Official tartan register

[Phil]

I know there have been posts asking about whether there is any official register of tartans. Well there is going to be one once the Scottish Parliament gets around to it. This is a link about it - http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1072292007

[Mr. MacDougall]

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I don't like the idea of a government -- any government -- getting their hands on the authority to be the arbiter of whether a tartan is acceptable or not. Before you know it, there will be all kinds of rules, and some of them will probably hurt the tartan designer in the street.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I see in the article that the STA gets prime mention. I always thought it would be a bit silly if the government were to attempt to create a completely new register, when the International Tartan Index (maintained by the STA) already exists and is available. Why reinvent the wheel? I think the smartest thing would be to simply give a preexisting database (such as the ITI) the government's blessing.

The only thing I hate about reading tartan-related articles in The Scotsman is all the ill-informed comments people feel the need to add beneath!

M

[MACKAY]

...The only thing I hate about reading tartan-related articles in The Scotsman is all the ill-informed comments people feel the need to add beneath!...

I did like this one though Matt -

"Apparently, Scrooge McDuck is looking forward to registering the Ancient McDuck tartan but is having second thoughts about the Hunting McDuck!"

[gilmore]

What designers in the street? Most of them are well indoors, hunched over computer keyboards, and working for the 4-6 big tartan mills in Scotland and Pakistan.

[mexpiper]

My question is that once Government becomes involved, they alway add a tax, just for them, to pay for it... but the amount of tax always exceeds what the program cost. {hmmm... where does the excess go...hmmm}

[Kiltman]

I see in the article that the STA gets prime mention. I always thought it would be a bit silly if the government were to attempt to create a completely new register, when the International Tartan Index (maintained by the STA) already exists and is available. Why reinvent the wheel? I think the smartest thing would be to simply give a preexisting database (such as the ITI) the government's blessing.

The only thing I hate about reading tartan-related articles in The Scotsman is all the ill-informed comments people feel the need to add beneath!

M

I'm with you Matt. I don't see a need to reinvent this thing. As you point out there is a good deal of misinformation out there already—why create more opportunity for it?

[macwilkin]

My question is that once Government becomes involved, they alway add a tax, just for them, to pay for it... but the amount of tax always exceeds what the program cost. {hmmm... where does the excess go...hmmm}

But, as a citizen of the United States and not a subject of the Crown, you would not be effected by any "tartan excise".

T.

[Mr. MacDougall]

you would not be effected by any "tartan excise".

Yeah, 'cause we'd throw their Tartan in the Boston Harbor, while dressed up as Red Indians!

oh... wait....

[Phil]

I don't think we are looking at another Boston tea party here but it sounds like a good idea to have some formal regulation to stop anyone passing off a copy of a tartan as something else. Also it might help to control a lot of cheap Asian imports pretending to be Scottish. They might have to label their stuff properly so at least you know what you're buying. The existing authorities have no powers to prevent abuse of this kind and while it's not in the same league as the pharmaceutical and other s***t the Chinese are poisoning and swindling people with some regulation sounds like a good idea.