Book trade to call on government to put a stop to subsidies for Amazon

Leading figures from the Scottish book trade are set to urge the Scottish Government to end subsidies to global giants Amazon when they meet ministers at Holyrood tonight.

Independent booksellers are furious that the online giant has been given millions of pounds of taxpayers money while High Street stores across Scotland are facing challenging trading conditions. Kevin Ramage, owner of The Watermill in Aberfeldy, is set to lobby the Scottish Government to “level the playing field”.

He plans to call on Joan Mcalpine, MSP, who is host- 0 Joan Mcalpine is hosting a book trade reception ing the Scottish Book Trade Parliament Reception, to offer a guarantee that Amazon will no longer be given subsidies which give the company an unfair business advantage.

Mr Ramage said he will urge Ms Mcalpine to work to halt a slump which has seen shops across all sectors close down faster than in any other part of the UK.

He said: “It is time for the Scottish Government to show some support for the independent traders who form the backbone of our town and city centres. All we want is for them [government] to stop paying huge sums in incentives to these companies who take trade away from local businesses. Like other independent stores we pay our taxes in full and give our staff the living wage and yet we feel we are hamstrung by the lack of level playing field.”