The spirit of Glasgow – daring, fearless, generous

This week saw the city of Glasgow at its best. Home to 2.3 million people, the city of Glasgow, is known to the world for its shipbuilding, its football and the friendliness of its people and its dialect – Glaswegian. And now it is known to the world for its daring – in metal and in flesh, as well as its fearlessness and its generosity.

HMS Daring, weighing in at 7,350 tonnes, with 14 decks and bristling with all the latest military technology, thundered down the slipway this week. Sophie, the Countess of Wessex launched her, with Defence Secretary, John Reid, looking on.

The ship is the first of the six Type 45 destroyers which will cost the RN a staggering 6 billion pounds. It was built in the shipyard in Scotstoun, and was covered in red, white and blue confetti – an icon of the spirit of Glasgow.

After a display of fearlessness in tackling one of the bombers at Glasgow Airport in the recent attack, baggage handler John Smeaton announced yesterday that he was sending donations given to him to charity. Outlining the spirit of his city, he said that anyone coming here to do their mischief could expect locals to ‘set about yer’! Any Glaswegian would have done the same.

The Erskine charity for veterans received more than two thousand pounds from John Smeaton. The charity’s chief executive, Col. Martin Gibson, said that John’s courage reflected the courage shown by members of our armed forces, as well as the veterans who defended our island home in two world wars.
Robert L. Fielding