‘Distressing’ images and videos were circulating after 74-year-old was struck by a single-decker in Cowgate area
Police have asked the public to stop sharing “distressing” images and videos after a man died in Edinburgh on Saturday evening.
The 74-year-old man was struck by a single-decker bus in the Cowgate area of the city, when the streets were busy with weekend revellers.
Continue reading...Labour peer says in meantime it is essential to try to reduce damage of Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson
Peter Mandelson has suggested the UK could start talks on rejoining the EU in 10 years’ time, much earlier than Keir Starmer believes.
Lord Mandelson told an audience in Edinburgh the “truth is that [reversing Brexit] could be a conversation which starts in 10 years’ time”, but only if EU member states were willing to consider it.
Continue reading...Daily 5% visitor beds surcharge that will cover hotels, bed and breakfasts and AirBnB could raise up to £50m a year
Councillors in Edinburgh are hoping to build new council houses and improve public parks thanks to a new tourist tax that could raise up to £50m a year.
The city council is expected to become the first in the UK to introduce a comprehensive visitor levy using new government powers, with tourists and visitors paying a daily 5% surcharge on their beds from July 2026.
Continue reading...Police Scotland thanks public who helped trace 29-year-old Jamie Ross who escaped from guards while at Edinburgh crematorium
A prisoner who escaped from guards while attending a family funeral in Scotland has been found, police said.
Officers began a search for Jamie Ross after he absconded from custody at about lunchtime on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Let Women Speak leader says rally aimed to test Scotland’s new hate crime legislation, Telegraph reports
Gender-critical activists and counter-protesters clashed in Edinburgh in a dispute over transgender rights.
Let Women Speak (LWS), an organisation described by supporters as a “gender-critical feminist” campaign, led a rally outside the Royal Scottish Academy in the Scottish capital on Saturday.
Continue reading...Police named man as James Smith, while a woman, 43, and a man, 54, were also taken to hospital
An 84-year-old man who died after an explosion at his neighbour’s house in Edinburgh has been named locally as James Smith, Police Scotland said.
Police officers were called to the Baberton area at 10.25pm on Friday after “multiple reports” about the blast.
Continue reading...Beijing’s strained relations with the west are less easily mollified by loans of cuddly endangered bears
As the UK’s only giant pandas leave Edinburgh zoo , returning to their native country after a 12-year sojourn away from China, the era of panda diplomacy also looks to be coming to an end.
Tian Tian and Yang Guang will board the panda express back to Sichuan less than a month after three giant pandas left the Smithsonian national zoo in Washington DC, ending the zoo’s five-decade panda programme.
Continue reading...Government reportedly hands back two vessels after ports in the Wirral, London and Scotland deny permission to dock
Controversial plans to house asylum seekers on redundant cruise ships have been thrown into disarray after two vessels were unable to find somewhere to dock.
There had been tentative reported plans for cruise ships to be housed in the Wirral, just outside Edinburgh and in London, but the proposals were all rebuffed. Sky News reported that two ships have been returned to their prior owners after their acquisition by the government.
Continue reading...Executives holds talks with both sides after screening of gender critical documentary was cancelled
Edinburgh University hopes to defuse a crisis involving gender critical and pro-trans academics after clashes over the screening of the film Adult Human Female.
University executives are holding talks with both sides after pro-trans activists prevented the gender critical documentary from being screened on campus for the second time late last month, by blockading a theatre where it was due to be shown.
Continue reading...Kashif Anwar, 29, pushed Fawziyah Javed, 31, off Edinburgh hill, leading to death of wife and unborn child
A man has been found guilty of murdering his pregnant wife by pushing her off the edge of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh.
Kashif Anwar, 29, was found guilty by a jury at the high court in Edinburgh of murdering Fawziyah Javed, 31, in September 2021 by pushing her from the hill, causing her multiple blunt-force injuries and ultimately her death, and that of her unborn child.
Continue reading...Another 10 people treated at scene as police, ambulances and fire service called to incident in Edinburgh
Twenty-five people were injured when a ship tipped over in a dry dock in Leith, Edinburgh, the Scottish ambulance service has said.
Fifteen people were taken to hospital while a further 10 people were treated and discharged at the scene on Wednesday morning. The ambulance service said 11 patients were taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and four to Western general hospital.
Continue reading...Thousands are following and supporting Emily Turner’s epic journey on Twitter
A British woman undertaking an epic three-day expedition from London to Scotland using only local buses has expressed her surprise at the level of support from thousands of people following the chronicles of her journey on Twitter.
Writer and podcast host Emily Turner, from London, began her nearly 400-mile journey in the early hours of Friday, announcing on Twitter: “I’ve been wanting to do this for YEARS!!”, explaining that she “loves buses” and promising to share photos and observations along the way.
Continue reading...‘Extensive’ operation under way at Victoria Quay basin, near one of Scottish government buildings
Emergency services are searching for a man who reportedly fell into water in Edinburgh.
Police were called at 11.25pm on Friday to the Victoria Quay basin, near one of the Scottish government’s office buildings.
Continue reading...Worst of expected bad weather in Scottish capital should have passed before new year celebrations
Organisers of Hogmanay in Edinburgh are hoping to avoid a new year washout, with heavy rain forecast to have passed by the time revellers ring in 2023.
The celebration in the Scottish capital has been cancelled due to Covid for the past two years, but on Saturday a sellout crowd of 30,000 is expected to bring in the new year in Princes Street as part of the three-day event.
Continue reading...Service of thanksgiving at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh pulses with history as nation pays its respects
The people of Scotland, from prime ministers to benefit claimants, have said an emotional goodbye to their Queen as her coffin was set at rest in the “parish church of Edinburgh” where she was first given the Scottish crown 69 years ago.
Psalms the Queen used to sing in Crathie Kirk on the Balmoral estate were set to soaring organ music as hundreds of dignitaries attended a service of thanksgiving for her life at St Giles’ Cathedral.
Continue reading...Unison, GMB and Unite suspend industrial action day after Nicola Sturgeon hosted talks
A wave of strikes across waste services and schools in Scotland has been called off after a “credible” new pay offer.
Hundreds of schools and nurseries were set to close over three days next week as support staff joined industrial action, along with a second wave of strikes by refuse workers that had already seen bins overflowing and piles of accumulated rubbish in Scotland’s major cities.
Continue reading...Inquiry opens into St George’s after Aimen Dean claims it singled out his daughter over fears he was a security risk
One of the UK’s leading private schools is under investigation after being accused of discrimination against the daughter of one of the west’s most important spies, a former al-Qaida bomb-maker credited with saving thousands of lives.
Aimen Dean, who spied for British intelligence inside the terrorist network for eight years, has made a formal complaint against St George’s School in Edinburgh, claiming it singled out his five-year-old daughter because other parents feared he was a security risk.
Continue reading...61-year-old says what he saw and experienced at Edinburgh Academy has ‘stayed with me all my life’
BBC presenter Nicky Campbell has claimed he was the victim of abuse at a Scottish private school during the 1970s.
Campbell, 61, said witnessing incidents of both sexual and physical abuse at the Edinburgh Academy had had a “profound effect on my life”.
In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331.
Continue reading...US company says recruitment drive will take permanent workforce in Britain to 75,000
Amazon is creating more than 4,000 permanent jobs across the UK this year, the online company has announced.
The US firm said the recruitment drive would bring its permanent workforce in the UK to 75,000, having created 40,000 new jobs in the past three years.
Continue reading...Labour installed as minority administration in capital with Lib Dem and Tory help, to the outrage of SNP
The Scottish National party has failed to take all Scotland’s largest cities after Labour won control of Edinburgh with Liberal Democrat and Tory help.
The SNP had hoped to retain power in the Scottish capital after winning the most seats and brokering a coalition deal with the Scottish Greens which left them three seats short of overall control.
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