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David Whitton, a Labour MSP, addressed local retailers at the Scottish NFRN conference in Edinburgh earlier this week. Mr Whitton is a capable politician and has a good mastery of his brief. Despite his claimed affinity with news retailers, independent shopkeepers will find that his knowledge of their business affairs relies heavily on information from unfriendly sources - supermarkets and anti-tobacco lobbyists. At the age of 17 Mr Whitton found himself delivering newespapers. He recalls that it was "quite lucrative" at the time, with a good mark up and heavy bags. His audience of news retailers smiled, remembering the day. However, today Mr Whitton was promoting the Scottish Labour Party's plan to win power from May. He may talk about helping entrepreneurs but his heart is really in getting people employed. He wants local shops to employ more people and to train more people. In passing he noted that supermarkets have a "good track record of taking on staff in d...

After years of being on the front foot in the PR war as the people's champions, UK supermarkets got a bloody nose on March 1. First ACS boss James Lowman unveiled his research that demonstrated that while Tesco and Sainsbury had added 2.3 million square feet of selling space in the past year, they had achieved a net loss of 426 jobs. That is the equivalent of 1,500 medium size local shops and no new jobs. "The government is desperate for growth and jobs," Mr Lowman told the ACS summit in Birmingham. "The supermarkets claim they are the answer and the goverment needs to liberalise planning laws. These facts show they are not." Local shopkeepers should use Mr Lowman's facts in conversations with their local MP, local authority people and local planners. The supermarkets are expert at influencing local planning decisions and here is some ammunition that may help you stop them opening next to you. At the same time, analysis by City bank UBS of whether fo...