IT was interesting to read about the possible threat to berry production in Scotland should we have, as is looking exceptionally likely, a hard Brexit and migrant workers can no longer come here on a seasonal basis (Brexit could mean the end of Scottish fruit, The National, November 14).

Although personally very pro Europe, I tend to disagree with the sentiments expressed regarding berry production.

Your article states, for example, that the last British person to work at the berry picking was eight years ago, but, the fact is that Eastern European migrants actually displaced our own Scottish Traveller migrants. Migrants in the sense that they too worked at the berries on a seasonal basis whilst moving on to do other tasks throughout the winter months.

Farmers, in fact, made a conscious choice to abandon completely their Traveller workforce, which had served them well for hundreds of years; amounting to a blanket ban on Travellers from agricultural employment.

Sadly, at the same time, many of their other traditional jobs disappeared under the guise of progress.

This does not have to be the case with the berries and I happen to know a number of Travellers who would love an opportunity to work at the berries once again.

In fact, there are thousands of Travellers around Scotland who would welcome such an opportunity should it arise, but, often through ignorance and prejudice, they are seldom afforded the chance. Nowadays, most Travellers, forbidden to stop at traditional overnight sites which were dotted throughout Scotland, are confined to what can only be called reservations, without any prospect of a decent job and living mostly out of sight and out of mind on the fringes of our society.

These reservations and the conditions they are forced to live in, not to mention the abuse they receive from the settled population are similar to what the native American Indians have had to endure at the hands of white American incomers.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have been able to get to know and work with a number of Travellers and, unlike anything you might read in The Daily Mail, they are on the whole, a most friendly, hospitable and hard-working people.

Therein lies the problem of course. Just like people from other parts of Europe and elsewhere in the world that come here to work, it takes time and effort to learn about them and their culture and to appreciate what they can bring to the table. Given the opportunity, they could not only positively enrich our lives with their songs, poetry, art and so much more, but they could also help to keep those Scottish berries in our shops post-Brexit.

Dave MacIntyre

Edinburgh

I WAS also a berry picker as a teenager. If you worked hard you could make a fair bit of money. Then the farms started to use unemployed people, supplementing their dole. Farmers used to provide buses to take the pickers to the fields but then there was a big crackdown by the DSS who turned up at the buses, accompanied by the police, took everyone’s details with the result that they were charged with benefit fraud, were fined and had their benefit stopped. This was the end of the ready supply of willing workers — farmers then started to rely on migrants.

I wonder if the benefit system could be structured in such a way as to allow those on benefits to undertake some seasonal work, without losing their entitlement and going to the back of the queue/having to reapply when the temporary work ends?

Sheena Fraser

via thenational.scot