Talk of the Town: Back to school for warring politicians

WHEN you are warring councillors from opposing parties, it can sometimes be difficult to leave disputes in the City Chambers.

Last week, all opposition councillors stormed out of the main chamber and refused to vote on the appointment of a new TIE chairman because of concerns about the Lord Provost breaching council regulations in favour of the SNP group. Many observers said at the time that it was like "student politics" or that the panto season had started early.

The next morning, rival councillors Steve Cardownie, of the SNP, and Tory Joanna Mowat bumped into each other in the playground of the school that their children attend.

"So this is where you get your politics," quipped Cllr Cardownie.

X marks the spot for celebrity house hunter

FANS of The X Factor better get on the curtain-twitch alert and keep a close eye on who is moving into their neighbourhood.

Last year's runner-up Olly Murs has revealed he is dead set on buying a property in Scotland, and that Edinburgh may be one of his chosen locations.

"I'm think of moving up here," the Essex singer told a reporter at last week's Forth Awards at the Assembly Rooms. "I'd never been to Scotland before The X Factor, but I have been up a lot since the show and I absolutely love it.

"I'm thinking of buying a property here, maybe in Edinburgh."

Does this taste odd to you?

MOST people think the shortbread on offer at the Scottish Parliament tastes lovely, but it seems Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald, whose right-to-die bill is about to be killed off by MSPs, had detected a deadly quality to it. The most recent batch of MSPs' expenses published includes one claim from Ms MacDonald for entertaining guests with "tea, coffee, shortbread (End of Life Assistance)".

News splash Down Under

Modern technology is a great aid to journalists - most of the time.

Nowadays the eager hack can set up Google News Alerts for words like "Leith" or "Bruntsfield" and be automatically e-mailed a link to just about every news article from around the world containing that word. You've to be careful, though.

When an alert dropped into our inbox saying flood protection works were about to start on the Water of Leith, we eagerly clicked through and started reading.

After all, it was just days ago that Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead appeared to be saying we couldn't really afford the works.

Just one hitch - it turned out to be the Water of Leith in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Perhaps we should all just move there.