The Glasgow Wrap 🗞 Wednesday 27 March 2024
Teachers' job cuts protest, Art School raised £100m, bingo staff go unpaid, new rector at uni, council leader says city centre 'disruption is inevitable' + local student's Taylor Swift dissertation
⛅ Good morning Glasgow. The Met Office says this will be the coldest day of the week, forecasting sleet in the morning and light rain for most of the day. Here’s Wednesday’s Wrap:
🪧 Teachers protested outside the City Chambers yesterday over cuts that threaten to axe hundreds of jobs in local schools. - Stewart Paterson, Glasgow Times.
⮑ Meanwhile, the council has appointed a new chief executive. Susanne Millar is due to take on duties 'almost immediately', reports Chiara Pollock on Glasgow Live.
🚧 City council leader Susan Aitken has defended the state of the city centre amid shop closures and rising graffiti, saying Glasgow was in a “period of transition” as it looks to recover from the Covid pandemic. She told STV: ‘Disruption is inevitable’.
⮑ Opposition councillors said her comments were "complacent" and "lacking vision". - Stewart Paterson reports on the reaction in the Glasgow Times.
💰 Glasgow School of Art has raked in more than £100m from insurance claims and fundraising as a result of the two fires that have decimated a national Scottish treasure while its rebuild has stalled, today’s Herald reveals.
⮑ 🤷♀️ Locals bemoan lack of progress on the Glasgow School of Art rebuild.
⮑ 👨🎨 ‘Mackintosh Building rebuild ‘will increase interest in his legacy’’.
⮑ 🏗️ Paul Sweeney says Mackintosh restoration is 'too big' for art school.
⮑ 🎭 ‘The day Brad Pitt marvelled at Glasgow School of Art’.
⮑ 👀 “I was one of the first journalists allowed beyond the scaffolding”.
💰 Mecca Bingo has apologised after failing to pay some Glasgow staff. Whistleblowing staff members say they are “unhappy and anxious” about the delay, especially while earning the minimum wage. - Kirsty Feerick, Glasgow Times.
🎓 Gaza war surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah has been elected as the new rector of the University of Glasgow. He said: "I have a depth of gratitude which I need to pay back to a place that I feel helped shape my choices in life.” - Gabriel McKay, The Herald.
⛴️ The head of Port Glasgow shipyard Ferguson Marine, which is building two delayed and over-budget CalMac ferries, has been sacked. - BBC Scotland News.
🚛 Potholes at Polmadie Recycling Centre need to be fixed to avoid “further damage” to bin lorries, drivers say. - Catherine Hunter, Local Democracy Reporter, STV News.
🎤 A comedian was left disappointed after failing to sell a single ticket for her Glasgow International Comedy Festival show. Elaine Fellows from Brighton is due to perform this evening. She told Kirsty Feerick of the Glasgow Times:
“There’s definitely a temptation to only show the best bits of your life on social media. I did wonder if I’d just been a bit stupid to admit I hadn’t sold any tickets and that maybe it would make my show seem even less desirable to watch. But then so many fellow comics and friends shared it and sent me messages of encouragement that I felt really supported.”
🧁 A West End baker has said ‘it means the absolute world to me’ after crowds queued down the street to support her new business on its opening weekend. - Ava Whyte, Glasgow Times.
🎓 Glasgow law student Regan Eve has submitted her dissertation all about Taylor Swift’s fight to retain legal ownership of her own songs. Regan told The Glasgow Tab: “The lecturer had mentioned how great it would be if someone wrote their dissertation on Taylor’s re-recordings from a legal perspective and as a massive Swiftie I really ran with that idea.” - Read more here.
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🏊♀️ The Glasgow Club Gorbals swimming pool is going to close for three months for maintenance work starting on April 8. - Rebecca Newlands, Glasgow Times.
🏋️♂️ An 87-year-old Greenock pensioner, George Byng, has smashed a weightlifting world record. - Scott Burns and Lynn Love, Daily Record.
⚽️ A new Bovril beer, created as a love letter to cult-favourite BBC Scotland show A View From The Terrace, is now available to buy from Drygate Brewery. - Alexander Smail, Daily Record.
🎻 Glaswegian singer Eddi Reader has reunited with her original band, Fairground Attraction, to record new songs and book a tour of Japan. - BBC Scotland News.
⮑ Music fans behind a popular Facebook group dedicated to memories of The Apollo venue tell Morvern Mckinnon about how their page ‘just went bonkers’ when they opened it up for people to share their memories.
🏗️ ‘Remaking Glasgow: 12 key projects costing billions of pounds that will change the face of Glasgow’ - Liam Smillie, Glasgow World.
🗝️ Residents of Carmunnock, the last remaining village within the city's boundary, are inviting people to explore its intriguing past with a new trail opening on Friday. - Ginny Sanderson, The Herald.
🎨 Glasgow's cultural scene is ‘thriving’, says artist Fraser Taylor. - Barry Didcock, The Herald.
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