Readers' Best comments

A power cut left St Mary's Catholic Cathedral without heat or light for two days, forcing the cafe to close and ruining thousands of pounds of stock in its fridges. What a naughty God – he's a right one for moving in mysterious ways.

Could it be TIE's latest weapon of mass disruption? Two days to get through to the power company? Thousands of pounds worth of fridge stock ruined? Polite refusal of the offer of a generator? I know these guys make a living out of the suspension of disbelief but they're asking a lot this time.

Douglas, Bathgate

That must have been some size of a fridge or even freezer to hold thousands of pounds worth of food.

r chee bold

Odd that the EEN decide to focus on the cathedral rather than the complete lack of safe pedestrian crossings in the area for the previous two days as a result of the loss of power.

Duncan in Edinburgh

Now now Duncan, don't be like that. Meanwhile, over at the Scottish Parliament, staff have had their mops and buckets out after a fresh spate of leaks saw water gushing into the 414m Holyrood building. At least six different parts of the building are affected.

The buckets used are not big enough to catch the drips in the Parliament building.

The Real Alfonsa Pedrosa, Edinburgh

Bad design perhaps? Naw, can't be. It's 'world class' and 'iconic' innit?

The Lone Haranguer

I recall the comments made by a quantity surveyor at the time the parliament building was opened, saying that it would be cheaper to knock it down and rebuild it than to maintain it for the next twenty years. Probably not too far from the truth.

BBH, Edinburgh

I can't help but think that it is precisely because the Parliament building cost so much that this kind of thing is happening.

If the (often quoted) original figure of 340m was not so dwarfed by the final figure then perhaps a bit more money could have been spent on the finishing off of the project to stop these kinds of things happening.

As the final budget was so high compared to that original figure there was a degree of corner cutting towards the end of the development to stop the price rising even further.

That's not to say that we should have spent even more on it, or even an attempt at justifying the final cost. It's just that we should have been realistic about the original budget up front.

SuperSaint

"Lothians Labour MSP George Foulkes said: "I'm just exasperated". So am I George, so am I!

Farky

Finally, a word on the choice quotes appearing on the side of the freshly-repainted Lothian Buses fleet, which include praise for the city's "magic in the streets" from Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro.

Love Jane's Addiction & the Chilli Peppers, especially Dave Navarro, but let's be honest, he's probably made similar comments to the press about whatever city he's currently promoting a gig in.

Still, his quote has a bit more of 'hipness' quotient about it than what Benjamin Disraeli may have said.

Who cares what our old, dead literary heroes and PMs said hundreds of years ago? It's 2010 for goodness sake.

Glenda, blah