Politics

In a letter to the First Minister, Ben Macpherson MSP for Edinburgh North Eastern & Leith, today resigned as Minister for Innovation, Technology and Tertiary Education. 

‘I have … reflected very deeply in recent months about my position and priorities in my life, and feel I need more time to be able to attend to other important pressures, people and purposes, including my mental and physical well-being.’

Macpherson says he wants to spend more time serving his constituency and ‘various political passions outwith government’.

On this page, we will publish responses from candidates who, for whatever reason, were unable to answer questions or have answers read out at the Spurtle's General Election hustings on 24 June. See our summary here.

There were many other questions for which there was no time on the night. All candidates have been invited to answer these, although we recognise that some may be too busy at this stage in their campaigns to do so.

What the candidates said and how they fared

On the evening of 24 June, over 212 people came to the Spurtle’s General Election Hustings in Broughton St Mary’s Parish Church. The meeting was chaired by Leith Central Community Council’s acting vice-chair Harald Tobermann.

A LESSON FOR OUR TIMES

Scottish artist and architect Alexander Nasmyth (1758–1840) embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe between 1782 and 1784.

His vividest experiences during that time took place in Rome, where privileged young Scotsmen loved, whored, explored, created, learned, and discussed the then known world.

A PARTIAL ACCOUNT

‘More like Just a Minute than University Challenge’ was how chair Carol Nimmo proposed Wednesday’s hustings for the City Centre ward should proceed. She presumably wanted candidates to avoid hesitation, repetition, or deviation and warned any who weren't succinct that they faced being dinged by the merciless Spurtle Bell.

Following high-profile controversies in Westminster last month, Spurtle decided to check closer to home on what our politicians earn outwith the forums to which they were elected.

The following summaries have been compiled on the basis of publicly accessible records in the public domain.

We found nothing that gave us serious cause for concern.

*****

Spurtle’s hustings for the Edinburgh Northern & Leith constituency took place last night, with numbers attending the Zoom event never dropping below 72 (including 6 organisers) and probably exceeding that on shared devices.