Rob Edwards

Dissecting manifesto half-truths

filed for Holyrood Magazine, 20 April 2005

Election manifestos are like job applications. They don't lie, exactly, but what they don't say is always far more interesting that what they do say. Just like the rest of us, political parties rewrite history in their CVs. And they never confess to some of their real ambitions for the future in case they offend their potential employers.

Food safety push ditched to avoid election backlash by big business

from Sunday Herald, 17 April 2005

THE Food Standards Agency (FSA) ditched a major campaign to reduce the risks of food poisoning in Scotland because the government was anxious not to antagonise business in the run-up to the general election.

Food companies given millions of pounds

from Sunday Herald, 10 April 2005

Some of Scotland's most famous food companies have been given huge amounts of taxpayers' money under a system which helps farmers in Europe but hurts them in poor countries.

New figures released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that in just one year Walkers Shortbread received £748,000 and the biscuit makers, Thomas Tunnock, got £44,100. The payments were compensation for the high cost of sugar and butter in Europe.

US nuclear waste could provide terror target

from New Scientist, 07 April 2005

A large cloud of lethal radioactive fallout could be released by a terrorist attack on the nuclear waste stored at up to 103 reactors in the US, according to an expert report for the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

New evidence: farming is huge source of greenhouse gases

from Sunday Herald, 03 April 2005

AS much as a third of the pollution that is wrecking the climate in Scotland could be blamed on farmers and landowners, according to evidence submitted to ministers.