‘Too soon’ for inquiry
CALLS for a public inquiry into the fire that gutted Glasgow’s world-renowned School of Art have been rejected as premature.
Both UK Scottish Secretary David Mundell and Scotland’s Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said fire service investigations into the cause of the blaze should be allowed to progress before any other decision is taken. Around 50 firefighters were still at the scene of the blaze yesterday, which broke out on Friday night. TWO England fans have arrived in Volgograd after a gruelling cycle of more than 2,400 miles from the UK to the World Cup in Russia.
Jamie Marriott and Mitchell Jones set off from Emsworth, in Hampshire, on May 25 and pedalled through France, Germany, Poland and Ukraine to reach the southern Russian city yesterday – just in time to see the Three Lions play their tournament opener against Tunisia tonight.
The pair, who have previously cycled the length of the UK from Land’s End to John O’Groats, have raised more than £2,000 for the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research in memory of Mr Jones’s youth football coach, Brian Randall.
The original plan had been to cycle from Wembley just after the FA Cup final on May 19, but they decided to go from the village Mr Marriott grew up in instead.
Mr Marriott, 28, who lives and teaches English in Berlin, said: “We’ve been going 24 days, 2,400 miles through eight different countries and we’ve finally made it to Volgograd Arena. There was nothing out of the ordinary – we had quite a few punctures, some bad weather and not enough tubes to replace the punctures. The plan now is to ditch the bikes and have a few beers.”