THE latest raid on counterfeit goods at The Barras shows again the extent to which illegal trading has taken over the famous market.

Once home to traders providing a bargain on everything from clothes and housewares to meat and veg, and while there may have been a few corners cut, it is now more home to illegal DVDs, fake perfume and counterfeit tobacco.

These goods may be cheap, but they are not the real deal and they are also depriving the Treasury of cash in excise duty and VAT and that costs us all in the long run.

The Barras is continually being told it has to clean up its act or the legitimate traders trying to earn a living there will be completely pushed out. Then, if all that is left is illegal trading, the market's future will not be bright.

The cost of the cheap deal on fake goods is high, in the form of funding organised crime, such as drug dealing and prostitution through human trafficking.

There is an easy way of ridding the Barras of the counterfeiters and that is to turn away from the supposed bargain and back the legitimate traders trying to earn a living in the Barras tradition that has been passed down through the generations.

The Barras is a Glasgow institution and we all want to see it survive and thrive.