Support our troops: 'Our masthead will proudly carry a poppy'

The 29-year-old who lost both his legs - and so very nearly his life - after treading on a roadside bomb in Afghanistan will be the public face of this year's Scottish Poppy Appeal.

A more inspirational figure is hard to imagine.

His bravery fighting the Taliban is inspiring, but his stoic response to the terrible personal price he paid is heroic and humbling.

With no trace of irony or bitterness, he describes himself as the "luckiest guy in the world", simply for being alive.

Just when doubts are growing about whether the war in Afghanistan is "winnable", Paul's story could hardly be more timely.

Edinburgh is a city that knows only too well the cost of this conflict.

We are though, whether we like it or not, bound to see it through to a satisfactory conclusion.

Anything less would mean the terrible toll we have paid - both in terms of lives lost and blighted, and billions of pounds worth of resources - would all have been in vain.

The Evening News will proudly carry a Poppy on our masthead ahead of Remembrance Day.

And, despite differing views on the virtues of the war, we know the whole city will unite behind our service men and women and share in that pride.

Fire engine fiasco

So after being stuck in the workshop for two years, Lothian and Borders' new "super-fire engines" have been banished from the road by brigade chiefs on safety grounds.

Far from being super, the Combined Aerial Rescue Pumps have been an unmitigated disaster, unable even to negotiate a roundabout without risks - and have cost tax payers 900,000.

The fact other UK brigades have encountered similar problems shows that the blame for this fiasco does not lie locally.

Any chance of clawing back at least some of the public money lost must be pursued vigorously, especially in these straitened times.

Otherwise the time has come to draw a line under this embarrassment and move on.