READING your article (Now even the Tories call it Union Jackery, The National, May 17), I was prompted to share a Twitter dialogue I had with an M&S customer service rep on February 9 this year.

The conversation ran thus: “In the @marksandspencer store in Waverley Stn, Edinburgh, looking at a range of beers, I saw a selection from several counties of England plus a good representation from overseas. But not a single Scottish beer could I find. There are dozens to choose from! Pretty poor show, M&S. Why?’

M&S replied: “We’re sorry you weren’t happy with the selection of beers available at the store. We’ll let our food team know you’d like to see some Scottish beer in store in future.Thanks for your tweet”

I said: “Thank you. But you have not answered my question: WHY does your food team not currently sell any Scottish beers (in Scotland) while offering beers from other parts of the UK (and the world)? This seems a very strange anomaly. Waverley Station, the major rail station in Scotland’s capital city, is the first welcome to Scotland for many visitors. They could be forgiven for believing that Scotland is not a beer producing country.”

Their reply: “This is one of our franchise stores, so the stock is not managed by M&S, but we will contact the store to address this issue with them. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.”

I popped in to the Waverley M&S store again earlier this week and the selection of beers is exactly the same: good representation from the rest of the UK (namely England) and elsewhere, but not a single Scottish beer. So it seems that this issue has not yet been addressed.

A quick look online at M&S’s list of beers and ciders selection breaks down by country as follows: England (44), Belgium (2), Ireland (1), France (1) and Italy (1). No Scottish beer is shown, despite there being more than a hundred breweries in Scotland.

It therefore seems curious to me to blame it on the stock management of the franchise store, given that Scottish beer does not feature on the M&S website.

For Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser to claim that the SNP government is “parochial” for “berating businesses for daring to refer to the UK [rather] than actually help them create jobs and grow the economy” strikes me as a bit rich.

Any politician who is keen to help create jobs and grow the economy in Scotland – a country within the UK, after all – would surely agree that for a major retail outlet such as M&S to not even stock a single Scottish beer (never mind labelling it UK produce or otherwise) within the main rail station in Scotland’s capital city, is nothing short of a disgrace.
Chris Foster
Kelso

IN response to your article on Union Jackery, I’d just like to mention that I had reason to contact Morrisons recently because I needed a new More card.

I took time to also mention to them that it was upsetting to see Scottish lamb advertised in a plain package with small black writing and no colour but beside this were other packages advertising “British” lamb in bright packaging with large letters and the Union Jack on the pack.

I asked why they don’t advertise what is Scottish with clear packaging and the Saltire on the pack. I pointed out that Aldi, which is a German-owned company, do this with all their Scottish products.

I also mentioned the Purple Box campaign by Women for Independence and suggested they might like to place a box in their ladies toilet.

I had a very positive response. First, they are contacting their packaging company to see what they can do to change this. They also advised that they are looking at sourcing locally for each of their stores and are hoping to mark these as locally produced. Just the other day, I spotted a box of East Lothian mushrooms with the Saltire on the pack. So that’s a start.

Second they have asked their local community officer to contact Women for Independence direct as they think it is an excellent idea to have one of their boxes in the store’s ladies toilet.

Since Morrisons is based in England, I think this is an excellent gesture on their behalf. I would encourage other people in other areas to contact their local stores and keep the pressure on so that Scotland the Brand is protected.
Charlie Kerr
Glenrothes

REGARDING the Scottish Conversative press release about M&S Union Jackery, I have to laugh every time I hear the Conservative Party accusing the SNP of obsessing about Saltires when the Scottish Conservatives also use the saltire as the basis for their logo.
Alasdair Smith
Newton Mearns

A COUPLE of pieces of recent post-Brexit referendum news hit me. The first was the Daily Mail headline, which said that the UK economy is thriving.

Its evidence was figures which showed more people in work and not claiming benefit. They conveniently forget other facts, such as the Monetary Policy Committee deferring an interest rate rise because of sluggish growth in wages, the disastrous drop in the value of sterling which has had an immediate impact on the price of imports, the continued slow growth in our wealth as measured by GDP, and the increasing number of the self-employed paying less tax and national insurance.

It also appears that listeners to the BBC Today programme were greeted with news that the Government is happy that they will save money after Brexit by not having to run EU elections. The £110 million or so saved will not even put a dent into the economic disaster that could follow a hard Brexit.

Clearly they could save even more by abolishing elections altogether. To quote our famous Scottish poet “such a parcel of rogues in our nation”.
Peter Rowberry
Duns