Bottling it ...

"SCOTTISH ministers have been condemned by environmental campaigners for spending almost £200,000 a year on bottled water while insisting that Scottish Water should remain in public ownership. Figures obtained by The Sunday Times have revealed that ministers, staff and guests consumed more than 460,000 litres of bottled water last year despite assurances that Scottish tap water is among the best in the world."

The recent announcement by the Scottish Government that it was to stop using bottled water is of course totally unrelated to the fact that the Sunday Times was pursuing this information using Freedom of Information requests. The publication of the story has already had an effect.

Will Glasgow City Council follow their lead?

Holyrood Spring.

Fresh from revelations about the usage of bottled water by the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government it would appear that some MSPs have had the bright idea of bottling their own Holyrood Spring water.

"SCOTTISH Parliament bosses today described how they could set up their own water bottling plant at Holyrood in a bid to become more environmentally friendly. The parliament supplies up to 600 bottles of water a week for MSPs at committees and in the debating chamber. Tory MSP Alex Johnstone, of the cross-party Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, said the volume was "relatively small" but the parliament wanted to do what it could to minimise the environmental impact, and he said they were investigating the possibility of bottling filtered tap water on site."

Now is Mr Smith alone in thinking that letting a load of MSPs loose with bottling equipment in the £420 million Scottish Parliament really probably isn't a good idea given their history of messing things up: the Parliament shop that loses money; the Parliament restaurant and bar that loses money ... Surely it would be easier to just use regular tap water (decanted from jugs)?

On tap.

Mr Smith reads that "MSPs will be asked to swap bottled water for more environmentally friendly tap water. Last year, the Scottish Government provided 123,884 litres of water at a cost of £34,201.90 at its offices in Victoria Quay. The Scottish Parliament also has free bottles of water in the debating chamber and committee rooms for MSPs."

That's a lot of plastic bottles ... even if they are being recycled. And rather ironic given the campaign over most of the last Scottish Parliament's last session to impose a levy on plastic bags by MSP Mike Pringle.