The team that made the film 'Nicotine Bees' has petitioned the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency in the USA, demanding a ban on the use of Neo-Nicotinoid insecticides in a specific group of American states, to try and prove, once and for all, that these systemic pesticides are responsible for the global collapse in bee stocks.
The attached WORD file document details their argument. The team filmed bees and beekeepers on three continents : America, Europe and India and they observed a strong degree of correlation between areas (states) where neonicotinoids were introduced - with a collapse of bee-colonies that was congruent in time and space with the introduction of the pesticides.
You can see a trailer for the film here: http://pierreterre.com/video/nicotine-bees-trailer

They claim that since the pesticides were introduced in Italy there was a marked 'bounce-back' in bee fortunes and a restoration in the level of the honey crop ( I haven't seen the film yet so can't comment.

The attached word document details why they think the pattern is so clear and what they propose. They are asking the American EPA to ban neo-nicotinoids in one or two specific states, such as Florida and New Hampshire, to test whether the pesticides are in fact responsible. Maybe we should be asking the Scottish Government to do the same here? It would make a nice practical experiment - to see if bees continued to decline in England - but thrived in Scotland.