Talk of the Town: Darling's loyalty to Brown applauded

ANYONE who went along to Alistair Darling's talk at the Book Festival hoping for a blistering attack on Gordon Brown came away disappointed.

Advance reports claimed the ex-Chancellor would use his Donald Dewar Memorial Lecture to blame his former Downing Street neighbour for May's election defeat, but instead Mr Darling won spontaneous applause from the audience for talking about loyalty.

He was asked by one member of the audience why in the period before the general election, none of the Cabinet had had the courage to get rid of Mr Brown.

Mr Darling said: "My judgement at the time and my loyalty was such that I would not have backed that view."

Kitten has Capital diners smitten with surprise visit

DINERS at the city's Mexican restaurant Illegal Jacks were given a surprise when ex-Atomic Kitten Liz McClarnon popped in for a burrito.

The 29-year-old was filming her BBC 3 show Hotter Than My Daughter and after a hard day's shooting, decided to go to the Lothian Road eaterie after one of her fans on Twitter told her it was good for a bite to eat.

One person who couldn't believe it was member of staff Chris Dunn who was raging that he missed the pop star.

He said: "You take one night off and Liz McClarnon visits. Typical!"

Toad present causes a stir

COUNCILLORS attending yesterday's full council meeting were treated to the unusual scene of a giant ornamental toad sitting directly in front of the Lord Provost.

It was only when Jenny Dawe stood up to present her leader's report that the reason for the toad's appearance became apparent.

The ornament was a present from Hull City Council, which decorated its city in model toads as part of an art project marking the 25th anniversary of the death of poet Philip Larkin, a former Hull University librarian.

It was presented to the city by competitors in the round the world yacht race, where Hull was the only other UK city apart from Edinburgh to participate.

Spaniel has a coke habit

SPOTTED in Holyrood Park, that little known breed of dog - the Coke-a-Spaniel.

The pooch was seen happily carrying a 500ml plastic bottle of the Real Thing in its mouth.

There was no way of knowing if the soft drink was for the dog or its owner, of course.