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.