THE man behind the British Square Sausages product which The National publicised yesterday in a story that was clearly meant to be light-hearted, has told how knew all along that his invention, Squigs, might be compared to Lorne sausage – also known in Scotland as square or sliced sausage.

Will Munro, owner of Cottom Foods in Widnes chortled as he learned of the story which has caused a sense of humour bypass in some quarters.

He said: “Of course I have known about Lorne sausage all along – I used to supply them for Morrisons.

“The whole point is that we are marketing Squigs as great British square sausages because we are making something that is different from Lorne sausage and we don’t want any confusion.”

Glad he’s cleared that up. So is he just taking a Scottish invention that dates from the 19th century and giving it a modern English makeover with Cumberland and Caramelised Onion varieties?

“I wouldn’t dare claim to be improving on the Lorne,” said Munro, “but we are definitely doing something different.

“For instance we are using only top-quality ground pork in our Squigs and Lorne can be either all beef or a mixture of beef and pork.

“Our Squigs are also gluten free, while traditional Lorne sausage must have rusk in it.”

Munro is an enthusiastic advocate of his Squigs: “We did a lot of consumer research and one of the problems with round sausages is that it is often difficult to cook them correctly, which you don’t get with flat square sausages,” he said

“There is also the fact that some people don’t like the chewy skins on their round sausages. Squigs don’t have the skins and cook evenly on both sides while remaining succulent.

“We think we have a real quality product that people will take to, just as they took to Lorne sausage.”

Good to know Will Munro has a sense of humour. The reaction on Twitter and social media to our story showed that certain Unionist commentators know zilch about the wry sense of humour that we who support independence have had to develop over the years as we read their pathetic Unionist piffle.

Fair play to journalist Kenny Farquharson however, who tweeted: “That square sausage doesn’t look square to me. More rectangular. Bastard Unionists.” Touche, Kenny.

We also liked the tweet that threatened retaliation with ‘a Cumbernauld sausage.’

There is however, a serious point to be made about the long-running problem of supermarkets and producers branding Scottish food, drink and other goods as British.

Soon, The National will publish the results of our investigation into a real Great British scandal. That will not be light-hearted and will upset Remainers, Remoaners, Scottish and British nationalists alike.