All nature-lovers have a visual marker of seasonal change that brings them joy and solace. For some, it’s the blousy pink of the cherry blossoms in the Meadows when winter’s retreating, while others are cooried by the Water of Leith trees turning gold in the autumn. For me, though, it’s seeing the Bass Rock getting its annual whitewash, writes Ashley Davies.

That transition from greyish brown means the northern gannets are back for the summer, giving the volcanic plug in the Firth of Forth its guano and feathers makeover. It means they’ve survived their gruelling migrations (some flying from as far as west Africa) to return to their chosen breeding ground. These glorious monogamous birds will be reacquainted with their life partners and will, fingers crossed, lay one egg. So much endeavour for a single guga.

To me, that chalky transformation, which you can see happening gradually from miles away, and whose ammonia stench can make your eyes sting when you’re up close, is a powerful representation of life, resilience and hope. It’s a reminder that remarkable wildlife isn’t abstract or something for kids to observe in zoos: it’s right in front of us, a constant visual signal that we humans are only a small part of the living world and we owe it our respect, appreciation and help.

The Bass Rock is one of the biggest colonies of northern gannets in the world. It was the biggest before the avian flu epidemic of 2022 killed about 30 per cent of them, and last year scientists counted 100,000 of them on the rock during peak breeding season.

The Bass is just over 100 metres high, but, depending on the tricks being played by light and clouds, it can sometimes feel twice as big. As is the case with Salisbury Crags, when you catch a glimpse of it from an expected angle, it can take you by surprise.

It’s funny to think of the Bass Rock belonging to anyone (though perhaps not as funny as knowing that the isle of Lamb, nearly four miles west, is owned by professional spoon bender Uri Geller) but until earlier this week it was the property of the Hamilton-Dalrymple family. They’d bought it 320 years ago from the Lauder family, and over the centuries its various uses have included being a prison and a hermitage.

And as of this week, it’s the property of the RSPB, which means what was already a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) will now be an official nature reserve. Thanks to a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the bird protection charity has acquired the Bass Rock, along with the nearby Craigleith island, which is home to 10,000 puffins in the summer, for £586,000.

Sir Hew Dalrymple, whose ancestor of the same name bought the Bass Rock in 1706, said he felt the RSPB would be in a better position to protect this precious place and its inhabitants from the numerous threats they face, among them climate change, bird flu and the planned building of enormous offshore wind farms dangerously close to where they fish. (The RSPB has estimated that the planned Berwick Bank wind farm, more than four times the size of Edinburgh, will kill around 4,000 seabirds in its first year, and the stopberwickbank.co.uk campaign has growing support to have it moved somewhere else).

‘You can seen tenderness between couples’

The human politics of human land (and sea) ownership aside, it’s fascinating to watch close-up the way the gannets behave on their rock. Every spring they return to the exact same spot – almost within inches of the place they settled in the previous year. You see them squabbling over territory, often scissoring each other’s beaks so violently their eyes bleed.

But you also see the tenderness between couples. Early on in the breeding season I spent a few hours on the rock, just beside the ruins of the chapel and about 30 metres up from the lighthouse built by David Stevenson in 1902. Gannets can live as long as 35 years, and the couples strengthen their bonds with bill-fencing (gently tapping beaks while pointing their heads up) and mutual grooming.

I sat quietly, just a few metres away from thousands of them, as one male brought his mate some seaweed for their nest, his gesture rewarded with some rough (his beak pinning her down by the neck) but mercifully short mating. Half an hour later he brought her the exact same gift and they got down to business once again. If she knew he was taking the mickey, she didn’t let on.

Majestic in the air as they are diving at speeds of up to 100kmh into the water to fish, they’re surprisingly ungainly on the ground: they land clumsily and waddle when they walk, and when it’s crowded or there’s not much wind it can take a while for them to get airborne. You can also see close-up which birds survived avian flu; their pale blue eyes have turned black – as scientists only discovered in recent years.

‘Nothing prepares you for the sound and smell’

My landing trip was one of the carefully controlled visits organised by the Scottish Seabird Centre (SSC) and hosted by Maggie Sheddan, the rock’s passionate custodian who knows more about these birds – collectively and individually – than anyone.

The SSC also runs various cheaper trips around the islands. Although with most of them you don’t get to leave the boat, you do get close enough to feel as if you’re part of a nature documentary. Truly, nothing prepares you for the sound and smell, or for the sight of a fluffy guga on the edge of a rock. You’ll almost certainly also see seals, which swim in and out of the caves, as well as other seabirds such as guillemots, razorbills and shags – as well as the odd puffin, which would probably feel safer with the rest of its circus over on Craigleith.

On my most recent trip I saw a couple of stern-looking fulmars, which ward off danger with revolting, oily vomit that can kill a predating bird by eroding its feathers. Not much good for your clothes, either, so definitely keep your distance if you come across them.

This year’s Fringe by the Sea festival has some intriguing treats planned for gannet lovers. Vision Mechanics, the creative geniuses behind the ten-metre-high Storm puppet that walked through North Berwick in 2021, are creating a giant gannet puppet. It’ll lead a parade called The Flock, which starts near the harbour and heads up to the Lodge grounds on 31 July. At fringebythesea.com you can find details on how to get involved and make your own gannet puppet.

The procession will be part of the festival’s Love of Life theme, which also includes an immersive music experience created by Emmy Award-nominated composer Erland Cooper, inspired by his own time with the gannets (or solan geese, as they’re known in his native Orkney). You can experience it all inside a large nest-like art installation made by Naomi Mcintosh, where filmic footage of their trip to the island will also be projected.

More detail can be experienced at Love of Life – A Closer Look at the Scottish Seabird Centre (31 July-9 August), which also has a livestream from the colony that can be viewed anywhere from home or in 3D high definition panoramic display at its Discovery Experience.

Or you can simply sit on the beach in North Berwick and while away the hours watching the gliding and diving, and bringing fish back to that magical rock, which belongs to them.

seabird.org/

For today’s long read, Euan McGrory has been looking into what we have learned in recent days about the city’s £2.9bn tram extension plan. What do the people of Edinburgh really think? Why is John Swinney not a fan? Just how unpopular is building along the Roseburn Path? And is the alternative any more popular?

Answers to all those questions after your usual midweek news and culture roundups.

Your Edinburgh Briefing

ROCK STARS: The Bass Rock and neighbouring Craigleith Island have been bought by the RSPB after more than 300 years in the private ownership of the Hamilton-Dalrymple family. A £586,000 grant from the UK Government’s National Heritage Memorial Fund helped the charity buy the islands, off North Berwick. The Bass Rock is one of Europe’s natural wonders and home to the world’s largest colony of northern gannets. For more on the Bass Rock, don’t miss Saturday’s Inquirer.

ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE: Multiverse, the AI upskilling platform run by Euan Blair, son of former Prime Minister Tony, is opening a technology hub in Edinburgh. The company is aiming to create 200 jobs in the coming year at the new engineering centre and its London base.

COMMUNITY EVENT REVIEW CALL: Corstorphine Fair organisers are calling for a review of community event licensing after experiencing last-minute problems. Their experience comes after the Edinburgh Taxi Outing was almost cancelled due to licensing issues. This year’s fair went ahead successfully and attracted thousands of visitors, but organisers warned “increasing costs, bureaucracy and inconsistent processes were putting community events under pressure.”

‘Worse than ever’: Ewan Irvine, speaking on behalf of the Corstorphine Fair Committee, said: “Volunteers found themselves dealing with licensing issues, payment requests and legal documents whilst physically setting up an event due to open the following day. This year we were forced to launch a GoFundMe appeal, reduce infrastructure and begin reviewing future community activities because of increasing financial and operational pressures. Representatives from the fairs and galas met with licencing officials two years ago and we were told they would sort it. It is worse than ever.”

KNIFE AMNESTY: First Minister John Swinney has said he is open to the idea of holding a national knife amnesty in response to the murder of John McNab, 22, in Leith, and 16-year-old Kayden Moy, 16, in Irvine.

‘DISAPPEARING DOUGLAS’: Douglas Alexander, the Lothian East MP and Scottish Secretary, has been accused by disgruntled colleagues of “disappearing completely”, as the fall-out from the party’s poor performance in May’s Scottish election continues. Anonymous Scottish Labour MPs have accused Douglas Alexander of being “most absent man in Cabinet”, The Scotsman reports, while his allies have hit back at the complaints of “a small band of malcontents”.

Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops

Greetings, Pop Pickers!

We are currently enduring that uniquely Scottish summer experience where bright blue skies can give way to drizzle without a moment’s notice, writes Will Quinn. But while you might be packing both sunglasses and an umbrella before leaving the house, you can at least rely on the capital’s cultural calendar to deliver. This week, the chart is packed with exceptional quality, serving up everything from pioneering comedy ballet and award-winning trad music to gripping historical drama and a genuinely monumental theatrical collaboration.

Let’s count them down...

Honourable Mentions: Sweat, The RSA, Strange Town, Dear Evan Hansen & Ballet Black

It is a crowded field just outside the top five this week. Lynn Nottage’s magnificent Sweat (Royal Lyceum Theatre, until Saturday) only slips out of the main chart because its run is fast approaching its final bow. The time-limited brilliance of the RSA 200th Anniversary Exhibition (Royal Scottish Academy, until Sunday) remains an essential fixture until the gallery doors close this weekend. Elsewhere, local treasures Strange Town are mounting a mini-festival of youth theatre at Summerhall (Saturday and Sunday). Musical theatre fans should look toward Dear Evan Hansen (Church Hill Theatre, tonight until Saturday), as amateur Fringe-specialists Room 29 make their Church Hill debut with this well-loved show. Finally, contemporary dance fans should look out for the legendary Ballet Black at 25 (Festival Theatre, June 19th), bringing a double bill to Edinburgh to celebrate a quarter-century of the company.

New in at Number 5 is... Shall Roger Casement Hang? (June 15th – 19th)

Presented by the newly formed Union Theatre Company, Peter Arnott’s intense historical drama charts the final days, arrest, and interrogation of the WWI Irish republican and human rights pioneer. Union Theatre was established as a spiritual successor to the much-loved Arkle Theatre following their decades of high-quality work. They were originally slated to stage the Scottish Premiere of Rona Munro’s Mary, but when that fell through, their ambition didn’t falter for a single second. Playwright Arnott himself will be on hand for a Q&A following the opening night performance on Monday, June 15th - if that isn’t a vote of confidence from one of the nation’s leading writers, what is?

New in at Number 4 is... Julie Fowlis: ‘An Evening with’ (The Queen’s Hall, Saturday)

Taking a very well-deserved spot on the chart is multi-award-winning Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist and Gaelic singer-songwriter Julie Fowlis. She is taking to the stage alongside her live band for a special acoustic concert celebrating 21 years since the landmark release of her debut solo album, mar a tha mo chridhe / as my heart is. The evening blends deeply rooted traditional Highland material with a contemporary acoustic edge. It is no accident that Julie has been a global trad superstar for two decades; she possesses charisma, uniqueness, and abundant talent.

Staying at Number 3 is... Dracula (Festival Theatre, tomorrow – Sunday).

Holding firmly onto the bronze medal this week is BIG Live’s dark, atmospheric ballet reimagining of the classic vampire myth. Arriving fresh from a sold-out London run, this ballet production pairs Joel Burke’s expansive choreography with a classical soundtrack featuring Mozart, Bach, and Rachmaninov. Boasting an international cast of dancers drawn from heavyweight institutions such as the English National Ballet and the Mariinsky, this visually arresting take on Stoker’s gothic classic promises a visceral, large-scale night out.

New in at Number 2 is... Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (Festival Theatre, June 16th – 17th)

Taking the silver is the world-famous, all-male comedy ballet troupe—affectionately known as “The Trocks”—who are bringing their immaculate physical technique and impeccable comic timing back to Edinburgh. Treading the line between high art and high camp, their latest production features sassy, tutu-clad spoofs and affectionate homages to the classical Russian ballet repertoire. I have been a huge fan ever since my first encounter back in 2022, and having since interviewed their Artistic Director, Tory Dobrin, I can assure you: this isn’t a funny ballet corps. This is an elite outfit that chooses to produce comedy.

New in at Number 1 is... The Table (Traverse Theatre, June 18th – 20th)

Taking the top spot this week is a powerhouse partnership. The Table sees Curious Seed, Lyra, and Lung Ha join forces for an exciting new co-production. Lung Ha have been blowing audiences away for years - audiences lucky enough to have caught their CATS award-winning Castle Lennox won’t soon forget it. Meanwhile, youth theatre magicians Lyra and dance visionaries Curious Seed are no slouches either, both boasting formidable track records of their own. Bringing these three specific companies together should make for a major theatrical event. I expect The Table to defy expectations in the best possible ways.

And that’s your Top 5!

Throw the raincoat in your bag, dodge those localised downpours, and grab your seats before they disappear. I’ll be out and about in the stalls this week, ready to report back on exactly what deserves your time and money. What do you make of the rankings? Let me know in the comments below!

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Earlier this week, our paying members enjoyed David Forsyth’s long read about the importance of the Community Croft on Leith Link and spaces like it for supporting carers in the Capital.

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Edinburgh warms to £2.9bn tram expansion despite Swinney’s determined indifference

What we’ve learned about the city’s tram extension plan

by Euan McGrory

Coming from a man who is famously careful with his words, John Swinney’s description of Edinburgh’s £2.9bn tram expansion plan as “a local transport project” had all the appearance of a deliberate put-down.

It was another reminder, should the city council need it, that the Scottish Government is not that keen on its proposals for a new north-south tram track.

Don’t get too excited about extending your tram line, he seemed to be saying, we have other, more important, priorities.

On that, he appears to be out of step with the public in the Capital.

Market research commissioned by the city council as part of work on a business case for the second line, suggests significant support.

To talk about public excitement would be over-egging it. No one will be out waving placards, but the quiet majority appear to be firmly in favour of more trams.

Support for the proposed north-south tram line - running from the Granton Waterfront to the Royal Infirmary and BioQuarter at Little France - is running at 71% among those who have a view.

With a third of those surveyed undecided, there has to be a caveat, but that is a significant lead for those in favour.

It’s a far far cry from just a few years ago when the word trams was enough to give many people nightmares. Given just how good the city’s buses are; just now bad things got with the delivery of the original tram line; and the fact most of the city only uses the existing line occasionally for trips to the airport or Murrayfield, that’s quite a vote of confidence.

Of course, this isn’t a popularity contest. Mr Swinney holds the purse strings and will have to be persuaded this is the answer to the problem of keeping Scotland’s capital and its rapidly-growing population on the move.

Roseburn versus Dean Bridge: a stalemate?

The biggest controversy was never going to be about whether the public wanted a bigger tram network, it was of course about the particular route it might take from Granton to the city centre.

The prospect of building the track along the beautiful and tranquil nature corridor that is the Roseburn Path has sparked a massive protest campaign.

Read more

Many things have been said about carers and caring, but perhaps former US First Lady and renowned humanitarian Rosalynn Carter put it best and truest when she said: “There are only four kinds of people in the world - those who have been caregivers, those who are caregivers, thos…

Read more

Concern as a third of Lothian bathing beaches just meet legal minimum standards

The water quality at a third of the officially designated bathing waters in Edinburgh and East Lothian has only reached the basic ‘pass’ level for the coming year.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) monitors the water quality at all official bathing waters (12 in Edinburgh and East Lothian) between May and September each year and awards them a ranking between Excellent and Poor.

One beach in East Lothian (Gullane) was rated Excellent and one (Fisherrow Sands) was judged to be (Poor), while the others were classed as either Good or Sufficient.

The classification, based on monitoring over a four-year period, determine the advice given to anyone considering swimming or taking part in sports, such as paddleboarding, in the waters.

Across Scotland, 82% of bathing beaches are Excellent or Good (compared to 58% in Edinburgh and East Lothian) and only three are Poor.

Beaches ranked as Sufficient meet the minimum legal requirement for keeping humans safe, but as water quality can vary swimmers are advised to check Sepa’s daily bathing water predictions before entering the water.

Bathing water beach Water quality rating

Dunbar (Belhaven) Good

Dunbar (East) Sufficient

Fisherrow Sands, Musselburgh Poor

Gullane Excellent

Longniddry Good

North Berwick (Milsey Bay) Good

North Berwck (West) Good

Portobello (Central) Sufficient

Portobello (West) Sufficient

Seton Sands Good

Wardie Bay Good

Yellowcraig Sufficient

The context: There are concerns about the amount of sewage entering waterways, particularly in Edinburgh and other cities, exacerbated by the relatively low level of monitoring carried out in Scotland (34% of storm overflows compared to 100% in England and Wales). The Scottish Government has committed to investing £500m in improving urban waterways and cutting sewage pollution through Scottish Water.

Sepa says: The Scottish Government agency points to the 82% of bathing waters nationally ranked Good or Excellent and the 97% meeting minimum standards of evidence of good performance. Ruth Stidson, principal specialist scientist at Sepa, says: “For 30 years, Sepa’s scientific monitoring and evidence have supported long-term improvements at bathing waters across Scotland, and we continue to work with partners to identify pollution risks and target action where improvements are still needed.”

‘Wet wipes on the beach’: Katherine Sangster, the Labour MSP for Edinbugrgh and Lothian East, who lives in Musselburgh, told the Edinburgh Evening News: “I regularly attend community litter picks at Fisherrow. It is horrifying to see the amount of wet wipes that end up on the beach from sewage. The Scottish Government must commit to monitoring all sewage overflows and investment in Scotland’s sewage system to keep our seas clean.”

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

REBUS RETURNS: Filming is underway in the Capital and Glasgow on a new Inspector Rebus series for the BBC. Richard Rankin, who made a good impression as Ian Rankin’s eponymous detective, will be joined by former Taggart and Holby City star John Michie among others. The new series is due to screen next year.

GARDEN PARTY: Princes Street Gardens West is to host daily live music and performances, alongside Scottish food and drink traders, for nearly six weeks this summer. Edinburgh’s Cold Town Brewery will serve its beers. The Neighbourgood Gardens will take over the Ross Bandstand from 23 July to 31 August, after the organisers of Stockbridge’s popular Neighbourgood Market were awarded a contract for up to four years to operate the bandstand by the city council.

CARNIVAL TIME: The Gardens will host an expanded Festival Carnival, following a parade of up to 1,500 Festival performers on Princes Street, on the weekend before the Neighbourgood Gardens opens. The carnival on Sunday, 19 July, and the Jazz and Blues Festival Mardi Gras in the Grassmarket on Saturday, 18 July, are set to be supported with £132,000 raised by the city’s new Visitor Levy.

OVERSEAS SURGE: With performers from 71 countries, Fringe organisers say there has been “a noticeable increase” in overseas performers heading to the Capital this August. This year’s Fringe is set to be the third biggest to date, with 3,649 shows across 258 venues, despite ongoing concern about the soaring cost of accommodation.

CATHEDRAL CHARGE: Tourists will be charged a fee to enter St Giles Cathedral for the first time from September. The £12 charge will not apply to Scottish residents or under-16s. The Kirk said the money raised would help it better tell its 900-year-old story to visitors and support the concerts it stages.

DETECTORIST FIND: A rare Roman brooch discovered by a metal detectorist near Pathhead in Midlothian is to go on show for the first time at the National Museum of Scotland. The Romans established a series of temporary “marching camps” near Pathhead. The brooch, discovered in 2022, will feature in the Roman Scotland: Life on the Edge of Empire exhibition which opens in November.

TEENAGE KILLER JAILED: A 17-year-old who murdered a man in an unprovoked attack in Leith has been ordered to serve a minimum of 17 years in jail. The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, killed John McNab, 22, in Great Junction Street in September last year. Four months earlier, had stabbed a 16-year-old boy at Portobello Beach. John McNab’s mother Lisa Petrie is campaigning for tighter controls on the sale of knives.

POOL PROTEST: The beautiful Victorian baths at Portobello would no longer be able to host competitive swimming or water polo under renovation plans being considered by the city council, sports clubs have warned. Portobello Amateur Swimming Club told the Edinburgh Evening News that plans to introduce poolside changing cubicles as part of a planned £7.5 million refurbishment would mean an end to competitions there after more than a century.

OUT OF THE BLUE: The arts and education charity Out of the Blue has secured a 75-year lease on the former Abbeymount Techbase. Out of the Blue operates artists studios in the category B listed building at the top of Easter Road.

PARKING PROTEST: North Berwick Town Council and local MSP Paul McLennan have called on East Lothian Council to pause the introduction of town centre parking charges. Their calls follow complaints of confusing signage and concerns they are putting shoppers off visiting during their first week. East Lothian Council says it believes the charges will allow more people to visit by increasing the turnover of parking. They offer 45 minutes free town centre parking, followed by charges of £2 for 90 minutes. The council plans to introduce charges in Musselburgh, Haddington, Dunbar, and Tranent.

Pic of the week

THE BUSINESS

Leading restaurateur’s Capital idea for Christmas

One of Edinburgh’s leading restaurateurs has put debate about Edinburgh’s Christmas food offering firmly on the menu.

In a social media post, Tony Crolla of the long-established and family-owned and run Vittoria Group, has engendered much comment for suggesting that the market at the heart of the food offering for the city’s popular Christmas festival could be much more of a showcase for Scottish produce.

After a visit to Italy, to The Langhe which is the gastronomic heart of Piemonte, he posted: “Every market we visited, every restaurant we sat in – the locals were loudly proud of their food. Everything on the plate had a story. A farm, a family, a region.

“I got the tram back into Edinburgh city centre and thought about the German market we do every year. You know the stuff – glühwein, frankfurters, raclette. All lovely, hand on heart. But…

“We’re in one of the most visited cities in the world, and our big seasonal food moment is borrowed from somewhere else. Scotland has extraordinary food and drink. Whisky, hot toddies, stovies, fresh seafood, Scottish ales, haggis. Things people fly thousands of miles to try. Maybe it’s time we gave them the same stage. That’d be a proper Scottish Christmas Market”

More local traders: The Inquirer raised the issue with City of Edinburgh Council, who ask Unique Assembly to organize the Christmas Festival and set performance indicators, and a spokesman helpfully, and perhaps for many people surprisingly, pointed out that the market does have a big local input.

In fact, in a committee report in the past few weeks, it was reported that of the 105 market traders taking part in Edinburgh’s Christmas, 78% are Scottish (up from 74% the year before.)

A council spokesman added: “Working with Unique Assembly we do actively try to encourage local suppliers and operators and the figures show that is working.”

It certainly is, as a spokesman for Unique Assembly told us. “We can’t stop people referring to it as the German Market but it’s not been that for a few years since we took over. For example, you can get hot toddies at the market and we have a Scottish smoked salmon stall, which is one of our best performers. Well over 60% of the stall holders are not only Scottish, they’re from Edinburgh postcodes. However, we are very open to more getting on board, and the application process is actually underway now.”

A word of caution: applicants are strongly advised to assess applications as a commercial decision. Not only do the finances need to work, so do the logistics. The Assembly spokesman added: “It’s not as straightforward as setting up at a farmers’ market, for example. Keeping a food stall stocked through a six-week run is not always easy, particularly given the unpredictable weather we get at that time.”

Last word to Tony, who is all for more locals providing more local flavour: “Who knows, if we get the actual food offering spot on maybe we could end up with a Scottish Christmas Market in Germany. Wouldn’t that be something?”

CHAMBER AGM: Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce is hold its Annual General Meeting on Friday 26th June, from 08:30 - 10:00 at the Royal Scots Club, 29-31 Abercromby Place to report on activities and performance during the year 2025-26, as well as our priorities for the coming year. Members will have the opportunity to ask questions of the board and CEO and vote on items proposed.

UNICORN RISING: Edinburgh-based legaltech company Wordsmith AI has raised a further $70 million after raising $25 million last year, reports Daily Business. The company is tipped to become Scotland’s next unicorn – a company valued at $1 billion.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

FESTIVAL TIME: It’s Leith Festival time again with a week-and-a-half of events, kicking off from Wednesday with Taylor’s Fun Fair on the Links. Highlights include the traditional gala day on the Links and Paint Elph: The unofficial Leith street art festival at Quality Yard, on Maritime Lane, on Saturday.

SQUARE GO: From Friday’s Swayze Night featuring Dirty Dancing, The Outsider and Point Break to Back to the Future and F1, there’s something for almost every taste when free open air cinema returns to the city centre. Square Cinema will be in St Andrew Square Garden from Friday to Sunday, with seats available on a first-come, first-served basis.

PINK SKY AT MURRAYFIELD: Country music superstar Zach Bryan brings his Heaven on Tour show to Murrayfield Stadium on Sunday. Expect fans in cowboy hats, packed trams and at least one Bruce Springsteen cover from the Grammy Award-winning Pink Skies singer.

QUICK BITES

IN THE OPEN: Three of Scotland’s five top al fresco dining options are in Edinburgh, according to restaurant booking guide Open Table. Their Top 100 restaurants for outdoor dining list has been unveiled, with the five Scottish venues including Badger & Co, Café Calton and The Queen’s Arms.

TOP LOCAL: Iconic city pub Joseph Pearce on Elm Row is closing for a £280,000 refurbishment. It is expected to reopen in late July with the aim of becoming one of the city’s “top quality locals”.

Commander Andrii Vecherynskyi arrives at The Wash Bar straight off the train from Falkirk, wearing khaki military fatigues and white Nike trainers.

A Ukrainian flag and drone unit patches decorate his arms, while a “Baby Yoda” motif sits proudly on his chest - a nod to his Star Wars-inspired call sign, “Jedi”. “I consider myself a warrior of light fighting against the darkness,” he explains.

Just a few days after Russia launched one of its largest air assaults on Ukraine since Putin’s full-scale invasion began over four years ago, Andrii’s latest mission in Scotland is clear:

“I’m coming here to show real images of the war and tell the true situation,” he says, because news coverage - and Russian disinformation - don’t always show the full picture.

In the upstairs bar, Andrii shows unfiltered videos and photos from the front lines to around 20 people and wide-eyed passerby patrons en-route to the toilets, writes Natalie Berry. The event is hosted by the local Ukrainian Victory Campaign, an Edinburgh-based volunteer organisation of local Ukrainians and Scottish supporters who hold fundraising events and weekly demonstrations in solidarity with soldiers and civilians.

He repeats similar comments - “Very good guy, he is now dead” or “half of them are not alive anymore” - about his comrades.

He takes cover in a trench between positions as Russians close in, with a tank firing and shrapnel flying inches above his head. He had left his helmet in a vehicle. “It’s a miracle we didn’t die that day,” he says. A bullet lodges in his car door; another “miracle.” Russian soldiers’ bodies - and body parts - lie on the ground. “This is my work, Ukrainian Army,” he says.

‘The best shooter’

Andrii never wanted to have to do such work. Before Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion on 24 February, 2022, Andrii was a mechanic with a car restoration business, importing vehicles from the US and refurbishing them in Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, 30km south of the border with Russia.

He was also a sportsman, ”the best shooter” in a basketball team. When Russian soldiers crossed the border and surrounded the city Andrii downed tools and took up arms to fight.

“As a patriot, as a Ukrainian, for me it was a duty,” Andrii, 46, says. “I didn’t even think twice. All I thought was where is my weapon, and I will go, because I need to defend the people that cannot defend themselves - children, women, older people, or those who are scared. I am able to go and defend, so I will.” Later, his wife and five-year-old daughter fled Ukraine to Falkirk.

His first combat came just two days into the war, serving with the 226th Battalion of the 127th Territorial Defence Brigade, defending the Kharkiv region. “It was the first time I killed a person,” he says. “Has anyone here ever killed someone?” The audience looks around nervously. No hands raise. “I’m normally a very kind person,” he says. To distract from his fear, he filmed videos of himself and insects in trenches.

After serving for over a year in some of the bloodiest battles of the war, including the defense of Bakhmut, Andrii became a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) pilot, flying strike drones, conducting reconnaissance missions and artillery fire correction. He now serves as commander in a UAV maintenance platoon.

Andrii shifted to drone operations “because of the reality of the front line” as drones changed the nature of the war, forcing units to become faster, lighter and more effective - both militarily and economically. A small ammunition dropped from a drone can destroy a $5 million tank. A 20km-wide “kill zone” contested by explosive drones and motion-activated loitering munitions has become the first line of defence and destruction. “Now it’s a war of drones and robots,” he says.

He highlights the ingenuity demonstrated by Ukraine to become a world leader in FPVs (First-Person View), interceptor and ground drone development, production and implementation.

A war waged through crowdfunding

Since the Ukrainian government has a limited budget after four years of war, most units rely on personal donations or crowdfunding campaigns. “War is not only about weapons, it’s also about patriotism, it’s about ideology, and about skills and inventions,” Andrii says. “This is the only way forward.”

The kill ratio on his unit’s current front line is 1:100, or one hundred Russian deaths for every Ukrainian loss. In more heavily contested areas such as Pokrovsk, Russian and Ukrainian losses are closer. There used to be 87 men in his department - now only 15 are alive.

Andrii has had some close calls himself. He says he’s “like a cat, with nine lives” - and a lucky one at that. “Several times, I’ve said goodbye to life,” he says, recalling last-second attempts to dodge FPVs. One hit his position, but failed to explode. Then his unit was hit by an explosive Shahed drone, giving him four wounds including one to his eye. He’s suffered four concussions. Years of living in tanks and underground dugouts have significantly impacted his health, causing back problems and memory loss. Although he is eligible for medical discharge, Andrii feels that his department could not function without him.

He urges Russians to think “not twice, but three times” before coming to Ukraine. In a video, he shows a Russian soldier’s temporary marked grave, including identity and contact details in case his family should come across it - and to serve as an additional warning to potential conscripts, the majority of whom come from remote regions such as Buryatia or Dagestan. One video shows a deceased Russian, wearing a t-shirt with the words: “We kill people that kill people because killing people is bad.”

‘I got nothing from the US’

In his early war videos, Andrii wears a US flag patch. His car business depended on the country. Today, however, he points at it with a face of disgust as his country’s future hangs in the balance. “Now, I don’t like the US, I don’t like Trump,” he says, reflecting the US President’s lack of military support and failed talks with Putin. In many videos, he shows off the “trophies” earned - five plundered Russian tanks, alongside various weapons and supplies. In one video, his skills as a car mechanic and engineer are adapted to a salvaged tank and he jokes: “I got a $4 million tank from Russia, but nothing from the US!”

While Scottish people are warm and supportive - shaking his hands, saying thank you and “Slava Ukraini!” (Glory to Ukraine!) - the UK and Scottish Governments are not helping enough, he believes. “We need more support, and if we don’t get it, this will affect the UK as well if Ukraine loses,” he says, “Ukraine is now like The Wall in Game of Thrones, standing between wild creatures and the rest of Europe,” he says. He holds talks in Scotland to raise awareness and money for his brigade, as Ukrainians have become less able to donate due the economic impact of the war.

Alongside fundraising, Andrii shares his experiences on social media to improve public and military morale. “I’m a hero for these people,” he says, but he also wants to build a profile to become a post-war politician, because if Ukraine wins, he believes that soldiers should change the country. He currently has 3,400 TikTok followers. “I will bite my way into politics,” he says. “I really like Scotland, but I love Ukraine as my country, so I want to eventually change the system. Someone has to do it.”

After the Q&A, Andrii shows a collection of medals earned for his defence of Bakhmut and Kharkiv. He has also brought three military patches, which are auctioned off at the end of the session to fund aid and supplies for his brothers in arms.

Given the subject of his talk, Andrii’s demeanour throughout is unexpectedly jovial and lighthearted. After outlining the practicalities and policies of war, the façade of the invincible hero melts away as he speaks candidly of the personal impact, while sipping a Guinness (a well-earned first-ever, bought for him by an attendee).

Before the war, Andrii was “a happy person”, with a family and business. He has since lost $160,000 in capital and has spent $40,000 of his own money on drones and other equipment. In four years, he has seen his wife and daughter in Scotland only twice, missing almost half of her childhood so far. “It’s like I have a family, but I don’t,” he says. “War took everything away, I have nothing left, really.”

‘I can’t leave my brothers in arms’

This isolation is part of the reason why soldiers form such strong bonds with their brothers in arms, because “we’re really alone,” he says.

He has nightmares reliving his traumatic experiences, he reveals. But after a month in Scotland, he’s sleeping more soundly. He likes the fresh air and friendly locals. After the full-scale invasion began, Andrii told his wife that she should go to England so that their daughter could learn English. “Now, she’s amazing at speaking English - even with a Scottish accent!” he says.

The event raises £502 to buy drone equipment and supplies for the 429th “Achilles” UAV Battalion. Every little bit of help for Ukraine can go a long way, he says: “The lives of soldiers and civilians are at stake - it’s a very critical situation. Ukraine is surviving as it can - and it will survive.” If Ukraine loses, Ukrainian soldiers will be conscripted into the Russian Army and sent to fight against Europe, Andrii believes: “Europe is not ready for that.”

As Russia stalls on the front lines and escalates air attacks on Ukrainian civilians, when and how the war will end remains uncertain.

Neither Ukraine’s military nor its civilians will bend to Russia’s will, Andrii believes. He hopes for victory and a return to independence with 1991 borders intact, and for the break-up of the Russian Federation into smaller states. He plans to return to Ukraine in July.

“I don’t want to go back to war, really,” he says. “I would like to be here with my family, but morally I can’t leave my brothers in arms. Hopefully, once my unit can operate effectively without me, then I will leave the army, and I would love to come to Scotland and be with my family.”

Behind the medals and near-misses is a vulnerable human being. “I still don’t know why I haven’t gone crazy in the head after living through all this,” he says. “What keeps me going is knowing that I have a daughter to come back to, and that she really needs a dad.”

Alina Livanova provided interpreting.

Andrii’s TikTok: @Andry_v24

Ukrainian Victory Campaign: Instagram

For today’s long read, David Forysth hit the streets with one of the teams faced with the unenviable task of cleaning up behind Edinburgh’s fly-tippers.

It is a significant problem which costs around £2 million a year to deal with and has the feel of being an endless, uphill task. More on that after your usual news and cultural roundups.

Earlier this week, our paying members enjoyed an exclusive interview with the man who has been charged with calculating the full value of the Fringe to Scotland. If you missed Will Quinn’s interview with Professor Murray Pittock about the often unseen benefits of the Fringe, the challenges of chasing hard cultural data and the difference it can make, you can catch up here, Putting a price on the Fringe.

Your Edinburgh Briefing

MORE OPEN GARDENS? The owners of Edinburgh’s private gardens could be offered council help with maintenance in return for opening them up to greater public use. The idea is being proposed by Scottish Greens city councillor Dan Heap as a way of increasing access to green space. (You can read more about the city’s private gardens in Sarah McArthur’s long read We call it a private garden, but it is our back garden)

MORE GEORGE ST BARS: Three neighbouring shops units on George Street look set to become new food and drink venues. The former Hollister and House of Tweed stores would become the Caledonian Bar and Brasserie, while Amor Cashmere nextdoor would become the Edina whisky rooms, under two separate plans lodged with the city council.

HISTORIC OVERHAUL: A review of the work culture and practices at Historic Environment Scotland (HES) - the Edinburgh-based quango that oversees Edinburgh Castle and other historic properties - has recommended wide-ranging changes. Former Dundee City Council chief executive David Martin has made 30 recommendations including a streamlining senior management with the number of directors cut from eight to five. The review followed staff complaints of a “toxic” working culture.

COUNCIL BYELECTIONS: New SNP MSPs Simita Kumar and Kate Campbell have resigned their seats on the city council in a move which triggers two by-elections in the Southside/Newington and Portobello/Craigmillar wards in September. The Lib Dems’ Sanne Dijkstra-Downie and the Greens’ Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill are expected to serve the remainder of their term at the local authority and stand down at the council elections in May next year.

ALL REFUELED: Fuel shortages which caused delays for passengers at Edinburgh Airport at the weekend were a result of short-term staffing issues with drivers, rather than wider geopolitical events, The BBC reports. The problem has been resolved and services have been running as normal this week.

LAVENDER MENACE: Today is your last chance to back the Save Lavender Menace appeal to keep Edinburgh’s pioneering queer book archive open. The appeal closes tonight after raising more than £34,000, and is on course to be able to pay staff for at least nine months while it continues to work on plans to secure its longer term future.

Pick of the (Cultural) Pops

Greetings, Pop Pickers!

We’ve enjoyed a lovely, if temporary, heatwave, and now it’s back to the brollies. But don’t let the grey skies fool you - the barometer might be plummeting, but the chart is absolutely red-hot this week! We have a sensational lineup of heavy-hitters, dark thrillers, and world-class symphonics battling it out for the top spots, and the competition is fiercely close.

Let’s count them down...

Honourable Mentions: The RSA, Kraftwerk & A Summerhall Revival

It is getting fiercely competitive at the edges of the chart. The RSA 200th Anniversary Exhibition (Royal Scottish Academy, open now until June 14th) holds its place in the mentions - not because its world-class standard has slipped, but purely because we have to make room for time-limited new arrivals. Over in the music world, electronic titans Kraftwerk (Edinburgh Playhouse, June 9th) bring their legendary multimedia tour to town, though it was solidly sold out the last time I checked. Finally, I’m keeping an eye on a quiet theatrical revival over at Summerhall; they are hosting Neil LaBute’s Autobahn (Friday and Saturday) before local treasures Strange Town mount their own mini-festival on June 13th and 14th. More on this as I find out!

New in at Number 5 is... RSNO: Elgar’s Cello Concerto (Usher Hall, Friday) Stepping up from last week’s near-misses is an evening of serious symphonic clout. The RSNO has drafted in the superb Kian Soltani to tackle Elgar’s defining, emotionally heavy cello concerto. When you pair an orchestra of this calibre with a soloist renowned for his depth of feeling, the result is bound to be a deeply compelling night of classical music.

Staying at Number 4 is... Sweat (Royal Lyceum Theatre, until June 13th)

Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat holds its ground. I couldn’t make it to the initial Glasgow opening of this Citizens Theatre co-production, but the whisper network among my fellow critics has remained nothing short of glowing - even in private, which is saying something! Directed by Joanna Bowman, it charts the unravelling friendships of factory workers facing job losses in Rust Belt Pennsylvania. With a superb creative team and cast, it is a taut, devastating look at class, loyalty, and survival.

New in at Number 3 is... Dracula (Festival Theatre, June 12th – 14th)

This is shaping up to be one of the hottest tickets in town. BIG Live’s dark, atmospheric ballet reimagining of the classic vampire myth arrives fresh from a sold-out run in London. Choreographed by Joel Burke, it features a powerhouse international cast drawn from heavy-hitters like the Mariinsky and English National Ballet. Set to a thundering classical score of Bach, Rachmaninov, and Mozart, reviews from its previous stops have rightly praised its rich storytelling and breathtaking performances. Given the sheer scale on display, it promises a spectacular night out.

Dropping to Number 2 is... The Marriage of Figaro (Festival Theatre, until Saturday)

Slipping slightly from the top spot is Scottish Opera’s staging of Mozart’s comic peak. Having now taken my seat, I found it to be a gorgeous production, even if it proved a little less perfect than I had originally expected. Still, Sir Thomas Allen’s directorial hand is clear, finding the breathless physical comedy without losing the sharp class warfare layered beneath Simon Higlett’s stunning period sets. The decision to sing it in English might upset the purists, but I really wouldn’t worry about them. With Dane Lam and Susannah Wapshott taking up the baton, it remains an intoxicating, effervescent triumph. On pedigree alone, it is hard to look past it.

Moving to Number 1 is... The Edinburgh International Children’s Festival (Various Venues, until Sunday)

Having fully immersed myself in the early days of this year’s programming, I have been absolutely floored by the sheer ambition on display. It is endlessly frustrating how often the wider arts world patronises youth-oriented productions, because the curators at Imaginate have delivered a slate of shows that easily rival anything aimed at the grown-ups. The quality across the board is breathtaking. Highlights so far include Marc Brew’s Boys Don’t Dance - which executes a thrilling choreographic collision of an 80s music video, a BMW, and a wheelchair - and the gently captivating comedic brilliance of In Time, which currently stands as my absolute favourite of an exceptionally strong pack. If you want to see genuinely uncompromising, wildly inventive storytelling that refuses to talk down to its audience, you need to grab a ticket immediately.

And that’s your Top 5! So pack up your brollies, cross your fingers for a sudden return of the sunshine, and brace yourselves for the inevitable threat of a bizarre June blizzard. Whatever the skies pull next, my notebook is packed, my pen is inked, and I’ll be right back out there on the aisle seats, figuring out exactly which tickets are worth your hard-earned cash.

How does the top five sit with you this week? Think I’ve entirely lost the plot with the rankings, or are you ready to jump into the comments and tell me just how right I am? Let’s have it out below!

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On the road with the city’s fly-tipping team

Picking up after the rubbish dumpers who cost the city £2 million a year

by David Forsyth

The two men looked at each other, exchanged a glance and quietly shook heads. We were less than an hour into their shift, picking up illegally and thoughtlessly discarded mattresses and worn-out sofas and we’d already picked up enough fly-tipped junk to furnish a small flat.

Fly-tipping is not an issue confined to rural landscapes. It’s a major issue in urban Edinburgh too, costing millions, blighting streets, and diverting hard-pressed public resources.

The team who deal with it carry out an important, often literally thankless, but Sisyphean task. Seemingly endless, the 21^st century equivalent of being condemned to spend eternity rolling a huge boulder endlessly up a mountain, with no final apparent resolution. Unlike arrogant King Sisyphus, we’ve not brought this upon ourselves by angering the Gods of Ancient Greece.

Sadly, it’s because too many of us are simply not prepared to dispose of our unwanted rubbish through the many legal means available. Taking it free to a legal recycling centre or booking a low-cost bulky item uplift both come to mind. For many of those on benefits, the uplift can be free.

Read more

August hits Edinburgh, and the Fringe takes over. The numbers are vast by any measure. 2.6 million tickets issued across 3,800 shows in 2025, writes Will Quinn.

Appropriately given the calendar, ticket sales are equivalent to a Fifa World Cup.

Right now, in late May 2026, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has already announced roughly 1,600 shows across its early spring batches. Expect the final tally to hit or slightly exceed that 3,800 mark once the full programme launches later this month.

Yet, despite being widely acknowledged as the largest arts festival on the planet, its exact, independent economic value remains extremely vague. Existing research work has focused on the collective values of the city’s summer and winter festivals.

Professor Murray Pittock, Pro-Vice-Principal at the University of Glasgow, intends to bring some long-overdue clarity.

“I don’t think people fully understand just how much it is the case that the restaurant in Bruntsfield you like going to in October is probably only open because of what happens in August,” says Pittock.

Untangling the August footprint

Backed by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and funded under the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) World Class Labs initiative, he is embarking on a major study to evaluate the distinct economic and social impact of the festival. He wants the hard numbers behind the handbills. He is on a mission to articulate what the festival is actually worth to Edinburgh and the rest of Scotland.

Pittock sees the project as overdue. The value of the festivals to the city is always a hot topic of debate. Readers will be very aware of the constant discussion involving local authorities and residents of the threat of over-tourism. Amidst the noise, reality can fade.

The Fringe doesn’t just dominate August in Edinburgh. It subsidises the city year-round, helping to keep hospitality lights on long after the visiting festival performers departed and the Spiegeltents have been packed up.

Read more

Pupils are set to have their mobile phones locked up in schools across Edinburgh after the move won broad support in a massive consultation excercise.

The restrictions will apply in primary and secondary schools from August under plans expected to be approved by city councillors on Tuesday, 9 June. The move follows a consultation in which nearly 14,000 parents, pupils and staff took part.

It is expected to minimise classroom disruption from distracting notifications as well as incidents of filming of bullying. About a third of pupils admitted to being distracted by phones in almost every lesson in a Scotland-wide study in 2022.

How will it work? In primary schools, pupils’ phones will be locked up in cabinets for the whole school day, leaving them free to use them on the way to and from school. In secondaries, lockable pouches will be used, with pupils likely to be allowed to access them during lunch times and breaks.

Lockable pouches? Bob Dylan fans had to agree to lock up their mobiles in Yondr pouches at his concert at the Usher Hall last year. They work in a similar way to anti-theft tags in supermarkets. Once phones are placed inside, the pouches are clamped shut by a powerful magnet, until they are tapped on an unlocking base.

Won’t kids find ways around it? There are anecdotal stories of pupils finding ways around the rules, such as using second “burner" phones. However, it is generally agreed to have worked pretty well at the two high schools which have piloted the system in Edinburgh, Portobello and Queensferry.

How much will it cost? The city council has set aside £400,000 to cover the cost of cabinets and pouches. Some schools may ask parents who are able to make a contribution towards the pouches.

‘Pupils talk more’: Edinburgh has learned from the experience in Moray where similar restrictions have been pioneered. There, education officials report “evidence that young people are talking more to each other”, while some schools have started “putting games out at lunchtime”.

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

PREMIUM CAPITAL: Edinburgh has leapfrogged Dublin to become the most expensive city for hotel accommodation in Europe, according to the Post Office’s City Costs Barometer. A weekend (two nights) for two people in three star accommodation in the Capital costs an average £462, edging out Barcelona (£457) and Dublin (£445). Taking the overall cost of a stay into account, including food, drink and entertainment, Edinburgh was third highest in Europe at £668, behind Copenhagen (£670) and Oslo (a whopping £734). Last year, Dublin had the most expensive hotels (£411), but a 15% price rise has seen Edinburgh rise to top - or sink to the bottom? - of the league. Tourism and hospitality in Scotland have been among the hardest hit sector by rising costs, ranging from increased taxes, such as employers National Insurance Contributions, to higher wages and utility bills.

FRINGE CROWDS: Last year, it was Oasis and AC/DC who brought tens of thousands of fans to Murrayfield during the Fringe. This summer it will be Newcastle United and Everton who will play a pre-season friendly there on Wednesday 12 August (followed by a Bon Jovi concert on the final Friday). The fixture has fueled speculation among Newcastle fans that the club might look to play its home Premier League fixtures at Murrayfield in the event it presses ahead with a major expansion of St James’ Park.

FRINGE APPEAL: Comedian Tim Minchin has donated £10,000 to help launch a fund operated by Fringe promoters Gilded Balloon to support artists struggling with the rising costs of appearing at the festival.

ELPH TRIBUTES: Tributes have been paid to Brian McFeely, the street artist Elph whose works adorn buildings across the Capital, following his unexpected death. He was described as “the Edinburgh Banksy” in a family post announcing the sad news.

WATER WARNING: Beach-goers are once again being advised to stay out of the sea due to poor water quality along the Firth of Forth. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has issued the advice for Dunbar’s East Beach as “a precautionary measure”.

LESS BANGS FOR YOUR BUCK: Firework control zones look set to be spread further across the city this year after being credited with helping ease problems in several areas around last Bonfire Night. Councillors will be asked to approve plans which will take the total number of control areas to 14 - Calton Hill, Balerno, Niddrie, Seafield, Corstorphine, Liberton Grange, Lochend, Longstone, Moredun, Sighthill/Broomhouse, Stenhouse/Gaskell Street, The Murrays, West Pilton and Wester Hailes - when they meet on Monday, 8 June.

CHURCH SALE: Ballet dancer turned arts impresario Peter Schauffus has put the landmark St Stephen’s Church in Stockbridge up for sale for offers over £3 million. He had previously used the building as a Fringe venue including for a sell-out run of Hamlet performances by Ian McKellen. The A-listed church’s previous owners include Grand Theft Auto video game creator Leslie Benzies.

BLOOMING MARVELOUS: A philanthropist based in the United States has donated £500,000 to help launch an ambitious garden project at Newhailes House in Musselburgh. The gift is one of the largest ever received by the National Trust for Scotland and will support a £4.8m restoration of the estates gardens, including new community and education spaces.

WALKING FOR CHAS: A team of 22 colleagues from leading Edinburgh-based law firm Brodies LLP will take on a 67km stretch of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage walk in Spain in three days in early June to raise money for Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) which provides care for children who may die young and their families.

EDINBURGH’S ‘WEMBLEY WAY’: The Royal Highland Centre aims to create a “Wembley Way-style” link to a new tram stop as part of expansion plans. The venue has enjoyed growing success as an outdoor concerts and events destination, staging immersive Van Gogh and Monet exhibitions alongside the Summer Sessions pop concerts which relocated from Princes Street Gardens. The proposed expansion includes creating a boulevard lined with hotels, restaurants, bars and shops as a new main entrance route, managing director Mark Currie told The Herald.

LE JOY MAKERS: Tour de France organisers are looking for volunteers - to be known as “joy makers” - to take part in the Grand Depart when it comes to Edinburgh and Midlothian next summer.

DOOCOT DELIGHT: The restoration of the Preston Tower, Doocot and Gardens, in Prestonpans, East Lothian, has been named among the ten best ‘new’ buildings in Scotland by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS). Edinburgh University’s Futures Institute and Usher Building at the Bioquarter are also on the shortlist.

Pic of the week

THE BUSINESS

City on track for South Sub boost

Edinburgh is on track - albeit early stage - for a “quick win” to reduce congestion, improve public transport and boost the economy.

Campaigning group Tram Trains for Edinburgh are optimistic that a Scottish Government-funded feasibility study into re-opening the city’s south suburban rail line for tram-trains is moving much closer.

Group Chair Rob Falcon was encouraged that city councillors agreed an amended SNP Group motion pressing the Scottish Government to fund a South Sub feasibility study, in line with their manifesto promise, and that positive noises appear to be emanating from the corridors of power at Holyrood.

The council confirmed its strong support for the project, and have written to new Scottish Transport Minister Stephen Flynn to provide funds within the next six months. Reports indicate that the Government is minded to act quickly on the issue.

the Tram Trains for Edinburgh Chair maintains that in comparison to many transport projects, which would be years in the making, the South Sub represents a ‘quick win’.

They point out that the project is well defined, based on an existing rail route, likely to demonstrate a positive benefit/cost ratio and an opportunity to get ‘shovels in the ground’ soon. Falcon added that the latest moves were “a further milestone in getting this project done for the benefit of the city and the wider Lothian region.”

The South Sub is separate from the larger tram extension project which is, as yet, not funded.

PLANNING REFORM: Housebuilding industry group Homes for Scotland maintains latest planning statistics for Scotland – with major housing applications down 38% as timescales remain more than twice the statutory target – highlight the need for faster and clearer planning reform. The group points out that the number of applications for smaller developments has also fallen. Kevin Murphy, Director of Planning at sector body Homes for Scotland (HFS), whose members deliver the majority of the country’s new homes of all tenures, said the figures “are another clear reminder that the planning system must be enabled to support the delivery of more homes of all tenure.”

SPIRIT BOUGHT: Media buying agency Spirit Media Scotland, based in Leith, has been bought by E&B Holdings, which is based mainly in London, reports Daily Business. Spirit, which has a significant and established client list in Scotland, will continue to operate and is seen as having significant growth potential.

CONFIDENCE GROWS: Scottish companies are reporting greater optimism. Business confidence in Scotland rose two points during May to 50%, according to the latest Business Barometer from Lloyds. Almost a third of businesses say they expect to increase staffing levels, although that number shows a slight fall on the previous month. AI, investing in staff training, and evolving their products or services are all rates as high priorities.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

HITTING THE HEIGHTS: Once again a mass reenactment of Kate Bush’s ethereal Wuthering Heights video promises to be one of the highlights of the Meadows Festival. There is of course a packed programme of other entertainment across Saturday and Sunday, but you can catch all the Kates off Melville Drive at some point between 4pm and 5pm on Saturday. And you can read all about them here.

OPENING THE DOOR: The unique Hidden Door Festival returns to the Paper Factory on the western edge of the city from Wednesday to Saturday. If you missed Will Quinn’s guide to what to expect, published on Saturday, you can catch up with it here.

SEASIDE CULTURE: New work by Emmy-nominated multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper, Blur star Alex James’ Britpop Classical and the Tinderbox Orchestra with Kathryn Joseph are among the highlights of this summer’s Fringe by the Sea. The North Berwick festival has announced its full lineup for 31 July to 9 August, which also includes Belle & Sebastian and comedian Lou Sanders and writers Maggie O’Farrell and Doug Johnstone.

QUICK BITES

TATTY BUYS: Baked potato brand SpudBros is set to open its first Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh this summer. The company, which has built its brand on social media, will launch its new venue on Lothian Road in July as part of a wider Scottish expansion plan.

CAFÉ CLOSED: The eponymous Argyle Place café in Marchmont has shut its doors for the final time. The team announced the closure on social media, saying the doors would close for good yesterday “after six years.”

The Hidden Door Festival operates on borrowed time; it’s the nature of this particular creative beast. The independent arts charity secures abandoned urban infrastructure, wires up a bar, curates five days of intense programming, and leaves.

It started in 2014, clearing out the damp arches of the Market Street vaults to make a point about Edinburgh’s unused spaces. Successive iterations saw the festival squat in a King’s Stables Road street lighting depot, clear the dust from Leith Theatre, occupy the Old Royal High School on Calton Hill, and take over the Scottish Widows complex on Dalkeith Road. It acts as a fleeting tenant within Edinburgh’s perpetual redevelopment cycle.

Every year, an army of volunteers donates countless hours to bringing the festival to life - bringing a festival of this scale to life, even with an in-built lack of polish, cannot be anything but exhausting and expensive.

The result, however, is large-scale, site-specific, expansive programming rarely attempted elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

This year, the festival has set aside its nomad tendences. From 3 to 7 June, Hidden Door returns for a second and final run at The Paper Factory. This 15.5-acre site in the Maybury Quarter formerly housed a Saica cardboard manufacturing plant. It is a vast, echoing complex of warehouses, sorting rooms, and administrative offices situated near the Gateway tram station. Developers will soon move in to flatten the lot. Hidden Door gets the final word.

“Returning to The Paper Factory for a final year allows us to go deeper into the history and texture of the site,” says Hazel Johnson, Hidden Door director. “We aren’t just putting on a show; we’re building a myth.”

The Last Shift

The 2026 programme has been wrapped around the conceptual framing of ‘The Last Shift’. Rather than imposing an external narrative on the venue, the organisers treat the factory walls as recording devices for past emotion. Interdisciplinary collaborations thread throughout the 15-acre footprint.

One such commission, The Machine Stops, features audio recordings of former factory workers discussing life on the shop floor. Arts writer Neil Cooper teamed up with Luke Bell, Jill Boualaxai Martin, Andrew Dawson, Tom Flint, and Paul McCluskey to build the piece, which tracks the escalating industrial rhythms of the factory until shutdown. Cooper proposed creating a large-scale clash of material, combining interviews with former workers Jim Scott and Marlyn Price, archival phone footage, and live percussion from the Sativa Drummers.

Other commissions deploy roaming physical theatre. Ghosts in the Machines sends performers wandering through the site, engaging in strange forms of nightly labour as they examine the traces of a world they no longer understand. Process Line follows a worker performing mundane factory routines via spoken word.

Music and open call selection

It falls to music, however, to form the spine of the five-day run. Johnson and her team secured Norwegian singer-songwriter Jenny Hval (pictured below) to headline, on Friday, 5 June.

Hval brings her experimental live performance to the industrial floor, placing her avant-garde output inside a defunct Scottish cardboard factory for a striking juxtaposition. Skye-based electronic-trad fusion act Valtos take the Saturday headline slot. They will mount their DJ and live hybrid project, High Water Mark, bringing a set of dancefloor-oriented folk to the weekend.

The wider bill pulls in international acts and local stalwarts. American pop performer Caroline Kingsbury and punk duo Cowboy Hunters feature on Thursday. Australian electro-pop act BIG WETT opens the festival on Wednesday, alongside experimental one-man-band performer ICHI. In the club space, Fred Deakin of Lemon Jelly will play sets drawing from decades of his Scottish club nights. Feminist DJ collective EPiKA takes over the late-night decks on Friday.

Hidden Door also retains its focus on grassroots programming. The festival sifted 300 applications to select 12 open-call acts, co-curated with Creative Edinburgh and the National Centre for Music. This intake leans heavily into the eclectic. Wednesday features Post Coal Prom Queen, who build sets around mechanical beats and retrofuturistic synths. They share the opening night with the theatrical outfit Doom Scroller and an electronic act composed of Molly Sellors and Charlotte Devlin (pictured below), who construct rave beats using oboe samples.

Thursday shifts to off-kilter pop from Buffet Lunch, synth anthems from Thundermoon, and guitar-driven punk from Dinosaur 94. Friday brings Glasgow nu-jazz via Azamiah and 80s-influenced contemporary tracks from Emma Dunlop. Saturday moves to harsher sonics with psych-rock group HANSKLAMMER and industrial dance act maniatrix. Glasgow trio Taupe fuse sludgy doom riffs with improvisation on Sunday. Gaelic and Scots singer Evie Waddell closes out the open-call slate, drawing inspiration from Martyn Bennet and Ivor Cutler.

Visual art and corporate surveillance

Visual art occupies the defunct machinery and empty corridors. Hidden Door commissioned large sculptural installations, wall-based work, and textiles to sit directly against the peeling paint. Artists, including Chema Rodriguez Alcantara, Ellie Harrison, Lilian Ptacek and Emma Macleod, integrate their output directly into the derelict architecture. The spoken word programme returns the human voice to the silent factory. Sets from Iona Lee, Josh Cake, Emily Grace Briggs, RJ Hunter, and Sean Wai Keung will echo through the atmospheric chambers over the five nights.

The ever-splendid Tinderbox Collective will command a physical presence again, though integrated into the wider site rather than dominating the schedule. They return with Room to Play, a satirical installation co-directed by immersive design studio Ray Interactive. Seven multi-disciplinary artists built the space to resemble a retro-futuristic tech conglomerate holding a corporate recruitment drive. Visitors walk through the exhibition during the day, interacting with hidden cameras and digital surveillance features.

At night, it converts into a live venue. The space will host contemporary dancers from Curious Seed’s MAINTAIN project, music improvisers Dead Fly, and collaborative work from the international Samata Collective. Tinderbox Orchestra will then play the Main Stage near the end of the festival, bringing a high-energy orchestral set featuring composer Kate Young.

Hidden Door

Edinburgh does not lack festivals. Yet most arrive fully formed, dropping into purpose-built theatres or manicured central lawns. Hidden Door offers a purposefully cruder, more volatile alternative. By anchoring its operations to architectural decay, it constructs a temporary hub for art that sits outside the commercial mainstream - or at least attempts to.

The profile of the event has grown, along with its booking power, but its core value remains rooted in this friction. It offers emerging Scottish musicians and visual artists a massive physical platform without the prohibitive registration fees or financial barriers imposed by major fringe venues. It functions as a heavy-duty incubator. Audiences do not visit to sit in plush stalls; they go to explore, stumbling across spoken word acts in former sorting rooms or industrial synth bands in loading bays. Critics might say it’s somewhat contrived, but all successful indie endeavours are doomed to become pastiches of their early days.

Yet, as grassroots venues across the central belt face unprecedented financial challenges, the festival’s contribution to the local creative economy remains significant. It proves that Edinburgh’s industrial margins can hold artistic weight - the council’s embrace of the iconic Granton Gas Holder at the heart of a new public park certainly follows in Hidden Door’s footsteps philosophically speaking.

Hidden Door 2026 intends to extract maximum utility from The Paper Factory before the bulldozers arrive. The site remains free to enter during the day until 6pm. This is an intentional move to ensure the art remains accessible to the immediate community - particularly those who mightn’t feel at home in the grungier, more intense moments dominating the evening.

Ticketed access applies to the evening shows, with 30% discounts applied for unemployed, D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent attendees. Hidden Door cannot be accused of not putting their limited money where their mouth is.

When the last visitor waves goodbye, and the art evacuates in search of an afterlife, the Paper Factory will - eventually - become housing or commercial space, and Hidden Door will set their sights on the next unlikely, forsaken venue to call their home in 2027. Before that, this incarnation of the festival will burn brightly for five days, and leave everyone who crosses the Paper Factory threshold with memories to last a lifetime.

Hidden Door Festival runs from 3–7 June 2026 at The Paper Factory, 1 Turnhouse Road, Edinburgh EH12 8NP. Daytime entry is free until 6:00 PM; tickets are required for the evening programme.

First of all, thank you to Inquirer member Robin who got in touch about our election coverage.

“Your journalism has been first rate. A special thank you for your coverage of the recent election and its aftermath. You managed to make sense of the campaign in Edinburgh (as much as anybody can make sense of such a dire campaign). I have, of course, my own political prejudices, but it was very helpful that so much of your coverage was of individual candidates and MSPs. Rather than presenting them as stock politicians with a rosette stuck on, they appeared as human beings with something to offer, not a sentence I write easily. Well done to all your journalists, you’re all doing a fantastic job.”

We always appreciate your feedback, whether you like something we’ve done or you don’t, it is critical to shaping the future of The Inquirer. It is fair to say, however, that receiving encouraging messages like this one give us an extra bounce in our step and an added motivation to keep reporting on city life.

On that note, we have a long read for you today that is very much in the spirit so eloquently summed up by Robin.

We approached all the MSPs who were elected to the Scottish Parliament for the first time to represent Edinburgh and interviewed all who responded positively. (If you’re one of those who hasn’t agreed yet, we know it’s a busy time and we’d still love to talk!)

Today, we bring you interviews with the new lists MSPs who agreed to sit down with our writers, along with profiles of those who weren’t available.

That includes interviews with two of those who attracted some of the most scathing headlines during the election campaign, the Greens’ Dr Q Manivannan and Kate Nevens.

We know from our correspondence that some of you support the Greens and some of you have deep reservations about the party’s economic policies in particular. We are sure you will appreciate hearing directly from two new politicians who were happy to sit down and speak openly with us.

Before we get into all of that, here’s your regular midweek news roundup and cultural highlights for the week ahead.

Your Edinburgh Briefing

TAXI DAY OUT U-TURN: It was perhaps as inevitable as it is welcome, but the Edinburgh taxi drivers’ annual day trip to the seaside for children is back on. A new safety plan has been agreed between the organisers and the police, following 24 hours of outcry over the cancelling of the outing. That included a cross-party group of city MPs joining forces to call on the police to help find a resolution. It means scores of children with special needs and life-limiting conditions will get their day out after all, just as they have done since 1947.

DRUG GANG LORRY CRASH LINK: A skip lorry crashing into a house in Portobello was a targeted attack on the family of a teenager connected to the ongoing ‘drug gang war’ in the Central Belt. The Daily Record reports that the 19-year-old whose family was targeted had been implicated in a cocaine deal in which infamous crime gang leader Ross McGill was paid £500,000 in fake cash.

RETURN OF THE KING’S: The King’s Theatre will fully reopen, after a 4-year closure for renovation, in time for this year’s festival season. It will reopen on 1 August after three “test performances” in July. The £40m-plus renovation will allow the theatre to attract larger, more ambitious productions, with improved disabled access.

MORE MURRELL CLAIMS: As former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell settles into life on remand in Saughton Prison after pleading guilty to embezzling the party out of £400,000, more allegations that couldn’t be published ahead of a potential trial are coming to light. The Press & Journal are one of a number of publications reporting that Alex Salmond suspected Murrell, the estranged husband of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, of stealing money from his office while working there more than 30 years ago. Meanwhile, current FM John Swinney has dismissed calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the affair.

WILDFIRE WARNINGS: The Fire Brigades Union are warning that the Scottish Fire Service are considering closing the nearest station to Arthur’s Seat, at Marionville, following the latest blaze in Holyrood Park. Meanwhile, the service’s group commander Des Donnelly reminded people of the importance of making sure cigarettes are fully extinguished and all litter is taken home with them. (For more on the growing risk of wildfires in the Capital, check out Sarah McArthur’s long read from last summer.)

Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops

Greetings, Pop Pickers!

I am typing this up right in the thick of a bank holiday heatwave, though what the atmosphere over the Lothians will actually look like by the time you read this is anyone’s guess. Blue skies or thunderstorms? Who knows. But even if the Scottish weather is unpredictable, nobody can accuse our skies - or our local playhouses - of skimping on the drama. The stakes are high in the chart this week, which means fighting your way into the top spots required some serious artistic heavy lifting, writes Will Quinn.

Let’s count them down...

Honourable Mentions: Richard Thompson, Capella Edina, RSNO & the RSA

It is a ferociously competitive field for our near misses this week. First up, Richard Thompson (Usher Hall, tonight), with support from Hamish Hawk, makes a hotly anticipated return. There are still a few tickets left if you’re quick. The RSA 200th Anniversary Exhibition (Royal Scottish Academy, Open Now) drops into the honourable mentions not because it remains anything less than world-class, but entirely because of the time-limited excellence of new shows hitting the city. For classical enthusiasts, Spring – Capella Edina 2026 Season (Assembly Rooms, June 3rd) offers a rare chance to see a pretty much new, high-class orchestra in action, stepping out freshly anointed as the city’s official Philharmonic Orchestra before taking their wares overseas. Finally, RSNO: Elgar’s Cello Concerto (Usher Hall, June 5th) features world-class cellist Kian Soltani tackling the instrument’s most famous showcase concerto.

New in at Number 5 is... Pierre Novellie: You Sit There, I’ll Stand Here (Monkey Barrel Comedy, Sunday).

It’s no secret to my regular readers over on theQR.co.uk that I am a huge Pierre Novellie fan. A master of alarmingly well-researched sets delivered with matter-of-fact verve, Pierre’s cleverly woven mix of origin story and bemused analysis of the state of our nation isn’t his most hilarious hour, but he sets such a high bar that you’ll still crease yourself plenty. He really is a joy to watch in action, such are his multifaceted skills as a comic.

New in at Number 4 is... Sweat (Royal Lyceum Theatre, until June 13th).

Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat is coming to the Royal Lyceum clutching an impressive raft of glowing reviews. Yours truly was otherwise occupied when it opened in Glasgow, but my colleagues in the reviewing ranks had nothing but good things to relay—even in private! A Citizens Theatre co-production directed by Joanna Bowman, it is a gripping, powerhouse social drama charting the splintering friendships of factory workers facing layoffs in Rust Belt Pennsylvania. Backed by a stellar creative team and an impeccable cast, it promises a taut, devastating exploration of class, loyalty, and survival.

Staying at Number 3 is... 2:22 A Ghost Story (Edinburgh Playhouse, until Saturday).

Securing the bronze this week is Danny Robins’s sensational, nerve-shredding thriller. The mastermind behind the hit Uncanny podcast first unleashed this modern supernatural puzzle back in 2021, and it has been expertly terrifying audiences ever since. When the show last spooked the capital in 2023, I declared it the new Mousetrap - a testament to its gripping, twist-laden narrative that keeps audiences entirely off-balance until the final blackout. Armed with a fresh cast ready to jump at every bump in the night, this gloriously eerie celebration of the supernatural will doubtless offer some edge-of-the-seat greatness.

Staying at Number 2 is... The Edinburgh International Children’s Festival (Various Venues, Saturday until June 7th).

There is a persistent, lazy assumption that theatre for younger crowds is a lesser, simpler art form. The long-standing track record of this annual extravaganza proves that nothing could be further from the truth. The performers who step into the spotlight here have to be fearless — there’s no scarier critic than a bored munchkin. Year after year, the programming brains at Imaginate source exhilarating, wildly inventive work from across the globe. Based on their impeccable history, we can expect another uncompromising, boundary-smashing celebration of stagecraft that will leave plenty of adult-focused theatre in its tracks.

Staying at Number 1 is... The Marriage of Figaro (Festival Theatre, tomorrow until June 6th).

Taking the gold for a second week is Scottish Opera with the return of their widely adored staging of Mozart’s comic peak. If the source material is already a masterclass in farce, the team assembled here suggests we are in for a truly spectacular revival. Director Sir Thomas Allen brings a lifetime of operatic pedigree to the table, and his previous outings with this production have proved his knack for leaning into breathless physical comedy without losing sight of the razor-sharp class warfare bubbling underneath Simon Higlett’s stunning period sets. It’s sung in English, which might upset the purists, but I wouldn’t worry about them.

With Dane Lam and Susannah Wapshott taking up the baton, all the ingredients are there for an intoxicating, effervescent triumph. On pedigree alone, it would be hard to award the crown to any other this week.

Booking Link:

And that’s your Top 5!

Button up your overcoats, slap on the SPF, and secure those tickets while you still can. I’ll be returning to the reviewing ranks with my notebook and pen, ready to tell you precisely what to think about the shows gracing the Edinburgh stage this week. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the chart - have I missed anything? Do you want to mistakenly argue with my ranking? Whatever it is, we want to hear it!

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The disability campaigner, the party switcher and the pilloried trans activist

Meet your Lothian list MSPs

by Sarah McArthur and Jolene Campbell

This year’s Holyrood in-take features more new parliamentarians than ever.

Among those elected to represent Edinburgh and the Lothians are the first trans MSP, a wheelchair-user who has been a powerful campaigner for disabled rights, a politician who has switched parties twice in recent years and a former Scottish director of the charity Amnesty International.

Here’s more on their pre-parliament background and what their priorities are now that they are in Holyrood.

Dr Q Manivannan: ‘I’ve had thousands of messages, both of love and for grief’

Dr Q Mannivannan has been the centre of intense and often hostile press attention since their election. This escalated to the point where parliamentary security staff made the decision to escort Manivannan through the building on the day MSPs were officially sworn in to their new roles on 14th May.

From press articles to comments from Conservative and Reform MSPs and one SNP former MP, questions were raised about whether Manivannan is allowed to work full time, whether they will be deported mid-parliamentary term and whether they would work as an MSP from abroad in that instance, There have been claims the MSP has “pocketed” money raised from a crowdfunder launched to help pay for their graduate visa despite now being on a £77K salary. Much of this was incorrectly reported. We have fact-checked with independent experts, official sources such as the Home Office and spoke directly with Manivannan to establish the following:

• It is true that Manivannan’s ability to live in the UK for the next five years is not completely certain. As reported immigration specialists have told the BBC and The Times, they will almost certainly be granted a graduate visa for three years, but the likelihood of being awarded the Global Talent Visa which would allow them to stay for the whole term is less certain.

• It is not true that Manivannan is subject to a 20-hour per week limit on paid work. These reports were incorrect on two counts. Firstly, the 20-hour limit does not apply to work associated with holding public office under UK immigration law. Even if this were not the case, the limit only applies to students during term time - having completed their PhD (hence the title “Dr”), Manivannan is obviously not under term-time restrictions. The UK Home Office has confirmed Manivannan has acted perfectly legally under their visa.

• Manivannan says they will not attempt to work as an MSP remotely from India if their visa applications are unsuccessful. They confirmed during an interview with The Inquirer, that if their visa applications are unsuccessful they will simply step down. Because they are a list MSP, the next Green candidate on the regional list will step in, which would be city councillor Chas Booth.

• Manivannan says they did not “pocket” donations. They confirmed that they crowdfunded for some of the costs of their visa applications, and said the £1122 raised went directly to their visa application. The reason the crowdfunder was taken down was to protect donors to the crowdfunder, many of whom were named, and who had begun receiving harassment. While Manivannan is set to take home over £4000 per month from their MSP salary, they have not seen any of that cash yet, and they said that for the next few months a combination of rent and high visa costs, which will be over £7000 in total, will absorb most of this.

• Manivannan did not claim to “grow up starving”. This quote has been used to suggest the privately educated politician, who has worked for companies who connect Indian students with UK universities, has misled people about their background. While the article did not link its sources, the quote appears to have been taken from an obviously metaphorical “self-written obituary” about gender that Manivannan wrote in 2018. Manivannan has emphasised their marginalised status as someone who is queer, Tamil (an ethnic minority in India), and an immigrant, but spoke openly about their work helping Indian students to connect with universities in the UK when speaking with The Inquirer.

• Mannivanan is allowed to stand for election on a student visa, under the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act which was put forward by the SNP in 2025, and passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament. Before this bill was passed, individuals of any nationality were able to stand for Scottish elections, providing they had the permanent right to live and work in the UK. It’s important to note, considering some of the headlines we have seen, that since at least 1700, standing for Parliament in Britain has never been completely restricted to UK citizens. In fact, the first Indian-born MP, Dadabhai Naoroji, was elected in 1892.

When we spoke with Q last week, they were candid about how difficult the last days have been: “I was a bit of a wreck over the first weekend because it was that overwhelming… thousands of messages, both of love and for grief…” Manivannan says they were encouraged by the many people, often strangers, who reached out to encourage them. In fact, Manivannan said that MSPs from every single party (yes, even that one) have expressed support for them.

So what exactly does Manivannan want to get on with?

Manivannan has worked as a teacher, a UN worker, and a human rights researcher, and has recently completed a PhD looking at novel strategies for protesting under violent government crackdowns in India. They are an award-winning writer, and have been involved in community groups and campaigns including grassroots arts organisations, UCU (University and College Union) campaigning, and work with minority faith groups about the proposed ban on conversion therapy.

Manivannan says they have always seen their community work as political; but became involved in electoral politics during the Craiglockhart and Fountainbridge council bi-election last summer. “It was really a very quick turn of events. I’ve always been involved as an academic and a community organiser, but then switched [to electoral politics] as just an active exercise in what would happen if I were to translate some of those community-based ethics of care into political spaces.”

Going into parliament, Manivannan says they want to bring a “politics of care” to Holyrood. They explain this as a political stance which focuses on caring for needs - asking “can governments be caring towards their people in ways that are not just accommodative of their requests but then proactively looking after people’s everyday needs?” In a more literal sense, one of their key priorities as an MSP is to work on social care - by increasing carers wages but also by doing more consultation to better understand the asks of various levels of the care sector.

In response to Jenny GIlruth’s statements that there will “undoubtedly” have to be cuts to fill the Scottish Government’s £5bn projected deficit by the end of the decade, Manivannan says that “we can’t save ourselves out of [the social care] crisis,” and instead backs a series of Green Party tax-raising proposals, including a wealth tax, land value tax and levies on gambling businesses. On the proposal of cuts in general, Manivannan said: “Behind every ‘saving’ is a real person waiting longer for care, facing greater insecurity. Cuts risk stretching already under-pressure public services even further, and harming those who need help the most. Before the SNP considers reducing vital support or risking job losses, ministers should be looking seriously at the fairer revenue-raising measures that the Scottish Greens have set out to protect the services people across Scotland thrive on every day.”

However, on a local level, Manivannan believes that taxes need to be adjusted for small businesses. Alongside a suite of environmental policies in the Lothian region, Manivannan wants to work on amending taxes to reduce the load on small arts and culture businesses, specifically Edinburgh’s independent entertainment venues.

Kate Nevens: ‘I think the job now is to hold Reform MSPs accountable’

Nevens first came to Edinburgh to study 25 years ago, and then returned around ten years ago after a period of living and working in London and the Middle East. She has had a career in human rights, peacebuilding and political participation campaigns in the UK and abroad, including a period as the Director of Amnesty International in Scotland. Nevens says that she first put herself forward for parliament because, after spending years working to encourage women and young people to be more engaged in politics, she found herself thinking she should “put [her] money where [her] mouth is.”

Read more

Something remarkable happened in Edinburgh today with the announcement that a pioneering fund is guaranteeing ten years of support to a raft of potentially transformational projects designed to tackle poverty, racism and climate change across the Capital.

It is the latest milestone in the life of the Regenerative Futures Fund. Following an open city-wide application process, eleven organisations and collaborative partnerships have been selected to receive sustained support over the next decade.

One of the major hopes is that it will harness longer-term thinking to create a new way of enabling communities, with their pooled knowledge and lived experiences, to lead the work needed to tackle the fundamental issues of poverty, racism and climate challenge.

And it wouldn’t have happened without the extra-ordinary and thoughtful input of a panel of “ordinary” city residents whose own lives have been impacted by these issues.

Each award will provide up to a million pounds over ten years, offering rare long-term, unrestricted funding designed to enable deep, lasting and system-changing work in communities across Edinburgh. The funding decisions were made by the Residents’ Panel established by the Regenerative Futures Fund.

From food to finance

The Fund said: “Projects supported include those building financial security and tackling stigma around poverty within Edinburgh’s Sikh community, supporting paid opportunities for Black creatives to address structural barriers in the arts sector, and co-designing local food and medicine production and distribution.

“Other awards span a range of organisations and partnerships across the city, delivering initiatives such as advocating for improved local housing conditions, supporting community-led climate focused activities initially within the Sudanese community, and engaging local communities around the development of heat network implementation.”

Co-Head of the Fund Leah Black, who originally had the “kernel of an idea” to establish a long-term funding model while cycling a city towpath, paid tribute to the work of those on the Residents Panel, and to the funders who bought into the vision. “We are deeply grateful to all involved, and to the Residents’ Panel whose time and insight shaped every stage of this journey. In the wealthiest city in Scotland, where 17% of people – including 21% of all children – live in relative poverty, we are operating in a complex environment. Poverty, racism and climate change are interconnected, real and present challenges for us all, and tackling them requires long-term commitment, trust and collective action.”

Read more

The city council is considering copying London’s “affordable” student housing rules which place a rent cap on up to half of rooms in new developments.

With typical student rents starting at anywhere between £700 and £1000 a month (and rising to £1,400 and higher), campaigners have been calling for action to stop students being priced out of living in the Capital.

London mayor Sadiq Khan introduced rules in 2021 forcing developers to make between 35% and 50% of rooms in new student halls, or Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA), available for “affordable” rents. The higher rate applies to developments on public and industrial land.

Edinburgh already has similar rules for general housing, which have been the subject of fierce debate, but now city officials are exploring the practicalities of extending the same principles to new-build student accommodation.

Wait, what? A room in student halls costs £8k a year? Yes. And some. The average price of a room in private halls in the Capital is now around £1,200, or £12,000 over the course of a 44-week academic year. That figures has been pushed up in part by some high-end developments charging an eye-watering £2,000-plus a month.

Yikes! Indeed. Increases in entry-level rents and a general shortage of accommodation have seen a growing numbers of students declared homeless in Edinburgh. One recent study suggested one in six started the student year without somewhere to live. That has seen a rise in ‘commuting’ into the city from more affordable towns including Falkirk.

What difference would the London rules make? Rent in the student accommodation classed as “affordable” in London is now capped at just over £7,500 a year. A similar calculation is likely to lead to a slightly lower cap on those new properties which could be affected in Edinburgh.

‘Affordability’ versus ‘viability’: In London, planning permission has been granted for around 3,100 “affordable” beds in the policy’s first two years, according to research by CBRE UK and QX Global. However, the study warned the rules may be discouraging more developers from bringing forward more PBSA plans, with London achieving only about 80% of its target to build around 3,500 new student accommodation beds a year.

That mirrors the ongoing debate in Edinburgh about affordable housebuilding in general, with Labour councillor Lezley Marion Cameron leading calls to cut the 35% affordable housing quota on new developments, in an effort to kickstart more building.

Double top? A London-style quota would put student accommodation on a level paying field with private housebuilding, with both having one of the highest quotas in the UK outside of London, alongside Bristol and Cambridge. That could free up more sites for general housebuilding, but with the risk of slowing down development across the board.

What happens next? Councillors were told work on developing a potential Edinburgh version of the London rules were well advanced after the idea was raised by SNP councillor Danny Aston at last week’s full council meeting. An update on that work is due to be presented to councillors on 3 June. The council has also agreed to urge the Scottish Government to start levying business rates on student accommodation and look at ways of supporting student housing co-operatives.

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

BIKE BOOM: Edinburgh’s e-bikes have been hired more than half a million times and are helping contribute to rising levels of cycling in the Capital. The hire bikes have been booked a total of 590,000 times since launching last September. Cycle group Spokes said that was one of the reasons bikes accounted for nearly one in three vehicles heading into the city centre on Forrest Road during one of its counts in May.

‘DOORING’ PAYOUT: A cyclist has been awarded compensation after suffering serious face and head injuries in a so-called dooring accident in the city centre. The cyclist couldn’t avoid running into the door of a van after the driver opened it in his path in Abercrombie Place, in the West End. Motorists have a duty to check for bikes and other oncoming traffic before opening their doors.

TRAM INJURY: A teenager has been seriously injured after being hit by a tram on Leith Walk. Police are investigating the cause of the accident which took place between the Albert Street and Pilrig Street junctions shortly before 9am on Sunday.

BAFTA BOXED: Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell has told how she keeps the Golden Globe and Bafta she won for the film adaptation of her best-selling novel still wrapped up in a box on a shelf in her Edinburgh home. “I just find it a little bit too flashy to have them out,” she told the BBC, before admitting the Golden Globe was so heavy she nearly dropped it on Steven Spielberg’s foot when she was handed it on stage. O’Farrell’s new novel Land was inspired by her great-great-grandfather, who she discovered made Ordnance Survey maps for the British towards the end of the Great Famine in Ireland.

HEARTS ACHE: Following the heartbreak of losing out on the title to Celtic in such dramatic fashion, Hearts now face losing their talismanic striker and captain Lawrence Shankland for next season. He has agreed to sign for Rangers, subject to a medical in the coming days. In the meantime, the Scottish Football Association has announced an investigation into the ugly pitch invasion which marred the title decider at Celtic Park.

CHEAPER FOR CHILDREN? Children’s tickets to Fringe shows and Edinburgh Zoo are among those set to benefit from the temporary VAT cut from 20% to 5% from 25 June to 1 September. The Chancellor hopes the temporary summer reduction, which also applies to children’s meals out, will see prices dropped for customers.

‘SPOONS OUT: Wetherspoons has pulled out of plans to takeover the large, empty McCowans Brewhouse site at Fountain Park for “commercial reasons”. It’s still tough out there for many hospitality businesses who have faced consistently rising costs since Covid.

BOG STANDARD: Morrisons are introducing sanitary bins in male toilets in all its stores in support of the Bog Standard campaign launched by the charity Prostate Cancer UK.

Pic of the week

THE BUSINESS

HOME WORK: Capital based S1 Developments has broken ground on a new residential development in the West of Edinburgh. This phase of New Village comprises 146 private studio, 1,2 and 3 bedroomed homes, but when complete the development will deliver 397 new homes, with a further 160 affordable units being delivered in tandem by social enterprise Places for People. It will form part of real estate investment group Parabola’s wider multi-million-pound regeneration of Edinburgh Park, creating a new urban neighbourhood alongside commercial and leisure space.

TATTOO DEAL: Aberdeen Investments has announced a new sponsorship of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The company said the sponsorship of “one of Scotland’s most iconic and globally respected cultural institutions” reinforced its commitment to supporting Scottish culture and community.

TRAIL BLAZERS: Edinburgh based AI company Zelim has been named Scotland’s Tech Innovator 2026 winner, as part of KPMG’s bid to crown the UK’s most exciting tech businesses. The company, which builds AI-enabled maritime safety and security systems to save lives when people fall overboard at sea, will now progress to the national UK Tech Innovator final in London in June after coming out on top following a successful pitch alongside the best tech offerings in the region.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

GRUB’S UP: Music, street food, bars and artisan makers are all on the menu - along with a line-up of the port’s top chefs (pictured above) - at the Leith Food Festival on Leith Links on Saturday and Sunday.

ART TRAIL: After the success of its debut last year, the Forth Bridges Creative Trail returns to South Queensferry, Dalmeny and Bo’ness on Saturday and Sunday. This year’s trail features over 35 local artists and makers exhibiting across 11 venues, showcasing work ranging from fine art and ceramics to jewellery, woodwork and a wide variety of contemporary crafts.

CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL: Enjoy some of the world’s best theatre and dance for children at the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival from Saturday until 7 June.

QUICK BITES

CUP OF TEA: The former bingo hall and cinema at 50 Nicolson Street in Edinburgh’s Southside could turned into a daytime cafe and community events space under newly submitted plans by Public Edinburgh Ltd, reports the Edinburgh News.

TOKYO TREATS: Asian-fusion restaurant Uncle Tiger on Bristo Place has launched the second in a series of pop-up menus inspired by the street food culture of Japan. Its “Golden Gai Time” menu of small, drink-led dishes will run until the end of June.

It started with an “obstacle course of buckets and wet floor signs in the corridor every time it rains”.

The particular challenges of maintaining a rather grand, 130-year-old church building will sound familiar to communities across the Capital. The seemingly endless work that goes into keeping its doors open for the steady stream of musicians, fitness and exercise groups, parents and toddlers, Brownies and Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Girl Guides who traipse through its doors every week, not to mention the congregation of the church.

But the way in which Morningside Parish Church responded must be unique.

Next week, it will welcome a riot of colour and music as part of a grassroots festival which has won the backing of supporters as varied as best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith and The Proclaimers.

The Morningside Umbrella Festival will officially launch on Saturday, May 30, in the hope its eclectic programme hoping of events will collectively raise enough money to undertake essential repairs to the leaking church roof.

The target is £50,000 with the fundraiser behind this quirky addition to the city’s festival calendar making an appeal for “everyone to rise to the challenge”.

And rise to the challenge they have. "I just thought it was something that would catch people's attention and imagination - and it certainly seems to have done that,” says Kerry Watt, a member of the church and the driving force behind the festival.

From Africa and the West End

Billed as a ‘spectacle of colour and creativity’, the Umbrella Festival will run for just over two weeks. However, fundraising activities have been taking place since the start of the year, yarn bombers have been decorating a post box in the area with a stitched version of the church, and more than £40,000 has already poured into the fundraising piggy bank.

As well as the celebrity backers, support has come from as far afield as Australia - from an Edinburgh expat - and Africa, with a family based in Kenya and holidaying in the Capital among the attendees of a fundraising ceilidh after seeing it advertised on social media.

“People have been incredibly generous, not only of their money, but of their time as well,” says Watt. That includes several local firms stepping up, including Spruce Garden Services, and SH Jewellery, to help the event bloom and sparkle.

However, she admits other church members initially took some persuading to get on board with what she calls the “unique” fundraising concept, which includes the church being decorated for the duration of the Festival with more than 150 brightly coloured umbrellas.

The umbrella was chosen as the Festival’s talisman, she explains, as it serves not just as a symbol of keeping water out of the church - but it also honours the building's role as a sanctuary for the community.

The church is busy throughout the week all year round as it plays host to a wide range of community groups.

“There's also a big push that the church does on working with individuals and families that are affected by dementia,” says Watt. Such efforts come under the umbrella of Morningside Hope, which offers dementia-friendly concerts, with the next one taking place on the first day of the festival.

Other performers include an acapella group, a Clarsach player, and a 12-year-old piper, as well as local singer-songwriter Chord Ellis. He told The Edinburgh Inquirer it will be his first public performance in more than a year, adding: “I thought this would be a good opportunity to start performing again - and I like to help charities and organisations where I can.”

The Festival pulled off a bit of a coup by securing the talents of Keith Jack, a West End star who many will remember from his appearances on the hit BBC talent show Any Dream Will Do. He is performing on Friday, June 12, after answering the call from festival organisers.

“He is an Edinburgh lad, so we asked if he would come back and help us, and he said yes. To get a West End Star to come up and help us has been incredible,” says Watt.

One of the founding principles of the festival was that it should be inclusive. Local schools are taking part, including special needs school Oaklands, whose pupils have been making umbrella decorations, tying in with sensory needs.

Elderly residents also have a key role, and an umbrella-themed knitting project saw Watt phoned by a woman to “thank me for the fact that her mother is in her 90s and [this] got her knitting again”.

Praying for a rainbow

The financial target is obviously the key driver of the Festival. But Watt also sees it as a great opportunity to put the church on the map - and showcase its own starring role in the community.

“Everybody is welcome, and hopefully they'll see how friendly everybody is [here] and what else the church can offer them.” She also hopes it will boost the congregation - which currently sits at a little more than 300 - and the Morningside area as a whole, which has seen high-profile business closures in recent years as spiralling costs continue to bite, even in an area as prosperous as Morningside.

It is too soon to commit to more similar events in future, says Watt. “This has kind of taken over my life since Christmas.”

Morningside Parish Church dates back to 1895, and is in fact something of an umbrella organisation itself, having been created through the amalgamation of five churches, a process that concluded in 2003.

But it is now showing its age. “The roof has been leaking for a good number of years, so it's the case now that we need to protect the space and make sure the damage doesn't become worse, and then start to affect the people that could use the facilities.”

The sum for a full repair had been mooted at six figures, but ways to reduce this are currently being closely examined. “We've now got a couple of new companies that are looking at alternative ways to solve the problem with the roof,” explains Watt, who adds the church has not sought public funding.

And as for how she feels about the chances of hitting the £50,000 target, she says that if about 1,000 people pay £10 each to have a miniature umbrella affixed to church railings, with a view to creating an “umbrella rainbow”, the target “seems reachable”. All comers and donations are welcome, however, and the festival will close on June 14 with a family ceilidh in the bright shadow of the umbrella decorations.

The hope is that “the rainbow will come out as the rain is stopping and the sun's coming out, and the roof is fixed… we're hoping that the weather might brighten up in another week or so - and the sun will shine on us.”

The decline of the Royal Mile will be a familiar story to many of you. Whether that comes from walking up and down the famous street or reading our reports in The Inquirer, the conclusion is likely to be the same. We told in ‘The ‘filthy gold mine’ that could be Edinburgh’s crown jewel’ of the frustrations of many of those who work and live there.

For today’s long read, David Forsyth has been speaking to a group of Old Town traders who have a vision for reviving its fortunes.

They hope to repeat the success of businesses who have joined forces in the New Town to form a Business Improvement District, all contributing to a central fund to help pay for much-needed safety and environmental improvements.

You can read all about that below as a paying member, but before that here is your midweek news roundup and our cultural tips for the week ahead.

Your Edinburgh Briefing

CAT’S THE WAY TO DO IT: A memorial to a cat which became a local celebrity after years of lounging outside the Co-op supermarket has been unveiled in Newtongrange. Residents raised money for the statue after Mo died last year.

RETURN OF THE MAC: Lesley Macinness returns to one of the most prominent roles in city politics after being chosen by the council’s SNP group as their leader. The former city transport convener, who previously worked in a senior management role at an international NGO, will lead the largest single party at the City Chambers. With the party political balance on the council so tight, she will be aiming to topple the minority Labour administration in next May’s local elections and take over as council leader.

Her predecessor Simita Kumar has been appointed Minister for Equalities and International Development in John Swinney’s government.

SLAVERY MEMORIAL: Talks are continuing in an effort to deliver a £750,000 public art work to mark Edinburgh’s historic connections with the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The memorial is planned for Makars’ Court, off the Royal Mile, as part of the recommendations of the city’s slavery and colonialism legacy review led by the late Sir Geoff Palmer. The project has been thrown into doubt after Edinburgh University said it would not be able to make an expected £300,000 contribution amid its ongoing cuts crisis.

UNHOLY ROW: St Giles Cathedral has been criticised after laying off all the staff and volunteers who work in its shop. Minister Rev Dr Scott Rennie said it was acting on the advice of consultants who had recommended merging its shop and tour guide operations.

HIGHER THAN HEATHROW: The increased drop-off charge at Edinburgh Airport makes it one of the most expensive in the UK, according to a prices comparison compiled by Sky News. Edinburgh’s £7.50 fee is more than Heathrow’s £7 charge, and lower only than Stansted and Gatwick (both £10) and Bristol (£8). The airport has blamed the increase on a 142% increase in its business rates, amounting to around £8million.

FRINGE BENEFITS: The Fringe has commissioned a major study into its economic impact on Edinburgh and the rest of Scotland, to be led by Professor Murray Pittock, pro-vice-principal of Glasgow University. Previous studies have suggested the Fringe is worth as much as £1bn to the Scottish economy.

GOAL-DEN OLDIE: There’s hope for everyone who refuses to listen to warnings they are too old for sporting glory. Hearts’ extraordinary keeper Craig Gordon is off to the World Cup aged 43. He’ll have to play his way onto the plane for the next World Cup in 2030 if he wants to beat Essam El Hadary’s record as the oldest man to play in the finals. El Hadary kept goal for Egypt at the grand old age of 45 years and 161 days

Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops

Greetings, Pop Pickers!

Those first swallows of summer are looking rather suspect in the light of fresh squalls, bracing winds, and a touch of thunder. Yet, while the barometer may be fluctuating, the capital’s cultural temperature remains feverish. The sheer volume of theatrical heavyweights, sporting dramas, and musical mastery currently descending on our stages provides the perfect refuge from the mercurial May skies, writes Will Quinn.

Let’s count them down...

Honourable Mentions: The Bodyguard & Richard Thompson

It is a ferociously competitive field for our near-misses this week. First up, The Bodyguard (Edinburgh Playhouse, until Saturday) arrives to shake the foundations of Edinburgh’s Broadway. A serious pop-spectacle of the highest order, it is a production built on soaring vocals and Whitney Houston’s peerless back catalogue. Elsewhere, the pioneering force of British folk-rock, Richard Thompson (Usher Hall, May 28th), makes a hotly anticipated return. This gig would undoubtedly have charted higher were it not virtually sold out; however, those fleet of foot might still secure a reasonably-priced pew. As a formidable bonus, he is joined by Edinburgh’s own Hamish Hawk, the commanding post-punk baritone whose recent output has rendered him a perennial fixture on the Scottish Album of the Year shortlist.

Dropping to Number 5 is... RSA 200th Anniversary Exhibition (Royal Scottish Academy, Open Now). It is a testament to the sheer calibre of this week’s new arrivals that the Academy’s monumental bicentennial showcase has ceded ground. Nevertheless, this sprawling, floor-to-ceiling celebration of Scottish artistic endeavour remains an essential undertaking. Sidestepping curatorial conservatism, the Princes Street galleries are currently bursting with an eclectic, egalitarian mix of the profound and the playful. With upwards of five hundred distinct works - ranging from imposing oils to delightfully idiosyncratic sculptures - it is an exhibition that demands to be savoured over multiple, unhurried visits. And did I mention it’s free?

Moving up to Number 4 is... Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil (Royal Lyceum Theatre, May 8th – 23rd). Ascending from last week’s Honourable Mentions, Gary McNair’s Cowdenbeath FC saga has categorically justified its main-stage transfer. TheQR.co.uk’s Sass MacDonald returned from the Lyceum with a glowing verdict. Praising Dawn Steele’s “perfect comic timing,” she hailed the production as a work of “genius writing, acting and directing.” While the turbulent fortunes of lower-league football provide the framework, she insightfully noted that the true heart of this piece is “about families, home and belonging.” This turns out to be a masterclass in transitioning a narrative from the airwaves to the footlights.

New in at Number 3 is... 2:22 A Ghost Story (Edinburgh Playhouse, May 25th – 30th). Securing the bronze this week is Danny Robins’s sensational, nerve-shredding thriller. The mastermind behind the hit Uncanny podcast first unleashed this modern supernatural puzzle back in 2021, and it has been expertly terrifying audiences ever since. When the show last spooked the capital in 2023, I boldly declared it the new Mousetrap - a testament to its gripping, twist-laden narrative that keeps audiences entirely off-balance until the final blackout. Armed with a fresh cast ready to jump at every bump in the night, this gloriously eerie celebration of the supernatural is destined to be an edge-of-your-seat triumph.

New in at Number 2 is... The Edinburgh International Children’s Festival (Various Venues, May 30th – June 7th). Narrowly missing the summit is a festival that consistently introduces me to some of the most remarkable, boundary-pushing theatre staged in this city. I urge you to ignore anyone who dismissively categorises this as “just for kids.” The artists who dedicate themselves to young audiences are the bravest in the industry, facing crowds who offer zero filter and brutally immediate feedback. Imaginate has once again curated a world-class, uncompromising lineup of fearless creatives from Scotland and beyond, proving that the very best theatre transcends generational divides.

New in at Number 1 is... The Marriage of Figaro (Festival Theatre, May 29th – June 6th). Scottish Opera returns in triumph, bringing Mozart’s beloved and beautiful comic masterpiece to the Festival Theatre. Sir Thomas Allen revives his much-lauded production, and reflecting the profound insight of a seasoned performer, his Figaro is steeped in humour, subtlety, and razor-sharp wit. Simon Higlett’s sumptuous designs will provide the opulent backdrop for a comedy of social revolution and subversion that remains as sharply relevant today as it ever was - rendered a little more accessible by being sung in English.

All wedding days are fraught, but few can rival Figaro’s. Upon discovering that his employer, the Count, is plotting to seduce his bride, our hero and his Susanna must deploy every ounce of their wit to outsmart the aristocracy and finally make it down the aisle. Mozart’s bubbling, effervescent score - doubtlessly well-marshalled by conductors Dane Lam and Susannah Wapshott - will showcase Amadeus’s genius for striking the emotional, melodic core of every character. Lavish, hilarious, and gloriously harmonic, I couldn’t pick any other Number 1.

And that’s your Top 5! Button up your overcoats, brave the bizarre May weather, and secure those tickets while you still can—making sure to casually mention whose impeccable taste directed you to the box office. Drop your thoughts in the comments below; I remain eager to revel in your agreement, or cheerfully dismantle your entirely misguided dissent!

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Businesses BID to reverse decline of Royal Mile and the Old Town

Old Town traders look to success across the city centre to drive a cleaner, safer environment

by David Forsyth

Kat Brogan knows pretty much every close, every business, every paving stone in Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile and the Old Town. She knows its history, its tragedies and triumphs. And now she wants to help secure its future.

Through four decades she and her father before her have brought the Royal Mile to life for innumerable visitors and locals alike, through their multi-award-winning business Mercat Tours. And over much of that period she’s witnessed a decline in the world-famous street that she’s desperate to reverse.

“As the the street has become untidier and dirtier, the public realm has become less attractive and appealing, the place has looked less cared for and less safe, until eventually it doesn’t always feel safe for people. Then we see increased anti-social behaviour and increases in things like shoplifting and thefts.”

It is a vicious circle she believes can be reversed, and she is one of the businesses who have organised a poll urging fellow Old Town traders to consider creating a Business Improvement District, a business-led partnership to improve their environment. They hope it may eventually lead to a ballot of local firms, with a BID up and running in 2027.

She and her group are being assisted by Essential Edinburgh, which runs the existing city centre BID in the New Town, and which has been around for approaching 20 years having been successfully re-elected three times by its member businesses.

Yesterday, Essential Edinburgh confirmed it is bringing forward its own renewal ballot by one year and will begin its own consultation to create a new five-year plan, given the “rapidly changing commercial environment” of the past few years. This would, in turn, also bring it into alignment with any potential new BID.

The creation of the Visitor Levy as a source of potential funding, along with a growing need to tackle rising retail crime, anti-social behaviour and to improve the cleanliness of the Old Town, are understood to be the key drivers in businesses being more open to the creation of a BID.

Kat and several other well-known Old Town businesses, believe the creation of a BID could see big improvements to the way the Old Town and its famous centrepiece street will look, feel, and function in the years ahead – something that would be welcomed by local residents and visitors alike.

Given that it means businesses voluntarily paying a contribution on their business rates and given that a similar move was unsuccessful just a handful of years ago, it seems a bold move.

From vicious circle to virtuous cycle

Kat said: “So much has changed over the past six or seven years. We’ve seen the Old Town become more untidy and littered, we see an increase in crimes like anti-social behaviour and retail crime, and we’ve seen the advent of the Visitor Levy.

“And when we look across to Princes Street Gardens to the city centre where Essential Edinburgh runs their BID we see clean teams at work, successful anti-crime initiatives, improved public realm, better signposting, new events. We see the businesses there voting to renew their BID every few years, by a large margin.

“It makes sense, and more businesses here are now more positive about the possibilities a BID could bring, especially around security, cleaning, and the Visitor Levy opportunities.”

Read more

The Scottish Parliament elections brought in a lot of new faces to represent the Edinburgh and the Lothians.

There were some high-profile departures - most notably Scotland’s Culture Minister Angus Robertson losing his Edinburgh Central seat to the Greens’ Lorna Slater.

There were also nine new arrivals as the election saw the highest turnover of MSPs since the Holyrood parliament was established in 1999.

We caught up with the three constituency MSPs entering parliament for the first time - Simita Kumar for Edinburgh South Western, Sanne Dijkstra-Downie for Edinburgh Northern and Kate Campbell for Edinburgh Eastern, Musselburgh and Tranent - so you could get to know them a little better.

Simita Kumar

Simita Kumar’s journey to Holyrood has been marked by a rapid rise through the SNP ranks.

The healthcare worker turned councillor secured 11,727 votes to win MSP for Edinburgh South Western, with a decisive majority.

Kumar, who moved to Scotland at 17, got into politics after a career in the NHS. Just two years after being elected as SNP councillor for Southside/Newington ward, she became leader of the SNP group at the council in 2024 - the first woman and the first ethnic minority politician to hold the position.

Growing up in Fiji in a working-class family where communities had a ‘strong awareness’ of politics influenced her early on. Later, she says, her identity as a migrant and a Scot shaped her belief in fairness and inclusion.

“Working as a councillor, you get a real sense of just how far we’ve come along and how far we still need to go. This is through the lens of gender representation, people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, and those from ethnic minorities or other underrepresented groups,” she says.

“Even in opposition, I’ve been able to bring about change for the benefit of constituents and community. I hope to continue to do that but on a bigger platform and wider scale.”

She points to advocating for holiday clubs and the allocation of Visitor Levy funding for housing as achievements at the city council.

Kumar built a career in health research and contributed to public health programmes in the NHS. She has opposed third sector cuts in Edinburgh and wants to help bring about improvements in early intervention across health and social care.

“Because of my professional background in the NHS, I strongly believe in principles of early intervention. The cuts implemented by the EIJB (the Edinburgh Integrated Joint Board which oversees social care in the Capital) go against those principles. People shouldn’t be working in political groups on the EIJB. But in practice, that is what is happening. It’s a frustrating space to be in. How can it be acceptable to cut the budget for early intervention and community-based services?

“Working in the NHS, you’re impacted by the decisions of politicians. The solid foundation of doing the best for patient care is incredibly valuable. But now being on the other side of decision-making, I’m aware we need to create a system where decisions are not being made for people but in collaboration. That real life experience is crucial when it comes to policy making but also for scrutiny.”

Kumar says her priorities are getting the basics right in communities, improving access to services, and, in her words, restoring hope.

“I’ve seen heartbreaking stories of the conditions people are living in. But I have found that those who need the greatest help don’t ask for it. I want to be as visible as possible and accessible to everyone. I’m concerned about the condition of housing, communal spaces, and access to services. Some don’t have basic things like access to a lift, stairwell cleaning, or grass cutting. We need to help people get back some pride.

“I want to make sure people know how to get help. How to access benefits, like the Scottish Child payment. But also, how to find job opportunities and GP walk-in clinics. I have found that information on how to access services isn’t always obvious. I am ready to do the work and to help support the work already being done.

“Above all I want to bring people hope. Where things are hardest people can feel knackered or ask, what’s the point of trying? I’m from a working-class background. I want to listen to what is on the ground. Not to come in as some sort of saviour but to try and better understand what works and what isn’t working for people.”

Sanne Dijkstra-Downie

Netherlands-born Sanne Dijkstra-Downie has lived in Edinburgh for over twenty years, working in the arts and culture and philanthropy sectors including work for National Galleries and National Museums of Scotland. She has also been a board member of established community organisation North Edinburgh Arts for five years. Her political career began when she was elected as councillor in 2022, but she has been a Lib Dem campaigner for the best part of two decades.

Standing outside Parliament on her first day of inductions, Dijkstra-Downie says that she joined the Liberal Democrat party as a member in 2003, due to Charles Kennedy’s opposition to the Iraq war. She also connected with the party’s focus on education, environment and civil liberties - “making sure people are able to make decisions about their own lives,” in her words.

However she describes a strong personal connection with fellow party members - and a feeling that Liberal Democrats were genuinely motivated to help their communities - as what kept her engaged with the party. “I joined the party for certain policy reasons but I stayed because I found a family, a community of people who just care about their work and what they do,” she said.

During the swearing-in of MSPs last week, Dijkstra-Downie, was the first MSP to make her affirmation in the Dutch language; making it one of 15 languages used by different MSPs during the swearing-in ceremony this week. Dijkstra-Downie spoke frequently during her campaign, and upon being announced winner in Edinburgh Northern, about the fact that she was born abroad, but has made Edinburgh her home. She is committed, she says, to representing all people in her constituency. After being sworn in as an MSP she echoed the words of her acceptance speech on results day: “I want everyone in Edinburgh Northern to know, regardless of which way they voted, that I will work day-in, day-out for them.”

Dijkstra-Downie says her absolute first priority is to be a good and approachable local representative: “I want to listen to people, I want to be open, transparent, work with my communities - that’s my first priority.“

On particular policy actions she says she will focus on the things which were brought up on the door during her campaign- healthcare, education, cost of living and environment. “But beyond all I just want to be somebody who people can come to and can work with,” she says. Before the election she was the net zero spokesperson for the Lib Dems - when asked if she would continue in this role she said: “we haven’t had those discussions yet but obviously it’s an interest of mine.”

As a councillor for the Forth ward in the north of the city, Dijkstra-Downie had a track record of speaking out for better cycling and pedestrian infrastructure and more environmental protections for Wardie Bay. In her professional life, she helped establish an ocean protection initiative.

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The lawyers on the troubled construction project for the airport to city centre tram line have paid up to settle the biggest compensation claim in Scottish history.

The city council had claimed a record £222million in damages from global legal giant DLA Piper, alleging the firm failed to give sufficient warning of the risks in the construction contract, as The Inquirer revealed last November.

The open-ended nature of the contract is seen as one of the main reasons the cost of the project ballooned from £545m to £852m, with work taking six years longer than expected, and some shops going out of business due to the extended disruption.

The council and DLA Piper have now reached an out-of-court settlement. The terms of the deal prevent details of the settlement being made public, but lawyers believe the compensation paid is likely to be measured in tens of millions of pounds and less than half the initial total claimed.

Blame game: The public inquiry into the debacle criticised DLA Piper; the city council; TIE, the arms-length organisation set up by the local authority to deliver the tram project; and the Scottish Government. Inquiry chair Lord Hardie said the law firm had prioritised the interests of TIE over those of the city council, despite the council being its client for the project.

‘Incompetence’ and lessons learned: A report going before councillors on Thursday describes the failures in the council’s oversight of the project as “organisational incompetence”. The local authority can point to the successful completion of the extension of the line to Newhaven, on time and on budget, and year-on-year growth in passenger numbers as evidence of lessons learned.

Council leader Jane Meagher, who repeated apologies for the local authority’s own failures during the construction project, said: “One thing we won’t apologise for, however, is building a tram system, or our ambition to develop it further. Edinburgh is Scotland’s capital and economic powerhouse – the fastest growing city in the country, and recently overtaking London on GDP per head.”

What happens next? The council continues to pursue plans for a second tram line, from Granton to Little France, at a cost of up to £2 billion, against resistance from the Scottish Government. The SNP’s victory in the Scottish Parliament elections, suggesting no change in national transport policy, has done nothing to raise hopes of imminent progress.

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

SCOTT HASTINGS: Tributes have been paid to “force of energy and positivity” Scott Hastings after the Scottish rugby legend’s death at the age of 61. Part of the last Scotland team to win the Grand Slam in 1990, Hastings was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphona four years ago. He died yesterday at the Western General on his late wife Jenny’s birthday. After retiring from rugby, the former Watsonians star became a successful broadcaster, mental health campaigner and MND fund-raiser among many other things. He was a well-known and much-loved figure in the Capital.

HEARTS HEARTBREAK AND ANGER: Where do we start after the events of the weekend? Hearts’ players were two minutes plus added time from sporting immortality and a first league title in 66 years. Then came a late comeback and a pitch invasion which saw them taunted by Celtic fans and reportedly physically assaulted. Hearts have issued a furious statement condemning the disgraceful scenes.

Onwards and upwards: It won’t feel like much consolation yet, but Hearts can now look forward to competing in Champions League qualifiers next season. They will expect to challenge for the title again under the direction of ‘the Great Disruptor’ Tony Bloom, who has revolutionised the betting industry and turned Brighton FC into a force in the English Premier League. Meanwhile, city rivals Hibs also secured European football in the UEFA Conference League qualifiers.

EXTRA SECURITY FOR MSP: Security staff escorted newly-elected Edinburgh and Lothians East MSP Q Manivannan through the Scottish Parliament for the swearing in ceremony last Thursday amid fears for their safety. The Greens MSP has faced a significant backlash since being elected, including vile personal abuse online due to their status as a “trans Tamil immigrant”. The safety measures were in place for the single day due to the high number of visitors at the parliament for the swearing in.

Visa clearance: The Scottish Conservatives also questioned Q Manivannan’s right to stand for election while on a student visa to complete a PhD at Edinburgh University and called for a Home Office investigation. However, Manivannan followed both the letter and spirit of the law, after the Scottish Parliament voted to change election rules in 2024, allowing those on student visas to stand for election. They will need to renew their visa after three years in order to complete their term in office.

LOVE THOSE BOOKS: The Book Lovers Bookshop beside the Meadows has been named the best independent bookshop in Scotland at the British Book Awards. You can read more about the story of the UK’s first bricks-and-mortar romance bookshop in Sarah McArthur’s long read Where there’s smut there’s brass.

PARK LIFE: Two city parks are set to gain extra protections by being declared Local Nature Reserves. Little France Park is home to significant numbers of skylark, buzzards, kestrels and yellowhammers, while Wester Craiglockhart Hill has bats, badgers and nationally important plant species, such as welted thistle and common rock rose.

LAST MAN STANDING: The demolition of a tower block in Muirhouse has been held up for two-and-a-half years because one tenant refuses to leave. The man who has called Inchmickery Court home for many years is resisting eviction proceedings brought by the council.

COMMUNITY APPEAL: A community project which serves free hot meals and offers free wellbeing events and activities in Wester Hailes has launched an appeal to save it from closure. The Community Wellbeing Collective needs to riase more than £15,000 by July 30 to keep its doors open

OVERSEAS BUYERS: The BBC has reported on the high number of overseas buyers investing in property in the Quartermile development on the old Royal Infirmary site. Long-time Inquirer readers may recall our report on the trend two years ago.

CASTLE PATHS: A series of paths leading up to Edinburgh Castle have reopened to the public after eight years, but other routes will be closed permanently due to concerns about the risk of rock falls. The reopened routes include one from the castle car park to the Mound and two leading from the Mound to the bridge over the railway tracks near the Ross Bandstand. (Read more here on the access battle being fought in Holyrood Park: The fight to stop the Radical Road being closed forever)

NO GO: The city council will not pursue enforcement action against developers who failed to include promised public toilets in a new building next to Haymarket Station. Council officials said the move had been ruled out after taking advice from a KC. There are no public toilets in the area, with the nearest being in West Princes Street Gardens, and facilities in Haymarket Station being available only to ticket holders.

Pic of the week

THE BUSINESS

Business Rates Rise Drives Airport Parking Increase

A whopping 142% increase in business rates – almost three times the increase imposed on any other major Scottish airport – has been blamed for big increases in pick-up and drop-off charges at Edinburgh Airport.

The increase equates to an extra £8 million a year, and the airport says it is already the biggest rate payer in Lothian. Indeed, the airport maintains it will now pay more in business rates than the next three largest ratepayers in the region combined.

For contrast, Glasgow Airport is facing a 51% increase, and Prestwick less than 40%.

Prices are being raised for pick-up and drop-off by £2.50 to £8.50 to help cover the increase in costs. In addition, as of today the airport will also remove the 50% reduction for electric vehicles.

Gordon Dewar, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport, said the rates increase was “wholly disproportionate” and added: “A 142% increase reduces our ability to invest, grow and compete. In practical terms, it equates to funding around 200 jobs, two aircraft stands, or five new security lanes. It is not a cost that can be absorbed; it must be covered, and trade-offs like this are unfortunately unavoidable…

“We had not planned to raise fees this year, but the absence of a transitional relief scheme – equivalent to that available in England and Wales – leaves us with no alternative.”

LEGAL MOVES: Law firm Addleshaw Goddard has moved to new and larger offices in the centre of Edinburgh. The firm, which has presence throughout the UK and overseas, has just moved into “statement” 30,000 sq ft offices at 24 St Andrew Square, a 60% increase in space, complete with a roof terrace overlooking the square. Alan Shanks, Head of Scotland, said: “ Edinburgh is one of the UK’s most important commercial and professional services centres and moving into a new office in the heart of the city reflects both the strength of our practice here and our long-term commitment to the Scottish market.”

WHISKY DRAMA: A whisky investment company has been rescued from liquidation – meaning cask investors who were involved with the company are to be reunited with their investments. City-based Whisky Merchants Trading was placed into liquidation by administrators Griffins, with some £80 million raised from investors, leaving thousands of customers around the world doubtful of their assets. However, the assets have been sold to Edinburgh Cask Management (Resolution) Ltd, Daily Business reports, which is working to reunite investors with their casks.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

ON THE RUN: It should perhaps be called the East Lothian Marathon, given threequarters of its route skirts the coast outside the Capital. Either way, the Edinburgh Marathon returns on Sunday. Good luck to everyone taking part.

OUTDOOR CINEMA: One of the UK’s biggest free outdoor cinema events will return to St Andrew Square Garden on June 12-14. Square Cinema has announced a programme featuring Dirty Dancing, The Adventures of Tintin, Wicked: For Good, Back to the Future, Labyrinth and much more. Entry to screenings is free and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

GOTHIC BYGONE: The story of one of Scotland’s great Gothic buildings, which was demolished to make way for the building of Waverley Station, is brought to life in a new exhibition at the Museum of Edinburgh. Reviving the Trinity Stones celebrates the 15th century Trinity Collegiate Church. The exhibition runs until 28 June and entry is free.

QUICK BITES

NEW BIRD: A new restaurant and bar, Whirlybird, will open in Victoria Street in the heart the Old Town this week, offering coffee and pastries each morning through to a menu created by head chef Lucia Gregusova, formerly of Hawksmoor.

GARDEN VIEWS: A newly refreshed al fresco Garden View Deck & Bar has been launched at The Royal Botanic Garden in association with champagne house Maison Pommery & Associés. It is located within the John Hope Gateway, and will for the first time extend its opening hours across the summer from 12PM to 8PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and from 12PM to 4:30PM on Sundays.

When it comes to food destinations Leith is very much a la mode. More than that, it’s as hot as a Scotch Bonnet chilli slathered in wasabi with a dollop of mustard. You don’t need to take our word for it, ask Conde Nast Traveller. The influential high-end travel and food magazine this year named the port as the UK’s hottest food destination.

From classically trained, French-influenced Michelin starred excellence to vibrant Venezuelan street food, Artisan bakery to craft micro-brewery, there is something to titillate every taste bud. Whether you choose to eat and drink in a unique distillery bar with an eye-in-the-sky waterfront view, or enjoy the post-industrial vibe in a former ironworks that’s taking the city by storm, Leith is the place to be.

All of that delicious creativity is being celebrated at the end of this month when Leith Food Festival will run over the weekend of May 30-31, offering a menu of magnificent food, sizzling cookery demonstrations from some stars of Leith’s culinary scene, and a healthy dollop of music from some of the stars of our local and excellent music scene.

Barry Bryson, the chef behind one of Leith’s hottest new openings, the Michelin-recommended Barry Fish on The Shore, has helped curate a line-up of his professional colleagues who are happy to take part to spread the word in the demonstration kitchen, and there are full details of what is on offer at the Festival website.

He tells us all the chefs featuring have genuine feeling for Leith with many beginning their own stories there. “We’ve got people who’ve been 20 years and others who have only opened recently, but what we’ve all got in common is that real feeling of connection in Leith. It’s a community. None of us began cooking to get into competition with anyone, we can all celebrate what we and our colleagues do that makes this such a special place.”

Plaudits a-Plenty

Barry’s own plaudits in gaining entry to the Michelin Guide and being named in the Good Food Guide’s Top 100 Local Restaurants are no mere flash in the sauté pan. There have been several other openings in Leith which have generated a lot of excitement. For example, Michelin-starred chef James Murray, formerly of the Edinburgh Food Studio and Timberyard has been earning rave reviews at Dogstar in Portland Place and within weeks had earned a place in the Michelin Guide.

Brown’s of Leith is a multi-use venue that has been packing them into the historic former ironworks it occupies on The Shore, with its bars and dining, food pop-ups, functions and community and creative events. Pride of foodie place in this new addition is Haze, an all-day space run by the Radford Family of Michelin starred Timberyards fame, where you can enjoy everything from a fresh coffee through to small plates and fine wines.

Jo Radford, Sommelier and Co-Owner of Timberyard, Montrose and Haze, told CN Traveller: “Leith has great energy. It’s industrial and confident in its own identity. There is a European feel to the waterfront, but it is still unmistakably Leith. We love the coastal influence, its diverse mix of residents and its strong creative population. It’s one of the most progressive neighbourhoods in Scotland.”

The super-stylish bar and restaurant atop the nine-storey Port of Leith Distillery remains a cool place to enjoy some fine food washed down by cocktails featuring the distillery’s own award-winning spirits.

Just along the road at Pier Place in Newhaven is Norah, where Chef and owner Claire Hanrahan has been singled out by Conde Nast as “one to watch.”

How it all began…

Of course, it wasn’t always so. Those of us of a certain age (cough, oh okay, pensionable age), will remember when Leith had not a single Michelin star or bib gourmand to its name, when a gastronomic sortie to the Port seemed an extraordinarily exotic thing to do. Like going on safari. One of the earliest pioneers who helped lure us down with the promise of fine dining was Allan Corbett, brother of famed comedian Ronnie, who bravely and successfully opened Skippers Bistro in Dock Place, a seafood haven that was to run successfully under his watch until he retired in 2000.

Fishers and The Shore Bar were to follow, providing great quality casual dining with a strong focus on fish, before Martin Wishart’s guidance teacher further changed everything as the chef opened his eponymous restaurant on the Shore and became the first in the city to gain the ultimate accolade of a Michelin star. Others, notably Tom Kitchin, were to follow, and now the Port is home to an amazing three stars with Heron the latest to be added to that esteemed list. That Michelin excellence in Leith and Edinburgh is no small thing.

More are Michelin recommended, with Roberta Hall-McCarron’s Little Chartroom another opening, in 2018, that has made a huge impact, providing fine dining of great quality in a more informal setting. It encouraged still more to follow, and also encouraged her to open Ardfern more recently, an all day venue in Bonnington Road which has its own bottle shop and has blended nicely into Leith.

But let’s get back to the inaugural Leith Food Festival, on the last weekend in May at Leith Links. Nine different cookery demonstrations will take place over the Saturday and Sunday, where attendees can learn the intricacies of a diverse mix of global cuisines.

Saturday’s line-up will see award-winning chefs Dan Ashmore of the Schloss Roxburghe Hotel, acclaimed hospitality consultant and chef Scott Smith of Blank Plate Creative and Sharif Gergis of the much admired Asian influenced Mirin in Albert Place joined by chef patissiere Sarah George of The Palmerston and baker extraordinaire Theo Pantazis of the hugely popular Krema Bakehouse on Leith Walk.

Sunday’s line-up will be equally stellar, with Tomas Gormley the Chef Patron of the Michelin recommended Cardinal, joining Petro Barriera, Head Chef of the AA Rosette honoured Lighthouse Restaurant on board the floating hotel Fingal, and Molly Pennington, a MasterChef quarter-finalist last year who is also a nutritional therapist and the owner of Nourish with Molly. Last, but by no means least, Barry of Barry Fish will close out the cookery demonstrations as well as acting as host for the demos.

Festival to suit all tastes

Each day will also see a line-up of musical talent on stage, with leading tribute bands headlining both days with Just Beatles on Saturday (you’ll love them yeah, yeah, yeah) and Killer Instinct on Sunday, with a set that will pay homage to The Killers. A full line up is available here.

There will also be street food stalls reflecting tastes from around the world, indie bars, and roaming entertainers, alongside a scavenger hunt, competitions and challenges for all the family.

Barry Bryson added: “When the food festival organizers approached me to help host the demonstration element of the event I was happy to do it. It seems to me that bringing food, drink and music together is always a combination that seems to work in providing people with a great time, and it also really reflects Leith.”

Assistant Festival Manager Izaak Shuttleworth spoke on how the festival’s programme reflects the festival’s commitment to supporting local talent across all the aspects: “Since we launched, it has been our top priority to bring an abundance of local vendors, makers, artisans and entertainers to the event. Our main stage is also a great platform to showcase as many local performers as we can, so we’re thrilled to have such a fantastic catalogue of up-and-coming musicians joining us from across the region.”

Given the plethora of tempting goodies on offer, we leave you with one piece of advice. Do enjoy, but remember moderation in all things. As the great movie actor and director Orson Welles – a man noted for his excessive love of gastronomy – noted: “My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people present.”

Bon appetit.

We thought it was time for some respite from all the politics. (Don’t worry fellow political anoraks, we’ve got plenty more coverage in the pipeline for you shortly.)

Today, however, we fancied a change of pace.

When we received an email about a new “world-class destination for contemporary art and curated events” in the New Town, we were intrigued. Intrigued, but not entirely convinced without finding out a bit more.

Within days a series of the email dropping into our inbox, a series of glowing write-ups about the Yaniv Edery Gallery obligingly appeared in both the national and local media.

We wanted to find out more before reporting back to you. So, Will Quinn spent the last few weeks trying to pin down the elusive Mr Edery, and researching the ‘art sensation’. You can get a taste of what he discovered below, and read the whole piece by signing up as a paying member.

Before all that, here’s your regular midweek news roundup and cultural highlights for the week ahead.

Your Edinburgh Briefing

IN THE GOOD BOOKS: Huge congratulations to everyone at Oxgangs Library which has been recognised as the UK’s Library of the Year at the prestigious British Book Awards. They prize was awarded for their Secret Santa project, delivering gift wrapped books to prisoners at Saughton Prison, in collaboration with the city council’s mobile library service.

HEARTS HEARTSTOPPERS: The Jambos’ rollercoaster football season will go down to the wire. After another night of drama last night - which saw Hearts’ title rivals Celtic pull off a dramatic last-minute win - it will all be settled this Saturday. Win at Celtic Park and they will be champions of Scotland for the first time since 1960. Heck, even a draw will do if for them. But if Celtic win, the title stays in Glasgow. Half the city will have no nails left by the time their biggest match in generations comes to an end. Kick-off is at 12.30pm. Expect busy pubs. That will apply to most of the rest of the month if the Jam Tarts pull it off.

ANOTHER QUIET ROADS U-TURN: Councillors on the local authority’s TRO (traffic regulation orders) sub-committee voted 5-4 to remove large parts of the five-year-old Meadows to Greenbank Quiet Route as we covered last week (Low traffic streets: Five years, two censured councillors, and endless uncertainty). An amendment from Green councillors preserved the traffic filter on Braid Road. However, after further “legal errors” were identified, all filters between Hermitage Drive and Grange Loan will now be removed, allowing cars to travel along the roads again. That includes the filters on Canaan Lane, where the Royal Blind School and Canaan Lane Primary School (opened after the quiet route was installed) are located. Council officials have promised to explore ways of replacing them, probably later in the year.

ATTY BOY: Just when you thought there were no more feelgood moments to be wrung out of Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday, up pops Edinburgh Zoo. Lebanese two-toed sloths Feira and Nico welcomed a baby son on Monday, the first sloth to be born in Scotland. He has been named Atty in honour of the man himself.

LABOUR DIVIDE: The party’s two senior figures in the Capital find themselves on different sides of its split over the future of Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Edinburgh South MP Ian Murray remains in post as Minister for Media Tourism and Creative Industries and has warned about the risks of a leadership battle. Put on the spot, Edinburgh Southern MSP Daniel Johnson said he “stands by” Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s call for Starmer to go.

KNIFEPOINT CAR-JACKING: A woman has been robbed of her car at knifepoint as she sat in the vehicle behind the Scotmid Store in Morvenside Close, Wester Hailes. The robbery, which too place at around 3.20pm on Tuesday, has been described by police as “very frightening” incident. The 22-year-old victim was unhurt.

Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops

Greetings, Pop Pickers!

The mercury is finally twitching upwards across the capital, bringing a welcome hint of real sun - even if the breeze remains decidedly “bracing” the moment you step out of the light in your shorts. But while the North Sea tries its best to keep us shivering, the city’s stages are putting off enough heat to compensate. It is a formidable week for the charts, where catching even a mention is a badge of honour.

Let’s count them down...

Honourable Mentions: Cuckoo’s Nest, Black Diamonds & The Bodyguard

It’s a crowded field for our near-misses this week! First up, Leitheatre takes on the Broadway hit One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Church Hill Theatre, until Saturday); I expect such raw drama to suit this bold and ambitious band of unpaid professionals. Meanwhile, Gary McNair’s Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil (Royal Lyceum Theatre, until May 23rd) gets the stage VIP treatment with a Ricky Ross score and a heavyweight cast—with this much talent, it could improve on its ‘OK’ radio-play origins. Finally, for a high-gloss fix, The Bodyguard (Edinburgh Playhouse, May 18th – 23rd) is a Whitney-fuelled spectacle allegedly only kept from West End domination by a lack of sufficiently large theatres—not a problem it will face in the UK’s largest seated theatre!

New in at Number 5 is... Guys and Dolls (Festival Theatre, May 13th – 16th)

When Southern Light are good, they are very, very good - look no further than their superlative Sound of Music in 2022. Not every outing since has been a total triumph, but they remain capable of greatness. Guys and Dolls is the sort of fun, tuneful show that rewards pluck, and I guarantee they’ll bring that plus some surprisingly potent lungs.

New in at Number 4 is... RSA 200th Anniversary Exhibition (Royal Scottish Academy, Open Now).

The biggest show of the Royal Scottish Academy’s year has touched down on Princes Street. With over 500 works in this 200th birthday edition, there is most certainly something for everyone - whether that’s a cat statue with a prodigiously long tail, a room full of tiny architectural models, or gorgeous landscapes. Set over two floors, it’s a show that will reward return visits and unrushed exploration.

New in at Number 3 is... RSNO: Nicola Benedetti Plays Elgar (Usher Hall, Friday)

Depending on who you ask, Nicola Benedetti is one of the greatest violinists currently walking the planet. When she steps onto the Usher Hall stage alongside the mighty RSNO, it’s a major event. Factor in the universal critical love visited on her previous Elgar recitals, and we should expect nothing short of musical perfection. It’s only the sheer weight and variety of talent at the Number 2 spot that keeps this from rising higher.

New in at Number 2 is... Walking on Eggshells (Summerhall, May 14th — 16th).

The last Scissor Kick co-production, Jackals, proved to be one of the city’s Spring theatrical highlights. They are back, this time alongside Siren Theatre Company with an “autobiographical crack at Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” Expect insight, heart, and comedy in this newest production from a collaboration of two of the nation’s leading incubators of new theatre.

New in at Number 1 is... Stand & Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-in (Traverse Theatre, May 19th – 20th).

The National Theatre of Scotland and the Tron Theatre are bringing their very-well reviewed World Premiere to the Traverse. With that sort of theatrical might in the engine room, it’s hard to imagine any of the other runners in this week’s chart catching them before the finish line.

Set in Greenock, 1981, it’s the true story of the gallus Greenock girls who staged a seven-month sit-in against corporate greed. Played out to a live 80s soundtrack, the blend of rousing local history and synth-pop seems — at least to me - like a marriage made in rehearsal room heaven. Now, everyone involved is taking liberties with the term ‘premiere’ for a show which opened at the Tron last month—but as long as the show is this good, I’m sure we can all forgive such showbiz flimflammery!

And that’s your Top 5!

Now, don’t just sit there - get those tickets booked and remember to tell the box office exactly who pointed you their way. Catch you in the comments; I’m ready to soak up your praise or politely dismantle your misguided critiques!

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Monaco’s artist to the stars, his £125k paintings and locked New Town gallery

Will Quinn attempts to solve a locked room puzzle next to Edinburgh’s Sherlock Holmes’ statue

Main feature copy goes here

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on Picardy Place. It is, therefore, fitting that the same stretch of tarmac is presently playing host to a locked-room mystery.

At Number 4, flanked by the culinary titans of Taco Bell and Tesco Express, sits the Yaniv Edery Gallery. A few weeks ago, their PR machine kicked into high gear to announce its arrival. The press releases promised a “world-class destination for contemporary art”, marking the UK debut of an internationally acclaimed Monaco-based artist. The works inside, we were told, command price tags ranging from £30,000 to £125,000.

A grand launch was heavily promoted for late March - I wasn’t on the guest list. Unoffended but curious, I contacted the gallery’s communications agency on March 31st, hoping to secure an interview with Mr Edery. He had, regrettably, already retreated to the continent. Still interested to see this new luxury space for myself, I asked if I could pay a visit.

As of writing, they have been unable to find anyone capable of unlocking the front door. How do you like that for a mystery? Why spend time and money shipping Mr Edery’s art from the continent and onto these Georgian walls only to seal the building up and turn out the lights?

When asked how an artist plans to oversee a flagship UK gallery from a different time zone, his representatives offer a masterclass in serene deflection.

“Yaniv remains internationally based and works across several markets, particularly from Monaco, but this gallery is a major long-term commitment for him,” his team explained. “While he won’t be in Edinburgh every week, he is closely involved in the creative direction, the curation of the collection and the overall vision of the space.”

They assure me that the gallery boasts a “strong team on the ground managing the art gallery and events operations,” with Yaniv visiting “from time to time”. Given the locked doors and (as of writing) a live online job advert seeking a General Manager, that team is well hidden.

The mechanics of ‘hype art’

To understand what is actually happening behind those locked doors, one must consider the £125,000 objects (maybe these are prints commanding a lower price-point, who can say?) hanging on the walls.

Yaniv Edery is a self-taught contemporary artist whose process involves layering thick, high-gloss resin over injected acrylic and ink on brushed aluminium. He frequently incorporates 3D-printed reliefs, Swarovski crystals, and metallic finishes. It is a highly specific physical execution that eliminates the natural texture of human imperfection. To me, the resulting canvases flawlessly mimic the weightless, frictionless aesthetic of A.I. art.

The subject matter, in my opinion, is pure, unadulterated “Hype Art”. It is a visual language reliant upon the recognition of pop-culture wealth symbols. Gorillas chomping on fat cigars. Scrooge McDuck swimming in gold coins. Luxury brand logos and oversized Rolex crowns.

Read more

You won’t notice any tell-tale signs on a weekend walk on its windswept slopes, but something fundamental might be changing in the Pentlands.

An obscure but potentially significant Scottish environmental regulation is being piloted by a group of local landowners.

The Ecosystem Resto…

Read more

Scotland’s newly-elected MSPs report for duty today to a parliament that looks and feels very different to the one we had last week.

John Swinney and the SNP might still be in the driving seat, but overall the parliament is arguably the most diverse, least experienced and most deeply divided in its 27-year history.

The former First Minister’s return to Bute House is expected to be confirmed over the coming week as our 129 MSPs - including 64 newbies - get to grips with a much-changed political landscape.

Diverse new faces: The Edinburgh intake alone includes Fiji-born Simita Kumar of the SNP, Netherlands-born Lib Dem Sanne Dijkstra-Downie and the Greens’ Q Manivannan, who is transgender and originally from India, reflecting the increasingly cosmopolitan population of the Capital.

It also includes a single Reform candidate, who simultaneously campaigned during the election against a facility in Liberton which the party wrongly identified as accommodation for asylum seekers, while pledging to prioritise the opening of asylum detention centres in Green-voting areas such as Edinburgh and the Lothians.

The rules of engagement are already changing with SNP leader Swinney shunning traditional backroom meetings to discuss priorities when it comes to dealing with the group of Reform MSPs.

Green talks: Top of the agenda for Swinney and his team will be talks with the Greens on what form co-operation between the two parties will take during the next parliament. A formal coalition with Green Cabinet Ministers? A looser arrangement? The Greens are already indicating they will drive a hard bargain following the collapse of their last power-sharing deal.

Visa issue: Q Manivannan has been one of the first to face increased scrutiny as a new MSPs with reports highlighting the fact they will have to renew their visa while serving at Holyrood. Manivannan is in the UK on a student visa and entitled to stand as an MSP due to recent changes to eligibility rules. Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay, told the BBC she did not believe obtaining a visa would be a problem and that the party would be supporting them in any way possible.

The Scottish Inquisitions: The future of Scottish Labour and Conservative leaders will come under scrutiny, alongside that of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Labour’s “boom or bust” approach, which aimed to flip constituencies across the Central Belt in a bid to win a majority, failed to deliver. Similarly, the tack to the right under Russell Findlay has left the Conservatives largely wiped out in the face of Reform advances, outside of the rural south of Scotland. The Lib Dems will be quietly satisfied after almost doubling their number of MSPs.

Independence union: Swinney has confirmed his intention to seek a new Independence referendum via the UK parliament - a request that will be refused in current circumstances - and to work with the nationalist administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland in coordinated opposition to Labour’s policies on the cost of living and UK government spending.

Out with the old: A lot of well-known faces will not be back at Holyrood this week, including election losers former SNP Culture Secretary Angus Robertson, former Community Safety Minister Ash Regan, the Conservatives’ Sue Webber, suspended Labour member Foysol Choudhury, and Tory-turned-independent Jeremy Balfour.

Swearing oaths: Given the political tensions, it might not be the only swearing taking place at Holyrood, but watch out for dramatic gestures at the formal oath-taking for new MSPs on Thursday. That will be followed by the election of a new presiding officer to replace former Lothians Greens MSP Alison Johnstone. The formal election of the new First Minister is pencilled in for Tuesday next week.

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

TENSE? NERVOUS? Then maybe it’s down to supporting Hearts FC. The Jambos look to be heading for a final day shootout with Celtic to decide whether they win their first Scottish title in 66 years. Unless there’s another dramatic twist mid-week then it will all be decided in Glasgow on Saturday lunchtime. If Hearts come through, expect one of the biggest street parties Edinburgh has ever seen (with a potential victory parade pencilled in for Sunday).

USHER TO STAR: The directorial debut of Edinburgh-born Louis Paxton - who as a teenager worked as an usher at the Edinburgh International Film Festival - is to open this year’s festival. The international premiere of The Incomer, starring Domhnall Gleeson, Gayle Rankin and John Hannah, will open this year’s 79th edition of the festival, which runs 13-19 August. Described as witty and intelligent, The Incomer was an award winner earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

FARM INFECTIONS: NHS Lothian is investigating 16 cases of cryptosporidiosis linked to the petting farm at Craigies Farm, South Queensferry. The parasitic infection can cause diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach cramps and can be serious for young children. The farm said it is taking the issue “very seriously”, increasing cleaning procedures and stopping visitors from cuddling the lambs.

EXAM PROTEST: More than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for a review of this year’s Higher Maths exam amid concerns about inconsistencies. This is the first year of exams under Qualifications Scotland which replaced the widely-criticised SQA. The petition says the “language and phrasing (in the exam) was confusing, ambiguous, and inconsistent with every past paper students had revised from”.

HUGE IN HAYMARKET: Work is set to start on a massive office development next to Haymarket Station following the demolition of the 1970s buildings on the site. Developers Aviva Investors say the Roseberry Haymarket development will address a shortage of A grade office space in the Capital.

WALL WORRY: East Lothian Council is being asked to explain how it intends to progress £100m flood defence plans for Musselburgh when it does not own the sea walls which are part of its plans. The scheme is the subject of a public inquiry and the Scottish Government Reporter overseeing it had asked the local authority to explain its thinking. The sea walls were linked to the former Cockenzie Power Station and are still owned by Scottish Power.

FESTIVAL TAX BOOST: Special shows and events to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the International Festival, Fringe and Film Festival next year are expected to be supported with up to £1.46m from the city’s new tourist tax. Special opening and closing events for next year's festivals season could also receive further Visitor Levy funds. The moves follow protests from the Festivals that they were missing out on a fair share of investment from the Levy which is expected to raise £40-50m annually within three years.

Pic of the week

THE BUSINESS

Tackling sky high business rates in Capital should be key for new Government

Edinburgh’s business community will be even keener than usual observers of the Scottish Government in the coming days and weeks, following a Holyrood election which has thrown up a multitude of changes.

The election may have seen a Government that is “business as usual” in the sense that the SNP will form a minority government, as it has done for most of the past 19 years. But the rise of the Scottish Greens and the emergence of Reform UK has changed the complexion of the Parliament.

Add to that the fact that almost half of those SNP MSPs who will serve for the next five years are new to the job and it is little wonder there is widespread interest in exactly how it will work.

Of particular interest to the business community will be “who” following the departure of former Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who also served as Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, and was widely viewed as a positive and thoughtful engager with business.

Ivan McKee, who served as Minister for Public Finance, has been safely returned to Holyrood and as a former Business Minister and someone close to Forbes will be someone businesses hope to see in a position of influence.

Of immediate local interest, businesses will be looking to hold the Government’s feet to the fire on a number of key manifesto commitments – notably a commitment to deliver a “fairer and more accountable” system of business rates. Given the sky-high increases many face due to revaluation proposals, that is one area requiring immediate attention. Hospitality businesses are particularly impacted, a sector of major importance in the city.

There was also a manifesto commitment to empower regional economic partnerships, something that business organisations have been championing to help deliver crucial infrastructure and allow economic development more attuned to local needs.

And on the subject of infrastructure, while their was a commitment to invest in a full feasibility study for Tram-Trains on the south Suburban line, there appears to be little prospect of funding support for a proposed trams extension, with the manifesto not only making reference to any “council-funded proposals” which are brought forward, but also making the point that any proposal should not include the controversial Roseburn Corridor.

EICC IMPACT: Edinburgh International Conference Centre hosted 175 events, generating 173,000 delegate days and contributing £76m to the economy. In its latest annual Impact Report, the EICC also reported on its environmental and societal benefits, showing progress against industry averages in terms of food waste, emissions and growth of its partnerships within the community.

AIRLINE LIQUIDATED: Edinburgh-based Ecojet airline, claiming to be the world’s “first electric airline”, has gone into liquidation. Liquidators from Opus Restructuring have been formally appointed reports the Edinburgh News.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

PINT OF SCIENCE: Educate yourself over a pint with special events at bars across the city on 18-20 May. Discover if robots are the answer to Britain’s care crisis and whether data can deliver at fairer future at the Pint of Science festival.

ARTISTIC LEGACY: Discover the incredible gift of Jean Fletcher Watson who provided the funds to create a significant collection of Scottish art for the people of Edinburgh. From Anne Redpath and Joan Eardley to Eduardo Paolozzi and Elizabeth Blackadder, Jean F Watson: An artistic legacy at the City Art Centre showcases the wonderful collection her generosity created. Opens Saturday.

UNDERGROUND MAGIC: From magic to mind-reading, comedy to variety, Underground Magic returns to the Gilded Saloon on Leith Street on 20 May with a night of laughter and illusion.

QUICK BITES

CURRYING F(L)AVOUR: Four local restaurants have been named in a guide of the 100 best curry restaurants in the UK, by the Asian Catering Federation. They are itihaas in Dalkeith, Radhuni in Loanhead, and Shezan and Celestia in the Capital.

WINNING BREWS: Edinburgh craft brewery Cold Town Beer picked up six gold and silver medals at the London Beer Competition 2026. These included top ‘Indian Pale Ale of the Year’ award for its flagship brew, Baltic IPA. There were an additional two gold medals for its Robert the Juice IPA and XPA. Three silver medals completed Cold Town’s winning streak for 2026, including its Fest Bier, Doddie Beir and Crisp Craft Lager.