Another protectionist kilt article from "The Scotsman"

[Jock Scot]

This is a tricky problem and as has been pointed out here, there are valid and differing opinions to Mr Hawthorne's. But unfortunately there is still a problem that needs attention.On the whole regulation and protectionism is best avoided, but there really does come a point when it has to be considered.

Scotch whisky comes from Scotland and only Scotland, Port comes from Portugal and only Portugal, Champagne comes from a certain part of France and only that part, so it does happen and in fact on the whole the world accepts it. There are drinks very similar, but cannot and do not carry that critical descriptive word. For example, there are pages and pages on this very website where we happily discuss "Scotch " whisky, we all know that there are other whiskies made elsewhere in the world of equally good quality and we don't seem to have this problem accepting that, now do we? I think Mr Hawthorne's thoughts ought to be given rather more credence than some of you are giving them.

With the benifit of hindsight this "Scottish" label should have been attached to the kilt and tartan years ago, but........Is it too late to do this now? Probably it is in this harsh commercial world we live in, but nevertheless it is not unreasonable for the problem to aired and addressed if possible. I would very much like to have a "Made in Scotland" or "Scottish Kilt" type label of some sort to get the kilt standards raised and to avoid the "Tartan Tat" problem and some of the more dubious business practices that allegedly go with it. Some of this problem has nothing to with the kilt, but there we go.

Kilts can still be made of varying quality anywhere in the world and bought by anyone who wants to buy at that particular price, but I personally see nothing wrong in having a "Scottish" label if it encourages honest labeling.