Leader: Pandaring to the masses

STAND by for pandamonium. Edinburgh Zoo has cleared the decks for an explosion of visitor spending on panda artefacts on a scale that would delight the Scottish Retail Consortium and even bring a wisp of hope for deeply depressed economy watchers.

It has cleared two walls of its gift shop for panda handbags, wristbands, tea caddies, baby bibs, woolly hats, bumper stickers and even a mobile phone cradle. Mad? All it lacks is a range of bamboo plants of the type most favoured by the pandas so that Scots gardeners can grow their own panda food.

The arrival of Tian Tian and Yang Guang on Sunday is set to boost the zoo’s depleted coffers. A trip to the zoo does not come cheap once you’ve allowed for the £4 car parking fee, the £15.50 entry charge, sundry refreshments, the optional £1.50 “pandatax” – and now the must-buy range of panda-themed souvenirs and trinkets. Stand by to get at least two sets of panda keyrings in this year’s Christmas stocking, or a soft toy panda, T-shirt, hoodie or panda book. Pandas may be cute and cuddly, but they are also big business. Chancellor George Osborne may be desperate to get a slice of China’s sovereign wealth fund money for his infrastructure projects. But Edinburgh, it seems, has beaten him to it.