The Edinburgh Reporter April 2023

2 NEWS

Editorial

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Editor: Phyllis Stephen

Designer: Felipe Perez

Photos: Martin P McAdam

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SPRING HAS definitely sprung with the

longer evenings back once more, and the

cheerful sight of yellow daffodils bringing

hope to us all.

Our front page is also a really hopeful

sight. The salsa drumming band Pulse of the

Place are off to New York this month

making it a real Edinburgh affair, along with

Gail Porter, the TV personality from

Portobello, who will be the 25th Grand

Marshal of the New York City Tartan Day

Parade. Gail and piper Louise Marshall, will

also both wear the World Fair Trade tartan.

The Pulse of the Place crowdfunder is still

running to cover their costs and any help at

this stage to get them over the line would be

very welcome. givey.com/pulseoftheplacenyc

We have a new leader. After what seemed

an interminable five weeks, but now seems

an unbelievably short time, Humza Yousaf

has been elected leader of the SNP and the

sixth First Minister.

It has not been an entirely edifying

process this, the first SNP leadership

election in more than two decades. Without

a clear succession plan to the top job it is

difficult to see how it would be anything

other than a lot of jostling for position. And

candidates have jostled admirably, but

whether that means they can now work

together will remain to be seen. The two

who lost the election - Ash Regan and Kate

Forbes - both say they can.

Resignations - there have been a few -

with the Deputy First Minister, John

Swinney stepping down from Government

to the back benches with Nicola Sturgeon.

That was probably to be expected, but the

unexpected happened when Peter Murrell

the Chief Executive of the SNP resigned

abruptly in the face of a voted of no

confidence by the party’s National Executive

Committee. Before that SNP media boss

Murray Foote resigned. He felt he had been

compromised by telling the media one set

of membership numbers supplied to him

by HQ, only to find these were wrong by

about 32,000.

The SNP President and interim Chief

Executive, Michael Russell, told The

Edinburgh Reporter that he will not be

interim CEO for very long - as “he is meant

to be doing other things”.

Phyllis Stephen, Editor

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Planning News

A PLANNING application has been made for

a flagship development - the Edinburgh

Innovation Hub at Queen Margaret

University. The hub will support innovative

start-ups and small to medium sized

businesses with a particular focus on food

and drink.

It will become a vibrant new economic

innovation cluster featuring serviced and

fitted commercial laboratory, office and

events space.

The design, build and operation of the Hub

is being managed by a joint venture between

QMU and East Lothian Council. It is

supported by £28.6 million from the UK

Government, £1.4 million from the Scottish

Government and £10 million from East

Lothian Council as part of the Edinburgh and

South East Scotland City Region Deal.

Sir Paul Grice, Principal of Queen Margaret

University said: “The Hub will support

research, innovation and growth, particularly

in the food and drink sector, which is hugely

important for East Lothian, building on its

title of Scotland’s Food & Drink County. It will

also have a strong focus on the life science

and tech sectors, which will be beneficial to

all of our communities. Companies locating

to the Hub will benefit from facilitated access

to the University, its social and intellectual

capital and to its business support services.

As we continue to recover from the effects of

the Covid-19 pandemic and deal with a

changed economic picture, this development

will also be key in bringing quality jobs and

investment to the area.”

The plans can be viewed in the Atrium at

QMU until 10 April. Construction is expected

to begin this year and take two years to

complete. The plans are not yet available to

view on the council website but will be soon.

THE FIRST TRAM in almost 70 years has travelled down Leith Walk

all the way to the end of the line at Newhaven in the testing phase

of construction. The newest part of the line will open this spring.

An artist’s impression of

Queen Margaret University’s

proposed innovation hub

First tram in 70 years

Donate anchor.fm YouTube

Thomas Haywood