Leaders: "Horsemeat scandal heats up as new accusations arise" With every day more revelations - and accusations - come to light as the blame game develops over the horsemeat scandal. Local councils now find themselves in the firing line with the chief executive of Iceland accusing them of driving down food quality with cheap food contracts for schools and hospitals. Malcolm Walker, the boss of Iceland, said the "problem really lies" with councils buying food from the poorly supplied catering industry and that retailers should not be blamed. The claim brought immediate denials from the Local Government Association, who pointed to "a major supply chain failure." Meanwhile Mark Price, the managing director of John Lewis-owned Waitrose, said the food industry had to apply "renewed rigour" to their testing regimes and that "food cannot be seen as a cheap commodity when so many factors are working against that premise, including population growth." But the hottest wire in the blame game may be that leading directly to the government. John Young, former Food Standards Agency manager, said over the weekend that he had alerted the government back in 2011 to the "debacle" of horse passports, which were supposed to stop the painkiller bute entering the food chain, but was ignored. The Environment Secretary back then was Caroline Spelman. Was the FSA warning sent, as is claimed? If so, did it reach the desk of Mrs Spelman? If not, why not, and if it did, what action, if any, was taken? Her successor, Owen Paterson, said yesterday he had asked the FSA's chief executive and officials at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to probe the allegations. Defra has had its fair share of turbulence and Mrs Spelman's period in the post was dogged by a series of controversies including a humiliating U-turn on the proposed £100 million sale of national forests and upsetting the powerful farming lobby by appearing to call for an early end to direct farm support. Prime Minister David Cameron dropped her from post in a Cabinet reshuffle last year. Clearly the onus is now on Mr Paterson to establish the veracity or otherwise of these claims and to explain why, if this warning was sent at the time claimed, no action was taken. The FSA says it has submitted a "full file" on its horsemeat investigation to Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, with information being analysed in 35 countries in Europe and elsewhere. But why do we learn of this only now? Clearly Scotland's beef farmers stand to benefit from a consumer recoil from processed foods and greater appreciation of the provenance and quality of Scottish product. It is too early to say yet whether the horsemeat scandal will bring about a sea-change in our dietary habits. But it will certainly see the emergence of a more discerning - and questioning - consumer. Holyrood must act on empty shops Latest figures on shop vacancy rates in Scotland give pause for thought. According to the Scottish Retail Consortium, vacancy rates rose from 9.9 per cent in October to 10.2 per cent in January. And footfall was the weakest since April 2012. Clearly, the burst of snowy weather and the continuing squeeze on household incomes took their toll. But Fiona Moriarty, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, is increasingly concerned that more than one in ten shops is now lying empty in our town centres. She argues that if the Scottish Government wants to stem the tide of further closures, it should act now to abate the rising costs of doing business on our high streets, while a cut in Empty Property Rates Relief certainly does not help the sector. While retailers should continue to campaign against these imposts, there is a positive suggestion it can usefully take up with Holyrood: changing the law to fast-track the reopening of empty shops. The campaign group PopUp Britain has approached administrators to acquire some of the empty shops for small firms. It is asking why it cannot access these shops to allow start-ups and small businesses to co-fund and co-work in these spaces. Early action on this front would bring two benefits. Firstly, it would help fill the unsightly gaps in our high streets and staunch the erosion of customer footfall. Secondly, it would bring a welcome boost to the start-up and small-business sector. Governments in Westminster and Holyrood proclaim their support for enterprise and small firms. Here is a concrete example where timely action would help both enterprise and our communities.