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We can all make mistakes, but it seems Alistair Darling has already had two embarrassing ones in the volumes of pre-Budget report documentation.

How many more to follow?

There was the 18.5% VAT tax rate scheduled to be introduced in 2010-11, but which should - we are told - not have been printed, as the idea was considered and then discarded.

And now it is clear the whisky duty is set for a speedy U-turn. The idea was to cut VAT from 17.5% to 15% from next week until the end of next year.

For alcohol - as with petrol and tobacco - duty is to be increased equal to the cut. Hence, a neutral effect, but no word on whether the duty comes down again after 13 months.

The actual impact on Scotch was not what we were told was the intention. Down came the VAT, but the duty went up, by a net 29p per bottle.

And with very little revenue benefit, Chancellor Alistair Darling has realised there is far too much political pain in this.

The whisky lobby is a formidable one, and Labour's opponents are quick to back it.

So we're learning tonight we can expect an imminent revision to the statutory provisions behind next week's VAT changes which are being sped through parliament this week.

The uncharitable (and I know you're out there) might think this was the Chancellor imposing a wee stealth tax on Scotch and hoping no-one noticed.

My guess (being reasonably charitable) is that, in constructing a £20bn package to counter-attack the recession, while plunging us all into unimaginably large debt, his eye may have been off the Scotch whisky ball.

The Treasury seems to have taken the average strength of a measure of spirits across off-sales and on-sales, and come up with its increase per bottle.

But as Scotch is slightly stronger than other spirits, at 40% proof, and heavily weighted towards off-sales, those two elements conspired through Treasury calculations to hit the whisky industry hardest.

Privately, meanwhile, there are government grumbles that the help to whisky exports from the recent weakening of sterling, particularly against the US dollar, should be far more use to it than minor adjustments on tax in Britain.

In researching the story earlier today, I have found out Some Interesting Facts. For instance, exports account for 90% of whisky production - up in value but down in volume terms over the first nine months of the year.

In Britain, around 80% of sales are in-off sales and 80% of sales are of blended whisky instead of single malts.

And in the final eight weeks of the year in Britain, 30% of blended whisky off-sales take place and 40% of single malts, which helps explain why there is such sensitivity on the duty hike.

For anyone wondering about my Christmas, it's single malt for me - but not much. I'm mildly allergic to the stuff. An Interesting Fact you could possibly live without.