A SCOT has slapped saltire stickers on boxes of Tesco strawberries in a protest against the firm’s controversial decision to use the Union Jack.
The supermarket giant caused a storm of protest earlier this week after it ditched the saltire from Scottish fruit, tweeting that English customers had complained.
Craig Hill, from Rattray, Perth and Kinross, was so fed up by the change that he decided to take revenge.
Craig visited his local Tesco store and spent an hour secretly placing Saltire stickers on the punnets of strawberries.
The stickers featured a St Andrews cross and the words “End London Rule”.
Craig shared an image of his repackaging handiwork on Facebook on Tuesday with the caption: “I’ve been reading a lot about the stooshie over butcher’s apron [Union Jack] Tesco strawberries so I’ve just spent near an hour sorting that out at my local Tesco.”
The picture shows a packet of Tesco strawberries on the shelf with a Saltire stuck to the top-left corner of the plastic cover.
In the comments section of his post, Mr Hill explained what he had done: “I spent ages hanging about that fruit aisle like a friggin’ shoplifter. It’s not great fun.
“I was lucky it was school dinner time so all the staff were more occupied with watching the bairns flinging sandwiches and stuff about the place.
“Last time I used a load of stickers was when I went to see [Dundee] United v Hibs in the Scottish Cup semi final and I knew Rangers fans would be in the same seats the next day.”
Fellow Facebook users were generally appreciative of his efforts.
Tracy Keating wrote: “Haha! Brilliant. Now I’ve an idea for my hundreds of stickers.”
Jackie Kiernan commented: “Brilliant Craig, I was in stitches reading this all the staff at Tesco will be on Saltire watch now lol.”
And Johan Hardy replied: “Give that man a gold medal.”
Asked to comment, a spokesman for Tesco repeated their statement from earlier in the week.
He said: “To provide consistency for customers, we mark all of our homegrown fresh berries with a Union flag.
“The country of origin is also clearly displayed on pack.”
A series of tweets from Tesco made clear English customers had complained that berries from south of the border were not marked with the George Cross.
The firm later denied this was reason, claiming the change was made to achieve consistency across their stores.
The debate about the flag change was so fierce that even First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, was asked for her opinion on the removal of the Saltire.
She said: “Perhaps we should reflect and wonder what the response might be if this story was in reverse and the Union Jack was removed from packaging because of complaints in Scotland. “
