The Edinburgh Minute ⏰: Wednesday 12 July 2023
Students disrupt graduation event, pink door repaint complaint debate, £3k Taylor Swift tickets, Europe's most 'overcrowded' tourist attraction + the Butterbeer pub mystery
☀️ Good morning Edinburgh. Lots happening! Here’s Wednesday’s Edinburgh Minute.
🇺🇦 “It’s a new page in life, we can’t live on the ship forever.” - The BBC has interviewed Ukrainian refugees who were living on a cruise ship in Leith. Those without accommodation are being moved to hotels.
🎓 The ongoing marking assessment strike by university staff continues to impact graduations this week. A chorus of “pay your workers” echoed through the McEwan Hall during yesterday’s graduation ceremony. See and hear the protest in this video from Staff Student Solidarity Network Edinburgh:
⮑ Meanwhile students who haven’t been given degree marks due to the strike claim they are being told: “return to your home country”:
🚪 The New Town pink door story from yesterday continues to rumble on. The council confirmed it was looking into a complaint about the colour. Owner Miranda Dickson was previously ordered to change the door’s colour from bright pink. She has now painted it light pink but describes it as ‘off white,’ but one complaint has caused an uproar. She told the Guardian:
“There are so many more serious issues to get energetic about other than my front door.” - Miranda Dickson.
She also pointed out that her door is now ‘identical’ to a door depicted on page 45 of an official Edinburgh New Town conservation document. (PDF):
⮑ These are the results of a poll on the Edinburgh Guardian Instagram account:
⮑ The Scotsman columnist Euan McColm writes: “Edinburgh’s New Town: Miranda Dickson's off-white, light pink door is just fine. City council surely can't make her repaint for a third time?!”
🏰 A tour company has scraped data from Trip Advisor reviews and crowned Edinburgh Castle as ‘the busiest tourist attraction in Europe.’ - Amy Houghton, Time Out.
🎤 Tickets for Taylor Swift’s Edinburgh concerts are being sold for more than £3,000 each. - Gary Flockhart, Evening News.
🪩 This week’s Edinburgh Culture Minute is live here.
💰 Administrate, a local enterprise training operations platform, has announced it has raised £5 million from existing investors. - Nick Freer on LinkedIn.
🩼 Residents of Craigleith retirement home say that a nearby staircase has left them with broken shoulders, shattered teeth and black eyes - as they ask the council if 'somebody has to die before it's taken seriously'. - Donald Turvill, Edinburgh Live.
🧗♂️ A teenage climber from Currie has won the European Youth Speed Climbing Championships in Austria. Andrew Goodall climbed 15 metres in 6.61 seconds. - He spoke to sports reporter Bill Lothian for The Edinburgh Reporter.
🚨 A well-known sculpture outside a Tollcross music shop has been smashed. - The owners of MadHat and Backtracks have caught the culprit on CCTV and are seeking help to identify them.
🌳 A man living in Cramond is expected to be ordered to remove a fence that was put up without planning permission, after neighbours said he’d claimed woodland he didn’t own. - Donald Turvill, STV News.
🏃♀️ The ‘We Run Edinburgh’ Wednesday social run is on this evening. - Full details on their Instagram account.
🍺 Victoria Street’s Bow Bar says a tour guide is sending gullible tourists their way expecting free whisky and Butterbeer, a drink from the Harry Potter books.
⮑ In response, Cloisters bar joked that they set up a prank:
📈 Here are the most-clicked/tapped links from the last newsletter:
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