READERS who have been following the Save Our Scotland Brand campaign complained to The National after a discovery in their local Marks & Spencer (M&S) food outlet.
The company was selling “British Carrots” when they were originally Scottish. Bizarrely, other Scottish produce was clearly marked as such.
Even worse, according to M&S, the “county” [sic] of origin was Scotland. That’s right, Scotland, a country that was first recorded in written history in the first century AD by the Romans who called us Caledonia, and which became a kingdom occupying its united territory in the early 10th century, even before another nearby country that we might name.
Earlier in our campaign we told how the M&S website listed Scotch whisky as coming from “Great Britain” – a description which was later altered to “Scotland” after The National informed the firm’s public relations people.
Now the M&S county howler has stirred up social media with followers of the #KeepScotlandTheBrand account on Twitter.
Gillian Sproule wrote: “Not only labelled as British now #Scotland branded as a county instead of a country.”
M&S acknowledged their county error in a message to The National, blaming a printing error. A spokesperson said: “Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We always note on-pack the specific Scottish county our produce comes from but on this occasion there was a printing error which meant the wrong information was displayed. We apologise for this and are taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The National’s campaign has upset Unionists who have responded by trying to portray the issue as trivial.
One commentator on social media explained why keeping the Scottish brand is so important: “Scotland has no [genetic modification]. Scotland has no fracking. Scotland’s food and water is exported globally because of international reputation for purity, high standards.”
Robert Fraser told The National: “If food regulation is not specifically a reserved matter, the Scottish Government should act immediately to pass the current regulations into Scots law, as well as requiring that food provenance is labelled. We don’t want genetically modified produce and chlorinated chickens.”
READ MORE: Marks and Spencer promoted 'English' or 'British' whisky — but refused to use 'Scottish'
Amanda Campbell, a member of the Happerley network, which encourages consumers to ask and businesses to tell the provenance of their products, told us: “Provenance needs to be independently validated otherwise it’s worthless.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel