Breaking news

Local author Margaret Irvine will be at McDonald Road Library on 26 February to discuss her autobiographical Tenterfield, My Happy Childhood in Care.

Statistics produced by the Scottish Government suggest two unlikely groups as Edinburgh's safest drivers.

Between 2005 and 2009 the safest way of travelling upon Edinburgh's roads was in a vehicle other than a bus, car, bike, motorcycle or goods vehicle (for example, a sit-on lawnmower or Challenger tank), on a Monday between midnight and 6:00am, with a female at the controls aged between 5 and 15 or 85 and over. No-one fitting all these criteria was involved in a serious or fatal accident.

Edinburgh North and Leith MP Mark Lazarowicz is to host a free, public meeting to discuss Fairtrade on 5 March.

He is inviting experts, practitioners and constituency residents to discuss the future of Fairtrade: whether it should just continue to expand and improve, or whether it needs to change course in some way. How can more businesses and individuals be encouraged to join in?

Broughton's proliferating stickers are at their thickest where Broughton Street meets York Place.

Just about every vertical pole and lamppost is festooned with these unsigned enigmas.

Spurtle would welcome further photographic evidence and explanations.

An indefatigable sandwich shop proprietor at 3 Elm Row has reapplied to change the premises' use to a hot food takeaway, just 4 months after his last application was refused (Ref. 11/00372/FUL).

A bicycle chained to railings on Bellevue Terrace was romantically adorned with a bunch of plastic red roses yesterday afternoon.

Was this two-wheeled gesture better or worse than the four-wheeled optimism of buying petrol-station flowers?

Do you ever worry that the English language's 750,000 words are not quite enough?

Staff at the Edinburgh Evening News must fear exactly that, since not only have they inadvertently used the same words as Spurtle but also the same words in exactly the same order within two days of their first appearance.

A suspected conman phoned an Albany Street firm of solicitors at 10:00am on Wednesday 9 February. He claimed to represent 'Midlothian Police' and said he was collecting donations which would go to a local children's charity.

Vodafone and 02 seek planning permission for ‘6 pole-mounted antenna to accommodate rooftop cabinets’ above Centrum House at 108–14 Dundas Street (Ref. 11/00334/FUL). Not textbook English, perhaps, but clear enough.

The applicants say a City of Edinburgh Council Planning case officer has already intimated in a letter that ‘equipment on the roof is to be welcomed and could be acceptable’.

On 1 February (Breaking news), we congratulated – through gritted teeth – a local ornithologist on his extraordinary skill in attracting numerous bird species to a Cochran Terrace back green.

The same naturalist has enjoyed equally gratifying results in observing an otter on the Water of Leith, something this Spurtle correspondent has been trying to do for 23 years without success.