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All candidates invited to our hustings next week have also been invited to provide a short written introduction to themselves. 

First to respond is Lesley Hinds (Labour), whose words we reprint in full below. 

*****

In the Scottish Parliament elections Labour want to:

1.  Look to the future, not the past  

2. Fully use Parliament’s new powers 

3. Provide an alternative to Tory austerity and SNP cuts.

… AND YOU'RE INVITED 

Spurtle will host hustings for the Scottish Parliamentary election from 7.30pm–9.00pm on 14 April in Broughton St Mary’s Parish Church (Bellevue Crescent). 

Representatives have been invited from all 10 parties/independents standing in the Edinburgh Northern & Leith constituency. 

Tidying up is hard to do. 

Who hasn’t suffered a pang at binning some photo of a former love, at binning that once reliable but now no longer elasticated item of underwear, discarding the long-faded P3 certificate for trying one’s best? 

Clearing out such treasured connections with the past is often a difficult but necessary stage in moving on. De-cluttering is progress. 

Which is why we commend the unknown resident of Forth Street who yesterday put out their Christmas tree for kerbside collection.

Ninety-one days late.

Partly out of interest in other people’s excavations, and partly spurred by Vonny Moyes’s recent article on the bitter-sweet pleasures of Brutalism (Issue 250), Spurtle wandered about the St James Centre this afternoon in search of scenes which will soon be gone forever.  

We shan’t inflict all of them on you in one go. Instead, we start with some aerial views around Leith Street.

The deadline for candidates in the Scottish Parliamentary Election to submit their nomination forms was on Friday last week. 

Voters in Spurtleshire may choose one constituency candidate and one list candidate from the following on 5 May 2016. 

Edinburgh Central 

BETTSWORTH, Hannah (Lib-Dem), BOYACK, Sarah (Lab), DAVIDSON, Ruth (Con), DICKIE, Alison (SNP), JOHNSTONE, Alison (Grn), LAIRD, Tom (Scottish Libertarian Party).

We initially intended to post this piece on Friday, but given the date and the oddity of the subject matter, we soon thought better of it. 

In actual fact, the video attached here is perfectly genuine and is by local filmmaker and Spurtle team member Rhys Fullerton. 

We find it strangely compelling, and hope that with local enthusiasm and online shares it may soon become a cult classic. 

The new Community Cinema in the middle of Broughton continues this coming Friday with two screenings. 

One is aimed at children and families in the afternoon, the other at adults in the evening. 

Below, programmers Rory Bonass and James Mooney preview what’s in store. 

Kirikou and the Sorceress (1998), 71 minutes, Certificate U

BELLEVUE TRANSFORMED 

This morning, exclusively, Spurtle can reveal that a major new sports and hotel complex could be coming to Broughton if City of Edinburgh Council grants outline planning consent. 

We’ve found no official pre-application trace of the scheme.

However, we understand an undisclosed US businessman – whose international sports-venue portfolio alone is valued at over $600 million – is in talks to purchase, demolish and redevelop the Lothian Buses Depot/HQ area around Annandale Street.

27 OCTOBER 1929–10 MARCH 2016 

Neil Cameron McLeod was born in London, the only child of David McLeod, a boilermaker’s manager, and Helen McLeod (née Gordon). Living in Carshalton, he had a happy childhood until the age of 10, when his father died due to heart problems caused by smoking. 

As you read this, advanced copies of the April Spurtle are already trickling out across the barony. 

Issue 250 kicks off with word of more woes for the Royal Bank of Scotland, and fresh misery for residents on Hopetoun Street. 

We also have a front-page celebrity hug, a lovely close-up of a lorry, and exclusive news of the date of our Holyrood hustings on 14 April. 

Inside