Rob Edwards

Wealthy lairds bid to block land reform

from Sunday Herald, 31 May 2015

Rich private landowners have come under heavy fire after a series of intemperate outbursts aimed at blocking Scottish Government’s plans to tackle huge inequalities in wealth by radically reforming land law.

Large sporting estates have blasted the proposed changes as “ideological”, “emotive” and likely to stir up “hate tactics based upon jealousy”. They have drawn comparisons with Zimbabwe, and said they “resent” interference from urban-dwellers “with little experience of the countryside” and “distorted views”. 

One landowner pronounced it “inconceivable” that private land should be required to deliver a public benefit, while another did not believe that land ownership “has to be in the public interest.” The government’s policy would only be acceptable if it deleted the idea of “building a fairer society in Scotland”, according to a major group of landowners.

Scottish ministers are proposing a major package of land reforms, including new powers for ministers to intervene, ending a tax break for sporting estates, and making ownership more transparent. Although about 70 per cent of the 1,269 responses to a recent public consultation were in favour, there were up to 50 private landowners who strongly objected. 

Ministers have promised to publish a land reform bill in the next few weeks, but there is little sign that they are going to cave in to landowner pressure. In recent speeches, the land reform minister, Dr Aileen McLeod, has stressed the need to reduce the unequal distribution of wealth.

Loch Lomond camping curbs will lead to mass disobedience, warn campaigners

from The National, 28 May 2015

Mass civil disobedience and a legal challenge will be inevitable if Scottish ministers endorse a plan to crack down on camping in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, veteran campaigners are warning.

Hundreds of people will be turned into criminals for pitching tents on the loch shores leading to a “summer of discontent”, they say, arguing that the proposed curbs will breach legal rights of access to the countryside.

The Loch Lomond park authority is planning four “camping management byelaw zones” covering long stretches of its loch shores. Aimed at combatting littering and anti-social behaviour by summertime campers from urban areas, the new byelaws will ban camping without a permit.

The park authority wrote to ministers earlier this month urging them to endorse the plans. The public has until 21 June to make comments, and then the Scottish Government will decide what to do.

Dennis Canavan, a vice president of Ramblers Scotland and former independent MSP, called on ministers to reject the park’s “draconian” plan. “The proposed by-laws are a recipe for widespread civil disobedience,” he told The National.

Say hello to The Ferret nosing up the trousers of power

Comment, 28 May 2015

For the last two years a small group of us have been trying to figure out the future of investigative journalism. With a lot of help and hopefully a little inspiration, we have come up with The Ferret.

It's a new platform for fearless reporting beholden to no-one except its writers and readers. It will be a co-operative, it will be accountable, and it will be transparent. It will depend on crowdfunding and subscriptions not adverts - and it is promising to "nose up the trousers of power".

Yesterday we went public and invited people to say which of three proposed investigations - asylum seekers, NHS cuts and fracking - we should pursue first. If you want to take part, please go here. But, be warned, we will be asking for your money next.

We think investigative journalism is suffering. "The advertising revenues that have traditionally funded journalists to uncover scandals are being swept away in the whirlwind of the electronic information revolution – and nobody is quite sure what to do about it," says The Ferret's founding statement.

"We believe that something has to be done. In a democracy like ours few things are more important than a free, fair and independent media holding the powerful to account by discovering their secrets. Without serious, fact-based journalism in pursuit of the public interest and beholden to no-one, Scotland would be a smaller place."

The Ferret is not the only solution to the problem, but it could be a start. Our core team - Billy Briggs, Peter Geoghegan, Rachel Hamada, Alastair Tibbitt and me - all feel strongly that investigative journalism must not be allowed to wither and die in the hands of corporations. It is too important for that. Please join us.

Trident missile flaw could trigger radioactive disaster, says leaked MoD report

from Sunday Herald, 24 May 2015

An inherent flaw in Trident missiles could lead to fires, explosions and widespread radioactive contamination, according to a top-secret safety manual leaked by the naval whistleblower, William McNeilly.

The Royal Navy’s official instructions on how to take care of nuclear weapons reveal that the “chief potential hazard” from a live missile is the “accidental ignition” of solid rocket fuel. This could cause the warheads’ conventional high explosives to detonate and scatter plutonium and other toxic materials “over a wide area”, it says.

The Trident D5 missile, used by both the UK and the US, is designed with nuclear warheads closely wrapped around the third stage rocket motor. This has been highlighted as a design flaw by US experts in the past, but has not previously been acknowledged by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). 

The results of a rocket fuel fire at sea or on land could be “catastrophic” for submariners and the public, critics warned last night. The MoD, however, said it had to train for every scenario “no matter how extreme and unlikely”. 

McNeilly, as well as alleging 30 Trident security and safety concerns in an 18-page dossier revealed by the Sunday Herald last weekend, says he filmed the weapons safety manual on his smart phone. Codenamed CB8890, it is a book kept in a safe in submarine missile control centre, he says.

Extracts quoted by McNeilly disclose that the warheads “clustered around the third stage rocket motor are at risk from a rocket motor propellant fire”. Exposed to heat, the warheads’ conventional high explosives “could cook to (non-nuclear) detonation, releasing radioactive materials and aerosols over a wide area,” the manual says.

If warhead containment is breached, “several radioactive and/or toxic materials may be exposed to the atmosphere,” it says. “These include plutonium, uranium, lithium compounds, tritium gas and beryllium. If mixed with water, fumes or toxic gases will be generated.”

MoD under pressure on Trident whistleblower’s fate

from Sunday Herald, 24 May 2015

McNeilly snapped in Portsmouth

While the Trident whistleblower, William McNeilly, was being mysteriously moved around Britain last week, a massive nuclear bomb convoy trundled along some of Scotland’s busiest roads. 

Although the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would rather have kept the movements of both the man and the weapons secret, they were defeated by social media. A fellow sailor posted a photograph of McNeilly in the canteen of Nelson barracks in Portsmouth, while members of the public tweeted when they saw the convoy of more than 20 vehicles driving by Stirling and Edinburgh.

The MoD is coming under mounting pressure to explain the fate of McNeilly, the naval nuclear weapons technician who alleged 30 safety and security flaws on Trident submarines. A defence minister is expected to make a statement to the House of Commons in London on Thursday.

That same evening the SNP’s former First Minister, Alex Salmond MP, has secured a debate on McNeilly’s allegations in the House of Commons, which will oblige ministers to answer further questions. MoD attempts to “brush it all under the carpet” were “profoundly unsatisfactory”, Salmond declared.

The Sunday Herald broke the McNeilly story while he was on the run abroad last weekend. On Monday evening he surrendered himself to the naval police at Edinburgh airport, but the MoD has refused to say where he has since been held, or how he might be punished.

I'll be handing myself in to the police today, says Trident whistleblower

18 May 2016

The nuclear weapons technician on the run since he blew the whistle on 30 alleged safety and security flaws on Trident submarines has said that he is going to give himself up to police today.

In a new public post on Facebook just after 1pm, William McNeilly (25) said that had achieved what he wanted. "I set out to gather as much information as possible, as fast as possible, inform you and the government before getting caught, then hand myself into the police," he said.

"I will be handing myself into the police today." Trident was "a broken system", he claimed. "If you continue to defend it sooner or later more truth will come out or a catastrophe will happen."

The Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has this afternoon launched a petition to pardon McNeilly. "He should be commended for exposing the poor safety standards on nuclear submarines and not persecuted," it says.

McNeilly accused the Royal Navy of playing down his 18-page dossier alleging fire risks, leaks, a flood and security breaches on the submarines that carry Britain's nuclear weapons. The navy has said his report contains "subjective and unsubstantiated personal views, made by a very junior sailor, with which the naval service completely disagrees."

He said: "Responding by downplaying a report because there’s lack of seniority, acting like your security system is impenetrable and your aged system is still in excellent condition for sailing, is not an adequate response. Anyone who can use simple logic will not believe that."

Trident whistleblower says he will give himself up

from The National, 18 May 2015

The nuclear weapons engineer on the run after he blew the whistle on 30 alleged safety and security flaws plaguing Trident submarines has told his family he’s planning to give himself up.

Royal Navy submariner, William McNeilly (25), assured his brother on Facebook yesterday that he was “relatively safe now” though he couldn’t say where he was. “I will return to the UK and hand myself in soon,” he said.

“I may be alone physically, but I'm backed by a growing army. Change is coming. Don't worry about me,” he added. “This is about doing what I swore to do: protect the people and the land against threats both foreign and domestic.”

The Royal Navy has launched an investigation into McNeilly’s allegations, and says it “is working closely with civilian police to locate him”. Anti-nuclear campaigners yesterday praised his bravery, and urged the Navy not to hound him.

McNeilly, from Newtownabbey in Belfast, joined the Navy in July 2013 and served on patrol with the Trident submarine, HMS Victorious, from January to April this year. He went absent without leave last week, after writing a dramatic and damning account of the multiple problems he says he saw or heard about.

Trident is a disaster waiting to happen, says nuclear whistleblower

from Sunday Herald, 17 May 2015

Trident submarines are plagued by serious security lapses, beset by multiple safety blunders and “a disaster waiting to happen”, according to a nuclear weapons engineer turned whistleblower now being hunted by the police.

William McNeilly, who says he was on patrol with HMS Victorious from January to April this year, alleges that the Trident missiles it carries are vulnerable to a terrorist attack that “would kill our people and destroy our land.” Infiltrators have “the perfect opportunity to send nuclear warheads crashing down on the UK”, he claims.

He has written a detailed 18-page report called ‘The Nuclear Secrets’ claiming to lift the lid on the alarming state of the UK’s ageing and short-staffed nuclear deterrent. He went absent without leave from the Royal Navy last week, is on the run and expects to be arrested.

“This is bigger than me, it’s bigger than all of us,” he says. “We are so close to a nuclear disaster it is shocking, and yet everybody is accepting the risk to the public. If we don’t act now lives could be lost for generations.”

The risk was “extremely high”, he told the Sunday Herald. “My information comes from good sources and I have no reason to lie. If change isn’t made, a nuclear catastrophe almost certainly will happen.”

McNeilly’s report alleges 30 safety and security flaws on Trident submarines, based at Faslane on the Clyde. They include failures testing whether missiles could be safely launched, burning toilet rolls starting a fire in a missile compartment, and security passes and bags going unchecked.

He also reports alarms being muted because they went off so often, missile safety procedures being ignored and top secret information left unguarded. “It's just a matter of time before we're infiltrated by a psychopath or a terrorist,” he says. “There were some people that I served with on that patrol, who showed clear psychopathic tendencies.”

Edited extract from Nuclear Secrets by William McNeilly

from Sunday Herald, 17 May 2015

My name is William McNeilly. I am a weapons engineer submariner for the UK's Trident II D5 strategic weapons system. The penalty for releasing this report will be life prison if I’m lucky.

The worst fear for me isn’t prison or being assassinated, it’s the fear of sacrificing everything I have just to warn the public and yet never be heard. My leave expires today. I will be hunted down for not turning up.

When I’m found I will confess and will no longer be able to keep trying to warn the public. This document will enlighten you about the shockingly extreme conditions that our nuclear weapons system is in right now, and has been in the past. I need you to publish this document or send it to someone who will - please, for the safety of the people.

The complete lack of concern for security worries me. The fact is it would have been even easier for me to cause a nuclear catastrophe than to gather information, and gathering information was actually quite simple, due to the amount of ignorance.

We are at war, with a new kind of enemy. The terrorists have infiltrated every nation on our planet. Our nuclear weapons are a target that's wide open to attack. You don't have to be Alexander the Great to see we must adapt our strategies.

The Cold War is over; are we still in situation where we must invest billions upon billions into a system that puts our citizens at risk? No! We must adapt to the evolving world in order to survive!

I had envisioned a system with strict security and safety. I didn't see how wrong I was until I arrived at HMS Neptune (Faslane). At the gate the guard barely looked at my pass. It's harder to get into most nightclubs.

We headed down the boat. No search at all. It wasn't because we're Royal Navy personnel; it was because that's the standard procedures. Hundreds of contractors go down the boat when it's alongside. Their equipment isn't searched and they are not patted down. All it takes is someone to bring a bomb on board to commit the worst terrorist attack the UK and the world has ever seen.

Nuclear waste safety limits relaxed at Sellafield after accident

from The Guardian, 14 May 2015

Safety limits on the storage of some of the world’s most dangerous nuclear wastes at Sellafield in Cumbria have been relaxed after an accident knocked out a treatment plant and caused “gross contamination”.

The government’s safety watchdog, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), has permitted the private company that runs Sellafield to breach legal restrictions on the amount of hot, high-level radioactive waste that can be kept in tanks. The limits are likely to be exceeded by up to 350 tonnes between April 2014 and July 2016.

Critics accused ONR of breaking their promises and putting Sellafield’s profits before safety. But ONR insisted there was “minimal hazard increase”, while Sellafield said it put safety first.

The waste storage limits, imposed in 2001, were meant to reduce stocks to below 5,500 tonnes of uranium equivalent by July 2015. The aim was to minimise the risk of a disaster spreading a plume of potentially lethal radioactive contamination over the UK and Ireland – officially regarded as Sellafield’s “worst credible accident”.

The liquid waste comes from Britain’s nuclear power stations and generates significant amounts of heat. It has to be constantly cooled and stirred to prevent it from overheating.

Sellafield asked for permission to breach the storage limits to help cope with a backlog caused by an accident in November 2013. A plant meant to solidify the waste to make it safer lost power, suffered "gross contamination” and had to be closed for 11 months.

Anger as Edinburgh University fails to pull out of fossil fuels

from The National, 13 May 2015

The University of Edinburgh has been accused of betraying future generations by failing to withdraw its multi-million pound investments in climate-wrecking fossil fuels. 

Protesting students lay down on the steps of the university’s stately Old College yesterday and angrily confronted the senior vice principal, Professor Charlie Jeffery, after he announced a much more cautious approach to disinvestment than had been expected.

The university rejected the option of withdrawing investments from all fossil fuel companies partly because of its involvement in research and teaching on the oil, gas and coal industries. “A broad-brush decision to divest would likely be seen as a sweeping and undue limitation to academic freedom,” concluded a university review.

“This option would also appear to increase the risk to capital and overall risks to the investment portfolio as well as raising serious concerns around the impact on the university’s existing investment approach.”

Instead, Edinburgh University opted for a policy of “engagement” with fossil fuel companies using “investment leverage” to persuade them to change their behaviour and cut climate pollution. Companies will be required to report on their emissions and compared to others in their sectors.

Salmon farm drug that kills wildlife to be withdrawn from market

from Sunday Herald, 10 May 2015

A toxic drug fed to caged salmon in Scotland is due to be withdrawn from the market after scientists found that that it can leak into lochs and kill crabs, shrimps and lobsters.

Food pellets laced with a chemical called teflubenzuron have long been given to farmed salmon around the coast in order to control sea lice infestations. The lice eat salmon, killing them or stunting their growth, and can cause multi-million-pound losses for fish farmers.

But salmon excrete the chemical, which then pollutes the seabed around fish farms at levels than can be lethal to marine wildlife. Shellfish are poisoned and prevented from making new shells to protect them as they grow.

Now the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) says it has persuaded the company that markets the drug to withdraw it. Campaigners, however, warn that replacement drugs could do just as much harm, and are demanding a much broader legal ban.

The latest research on teflubenzuron was conducted by scientists from the Institute of Marine Research and the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research in Bergen, Norway. They detected high concentrations in sediment around a salmon farm on a fjord north of the city.

The dramatic decline of house sparrows – and the fight to bring them back

from Sunday Herald, 10 May 2015

They used to be ubiquitous in our towns and cities, flitting, pecking and chirping noisily. But now they have gone, and the streets have fallen silent.

House sparrows - the brown, boisterous opportunists that were Britain’s best-known urban birds - have virtually disappeared. Scientists say their numbers have plummeted by up to 90 per cent since the 1970s.

No-one is exactly sure why, though the loss of hedges, trees, insects and flowers have all been blamed. Predation by domestic cats and other animals may also be implicated, as well as possibly pollution.

But now conservationists, communities and schools have launched campaigns to try and bring back house sparrows. One of the pioneering projects is in Glasgow, where the birds have suffered a very steep decline.

The ornithologist, JD Summers-Smith, recorded a massive 98-99 per cent decline in sparrows in suburban Glasgow between 1959 and 1997. The birds are now recognised as one of the most endangered across the UK, and are on the “red list” of the most vulnerable species.

Outrage over new bid for huge quarry already rejected four times

from Sunday Herald, 03 May 2015

A Scottish quarry company is launching a new bid to dig a massive hole on the banks of the Clyde despite being rejected four times in the last five years by the local council, the Scottish Government and the Court of Session. 

Outrage and shock have greeted news that Patersons Quarries is intending to lodge another planning application for a 3.3 million tonne sand and gravel quarry at Overburns Farm near Tinto hill in South Lanarkshire in the hope of reversing previous rebuffs.

Furious residents, campaigners and politicians accuse the company of trying to “grind down” opposition by repeatedly resurrecting its bitterly disputed plan. Scotland’s planning system favours developers at the expense of communities, they say.

Patersons, based in Coatbridge, operates six quarries across the central belt. It initially applied to dig a new 37-hectare quarry at Overburns near Symington in 2009, but this was turned down by South Lanarkshire Council.

The company made a second application in 2011, which was again rejected by the council. It appealed to the Scottish Government and lost in 2013, and then appealed to the Court of Session and lost again in 2014.

Supreme Court orders ministers to clean up killer air pollution

from The National, 30 April 2015

Environmentalists claimed a “huge victory” yesterday as the Supreme Court ordered the UK government to take “immediate action” to cut lethal air pollution from traffic in Glasgow and 15 other cities.

The ruling from the UK’s highest court will also put pressure on the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council to do more to reduce toxic exhaust fumes, blamed for killing over 2,000 people every year in Scotland.

Nitrogen dioxide gas and tiny sooty particles belched out by cars, lorries and buses can cause asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer and breathing problems. The pollution can also trigger heart attacks and strokes.

A study by the World Health Organisation on Tuesday estimated that air pollution is costing Europe over a trillion pounds a year. That includes the costs of over 600,000 premature deaths a year across the continent, and many more illnesses.

In a unanimous verdict from five leading judges in London, the Supreme Court agreed to issue a mandatory order requiring Westminster to prepare and deliver new air quality plans to the European Commission before the end of 2015.