Latest news with #Tunnock's
Scotsman
15-07-2025
- General
- Scotsman
Gregor Poynton MP calls for action to secure future of Military Museum Scotland
The visit coincided with Armed Forces Week, with Mr Poynton having the opportunity to meet veterans, volunteers and members of the armed forces community, as well as the museum's founder and manager, Ian Inglis. The museum began life as a mobile exhibition, taking history and stories into schools across the country. It has since grown into a permanent home for local military heritage, playing a much bigger role than just displaying artefacts. It runs school visits, welcomes care home residents and dementia patients, and hosts a thriving Armed Forces and Veterans Breakfast Club that brings people together and tackles isolation. Speaking after his visit, Gregor Poynton MP said: 'Meeting veterans here, surrounded by the history they helped shape, was incredibly moving. Ian and his team have built something truly special — a place that doesn't just preserve history but actively improves lives in our community. 'It's worrying that the museum now faces having to leave its current site by the end of the year. I'll do all I can to support the museum, its volunteers and the local community to find a new, secure home so they can keep doing what they do best. 'That's why I've written not only to the Chief Executive of West Lothian Council requesting an urgent meeting, but also to the Minister for Veterans in the Scottish Government, urging them to get behind this vital community asset and support its relocation. This museum delivers real social value and touches countless lives — it deserves meaningful backing at every level.' The museum must leave its current site at Linburn due to estate-related issues. This puts at risk not just the museum's collection but also the important services it offers to veterans, their families and the wider community. Military Museum Scotland has now launched a public fundraising appeal to help secure a new permanent home. The campaign is already attracting strong support from individuals, businesses and community groups, including a generous donation from iconic Scottish brand Tunnock's. Gregor Poynton MP added: 'I want to thank everyone who's already rallied round the museum, including the team at Tunnock's for their fantastic contribution. I'm calling on anyone who's able to help — whether that's donating, sharing the appeal, or offering practical support — to get involved. 'And I'm urging the Scottish Government to step up too. This museum delivers real social value, supports our veterans and combats loneliness and isolation. It's exactly the sort of project that deserves public funding and Government backing.' Ian Inglis, Founder and Manager of Military Museum Scotland, reflected on the journey so far and the challenges ahead: 'When I first set out to create this museum, I was told there was no need for another military museum, that others had tried and failed, and that we wouldn't last six months. Well, here we are, nearly ten years on, with nine major awards under our belt and countless lives touched through our work. 'West Lothian is our home. We serve not just veterans, but the wider community. Our volunteers – many of whom are veterans themselves – rely on this place as a lifeline. For many of them, Military Museum Scotland is more than a museum — it's a sanctuary. 'We urgently need help to secure a new permanent location, one that allows us to continue this vital work and ensure our veterans have a place they can continue to call home.' Military Museum Scotland is now actively seeking assistance — from local authorities, community leaders, businesses and charitable organisations — to continue its mission and protect this irreplaceable piece of living history. Donations to the appeal can be made via the museum's website and social media pages. 1 . Contributed Gregor Poynton MP at the Military Museum Photo: Submitted Photo Sales 2 . Contributed Gregor Poynton MP at the Military Museum Photo: Submitted Photo Sales 3 . Contributed Gregor Poynton MP at the Military Museum Photo: Submitted Photo Sales 4 . Contributed Gregor Poynton MP at the Military Museum Photo: Submitted Photo Sales
The Herald Scotland
23-06-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Tunnock's is not to blame for society's problems
We know why the government feels this is necessary: we have eyes and the official figures provide the proof. In 2003, according to the Scottish Government, one-quarter of adults in Scotland were obese. Now it's one-third. And with obesity comes increased risk of cancer, diabetes and death and, as the UK Government points out, a cost of billions of pounds to the NHS. We are deep in a serious crisis that's getting worse. The question is how we get out of it and Tunnock's feels it is being unfairly targeted. Its sales director Fergus Loudon said in Scottish Grocer magazine that the food industry was being blamed for societal problems that were not of its making. 'Banning chocolate biscuit ads on TV before nine o'clock to prevent obesity,' he said, 'is rather like banning foreign holidays to prevent skin damage from too much sun.' A couple of things are going on here. First, it would be stupid to deny that food ads have an effect and that restricting ads can have some effect on what we buy and eat. The science writer Ellen Ruppel Shell points out in her very good book on obesity, Fat Wars, that Burger King spends more than half-a-billion dollars on promotional efforts every year and does it because it works. Conversely, no or little advertising would have the opposite effect to some extent and reduce consumption. 'Free-market capitalism is wonderful for many things,' says Shell, 'but public health is not among them.' However, accepting that advertising has an effect is not the same as solving the health crisis because it goes deeper than that. There's been virtually no advertising of vapes and vaping, for instance, and yet vaping has exploded as a habit. It's also worth pointing out that Tunnock's (est. 1890) was around when there wasn't an obesity crisis and is around when there absolutely is an obesity crisis. Of course, a ban on ads will have an effect around the edges, but the crisis will go on until we tackle the deeper trends advertising cannot change – what Mr Loudon of Tunnock's calls societal problems. I raise this subject whenever I talk to people in the food industry and it pretty much always comes back to the same few things. I had lunch with the French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli in Edinburgh and asked him what he thought was to blame for obesity. He said without a moment's hesitation: mobiles. We're getting fatter, he said, because of what we've done to our brains with technology – the constant messages, the instant gratification – and it means we're more absorbed in technology than in cooking and eating well. 'This is the thing that inflates your stomach,' he said, pointing to his phone. I agree with chef Novelli – we know phones are changing the way we behave, I can feel it myself. We also know it starts young. Children are much less likely now to be active and outdoors because they prefer their phones but Shell also writes in Fat Wars that no-one is born with a taste for hot, bitter or sour or, for that matter, single malt or cigars: tastes develop with exposure and social pressure – and that's fine as long as the influences are good. However, as Shell points out, in the US and the UK, children increasingly dictate family food choices, which leaves households 'immersed in a miasma of one-dimensional sweet taste that reinforces and entrains juvenile preferences'. Read more Are you 'upset'? The dangers of flags in Scottish schools These are the latest plans at the Glasgow School of Art. Really? No more Edinburgh Book Festival for me – where did it all go wrong? Anyone who grew up in the 1970s or earlier will know how true this is. I try to avoid using the phrase 'in my day' if I can, but in my day it was your parents who dictated the food choices based on what was good for you and how much it cost. Sweet foods like a Tunnock's Caramel Log, or the greatest British biscuit of all, the custard cream, were allowed as a treat but only a treat. By contrast, children now appear to be able to wield control and a veto on certain foods that would have been unthinkable in the 1970s. Adverts were around then and adverts are around now – it's the parenting that's changed. How we fix the problem isn't easy – we're now into the second generation of parents who don't know how to cook and have handed food choices to their kids. But another chef I've spoken to is Gary Maclean, senior chef lecturer at City of Glasgow College and a winner of MasterChef: The Professionals. He knows what's he talking about because he lived it. He grew up in the 1970s when most food was cooked from scratch and something like Wimpy was a treat. Now, kids are outdoors much less than they were, and McDonald's and KFC are a ubiquitous part of many children's diets. Result: fat kids. Maclean is well aware that an important factor in all of this is poverty. Unhealthy rubbish is relatively cheap. There was also an interesting Glasgow University study which showed that fast-food outlets are six times more prevalent in the poorest parts of the city. And it's all borne out by what happens to children and adults. By primary one, five-year-olds in Scotland are more than twice as likely to be at risk of obesity if they're from the most deprived catchments compared to the least. Roughly the same with adults: the obesity rate in the most affluent areas is 26% compared to 36% in the poorest neighbourhoods. An ad for Tunnock's (Image: Newsquest) You may think the answer to the problem is to tax unhealthy food, but Gary Maclean's concern is that it just makes life for poorer people even harder. Much better, he says, to try to get in early and encourage good habits at an early stage. If he had his way, he would make cooking and food education compulsory in schools – and it's hard to resist his logic. 'Learning to cook is just as important as learning to write,' he said. 'PE is compulsory and what you eat is just as important as what you do.' His conclusion is that Scotland has the best food in the world but the worst diet, and only something fundamental such as compulsory food lessons at school will change it. You could introduce all the rules on ads you like – you could ban ads for Tunnock's Teacakes entirely – but not only would that be unfair on a firm like Tunnock's that's trying to promote its product, it would only make a marginal difference on a population affected, and made unhealthier, by deeper trends. As it happens, Mr Loudon of Tunnock's also believes it's education that will address the problem and he's right: don't change the ads, change how we see them, and react to them. There's nothing wrong with a biscuit or two as part of a healthy balanced diet; all we need to do is to re-learn the fact.
Daily Record
21-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Record
Tunnock's bosses fury as teacake adverts banned before 9pm
The Uddingston-based firm will be banned from airing adverts as part of the new drive to improve public health. Tunnock's bosses have slammed plans to ban TV ads for their tasty treats until after 9pm. The iconic company, based in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, is famed for its snowballs, teacakes and caramel logs which are exported around the globe. But junk food ads are soon to be banned from airing before the TV watershed as part of a Government drive to improve public health. In addition, online ads for products high in fat, salt and sugar will be banned altogether. Fergus Loudon, sales director at Tunnock's, said: 'Obesity is a serious issue but it's an issue that only education will address. 'Banning chocolate biscuit ads on TV before nine o'clock to prevent obesity is rather like banning foreign holidays to prevent skin damage from too much sun.' A UK Government spokesman said: 'This is the first step to deliver a major shift in focus of healthcare from sickness to prevention and towards meeting our ambition to give every child a healthy, happy start to life.'
Scottish Sun
20-06-2025
- Business
- Scottish Sun
Tunnocks slams UK Government over TV advert ban
But junk food advertisements are soon to be banned from airing before the TV watershed as part of the government's drive to improve public health Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) TUNNOCK'S bosses have slammed plans to ban TV ads for their tasty treats until after 9pm. The iconic company, based in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, are famed for their snowballs, teacakes and caramel logs which are exported around the globe. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Tunnock's chiefs have hit out at the UK Government over a TV advert restriction Credit: Les Gallagher - The Sun Glasgow 2 The historic confectionary firm is renowned for its teacakes Credit: John Kirkby - The Sun Glasgow But junk food advertisements are soon to be banned from airing before the TV watershed as part of the government's drive to improve public health. In addition, online ads for products that are high in fat, salt and sugar will be banned altogether. In an interview, Fergus Loudon, sales director at Tunnock's, said: 'What we really need to guard against is, as an industry, being blamed for societal problems which are most definitely not of our making. 'Obesity is a serious issue but it's an issue that only education will address. 'Banning chocolate biscuit ads on TV before nine o'clock to prevent obesity is rather like banning foreign holidays to prevent skin damage from too much sun.' In February, Tunnock's took a swipe at rival brands that reduced the size of their products in a new advertising campaign. The biscuit firm teamed up with Taggart star Alex Norton to investigate other chocolate makers "getting away with murder" by shrinking their bars. The actor played the role of a detective probing the growing trend of "shrinkflation" in the confectionery industry. Westminster plans to introduce the new AD restrictions on October 1 2025 across the UK. Ally McCoist is in cycling crash as he rides 555 miles across Ireland to raise money for the My Name's Doddie Foundation A recent survey by Obesity Action Scotland showed a majority of Scots would support a ban on junk food advertising before 9pm. The poll, which was carried out by YouGov on behalf of the campaign group, found 74 per cent supported a ban on junk food adverts on TV before 9pm, with 69 per cent supporting a similar ban online and 66 per cent a ban on adverts outside the home before 9pm. A UK Government spokesperson said: "Obesity robs our kids of the best possible start in life, sets them up for a lifetime of health problems, and costs the NHS billions. "This government is taking action now to end the targeting of junk food ads at kids, across both TV and online. "This is the first step to deliver a major shift in the focus of healthcare from sickness to prevention, and towards meeting our government's ambition to give every child a healthy, happy start to life."
Daily Record
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Scots share 'the most Scottish thing' they have ever seen in person
Here in Scotland, we have seen it all. People from Scotland have shared "the most Scottish thing" they have ever witnessed. From bagpipes and kilts to relentless seagulls, a huge range of responses were shared. Everybody who lives in or is from Scotland will know that it is a place unlike any other. From our humour to our language, Scots are truly unique. On Tuesday, June 10, Facebook page Scottish Patter asked their followers about their unique Scottish experiences. Posting on their social media account, they questioned: "What's the most 'Scottish thing' you've ever witnessed in person?" Since being shared, the post has received more than 180 responses. Many Scots shared their funny experiences. This is a reference to the Scottish New Year's tradition of first-footing. It is said that the first person to cross the threshold of a home after midnight on January 1 will determine that household's luck for the following year. According to tradition, dark-haired men are said to bring luck. Gifts such as coal and whisky are also believed to bring good fortune for the year ahead. Also related to Hogmanay, a user posted: "Moving into a new home in East Kilbride, did not know anyone but at Hogmanay 14 people arrived at our door to wish us a guid new-year." A third Facebook user shared: "Seagulls trying to open a box of Tunnock's teacakes in the car park of an Asda. Best thing I've ever seen." As any Scot who has ever enjoyed fish and chips by the beach will know, the country's seagulls can be ruthless in their pursuit of food. Meanwhile, Tunnock's is among Scotland's most iconic companies—known for their products such as Caramel Wafers and Teacakes. Similarly, another Scot shared: "Saw a man in a kilt, sipping Irn-Bru at 8am, arguing with a seagull outside Greggs like it owed him rent. Didn't even flinch when it stole his sausage roll. "That bird understood the assignment." Meanwhile, a fifth Facebook user commented: "Kid going a fish and chips shop at 8am for a butty on the way to school in Paisley I was shocked." Someone else shared: "My husband's uncle run out of lemonade for his Tennent's shandy so used Irn-Bru instead." Another Facebook user wrote: "Was in Edinburgh for a weekend in February. Saw a middle-aged woman walking through the street with her shopping at about 9-10am. "She got to a bench in the middle of street, set her bags down and cracked opened a can of Tennent's from her jacket pocket. Sat and drank it in about five mins, grabbed her shopping and set back off." Elsewhere, one stated: "A guy in Edinburgh, in a kilt, playing the bagpipes."
