The Royal Mile

[Nick Fiddes]

Nick

Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't the John Morrison Kiltmaker shop on Prince's Street until it recently relocated to the Royal Mile, presumably to take advantage of that previously venerated name?

jeff

Erm... dunno! I have a feeling the real firm had a store in Glasgow, but I just don't recall where in Edinburgh. Sorry. Anyone else?

[Radge]

Aye, the shop was originally on Princes Street.

[ForresterModern]

I just unpacked my suitcase after a three day trip, and just for grins decided to check the tags on each piece of clothing I had in my dirty laundry as well as what I did not wear. With the exception of socks, all items had a label which included the composition of the fabric, as well as the country of manufacture. None listed country of origin for any of the fabrics though, just country of manufacture. This included pants, shirts, underwear, pajamas, swim suit, shoes, sweater, sweatshirt, and jacket.

Sorry to threadjack. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Tobus]

There is a huge market for cheap souvenirs like insta-kilts, "see you Jimmy" hats and £20 kilts. If a law was enacted that prevented the import of such goods, I'm sure that entrepreneurs (local or otherwise) would rush to fill the void.

They might, but their wares would be triple the price. And the tourists would not buy nearly as many as they do now. This would mean less tourist spending on such items, leading to less taxes coming in from them. Good luck getting politicians to agree on any measure that reduces their tax revenue. I'll bet that the politicians actually like these "tartan tat" vendors because of the tax revenue.

[TheNaughtyScot]

Yes, indeed. The Royal Mile is simply for state ceremony and tourism, much like the National Mall in Washinton, DC. All sorts of vendors trying to make a buck off of visitors, but I think that is the way most attractions are. I will say that when my classmates and I visited on a break from our studies, I had to keep them away from the cheap stuff. The real quality goods seem to come from the smaller Scottish towns or Canada, not the cliche spots where you'd expect.

As for the new parliment building, I thought it provided a very unbridled and powerful statement of independence in contrast to the Georgian architecture of the English rule.

-Ian

[English Bloke]

... As for the new parliment building, I thought it provided a very unbridled and powerful statement of independence in contrast to the Georgian architecture of the English rule...

-Ian

Aaah Ian, how right you are. Those pesky English. Throwing up their awful architecture all over the place since James the sixth and first moved his court from Edinburgh to London in 1603. Who do they think they are?...

[Lachlan09]

As for the new parliment building, I thought it provided a very unbridled and powerful statement of independence in contrast to the Georgian architecture of the English rule.

-Ian

Ian

I think you'll find that the main people involved in designing the Georgian New Town, master-planner James Craig, architect William Chambers, most famously-associated architect Robert Adam and later, Robert Reid, were all Scottish. No English hands needed – we Scots did it all by ourselves.


How much did the cost of the new parliamentary building over-run by again ?

[robthehiker]

Ian

How much did the cost of the new parliamentary building over-run by again ?

from wikipedia (an always reliable source...):
"From the outset, the building and its construction have proven to be highly controversial. The choices of location, architect, design, and construction company were all criticised by politicians, the media and the Scottish public.[8] Scheduled to open in 2001, it did so in 2004, more than three years late with an estimated final cost of £414m, many times higher than initial estimates of between £10m and £40m."

[RockyR]

The line between "promoting" and "exploiting" is a fine one.

[bricelythgoe]

Never mind.