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The Spectator
Thursday
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Spectator letters: Remembering Clarissa Tan; and Hugo Rifkind replies to Matt Ridley
In loving memory Sir: When Clarissa Tan covered last year’s Good Funeral Awards, it quickly became apparent that she was a woman facing her greatest fears with a gentle and courageous spirit. She left an enduring impression on all who met her. In her subsequent article for this magazine (‘The ideal death show’, 14 September 2013) she wrote of the hope she derived from her belief in God: ‘It is the hope not that I will live. It is the hope that I am loved.’ You were, Clarissa, and you are.
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.