WANT John Cleese to tell you a bedtime story? You’ll have to sign up for the world’s biggest public sleepout.
As many as 9,000 people are expected to sleep rough in Edinburgh’s West Princes Street Gardens and city centre on December 9 in a bid to raise £4 million to eradicate homelessness within five years.
Liam Gallagher, Deacon Blue, Amy Macdonald and Frightened Rabbit have all agreed to play unplugged sets at the Sleep in the Park event, with Cleese set to tell a story to those who raise the most cash.
Comedian Rob Brydon will host and organisers Social Bite also aim to generate 1,000 employment offers and the same number of supported lodging pledges for those facing life on the streets from householders with room to spare.
Sir Bob Geldof – who admits he is “nervous” about the temperatures – will be amongst those camping out, along with undisclosed celebrities, sportspeople and politicians.
Social Bite co-founder Josh Littlejohn, above, said: “By taking part in Sleep in the Park, you will be joining a movement to end home-lessness in Scotland for good. We believe by working together, homelessness could be eradicated in Scotland within five years. We want to make Scotland an example for the whole world to follow.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here