Edinburgh

Friday

Alex Massie

The East-West Divide

From our UK edition

Perhaps it is time for Glasgow to become a Charter City: More than a third of people in Glasgow North East have no school qualifications. A table published by the University and College Union (UCU) showed 35.3% of those of working age left school without passing a single examination. The result gives the area the lowest rating in the UK. Every Edinburgh constituency was placed in the top third for educational achievement. Every constituency in Glasgow was below the British average. No matter how many allowances you make for Glasgow's peculiar circumstances - post-industrialisation, redrawn city boundaries that exclude middle-class suburbs and so on - this is depressing stuff.

Saturday

Michael Tanner

Animal magic

From our UK edition

The annual collaboration between Scottish Opera and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama is, as the principal of the RSAMD writes, ‘a model...for partnership working between professionals and professionals-in-training’, and it is hard to think of any work more suitable for this partnership than Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen. The annual collaboration between Scottish Opera and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama is, as the principal of the RSAMD writes, ‘a model...for partnership working between professionals and professionals-in-training’, and it is hard to think of any work more suitable for this partnership than Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen.

Monday

Alex Massie

Panda Politics

From our UK edition

A coup for the Royal Zoologocial Society of Scotland which announced today that it will take delivery of and house two Giant Pandas, courtesy of a deal with the Chinese government. A coup too, I dare say, for Alex Salmond who will be happy to accept whatever credit you may care to bestow upon him. I believe the going rate for a panda is something like $1m a year but Edinburgh Zoo will certainly be able to afford that. Hard to imagine pandas actually breeding in Edinburgh, but who knows? If a McPanda ever emerges I hope it gets a better name than "Butterstick" - the unfortunate moniker slapped upon the infant panda born in Washington a few years ago. Readers are invited to suggest possible names...