YOU'VE HEARD OF THE TEA PARTY?

WELL THIS IS THE HAMILTON LABOUR TEA-CAKE PARTY

This, ladies and gentlemen, I am reliably informed, is a bunch of Labour canvassers in Hamilton, who have the notion that the best way to win votes in a local by-election is to go around with a box of Tunnock's tea cakes. (If this some sort of a bribe, then I think I'd want something more than a tea cake?)

When I saw it my first reaction was that it was a set up. But apparently not.

The Lady in the black coat and red scarf is a local councillor. Her name is Monica Lennon and she is a hopeful for a list seat in Holyrood in May. 

It didn't work, as Scot Goes Pop's post on the results shows:

SNP 42.9% (+2.5)

Labour 33.6% (-9.4)

Conservatives 18.5% (+8.4)

Greens 3.3% (+0.2)

Liberal Democrats 1.8% (n/a)

Some weeks ago there was a social media storm about Tunnocks marketing their product as "British" rather than the "Scottish" they had always been. Some people got bent out of shape at this, probably not so much because of the act itself, but the management's explanation behind it, which was (in my humble opinion) ill-advised.

"We could have said Scottish, but then you are promoting Scotland. We're British", said Boyd Tunnock, the 82 year old boss of the company who campaigned for a NO vote in the referendum. 

The marketing was intended to tie in with the Great British Bake-off theme, which was sweeping the country at the time, and from a business point of view might have been a reasonably good idea, although when I lived in England, "Scottish Produce" was a sure-fire way of selling your stuff.

Whatever. I claim no great knowledge in the matter of sales promotion, and I'm sure their people do, but Mr Tunnock's statement certainly sounded anti-Scottish and it got under the skin of some folk here who set up an online boycott campaign.

It was a storm in a tea cup, if you'll pardon the phrase. 

I say if Tunnocks offends you by marketing itself as British in England, then stop buying their products. There are many other brands of tea cake, just as good, and in some cases better and much cheaper.

The lesson though seems to be not to use tea cakes as a political stick with which you can beat your opponents. People really don't seem to care that much.

WELL DONE TO...

Congratulations to Lidl for announcing that they will pay the Living Wage as of next month.

I wish I could say that it had swayed me to transfer my business to them, but as I already do a lot of my shopping there, I can't say it has.

Lidl impress me as a business and as a store.

During the referendum campaign, I was insulted by one of the staff in my local Lidl, who ridiculed the YES sweat shirt I was wearing, and then insisted on telling me, in front of a queue of customers, that prices would double in an independent Scotland. I asked him if that was official Lidl policy. He mumbled no, and as he saw the black look on my face, he started to look a bit worried...

I walked from the shop absolutely furious, but without saying or doing anything. When I got home I was still so angry that I wrote to Lidl Customer Services, telling them of the incident (without mentioning the lad's name) and asking if it was going to be their policy to double prices in an independent country. I pointed out that I didn't seriously believe it was, and even if it had been it wouldn't have swayed my decision, but there were other customers who had heard the exchange.

I received, almost immediately, a fulsome apology, explaining that they had no such policy, that they would, depending on economic circumstances, adjust their prices up or down or leave them the same in the event of independence. They also said that they would arrange for staff to be instructed to remain completely neutral in front of customers in future. They didn't ask for the guys name, and I wouldn't have given it to them if they had. I see no point in getting a guy disciplined or even sacked for a stupid mistake.

I was seriously impressed with the way that the management team dealt with the situation, and I carried on shopping in the store. 

I just have one request of Lidl now. please introduce a contactless payment system as soon as you can. My bank gives me 5% cash back on the first hundred pounds spent using this type of payment every month. That's £60 a year!!!

Aldi has the technology, as does Morrisons. You need to catch up.

Put politicians on minimum wage and you'll
see how quickly things will change

It's high time that every company paid the living wage and that the living wage was, indeed, a wage you could live on. Not just here but as the illustration shows, in France too!

SNAPS (AND A VIDEO) ON SUNDAY

Our man from America, Danny, sent me this little piece from the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC. It's interesting, because (and I'm sure our American readers won't mind me saying this) by and large the USA doesn't pay a huge amount of attention to what is happening in  minor countries in Europe. 

Ms Maddows doesn't take a side in the referendum. What she is, though, is mightily impressed with the massive turnout potential that we have. 

**********

Harry Burns is Professor of Global Health at Strathclyde
and was Chief Medical Officer for Scotland until April this year.

I wonder if this is the bus to Broughty Ferry
Strange, no one around. Where's the  driver?
Sarwar?

Local pub with yes stickers outside.

Go away Eton Boy

Dunno about you, but to my mind there is something
repulsive about a Labour Lord.

Better Together with the Klu Klux Klan. I kid you not.

Well, not really "at last".
 We always knew it.

No wonder he's with Johann, Jim  and Sarwar.

I doubt she could tell you how many eggs make six
Unless one of her spin doctors clued her up on it first.
Not one of life's great intellects oor Mags.

Well you shop there if you want to.
I'll be at Morrisons or Aldi

Ticket for Sarwar?

Denmark votes on Scotland being admitted to the Nordic Council

He isn't a journalist any more. He's Cameron's fag.

They have lost all credibility

And the worst of these is BBC News.

Oh heavens, NOOOOOO Thanks
Off you go to Mars and save their world

Better Together with this lot of old bigots

Simples. Probably too hard for Darling or Osborne
or their wee puppy, Alexander

This is probably what they should all have said
Price depends of taxation; wage costs;
distribution costs and shareholder demands.
Apart from the shareholder demands, all of these are unknown
at present and will be until after the first election.

SATURDAY SNAPS

Well said, Bruce. They would use anything.
They have no problems who or what you are.
Cheap or what, pretending 12 year olds are your supporters
when they are NOT.

Oh...someone in the BBC who tells the truth?
Gee, now that's a rarity.
Eh Nick?

So it was all lies...

Even about Asda...

And Tesco

The pleasure will be enormous.

This is what Better Together means which is why we
should be supporting our foodbank, buying Caledonia
by the Libations and voting yes. There are no
food banks in Norway, Iceland, Denmark...

They trotted out Presser who had to write the words Better Together on his hand
lest looking around him he thought the organisation was Hell Together.
They always trot him out because he and Dennis Skinner are  their only working class
spokesmen. Pity Presser is now an aristocratic working class person.

... and the glory, but yeah, mostly the money which
starts rolling in with the books
and the after dinner talks and the boardroom jobs
and the house of lords allowance...

And they are Too Posh, I'd say.

Your next prime minister?

Oh look, I found something that's appealing
Clearly not a politician.

Middle window, top floor, left hand side bottom pane
Seems someone at the big hoose is a YES supporter.
Ma'am?

They are not too poor or wee or stupid.
Lucky old them.

Why you say that Frankie?

...Oh yeah, I see what ya mean.
Edwardian may be a bit on the modern side.

Well there's one who will vote against Cameron's plans.
He simply doesn't see why they would waste good money on Jocks.

SMART SCOTS GIVE IT ALDI (AND LIDL)

I remember hearing about a woman who used to take her neighbour shopping in her car. The neighbour liked to buy some of her weekly shop from one of the bargain supermarkets, but driver (a bit of a snob) informed everyone that she didn't even get out of the car.... The thought of being seen shopping in a cheap supermarket put her off.

I remember thinking that it was a shame to be so strung up on image, because the quality of the products in both Lidl and Aldi is pretty high.

Not being the kind that worries about being seen poking around in Oxfam or Save the Children (and having laid my hands on some fine brand names at a fraction of the cost of their new price, who can blame me), I've never been shy about shopping in the German supermarkets.

But until recently I wondered how they managed to make any profit. They were nearly always more or less empty, and even on a Saturday morning there was never a crush in the small car parks.

Now things are different, I suspect as a result of the 'neverendession' (to paraphrase one of the very few genuinely funny things that David Cameron has even said.

The car parks are full; the tills are all open and goods, far cheaper than the main British/American supermarkets are selling, are flying off the shelves.

Indeed according to this Yahoo article Aldi made £56.8 million in profit last year, having recorded a loss the previous year. They opened 29 new stores and plan to continue opening new ones in the coming year, creating over 4,000 new jobs (welcome, albeit most of them will probably be part time).

Lidl and Aldi concentrate on selling their own brands to the almost total exclusion of big brand names. This means no premium paid to the big names, and the savings can be passed on to the customer. In the other supermarkets only around 50% of their products are own brand.

Frequently supermarket own brands are of much poorer quality (some custard I bought at Asda was so inedible it had to be thrown out). Aldi and Lidl's brands in contrast are of very high quality. Indeed, recently a taste test organised by "Good Housekeeping" magazine found that Aldi's Christmas Pudding was the second best brand behind Waitrose. Fortnum & Mason came 29th!! And Aldi's pudding cost £7.99, whereas Fortnum's was around £29.00.

And a study by Grocer magazine found that on a shopping basket of 33 items Aldi was 16% cheaper than Asda, 20% cheaper than Tesco and 40% cheaper than Waitrose! And there is not a lot of difference in price between Aldi and Lidl.

Judging by the readers'  comments on the Yahoo article, Aldi's rise in the ranks is due in part to price, but also to the quality of service you can expect. Tesco's (the worst of all the UK chains, in my opinion), Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury and Waitrose, have all been working hard to try to maintain their market share in the straitened economic times. 

It seems they have no room for slacking.

**************
On rather a different topic I see from comments at Wings, and an article by Rod at Auld Acquaintance that there has been a debate in London about Scottish Independence, and that 336 - 5 found that Scotland would be better off in the union. 

Now, somewhere between 30 and 40% of the population wants independence, and around 20-25% is undecided, so it occurs to me that the presentation of Scots' views in the English parliament is very unrepresentative.

I understand that a further proposal put by the SNP that Scotland would enjoy a special relationship with the UK, rather like that enjoyed by Canada, Australia and New Zealand, was defeated by a similar number.

So it appears that the English (and the Welsh and Irish) don't really like us. If we go they will not be friendly towards us. But they want us to stay. 

Weird.

I can only conclude that that is because, according to them the North Sea has the potential to be the World's Global Energy hub. 

In other words they want our money.

Incidentally the 5 were the SNP members in the Commons chamber. (According to Rod, Stewart Hosie was not there due to illness. Get well soon, Stewart. You will surely be missed in London.) 

I was surprised not to have the support of the Welsh Nationalists.

A CONVERT TO MORRISON'S

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while now and as I’m fed up commenting on bad news and gloom on the Republic, I thought now would be a good time to do it.

I’ve always shopped wherever was closest. I instinctively dislike Tesco and so tended to try to avoid it, although I ended up using it more often that I would have liked because it was everywhere... you can hardly miss Tesco.

I was happy to take advantage of the low prices and high quality of Lidl and Aldi and Sainsbury’s was a welcome addition to the town. (I wish Waitrose would open a branch here).

However, when Morrison’s opened a huge superstore in Dundee I never went near it. I’ve no idea why. I had nothing in particular against Morrison’s. My brother had said the quality was high and the prices much lower than Tesco, and my mum had been saying the same thing...so eventually I gave it a bash.

It was certainly the best shopping move I ever made. In more and more difficult times with prices rising and incomes going nowhere but down; with interest on savings so low that it makes saving an expensive business, and with house prices more likely to drop rather than rise, a bargain is a bargain.

Morrison’s is clean, well stocked and seems to have attracted some of the best staff in town. The prices are way lower than Sainsbury’s and Tesco and probably a bit lower than ASDA. The range of items on sale is fantastic and all in all what the PR people would call the “shopping experience” is AAA.

OK... I was won over to the shop, but when someone suggested having a meal there I was definitely dubious. I’m a bit fussy about food quality, so a supermarket cafeteria is not my idea of where to eat out.

Well, I was wrong. Once again the service is excellent, the staff are (by and large) superb, the food is unbelievable for a shop café, and the prices are almost too good to be true.

On a fairly regular basis I go there with a mate and with a ‘meal deal’ we can eat a substantial and satisfying meal for two for less than £8. it's not haute cuisine by any means, but it's good canteen food.

It sounds a bit like "Munguin’s Republic sponsored by Morrison’s Stores", but of course it’s not. It's just me passing on a tip.

I don’t know if every Morrison’s is as good as ours; maybe we’re lucky and our store has good management, but I’m inclined to believe that it’s the culture of the company that created this kind of atmosphere.... and value for money.