug turf war, using ice cream vans to sell both drugs and stolen goods. A strange episode, even by the standards of gang turf wars, but one which has its footnote in history. A footnote, which to be honest, I wouldn't have recalled, except that recently I read a news snippet which revived these memories.

Ice Cream Wars Are Messy Affairs ...

The story concerned a couple of ice cream drivers in Salford Greater Manchester, who were involved in an increasingly angry dispute over a patch (or round). This argument culminated in one driver chasing the other driver, while both were in their ice-cream vans, and ending up with them circling each other in a local park field, while kids and parents scattered. Eventually one ice cream van fled the park with a broken window, while the other fled from the police who are hunting for him.

The scene was described by onlookers as "like something out of 'Grand Theft Auto'' (the popular, if violent computer game), as the two vans careened around each other. Ironically of course, in 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City', the player can choose to sell drugs out of their ice-cream van, using the business as a front ..... a neat reference to the Glasgow Ice cream war.