The rise and fall of the Red Road flats

Flat pack

Some facts about Glasgow’s Red Road Flats, built in 1968, which are to be demolished as part of the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games.
— The original plans were for four-storey maisonettes rather than tower blocks.
— At 31 storeys and 292 feet, the first blocks were the highest residential buildings in Europe when opened.
— The flats were clad in asbestos, which was later covered up.
— In 1980, two of the blocks were declared unfit for habitation by families, and
were let to students and the YMCA. Asylum-seekers followed from the 1990s
onwards.

Qualified advice

The House of Commons select committee on science and technology said that BBC producers should need special permission before ‘interviewing non-experts on controversial scientific topics such as climate change’. How expert in scientific matters is the committee?
— Andrew Miller (chairman): former lab technician at Portsmouth Poly turned union official
— Jim Dowd: former telecoms engineer
— David Heath: degree in physiological sciences followed by career as an optician
— Stephen Metcalfe: runs family printing business
— David Morris: former hairdresser
— Stephen Mosley: chemistry degree from Nottingham University; career as IT consultant
— Pamela Nash: degree in politics from Glasgow University
— Sarah Newton: history degree from King’s College London, followed by career in marketing
— David Tredinnick: MBA from University of Cape Town followed by career as stockbroker and word processor salesman
— Hywel Williams: degree in psychology followed by career in social work
— Graham Stringer: degree in chemistry from Sheffield University followed by career as analytical chemist. The only member to dissent from the committee’s decision to clear the scientists involved in the Climategate scandal of 2009

Clearing the air

Britain was affected by smog. What are the most polluted cities on Earth, as measured in the mean concentrations of PM10 soot particles in the air?

Source: WHO