You know what it's like. You've written to Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrison's, Asda, Marks and Spencer and the Co-op about their refusal to label English products as English, nonsensically labelling them "British" whilst excluding the Scots and Welsh from that by marking them with Scots and Welsh flags. You've signed petitions, you've screamed, you've been ignored.
All of the major supermarkets in England seem determined to ignore England's existence whilst merrily displaying Scots and Welsh flags on their product packaging and slogans like "Morrison's - Proud To Serve Scotland".
Lately, there has been some hope that Sainsbury's may be about to launch a few clearly flagged English lines, but Tesco has hardened its face against England, proclaiming that "English inhabitants" feel more British than English, and using this dubious finding as an even more dubious reason to delete those very few lines they do have that are marked "English".
Alfie discovered the facts, and Fair Flags ran the story, along with several other sites, including this one. Maria discovered an interesting comment in the Fair Flags comments thread, pointing at a possible factor for this anti-English attitude in supermarkets across England. It's an organisation called The British Retail Consortium. The comment states that Alistair Darling has a finger firmly stuck in this pie, and a little investigation by Maria has thrown up the fact that the Consortium has British, Brussels, Scottish (of course) and London departments, but no English department - nor yet a Welsh one - although the Welsh Assembly does have input, as does the Northern Ireland Office.
Is this the missing link - the organisation orchestrating our supermarkets' and English food producers' growing anti-England bias (think Dairy Crest)?
Because something certainly is.
Just to say that yesterday I bought English steak from Marks and Spencer's, surmounted by the Cross of St George. This was in preference to there Scottish steak, which carried the Union flag. I like to give credit when it is due. I've also written to Tesco (customer.service@tesco.co.uk, there email is very hard to find) asking why this sudden change.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that, Templar. We must say that our local Marks And Spencer's at the Grafton Centre, Cambridge, has been stocking Scots or British meat and it was the same with the various soft fruits during the summer! We did however manage to find some milk with the Cross of St George on!
ReplyDeleteNone of this allays our fears that Tesco may not be acting in isolation in its move to rebrand its few English lines as "British" - with Dairy Crest also joining in the act, we can't help wondering what is co-ordinating it all. The British Retail Association seems a good starting point for enquiries after people have finished questioning (and, it seems, being lied to) by the likes of Tesco.