Greens and Reform aim to redraw city's political map

Plus: Historic house restoration finally underway; and original city sex shop shuts

Photo by Peter Cordes on Unsplash

City heads to polls with Labour and Tories facing squeeze from left and right

The country heads to the polls on Thursday for a Scottish Parliament election which seems likely to throw up unprecedented results.

John Swinney looks on course to return to Bute House, with or without the support for the Greens, according to consistent polling over the last nine months. The party is likely to claim the majority of city seats once again. More here in our seat by seat guide.

It doesn’t look like it will be an easy election for Labour or the Conservatives, although Labour continue to talk up their chances of confounding the pre-election polls. Labour risk slipping to third behind Reform and the Tories are battling to avoid trailing home in sixth.

The story of the election may end up being elsewhere with the Greens looking to make history by claiming their first constituency seat in Scotland (more below) and Reform UK likely to return at least one, possibly two, MSPs on the Lothians list, with more across Scotland. (Don’t miss tomorrow’s Inquirer for more on the rise of Reform and how to resist it)

When does it all happen? If you haven’t cast your vote already by post, polling station are open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday. Unlike in future UK elections, you don’t need photo ID. You also don’t need to have your polling card, although it can be helpful to staff if you do.

Watch out for the result in Edinburgh Central where Scotland’s Culture Secretary Angus Robertson faces a fight to hold onto his seat in a three-way tussle with the Greens Lorna Slater and Labour’s James Dalgleish. This seat is probably the most anticipated result in Scotland, with the potential to throw up this election’s ‘Portillo Moment’ and to create history for the Greens.

Others to keep an eye on include Edinburgh Northern where Sanne Dijkstra-Downie has a chance of is picking up an extra seat for the Lib Dems against the favourite, the SNP’s Euan Hyslop. Labour’s Daniel Johnson is hopeful of hanging on to Edinburgh Southern against a strong challenge from former SNP MSP Deidre Brock. The Greens hopes of a second constituency seat, seizing Edinburgh North Eastern and Leith from SNP Minister Ben Macpherson, is looking like a long shot.

Low go: One of the talking points is the expectation that the turn-out will be low, at around 50%, falling around 10 per centage points from 2021.

City Chambers mini-exodus: The SNP group at the city council may find itself a little depleted, with three of their number - Simita Kumar, Kate Campbell and Euan Hyslop - among the favourites to secure Holyrood seats.

Done and dusted by teatime? This year the election count will take place on Friday with most results and a clear overall picture expected to become apparent during the course of the afternoon. We will of course bring you all the latest on the city’s seats in our election results special.

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

FARE EFFORT: Lost property left on Lothian Buses has raised £12,800 to help the homeless over the last year. Unclaimed property - totalling 3,149 items over the last 12 months - is donated to Shelter which sells it in its charity shops.

RUGBY CLUB ‘RAPE JOKE’: The coach of Musselburgh RFC’s women’s side has quit in protest after a speaker at its annual dinner apparently cracked a joke about rape, The East Lothian Courier reports. The rugby club has apologised after complaints of “racist, homophobic and sexist” material in the speech, which is being investigated by the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU).

Mavisbank House. Pic: The Landmark Trust

RESTORATION! Work is finally set to begin on restoring Mavisbank House, near Loanhead, Midlothian, after permission was granted for a new access road. The 18th century Palladian villa won the BBC series Restoration, hosted by Griff Rees Jones, to identify an at-risk historic building to save, in 2003. The Landmark Trust’s first work includes completing a compulsory purchase order and stabilising the building, with the aim of eventually restoring it for use as holiday lets with open days for public visits. The access road had been stalled after protests over plans to cut down 80 trees and replace them with 90 others.

UNI ‘FACES YEAR OF DISRUPTION’: Industrial action at Edinburgh University could continue for a full year due to extended powers granted by the Employment Rights Act passed by the Labour government, The Herald reports. Lecturers belonging to the UCU union are staging a marking and assessment boycott in protest at £140 million cuts.

MACHETE ARRESTS: Two more men have been charged over an alleged machete attack on a 31-year-old man in Musselburgh last month. The pair, aged 21 and 33, were arrested during an operation in Hamilton and Glasgow by police targeting organised crime gangs. A total of four men now faces charge over the attack which left the victim seriously injured.

PORN GONE: It’s the end of an era, of sorts. The owner of the Private Shop on Elm Row, one of the first official sex shops in Scotland, left a £1.6m fortune following his death in 2016. Now, ten years after the passing of Vincent Delicato, it has finally closed its doors, to the amazement of Stephen Jardine in his The Scotsman column, as he can’t believe it kept trading for so long.

Pic of the week

George Clooney and Bob Geldof join Social Bite founder Josh Littlejohn on a visit to one of the charity’s homes for the homeless during their visit last week. Pic: Social Bite

THE BUSINESS

Royal State Visit delivers cheer to whisky sector

A little pre-election dramedy was played out over recent days. Elbows were sharpened as Scotland’s political leaders sought to grab the credit for US President’s Donald Trump’s decision to lift the 10% levy he imposed on Scotch whisky.

PotUS himself firmly credited King Charles and Queen Camilla for his change of mind, saying the royal couple’s “got me to do something that nobody else was able to do” during their State Visit. Notwithstanding, First Minister John Swinney was quick to claim it owed everything to the his efforts over the past year, a claim poo-pooed in turn by Labour and Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander who maintained the toast should be raised to the Labour Westminster Government and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who made a beeline for the nearest distillery photoshoot where, in fairness, he expressed gratitude to both the King and the President.

In any event it is welcome news. The industry is worth more than £7 billion to our economy, exports around £5.3 billion worth of the uisge beatha, and supports 41,000 jobs in Scotland. The USA is its biggest global market.

No wonder that Scotch Whisky Association Chief Executive Mark Kent described it as a “significant boost” before diplomatically paying credit to all of those who had worked to help the sector over the past year.

While Edinburgh has only one major distiller headquartered in the city, the North British Distillery Company, it is also the home of both the SWA and the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Whisky also plays an important role in the city’s vital visitor economy, and of course is a major user of the city’s legal, business and financial professional services.

Meantime Buckingham Palace expressed delight at a decision which will make an “important difference” to the sector. The King, we were told, would be “raising a dram” to the President’s decision.

SMART GROWTH: Edinburgh is one of the main engines of the innovation economy, according to research firm Beauhurst. They maintain Scotland’s Capital, along with Bristol, has achieved the fastest-growing workforces among innovative companies between 2019 and 2024 - up 43%. Innovative companies are classed as as one that is either a university spin-out, the recipient of an innovation grant of £100,000 or more, the holder of a patent, or a technology business that has secured equity investment

SCHOOL BUOYED: The University of Edinburgh Business School – which offers MBA and MSc in Management, Finance and Entrepreneurship – has been named by international business website Analytics Insights as one of the UK’s top business school, based on factors like strong industry links, MBA formats and global reputation. The School was particularly singled out for its focus on sustainability, climate finance and innovation-led business strategy.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

Mardi Gras brings New Orleans to the Grassmarket. Pic: EJBF

MARDI GRAS: The Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival has announced a packed programme of more than 100 concerts at venues across the Capital from July 17 to 26. The hugely popular Mardi Gras in the Grassmarket and Edinburgh Festival Carnival in Princes Street Gardens will return on July 18 and 19 respectively.

GETTING JIGGY: The brilliant Edinburgh Tradfest continues all this week, bringing you the best of traditional music from Scotland and around the world.

CHARLATANS: If you loved Tim’s Listening Party, you can remember why you loved Tim Burgess in the first place as he brings his 90s indie heroes band The Charlatans to the Edinburgh Corn Exchange on Wednesday.

QUICK BITES

KITCHEN CHANGE: Edinburgh-based Howies has refurbished Scotts Kitchen on Victoria Terrace. Founded in 1990, Howies is an independent, family-run restaurant group based in Edinburgh. It operates Howies Victoria Street, Howies Waterloo Place, Scotts Kitchen and its catering operation Events by Howies.

NOT LUCK: Asian fusion restaurant Lucky Yu has earned its place in the prestigious Michelin Guide for Great Britain and Ireland. The Broughton Street eatery, with focuses on small plate dining, joins a growing list of Capital restaurants now recommended by the fine dining bible.