Warships on the Clyde, sweet soup and Reform storm?

Happy Monday everyone. It’s possibly our favourite month here at Bell HQ, with the nights the shortest they’ll be and the sun as high as it gets. Not that you’d know it, as June’s off to a soggy start. No need to despair — we’ve got a great week of data, theatre drama, and a fifty year old murder case coming up. 

Warm weather aside, May was a great month for us. There are now over 700 of you paying to get the full Bell (and whistles?) experience. We can’t thank you enough for your support.

If you want to be at the centre of The Bell’s output, you’ve still got time to apply to be our editor! Read more about the role and come join Robbie and Calum, filling Moya’s large boots.

Glasgow in brief

💣 Keir Starmer went nuclear in a speech in Glasgow today, outlining the Government’s Strategic Defence Review. The PM was speaking in BAE System’s Janet Harvey Hall in front of HMS Belfast, one of eight Type 26 Frigate warships being built in Govan. Surrounded by workers in overalls and hard hats, Starmer set out £15 billion of investment in the UK’s warhead programme. Expect a chunk of that to be spent here as part of a “defence dividend” which, according to the Scottish Sun, will include a commitment to secure shipbuilding on the Clyde for “generations to come”. In markedly more aggressive language, Starmer spoke of an army that will be “ten times more lethal” than present, and reaffirmed Glasgow’s central role in ramping up the UK’s defence readiness. (The Bell has already noted that the only reliable investment on Clydeside these days is in the form of killer warships.)

🗳️ Staying with politics, a Holyrood by-election is taking place in Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse constituency on Thursday.  Reform UK are surging south of the border — will they also test the theory that Scotland is immune to rightward lurches? Much has been made in the press about their chances in this former mining heartland, but the bookies have Katie Loudon of the SNP as the heavy favourite to beat Reform’s Ross Lambie. But if Lambie does manage to achieve the right wing party’s first seat in the Scottish Parliament, it could forecast a Reform storm for next year’s Holyrood election. 

🛥️ After a century of service, the Renfrew Ferry has finally sailed its final crossing. The opening of the Renfrew Bridge last month sounded a death knell for the Clyde’s last remaining urban ferry. Samuel Reilly chronicled its last gasps in these pages just over half a year ago, where he encountered the skipper’s wariness to speculate on the aluminium boat’s future. “There’s a caginess here, which I can only put down to the worry that this last vestige of transportation on the Clyde — rather than over, or under it — is destined eventually to go the way of all those before it,” wrote Reilly.

Stories you might have missed

🔫 Flare-ups of Glasgow’s gangland feuds continue as Eddie Lyons Jnr and Ross Monaghan are gunned down outside a bar in Spain.

🎞️ Three Glasgow Film Theatre board members have resigned after it voted not to endorse the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

🐑 “Five lamb heads” along with other bags of meat have apparently been found in Maxwell Park.

As ever, if you know of any stories you think we should be looking into, get in touch.

Read/listen/watch: Glasgow has already become Britain’s Detroit, the question is: can it survive?

Anyone familiar with Niall Murphy’s social media will be used to his boosterish takes on the city’s built heritage. But in the Herald over the weekend, the Glasgow City Heritage Trust director was in a less buoyish mood. “Technically, Glasgow is kind of the Detroit of the UK in terms of deindustrialisation and the buildings at risk. But our city centre isn’t like Detroit. I really hope we can avoid that. We’ll see.”

We also rec: 

• 🎧 The Daniels and the Lyons — BBC’s Gangster series on Glasgow’s most infamous gang feud
• 🦅 Taking a trip to the University of Glasgow’s Gilbert Scott building to check out their new peregrine falcon chicks

Catch up and coming up

• Tomorrow, Calum’s grappling with the big question of whether our city’s buildings really catch fire with unusual regularity, by putting some actual data together. Expect great maps and (unendorsed) conspiracy theories.
• Archie Willis’ piece on the professionalisation of Scotland’s oldest football club, and the departure of its backer Lord Haughey. 
• The Humble Yum™ comments section continues to pop off from Calum’s writers edition. Govanhill is described as “excellent” for affordable eating, and we’d tend to agree. One spot got two mentions: Allison Street’s Sheerin Palace. 
• Later in the week, we’re exploring the future of Govan’s Lyceum Theatre, which has been closed for over a decade. We’ll be asking if the man behind its proposed regeneration is trying to save it — as he contends — or ruin it. 
• This Saturday, we have the story of a Jamaican man murdered in Woodlands in 1975, by a man with links to the national front. 
• Reminder: The Bell is hiring an editor to beef up our reporting. Only one week left to apply. More details here.

Unconstructive critique – Hong Kong Market, The Barras, 244 Gallowgate

This weekend saw the third annual Hong Kong street market at the Barras, where dozens of Cantonese sellers of trinkets, cookers of food, and performers of traditional opera brought their culture to the East End. The vibe was immaculate, in spite of the weather, as punters were piped in by two Cantonese bagpipers contending with the rain. Swerving the 45 minute noodle queues, I opted for Tong shui, a type of dessert soup served after dinner. In this case, it was a bowl of delicious coconut milk, purple sweet potato, and sago (a starch made from the pith of palm stems) — a satisfying bowl of soupy dessert with some fun textures to contend with. I sourced it from the Glasgow HK Food stall, run by two very smiley ladies who cooked everything fresh that morning. Unfortunately, they’re otherwise busy with their wholesale bakery business, so it seems I’ll have to wait until next year’s market for another taste.—Calum.

Glasgow calendar: Grateful Gallery presents Friends 

Fans of Pandah and Ciarán Glöbel will be eagerly anticipating the opening of their new gallery on Hill Street. This Friday from 11am, their inaugural exhibition, Friends, kickstarts the party. 

Other dates for your diary:

📷 Exhibition at Glasgow Heritage Trust. “Lens On Legacy”
Every Wednesday to Friday, June to August.

🔥 Professor Gordon Gibb is giving a talk tonight on his insights of the second art school fire
Tonight, 7pm, Kelvinside Hillhead Parish Church

🏢 Architecture Fringe Glasgow events
Various venues throughout June