Deeply puzzled by quality cues on food packaging in the UK. Not to say disturbed.
It would seem that "Made in Britian" accompanied by a little Union Jack flag is a very popular way of flagging quality (excuse the pun). The word "proud" often appears as well - as in "produced with pride".
I can understand that all the buzz about carbon footprint has embedded itself into the UK popular consicousness, if that is what you can call it, over the past few years.
I still find the presence of the Union Jack baffling. Firstly, it implies that everything from "the Continent" (that strange place also referred to as Europe) can't be as good. Hm. Patently not the case as anyone who has been to a German or French market (no, they don't call them farmers markets there) can testify.
Secondly, it smacks worringly of a nasty form of xenophobia - limited in outlook, suspicious of anything new, provincial. Especially when combined with the word "proud".
Nationalism plus a "back to the soil" movement - wasn't that exactly the groundswell that fed extremism in the 1930s?
As an additional aside - I thought the Union Jack had been replaced in terms of popuarity by the Welsh flag, the Saltire, to reflect regional identities.....
What's your view on the Union Jack/ buy British revival on food packaging? Does it make you believe in the quality more? Do tell, as Nancy Mitford might have said.
