A GROUP of volunteers responded to the national Keep Scotland the Brand call-to-action and set up a stall in Stirling city centre on Saturday to coincide with the monthly farmers’ market.

The stall was in a prominent, if weather-swept, location in the shopping precinct, from where the group spread out to strike up conversations and hand out #KSTB campaign leaflets.

In spite of very poor weather, most passers-by took a leaflet. Many shoppers stopped long enough to hear about the campaign, some long enough to have conversations. Some were with English visitors.

Some had heard about #KSTB and identified strongly with it (“It’s my flag, too!” said an Asian Scot), while others hadn’t heard of the campaign but agreed that Scotland’s food and drink products and their producers should be protected.

We also picked up a general lack of awareness of the issues around preserving Scotland’s iconic branding, including several stallholders selling Scottish food produce who, for whatever reason, did not seem to want to engage.

A Scottish market stallholder came over to thank us for our efforts, and a handful of stallholders agreed to display our leaflets. One cheese stallholder, originally from France, was concerned about future food regulation/standards for the business as well as his own future. A very small number of shoppers asked who was behind the campaign (“Is this to do with the SNP?) and were told it is a non-partisan initiative. Branded badges were given to a good few people who came to the stall to ask if they could sign a petition. Volunteers referred them to the #KSTB Facebook page and www.keepscotlandthebrand.scot.

As an awareness-raising, issue-reinforcing event, all the volunteers felt it had been worthwhile in spite of the weather and, as other groups have reported, was effective at cutting through entrenched party-political barriers. Setting up the stall adjacent to a farmers’ market added a relevance to their presence, as other groups have reported.

A couple of additions to the campaign leaflets were suggested: reference to sources of more information would be useful, eg www.keepscotlandthebrand.scot, and prominently displaying the #KeepScotlandtheBrand eg as a banner heading as a call-to-action.