I enjoyed a few days in Stockholm last weekend and, without really seeking them out, was able to enjoy Swedish brands, produce and hospitality throughout my stay. There was the salmon and meatballs from the Swedish ICA supermarkets (proudly stamped with the local area that had produced them), the Falcon and Mariestads beers that washed them down and the ‘fika’ (coffee breaks) at Sweden’s fiercely popular Wayne’s Coffee stores dotted around the city. The whole weekend involved walking past Saab after Saab and Volvo after Volvo, Swedish flags were everywhere from pots of jam on supermarket shelves to fluttering proudly in many a front garden and numerous people I walked past had on Fjällräven jackets or bags, or Peak Performance winter gear, all Swedish brands, naturligtvis.

Compare and contrast with Scotland where any old produce is purchased in tax-dubious Tesco with profits evaporating out of the Scottish economy to, well, either Cheshunt or Zug I suppose. Yes, Zug. The many beers drunk here each night are typically the Carlsbergs, Kronenbourg, Stella Artois, Carling and Guinnesses, so that’s more Scottish pounds falling out of our economy. The flights are on Ryanair and Easyjet, as there’s no longer a Flyglobespan to keep the travel money closer to home, while cars and clothes are barely ever Scottish-made or designed and you’d do well to see too many Saltires on a supermarket shelf, let alone a front garden.

Sure, we have Farmers’ Markets, Scottish restaurants (boasting Scottish produce), Brewdog, Innes & Gunn, staycations and Harris Tweed helping to shore up the local economy, but it all seems to be too much of a one-way battle at the moment, particularly when you realise how other countries out there in Europe have it.

We are regularly told to embrace globalisation, to suppress national pride and remember that too much protectionism is ultimately bad for us but, call me paranoid, I do wonder who is behind this particular insistence and whether that message is getting out beyond these UK borders. Looking at France, Spain, Scandinavia and Germany, their largely successful rebuffing of Americanism (do they even have Starbucks on the continent?) and their impressive championing of home produce and local brands, it makes me wonder if Scotland is putting itself at a distinct disadvantage by being so laissez-faire.

Of all Governments that could grasp this issue, one would think that an SNP Government would put things right.

Well, the foregoing of Scottish steel in the building of the Forth bridge in favour of Chinese steel certainly raises an eyebrow and suggests otherwise. I get that there are procurement rules that need to be followed and potential savings could allow Swinney’s budgets to go further than they would have if we’d bought materials closer to home but, if such a calculation has been worked out, I would have thought that a pre-emptive information strike would have been forthcoming. The Herald reports that as much as one third of the required steel could have been sourced from Motherwell. A no-brainer, surely? Seemingly not. It all seems to go against a direction of travel that was suggested a few years ago.

The SNP, in the last parliamentary term, had the thoroughly commendable idea of a Saltire scheme whereby shoppers would be rewarded with loyalty points for purchasing Scottish produce. The scheme was led passionately and eloquently by Aileen Campbell, now the Minister for Children and Young People. With a whopping parliamentary majority in the bag and a dearth of devolved issues to sustain itself for the next four years with, there is no reason why the SNP shouldn’t push this idea a lot harder than it is currently doing.

A saltire scheme can, by extension, mean more than simply buying Scottish produce. It can also signify less food miles, sustainable fishing methods, ethically robust farming methods, material quality and so much more, if the Scotland flag comes to signify these things (if it doesn’t so already, of course). Indeed, why this idea never took off before, from any party, really is beyond me.

I attended a wonderful presentation from the FD of a bank that I used to work for. The lessons shared then are lessons that Scotland should really learn today. He said that it is important to focus on the ‘marginal dollar’, or the ‘marginal pound’ in this instance. The old days of banking involved lending money if it meant getting a profit back, any profit, a philosophy that led inevitably to the credit crunch. These days, with fewer pounds available to lend and banks building up capital ratios, the decision-makers need to consider what they are

    not

spending their money on before they spend it. It’s basically opportunity cost with bells on and it is applicable here, not so much in terms of short-sighted profit making but rather in terms of building a balanced, local society and ensuring that it is sustainable alongside and in healthy competition with the rest of the UK, the rest of Europe and indeed the rest of the world.

So when you are standing on your local high street, when you know which Scots are secure in their jobs and which one’s aren’t and when you consider that other countries out there have a healthy balance between protectionism and globalised free markets, the key question you need to ask yourself when you stretch open your purse strings is this – where are my Scottish pounds best spent?

Keeping the Scottish pound local should be a top priority for all of us, and the Scottish Government should be taking the lead on facilitating that objective, from bridges to supermarket shelves.