Rob Edwards

Upgrade to Trident targeting prompts fears of US control

from Sunday Herald, 28 February 2016

A major upgrade of a top-secret system for targeting Trident warheads has sparked fears that UK nuclear weapons are effectively under the control of the US.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has completed an eight-year overhaul of the high-security computer software used to determine which cities and military facilities across the world would be hit by nuclear bombs in the event of war. Details of the upgrade are “classified”.

Critics claim that the UK system is critically dependent on US software, and that it’s the US president who is really in command. But this is denied by the MoD, which insists that that the targeting system is “one of the sovereign components” of the nuclear deterrent.

An unpublicised article in an MoD technical journal in December 2015 disclosed that scientists and engineers had been thanked for bringing Trident’s targeting system into “a new era”. The upgrade project had required “zero tolerance of failure” and encountered “considerable challenges”, it said.

“This represents the culmination of eight years of design, development, production and test effort that comprises over 3.5 million lines of software code and in excess of 300,000 man-hours.”

Work was co-ordinated by the MoD’s strategic weapons project team based at the “UK Software Facility (UKSF)”. The MoD refused to say where this facility is located, but it is believed to be in a bunker hidden under a grass mound behind barbed wire near the town of Corsham in Wiltshire.

Row over Westminster bid to vet Holyrood human rights letters

from Sunday Herald, 28 February 2016

The Foreign Office in Westminster is demanding to vet Scottish Government dealings with other countries on human rights, according to correspondence seen by the Sunday Herald.

The UK foreign minister, James Duddridge, has asked the Scottish international development minister, Humza Yousaf, to clear all his letters to foreign governments before raising concerns about human rights infringements and other matters.

The move has infuriated Yousaf. “It beggars belief that the Tories – who are in the midst of scrapping the Human Rights Act – want to vet the Scottish Government’s letters raising human rights concerns abroad,” he said.

“I am proud of the SNP raising concerns about human rights without fear or favour – and certainly will take no lessons from the Tories on this,” he added.

“Whilst we are happy to share correspondence with Westminster, as we have done to date as a matter of courtesy, we certainly will not be asking or seeking permission before raising legitimate concerns about human rights.”

Row over removal of radiation warnings from nuclear convoys

from Sunday Herald, 21 February 2016

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has come under fierce fire for removing radiation warning signs from the nuclear convoys that regularly trundle Scotland’s roads.

The well-known trefoil symbol indicating hazardous radioactivity is no longer used on lorries transporting plutonium or highly enriched uranium for bombs. According to the MoD, this is so it can maintain its policy “to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons.”

The move has been fiercely criticised by SNP and Labour politicians for endangering the public and emergency services. Campaigners say the MoD is putting secrecy ahead of public safety.

In the past vehicles carrying “special nuclear materials” such as plutonium and uranium displayed the warning signs, though those carrying nuclear weapons did not. But following a decision to use the same vehicles for both kinds of shipments, the MoD dispensed with all radiation symbols in 2012.

The change was only revealed in a parliamentary answer earlier this month from the defence minister Penny Mordaunt to the SNP MP for Midlothian, Owen Thompson. “This beggars belief,” he told the Sunday Herald.

“If the UK government really thinks it is better for people not to know nuclear material is being driven on motorways and through city centres to feed their nuclear obsession, it is simply untenable.”

Astute submarines plagued by 69 safety incidents over four years

from Sunday Herald, 21 February 2016

The Royal Navy’s new nuclear-powered submarines have been plagued by 69 safety incidents and “near misses” over the last four years, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has disclosed.

The Astute class of submarines based at Faslane on the Clyde has seen reported reactor incidents at sea or on shore almost double from 12 in 2014 to 21 in 2015. Though the MoD insists that the incidents are all minor, critics warn that they undermine the boats’ reliability and safety.

The first submarine of the class, HMS Astute, has already been out on operations, and the second, HMS Ambush, was launched in 2011. The third, HMS Artful, was formally handed over the Royal Navy in December 2015.

The four remaining Astute submarines are either still being built by the defence firm BAE Systems at its Barrow shipyard, or are due to be built there. The construction programme has been subject to a series of delays and cost overruns.

The MoD revealed the number of safety events recorded with Astute submarine reactors between January 2012 and January 2016 in response to a request under freedom of information law. There were an average of more than 17 a year, or one every three weeks (see table below).

SNP MPs defy Sturgeon on divesting from fossil fuel firms

from Sunday Herald, 14 February 2016

A dozen SNP MPs have backed a Green motion urging the Westminster parliament to withdraw its multi-million pound pension funds from fossil fuel companies to help tackle climate pollution.

This is despite a recent statement by the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, suggesting that she is opposed to the growing global movement to pull investments worth some £2.3 trillion from coal, oil and gas companies.

More that 50 protests are being staged across the UK this weekend aimed at persuading more universities, councils and banks to withdraw money from climate polluters. In Scotland, the University of Glasgow and the United Reform Church are among those who have already decided to divest.

The House of Commons motion was lodged last September by the sole Green MP, Caroline Lucas. Some £500 million is invested into UK and global economies by Westminster’s pension fund, though fund mangers have so far refused to say how much of that is in fossil fuels.

The motion argues that because climate change poses a “serious risk” to financial returns, universities, churches and institutions are increasingly deciding to withdraw their funds from polluters.

Shooting estates take SNH to court on bird of prey claims

from Sunday Herald, 7 February 2016

Two sporting estates are taking the government’s wildlife agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), to court after it said that birds of prey had been illegally killed or trapped on their land.

Last week SNH named Raeshaw estate, south east of Edinburgh, and Burnfoot estate, west of Stirling, as sites where raptors protected under law such as peregrines, red kites and buzzards had been persecuted.

Based on evidence from Police Scotland, SNH rejected appeals from the two estates, and took the unprecedented step of imposing legal restrictions on the management of their grouse moors.

The Sunday Herald has learnt, however, that the estates are now launching a judicial review of SNH’s move. They deny any wrongdoing, and are challenging whether SNH has acted lawfully within its powers.

The fierce legal battle is the latest twist in the long and bitter war over birds of prey on sporting estates. The birds are known to prey on grouse, which some landowners fear could reduce the numbers available to be shot for sport.

Hen harriers exterminated in northeast Scotland, says study

from Sunday Herald, 07 February 2016

Hen harriers have been virtually wiped out by sporting estates across northeast Scotland, according to a new scientific study.

The number of breeding pairs in the Cairngorms National Park, Aberdeenshire and East Moray has plummeted from 28 in the 1990s to just one in 2014 because of “illegal persecution and grouse management practices”, nine experts from the Northeast Scotland Raptor Study Group have concluded.

Their conclusions are backed by wildlife campaigners, who are demanding tougher action by Scottish ministers to crack down on offending landowners. But the study has been attacked by a landowning group as a selective attempt “to besmirch grouse moor management.”

The study, published in the journal British Birds, identified 118 possible breeding areas for hen harriers in northeast Scotland. “The vast majority were on moorland managed for red grouse sport shooting,” it said.

“Peak numbers of at least 28 breeding pairs in the 1990s declined steadily to just three pairs in 2010–12, five in 2013 and one in 2014. Illegal persecution and grouse-management practices are believed to be the main causes of that decline, which occurred despite ample suitable habitat and prey.”

New bid to ban pesticides toxic to bees

from Sunday Herald, 7 February 2016

Toxic pesticides blamed for harming bees are still being used across large swathes of farmland in Scotland, according to the latest government monitoring.

Farmers have treated potatoes, wheat, barley and oats on more than 22,000 hectares of land with the three most dangerous nicotine-based chemicals known as neonicotinoids.

The revelation has prompted wildlife groups to step up their campaign for Scottish ministers to ban the pesticides permanently to protect bees. But farmers say this could be “premature and damaging”.

The European Union (EU) restricted the use of three neonicotinoids in December 2013, and is now considering whether to end or extend the restrictions. They were clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam.

But the restrictions do not prevent the three chemicals from being used on crops that don’t attract bees and other pollinators. In Scotland, this has allowed their continued use on potatoes, wheat, barley and oats.

The latest figures from the Scottish Government’s Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture show that the three pesticides were applied to crops covering 22,442 hectares of farmland in 2014. That included 11,477 hectares of winter wheat, 5,910 hectares of winter barley, 4,379 hectares of potatoes and 676 hectares of spring oats.