Breaking news

Spotted yesterday on Bellevue Place: a chrome-effect car badge combining the ancient Alpha or icthus symbol of Christianity with feet and the surname of a famous Edinburgh medical student.

This correspondent at first thought it was intended to express a mature compromise between faith in the Almighty and acceptance of Evolution. Not so. A frothing atheist friend soon asserted that the badge is intended as a humourous but firm rebuttal of religious faith in general and Intelligent Design in particular.

Brace yourselves Broughton! This Sunday morning our quiet and respectable corner of town will be visited by Scotland’s biggest limo.

That can mean only one thing: Whisky Kiss are heading off to T in the Park! We are getting picked up outside the Broughton Delicatessen on Barony Street in the hulking Hummer, before crossing into the Kingdom of Fife and on to Balado.

Leith on the Fringe (LOTF) have launched a bold, new extension to the Edinburgh summer festival season.

Organisers plan to tempt tourists, culture vultures, locals and their families away from the crowded and expensive risks of central Edinburgh Fringe venues to more dependable, hospitable and family-friendly offerings around Leith – starting this year at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street (Venue 195).

The crucial Council by-election for Edinburgh Central will be held on 18 August.

Candidates have between 12 July and 27 July to register officially, but those who have announced their intention to run so far are:

• Iain McGill – Conservative
• Melanie Main – Green
• John Carson – Independent
• Karen Doran – Labour.

Details of a Spurtle-run hustings will be announced in due course.

One day to go until T in the Park opens and, right on cue, the heavens open, writes Iain MacPhail. Whisky Kiss have booked Scotland’s biggest limo, so we hope the underfoot (or underwheel) conditions have dried up by Sunday or else we could get that sinking feeling. We're pretty sure a 16-seat Hummer will be a fairly heavy machine!

As you would expect of a souped-up and massively over-hyped ceilidh band based in Broughton, Whisky Kiss have a VIP Guest List and entourage that is both star-studded and influential. We know you’d be disappointed if it were otherwise.

Lothian and Borders Police are appealing for witnesses after a woman was critically injured in a collision with a black taxi traveling east on York Place. The incident happened at 1.55am on Sunday 3 July.

The 23-year-old woman suffered a 'serious' head injury and was sent to the Royal Infirmary before being transferred to the Western General. Yesterday she was reported to still be in a critical condition.

Police are appealing for anyone who was in the area at the time of the collision, and saw the incident, to contact them immediately.

The dogged efforts of Mr Osman Simsek (Breaking news, 11.10.10; 4.2.11) to change the use of his shop premises at 3 Elm Row to a hot food takeaway with limited seating have again been turned down (

‘Jaundiced of Claremont’ – a Broughton resident with many and varied strong opinions – recently remarked to the Spurtle that the sure sign of a neighbourhood going downhill is when even the cars start getting tattoos.

He was referring to a distinctive pink Mini, often seen locally, whose surface adornments promote a Morningside tea house.

We disagree, rather like it, and think that – if anything – it adds to the area.

Iain MacPhail continues with tales of the road, in the build-up to T in the Park this coming weekend. Warning: this blog contains images of a stretched limo nature.

Jambo, Jambo! Or hello and welcome in Kiswahili!

This was the greeting that Drummond Community High School gave our friends from Muthambi Girls and Boys Schools when they arrived at Edinburgh Airport on Tuesday 13 June, writes Librarian and Coordinator Annie Scanlon.

It had been a long year’s organising and fundraising but at last all our hard work had borne fruit and our guests were here.