An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
Local results for the Scottish Parliamentary elections are in.
They show significant gains for the Scottish National Party, Conservatives and Greens. And significant losses for Labour.
In Edinburgh Northern and Leith, the SNP’s Ben Macpherson took the seat from Labour (overturning former incumbent Malcolm Chisholm’s 595 vote majority).
What follows is a Police Scotland press release issued yesterday afternoon. We reprint it in full and unedited.
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Police in Edinburgh are appealing for information after a man in his 20s was seriously assaulted as he waited for a bus on the North Bridge.
The incident occurred at around 3:30am on Wednesday, May 4th, at a bus stop nearest to the junction with the Royal Mile on the east side pavement.
Locals were unimpressed today by unsightly repairs to 20 sq.m. of East London Street.
Andrew Haddow, who contacted the Spurtle, said Council workers were ‘fixing the massive potholes created by buses rolling down the street at all times of day and night, and during the diversion around Broughton Street when it closed during St James Quarter preparations’ (Issue 242).
PRINTS BY ANNE RUSSELL – REVIEWED BY RHYS FULLERTON
I’d like to start with a warning. Some of the photos of the exhibition on this page really don’t do justice to Anne Russell’s works, so I'd encourage all readers to go and look at the originals for themselves.
There is something refreshingly enjoyable about Russell’s prints. They are not overly stylish or lavish; they are simple but still have a visual flair, which drifts seamlessly from one technique to another.
SEPA MAY STEP IN
Some people may have thought that the fight to save 1–6 Canonmills Bridge is now a lost cause (Breaking news, 29.1.16), but die-hard campaigners have not given up hope.
Bill Geary, a civil engineer and local resident, believes he’s found a new angle on the controversy which could involve the intervention of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
The Great Storm of 14 October 1881 claimed the lives of 189 men, most of them fishermen from Eyemouth (129) and Burnmouth (24), but 17 originating from Newhaven.
Three of those Newhaven men are remembered on adjacent gravestones in Rosebank Cemetery:
DAVID HILL CONSIDERS FORTH STREET AND BROUGHTON PLACE
Lightness and possibility inform the morning air as I head past the metropolitan cathedral towards Broughton. The limpid weekend sky seems charmed by April’s delicate breeze, and the few distant clouds, lurking to the north like languid spectres, hold no fear.
This early azure feels like a promise, or perhaps a screen on which to project the day’s al fresco fantasies.
As you read this, Issue 251 of the Spurtle is speeding from the presses like rattlestanes off a tourist’s sunhat.
Distribution will mostly begin tomorrow, but may not be complete until early next week due to weekend and May Day bank holiday arrangements.
By jingo, it’ll be worth waiting for, though.
Freedom from Torture is a charitable medical foundation for the care of victims of torture.
Its local Edinburgh group is currently preparing for a biennial fund-raising walk from Stockbridge to Balerno on Saturday 21 May, and would like you to join in.
Participants can walk the full 9.3 miles to the foot of the Pentlands, or bail out at Slateford (4.5 miles), Colinton (6 miles), or Currie (8 miles) from where buses can be caught back into Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh International Festival is the first summer festival to announce its full 2016 programme, writes Rhys Fullerton.
Broughton-based shows are all at the Edinburgh Playhouse, and one of the highlights is a two-night residency for the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós.