welcome to the alex i'm in show from scotland and today we're here in the city of edges where behind me you'll see the iconic image of edge and. we're not here to discuss the brave scotland the browns last week we discussed the importance of soft power and how the u.k. uses it internationally today we're going to talk about the importance of a brand to a nation and how that image can contribute to the success of an economy but first tier treats your messages and your e-mails. now shows on gibraltar generated a lot of interest in advance of that when they made the announcement puna graham said while this will be really interesting the show is covering so many interesting issues that others are not well thank you very much for in hope to continue to do that john says creasy it is on gibraltar and we heads up the t.v. so it automatically generate subtitles they need to be broadcast with the show

thanks very much sean for correcting me on that we are definitely going to continue subtitles susan says another corker official from alex salmond first of three and lightening the place to both a place in the pricks circus again thank goodness tad and he are setting the political commentary pace with inspired production what check it and watch it well says alex i'm unsure what a fascinating series and you brought her lovely funny place where she turned out what we can ask him and finally for my new he says if you watch this relative to the gibraltar sure as you think you're both it's actually fun but mind you if you can put it into say it really is that thanks for your comment anyway now the labeling of scottish produce has been the subject of some controversy over recent months and has been the campaign keep scotland the brand alex i speak to martin hannan who's a journalist involved in meeting that campaign. from our heart and columnist with the national newspaper but for the purposes of the campaign for the scotland the concept both writing about the controversy sweeping the country and also

campaigning to instigate even more it does seem to the observer quite unlikely issue to be starting up so much political controversy well so let me just explain what happened was the leader of the national. who at the same tame lovely woman called with watson was starting her campaign keep scope with the brands readers were sending in examples of what happened. is local shops and in the supermarkets where things were starting to be. in the with the union flag rather than the sole tie. so being the flag assault having the flag of scotland and pockets of food would say things like made in button and then underneath it would see it go in and angus and so as angus spot a scar on the skull in this part of britain well the problem problem is that by not accepting the unique scottish blinds the supermarkets and the retailers and jandals

of actually rican the product because scotland is seen with many many pools many some of these of showing that scotland food and drink in particular is seen as high quality very high quality and the problem with recall the union jacki is that you diminish the scottishness of it and in turn that diminishes the attractiveness of the food and drink they want to be possible for people to put the flags on the projects assault time one side of the union flag and the other one below zero actually that is happening with quite a few companies and that's not a bad thing. it just actually the big problem is but exit no one had them but certainly affecting what companies speculate on the projects any particular that is a real problem for scotland because scotland high's several items which. which

have. what is called protected geographical indication not a member of us when i was first minister campaigning for whisky to get one agreed by the chinese well good for you we won not one and scotch whisky is probably the best known certainly our biggest export but probably the best known export don't mean british whisky i know they tried and i have very good authority that the sales of british whisky. just were non-existent and they've gone back to scotch and this controversy ridge then to the committee rooms of the house of commons that they didn't need to and risk. gave evidence and she's one of the key campaign especially one of the key campaigners know and it all came from the grassroots such a thing that people should realize the skinflints decided that it was wrong that scotland's brand was being weakened among any academic or

empirical evidence to show that putting an assault on your projects actually increases the sales quite remarkably how it came within the last few days that has been the result of a sunday by an organization called quality meat scotland say the industry body for all meat producers they brought out some of the following their campaign to promote scorch beef scotch beef eyes protected geographical indication status and no one else can produce coach beef anyone know what the americans might like to because part of what they're wanting is to get rid of all of these as we call them but scotch beef over the last year and angle and no this isn't england this is not in scotland and england the sales of scotch before the resin by seven percent because of the campaign organized by quality meat scotland to promote scotch beef and what's even more extraordinary is that on average score beef in london is ten

percent the other than english irish beef yet people have been queuing up to buy it sales are up and it's a recognition that scotch beef is a high quality product and must remain so after bragg's if we lose protected status for we think will be a disaster for the industry the success of branding products the scotties doesn't actually speak to something more fundamental but people are saying it is not just scotland but what scotland represents and you think is part of almost no international desire for things to be the strength of the provenance of assurance to have. quality is that is that what's behind this that absolutely is hope by what is behind this whole thing is to promote scotland as a place that produces high quality food and drink like scotch beef scott salmon scotch whiskey and we have been very very successful in recent years and increasing the amount of exports that. have gone to school and particularly food and drink the

more that we can prove that we have a distinct identity based on. things like quality food and drink the more we do that the more i think that the people of sco on to become confident about their own future and of course as a representative of the only daily newspaper in scotland that supports independence you can bet i welcome that it would be better if scotland were well known as the low court on american off of the country which invented the modern world as opposed to the country which produces could be from a decent whiskey i think we can be i think we can both be both i think that we have a record second to none of producing inventors scientists. per head of population i think we've probably got more nobel prizes than any other country i think it's only norway has more had a population that you would certainly advocate as people look at this desultory political scene that they should be driving the saw those quality scottish projects

absolutely and i would forward to the day when we are independent and we can see scott simon scotch beef scotch whiskey but probably french wine. well i can't i can't recommend french why even this particular sceptical but mom had a few interviews delightful interview a good title to the alexander mcqueen ah thank you very much indeed ali thank you very much. and then from talking to a campaigner for scott in the blind i thought we'd talk to a practitioner somebody who actually produces the stuff the people want to see the scottish brand on german fairly. foster the nation farmers pretty unusual most of the fourth generation of the. documented industry i was born and bred in the town. in the city when i was eighteen. i absolutely love everything about it has got to me it's. a sense of purpose you go in the morning you walk in the stock there's a part of us and it's not just about looking after that stock as

a contribution to the environment that you're living in your country and to the to the food chain that we all that we all want to eat from and it just feels of the proper purpose when you produce and stop the one of your purposes is to stay in business which is not always easy primary producers so can you point to who bonding you produce what's your beef with a scottish identity actually help share in the bought my. discourse brand run by call in scotland the do annual. promotions and all the rest of it and they'll target specific parts of the country so they've been very strong for more beef in london so you'll see big posters go there and they'll they'll tell you about growth between. six percent of growth of beef consumption there in the brands what whether anybody see we been accused through the whole process where the brand

has been. let's say diluted could have tried to dilute this brand. if you want to open a burger stall and you get it big yeah we'll aim over the top of it the response will be futile quick and deceptive because your brand matters so whether it's the scotch but on with the germ theory beyond whether it's the whatever the brand is if you get your brand rate it is the most crucial thing you have in your business your argument would be in the same way of. scotland should be jealously protecting our one hundred percent jealously particularly when you go back to the where this actually started after the referendum in twenty fourteen you hides in duncan standing in a room with a great britain campaign and it was all very low key but what you had was iconic scottish brands with union jacks all over them that were no problem of the union flag with the union flag on a product if people want to see as a but i think a product that's fine but when you've got product as one shelves but she should be

uniquely scottish if it come from pier at long come from fashion health then why would you put a union flag on it if you we've already got that. we don't really that but i hate when you look at not just the national food drink policy which a lot here gives them the scottish farming most yes he was the agricultural rule of the as minister he introduced the the national food drink bowls for scotland and he set up the scotland things and that's no the chief executive that guy called james whether he was a fantastic guy and they have done an enormous amount to walk together with the economy to grow the food industry as the fastest growing sick that and it occurred to me and they've just released their new document which is a mission twenty three after it and the whole point of invention twentieth it is that the farming community and the food industry have to collaborate and work together to meet at the most dynamic diverse industry in the country if they get it right and turn if they have to it will mean that they have to billion pounds

a year of time know what and the food and drink industry and we will employ. a million people of a population of one five point four million one million people will be involved as a friend of a country the supermarkets compute on on a packet and if they've put a union flag on i don't believe it's because they've got any kind of agenda against go on i believe it's because they believed that that would increase their sales and it would the school and food and drink. over that they've done i should clear indications in scotland that the saltire sales more than what it would get any of your life for the salt sells the salt ourselves because we know it sells it sells it and they want if you go any of them on the net and a backpack. if you've got a soul to jack of all scots and they want to talk to you. why would be a low that to be sufficient why would we want to do anything other than promote that of a semi consolation a period of time when i represented the largest fishing community in europe and i

used to think we were there with a till we discovered that selling a product of scots like a steam meant at least a ten percent premium and selling it as prawns i've never seen such a rapid conversion to the word language. so as. not be that your your fellow farmers second third fourth fifth generation if they could be persuaded to but the bottom line will be queuing up to support the bill we have to maintain the brand and we have to sail around with all the visions of this you know hills and glans and mess and this iconic feeling of comfort that people get from scotland if we say we won't have to compete because we're going to sell a premium product they're all going to be people in this country want to buy a place we can do a bit up there's a billion middle class consumers in asia by twenty twenty there will be a billion middle class consumers. the best the french champagne the drink in the finest scotch whisky we should be having

a program to get needs of blood count back on terror hells so the. we sail that best beef in the world bottom on come from those who will glance to the asian market of a billion middle class consumers so it's like a great. family i can't i can't live on a campaign of which you spoke but i come. on quick for something to wash and i want to stop so i asked a scotch lama beef washday with the best of the scottish products thank you very much and so much for that view as being life pleasure thank you so we've heard from a campaigner and a practitioner coming up after the break when i hear from an academic on the national branding of scotland. it's a very rough terrain of sorts rough climates and you have to fight to be able to

flank. it was gunshots on top of them and so many friends what happened in the end i mean you do not. think well. you know i don't want to see a better body in the truth and it's good to participate in the good. both to me but to me that. you don't think about this if the soul goes on no you've got three to like and you know there's another patient. eurocentric point of view has seen a lot of criticism lately relevant is eurocentric.