I don't like to see a Kirkcaldy man fail and feel the injury even more when he's also a Kitwe man.  However in the case of Dave Dempsey who came third in the race to represent Cowdenbeath at Holyrood my sadness is tempered by the fact that he was running in the Tory interest.

The brave chap is undeterred and I expect he'll be back in the saddle as soon as another opportunity presents itself, perhaps on the back of one of those wonderful warhorses that are strutting their stuff at the Festival Theatre.

Warhorse is a terrific spectacle: the horses are incredibly well manipulated by the teams of puppeteers and reproduce the characteristic actions of real horses to an unnerving degree.  The rest of the presentation lives up to that high standard with excellent use of projection, with spot on lighting and sound and faultless stage business. I was less admiring of the vocal presentation but maybe all this wind band stuff  I'm involved in nowadays has taken the edge off my hearing.

The story is as simple and as sentimental as all get out but even the most hardbitten audience member could hardly avoid a tiny touch of trembling in the tear ducts when boy and horse are reunited.