…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
Today, an organisation called Greenspace Scotland launched what they claim is a world first in mapping the location, extent and type of greenspace across all of Scotland’s urban settlements. [broken link Oct 2024]“No other country has mapped its greenspace in
Continue readingThe European Court of Auditors has just published a damning report on the Single Payment Scheme which was introduced as part of the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (ECA Press Release here [broken link Oct 2024] & BBC
Continue readingFollowing a European Court of Justice Ruling, the Scottish Government has removed all data on public subsidies paid to farmers from its website. The ruling stated that European legislation that obliges member states to publish data on the beneficiaries of
Continue readingI am a scientist by training. I believe that science holds out great promise for a better future. I believe all research dedicated to making the world a safer, healthier and more equitable place for us all to live is
Continue readingInteresting news from Downing Street. It has announced that it intends to make most Ordnance Survey maps free for use online from April 2010. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web appears to have convinced Number 10 that
Continue readingFollowing my post yesterday, it is great to see Heather Brooke on the cover of the Guardian’s G2 supplement today. Her story is a fascinating (but all too brief) account of the efforts she had to go to to secure
Continue readingAmidst all the justifiable anger over the revelations of MPs’ expenses it is worth remembering that we owe our knowledge of these issues not to the Daily Telegraph, not to the person who leaked them and certainly not to the
Continue readingIn 2002 I launched a site called whoownsscotland which was designed to document the ownership of land in Scotland. Progress has been slow because it is substantially a voluntary effort though I have had great support form folk in meeting
Continue readingRoss Finnie, the Minister for Environment and Rural Development, made an interesting announcement on Wednesday. He said that the Scottish Executive would in future disclose who got what in agricultural subsidies under the new Single Farm Payment Scheme. This follows
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