‘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.
Continue reading...The judge in Edinburgh described the murder as ‘truly evil’, and the child’s mother said she will fight to ensure Lukasz Czapla ‘never leaves prison’
A father who killed his two-year-old son after discovering that his mother was in a new relationship has been jailed for life.
Lukasz Czapla, 41, was unanimously found guilty of the murder of Julius Czapla and was ordered to spend a minimum of 23 years behind bars.
Continue reading...University will host major survey of Robert Blomfield’s shots of student life in 1950s and 60s
Previously unseen work by a photographer who captured life in Edinburgh and has been compared to the great Henri Cartier-Bresson is to go on display at an exhibition in the city where he lived and worked.
Robert Blomfield moved to Edinburgh from Yorkshire and studied medicine in the city while living a second life as a pioneering street photographer who shifted between shooting university students, locals and the landscape of the Scottish capital.
Continue reading...Edinburgh-based firm agrees to £571m offer that will create world’s largest airport services firm
Executives at the British aviation services company John Menzies have accepted a £571m takeover deal from a Kuwaiti rival, after rebuffing three previous offers.
A subsidiary of Agility Public Warehousing had made the bid more than a month ago, which was conditional at the time, although the John Menzies board said it would accept the offer.
Continue reading...Trafalgar Square a sea of blue and yellow as demonstrators protest against brutal Russian invasion
Thousands of people gathered in cities across the UK for at times highly emotional rallies in support of Ukraine as the country defended itself against the brutal Russian invasion.
In London, Trafalgar Square was a sea of blue and yellow as protesters voiced anguish and despair at Russian president Vladimir Putin’s assault on the eastern European country.
Continue reading...A much-loved community space and an essential service, their days now seem numbered
The first thing Rajiv Shrikul does when he opens up his launderette in south Edinburgh each morning is pray. He says the 7am routine, which he started as a young boy in India, helps him cope with the kaleidoscope of personalities that pass through his shop. “Some people are angry, some are generous – you need to have a very stable mind. Meditation calms you down, especially in these hard times.”
Photograph: Murdo MacLeod
Continue reading...Police Scotland said no criminality had been found after photograph of writer’s address was put online
Police will take no action against trans rights activists who posted a photograph of JK Rowling’s home online.
The author had contacted police in Scotland in November after the tweet, which showed her Edinburgh house and revealed the address. The image showed activists standing outside the property with placards carrying slogans such as “trans liberation now”.
Continue reading...Police at scene and public evacuated as about 20 demonstrators enter landmark in bid to ‘take power back’
A group of about 20 protesters entered Edinburgh Castle on Tuesday evening, claiming to have “seized” the landmark under article 61 of Magna Carta.
Members of the public were evacuated as the demonstrators entered the grounds of the castle without a ticket. Police Scotland said that officers were dealing with the protest.
Continue reading...Festival is part of world’s largest annual arts season which has been forced to curtail events due to Covid
The Edinburgh festival Fringe returns this weekend with a hybrid programme of nearly 800 in-person and online shows after its cancellation last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Fringe makes up part of the world’s largest annual arts season, alongside the Edinburgh international festival and the book and film festivals, which open later this month, and all have been forced to significantly curtail this August’s events for the second year running. One of the most famous, the military tattoo staged at Edinburgh castle, has again been cancelled.
Continue reading...Britain is eroding global reputation for conserving its historic assets, culture bodies are warning
The UK is eroding its global reputation for conserving its “unparalleled” historic assets, culture bodies have warned, with Stonehenge expected to be next in line to lose its coveted World Heritage status after Liverpool.
Related: Unesco strips Liverpool of its world heritage status
Continue reading...National Trust for Scotland presents exploration of intimacy from 17th to 20th century
The chafing doesn’t bear thinking about. A replica linen condom secured with a dainty blue ribbon is one of the more wince-inducing props for a new exploration of the history of sex and intimate lives in Scotland.
The other material used to fashion prophylactics in the 17th century was animal gut, which was dried then rehydrated at the crucial moment. The Edinburgh-born diarist James Boswell writes about dipping one in a river before intercourse. He was adamant about their use to ward off venereal disease, but still recorded numerous painful bouts of infection in his journals.
Continue reading...Lawyer seeks pardon for 2,500 Scots who were tortured and killed in ‘satanic panic’ begun by James VI
It spanned more than a century and a half, and resulted in about 2,500 people – the vast majority of them women – being burned at the stake, usually after prolonged torture. Remarkably, one of the driving forces behind Scotland’s “satanic panic” was no less than the king, James VI, whose treatise, Daemonologie, may have inspired the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Now, almost 300 years after the Witchcraft Act was repealed, a campaign has been launched for a pardon for those convicted, an apology to all those accused and a national memorial to be created.
Continue reading...More than 30 marches due on Saturday in recognition of work during coronavirus pandemic
Thousands of NHS workers have protested across the UK calling for fair pay for NHS staff and true recognition of their work during the pandemic.
More than 30 marches were planned on Saturday as anger grows about an absence of action to match gestures such as weekly applause for healthcare workers.
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