Breaking news

Following September’s Referendum on Scottish independence, the Prime Minister tasked Lord Smith of Kelvin with convening ‘cross-party talks and facilitat[ing] an inclusive engagement process across Scotland to produce, by 30 November 2014, Heads of Agreement with recommendations for further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament’.

Two representatives from each of the parties represented at Holyrood were nominated to the Commission (including Leith Walk ward’s Green councillor Maggie Chapman). But submissions were also invited from members of the public by 31 October.

An application by the Category B-listed Gurkha Brigade restaurant at 9a Antigua Street to extend its premises to the rear has been consented (Ref. 14/03714/LBC). 

The Christmas exhibition, newly opened at Union Gallery on Broughton Street, features work by over a dozen contemporary artists: sculptors, painters and ceramicists at various stages in their careers from around Scotland and beyond. 

There is no single theme which unites the pieces on show, so here instead are some thumbnail responses to five of them, to which you are welcome to add your own thoughts on favourites between now and February.

A planning application to build two 3-bedroom mews flats on NW Cumberland Street Lane has been refused because the new structures would unacceptably overshadow neighbouring properties to the detriment of residential amenity (Ref. 13/0528/FUL; Breaking news, 7.1.14).

Spurtle attended two services of remembrance today in Broughton. 

The first was held this morning at Broughton St Mary’s Parish Church on Bellevue Crescent. As well as parishioners and invited guests, it involved representatives of the military, Legion Scotland, Scouts and school pupils at primary and secondary levels. Music was provided by the church choir and local wind ensemble No Strings Attached.

A REFLECTION BY RHYS FULLERTON 

At this time of reflection upon the commemoration of the Great War and its impact, I recommend From the Line: Scottish War Poetry 1914–1945, published this year for the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, writes John Ross Maclean.

This fine volume includes poems by John Buchan, Violet Jacob and Neil Munro, who also feature in the superb commemorative exhibition currently in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

The work of two artists appears in the Gallery on the Corner this month. Their styles could hardly be more different. 

Ross Newton revels in the skies, lands and lochs of wild Scotland, and in the wonderfully watery uncertainty where all three meet. 

Reading your article about the butcher shop sign being uncovered in Rodney Street (Breaking news, 26.10.14) made me recall that Rodney Street had four butcher shops, writes Jim Suddon. 

In Issue 235 we mentioned briefly the appearance in Pilrig Park of an unusual black squirrel. Nearby residents have named it Zorro. Local man Pav Verity contacted us today with baffling complexities to this interesting development.