Let’s not give visitors what they want - John McLellan

Pity poor Marco Biagi. The SNP councillor feels embarrassed when he walks down the High Street past shops selling Scottish souvenirs. Aw, the wee lamb.

Councillor Marco Biagi feels embarrassed when he walks down Edinburgh High Street past shops selling Scottish souvenirs

After a finance meeting in which he argued the council should refuse a 25-year lease extension for one of its properties, currently one of the Gold Brothers’ souvenir shops, he said: “I want to walk down the Royal Mile and not feel embarrassed. It’s probably the most visited street in Scotland but right now our window on the world has a see you Jimmy hat in it.”

Perhaps it could be the start of a world movement; no more berets on sale in Paris, centurion helmets in Rome, cowboy hats in Vegas, and as for those Spanish matador hats…

No, let’s not give visitors what they want, let’s not praise a successful Scottish business, let’s not celebrate the city’s popularity but look down our noses at the type of people who would buy such stuff. If indeed that’s what’s on sale in this particular emporium.

A majority on the committee decided to defer a decision for “legal advice” when the highly experienced officer Peter Watton told them quite clearly councillors had no grounds for refusing a shop lease because they don’t like the trade of perfectly legitimate, harmless goods.

There does not appear to be a proposal for what Councillor Biagi would like to see on sale, or how the cash-strapped council could guarantee the revenue it earns from the Gold Brothers, but don’t let that get in the way of good old-fashioned snobbery.