Xenophobia

Tesco - the UK's biggest and worst supermarket - has adopted a policy of taking the Scottish flag off Scottish produce (strawberries are the product it was "found out" over) and replacing it with the UK flag.

Its "justification" is that a few of our jingoistic "cousins" over the border have objected to the Scottish flag on their plastic strawberry boxes. Brexit types, no doubt.

Needless to say this policy has not been popular with 50% of Tesco's Scottish customers. It was quickly noticed that Aldi and Lidl buy a lot of Scottish produce which sits comfortably alongside Serrano ham (not Spanish ham), Parma ham (not Italian ham) or Bavarian Bratwurst (not German Bratwurst).

I use Lidl a lot anyway (Aldi very little for some reason) and yes, I buy their Scottish butter. Yes, it has a wee Scottish flag on it. But I buy it for 3 reasons - price, quality and provenance. Flags don't come into it. The provenance thing is about food miles and supporting local suppliers.

Lidl doesn't offer coffee with a wee Scottish flag on it. Yet...