OLIVER Mundell has accused Kate Higgins of wasting time “complaining about flags on beef”. May we remind Mr Mundell that her role is “special advisor to the First Minister on rural economy and connectivity” NOT “health and pandemic responses”. Ms Higgins is, therefore, “doing her day job” as Tories insist that the government should.

Generic labelling of Scottish products – whether meat, fish, seafood, or fruit and vegetables – is not a “petty, small and trivial” issue, as Mr Mundell suggests, but an extremely important selling point, worldwide. On Friday night we received a pertinent example of the importance of Scottish or Scotch branding. At the wedding meal of Dutch friends in Rotterdam, the first course was “Scottish scallops”, named as such on the menu, not “British”.

READ MORE: Tories slammed for claim SNP are 'petty' in M&S Scotch Beef row

Another personal example, is Scottish smoked salmon. We have introduced this delicacy to friends from England, France, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand on their visits to us, here in Dumfriesshire (Mr Mundell’s constituency). Now, in their home countries, they will buy none other, despite it being more expensive. And as we do also, when abroad. We are certain that many readers of The National will have similar anecdotes.

To conclude, we feel that Mr Mundell should broaden his horizons. We hardly think that Lockerbie Academy, Edinburgh University then a return to Dumfriesshire as an MSP has given him the experience or vision to fully understand the significance of “Scotland the Brand”. We encourage him to take time out to visit the aforementioned countries. We are certain he will find this edifying.

Aonghas MacIomhair and Carole McIvor
Moniaive, Dumfriesshire

ANDREW Learmonth’s article, “Tories hit by backlash after complaining about aide standing up for Scottish beef” (October 16) certainly exposes the fact that among that party’s elected members there is little support for the Scottish farmers who have worked to maintain and improve standards.

I thought that when beef was marketed as British beef it meant that it did not meet the Scottish standards, therefore was second-rate and not worth buying. Could beef reared in the Falkland Islands could be sold as British beef?

It is sad that Tory rural spokesman Oliver Mundell MSP considers the whole labelling issue “to be petty, small and trivial”. Will his boss Douglas Ross MP endorse Mundell’s comments?

Thomas L Inglis
Fintry

CATRIONA C Clark (Letters, October 17) rightly condemns the Tories for their insensitivity to the plight of people living in poverty in our country. I would add, however, that poverty is not by any means confined to people who are unemployed and/or claiming benefits.

Even more astonishing is the number of people who now suffer “in-work” poverty due to the dismal wages paid by many employers, particularly those huge firms with household names. Backed up by the culture of “private is best” and zero-hours contracts, these firms are allowed to keep wages to a minimum in the knowledge that their employees can if necessary be subsidised by the public purse in the form of Universal Credit while they continue to amass huge profits for their shareholders and squirrel their ill-gotten gains away in offshore tax havens.

In a similar vein, the same edition of the paper carried a story about train operators CrossCountry (owned by household name Aviva) being given a new contract to continue running services on our behalf for the next three years. The revenue and cost risks associated with the provision of the service will be generously borne by the Department of Transport. In other words, the public purse! So if it all goes belly up then we the ratepayers will bear the consequences but of course the shareholders will continue to profit.

The question of how the wealth created by the people of an independent Scotland is to be used to the benefit of those same people is one which should be at the forefront of the debate. Without it, we may be subjected to a continuation of the same old same old, but in fact it could be worse as the Jacob Rees-Moggs of this world seize new opportunities to feed the leeches in the City of London.

Bobby McCallum
Ardrossan

PLEASE endeavour to provide the correct spelling of clues in your Giant General Crossword. In the October 11 edition of the Sunday National, clue 18 down, the singer who released Release Me in 1967, was Engelbert Humperdinck, NOT Englebert Humperdinck. The outcome of your error was that no-one could complete the crossword, as the answer to clue 26 across was “red legged”.

There isn’t much point in giving crossword clues if you need to make it up as you go along. Must do better!

Jim Todd
Cumbernauld