Defence firm gives £20k and expertise to support food banks
KIND-HEARTED staff at the UK’s biggest defence company are donating more than £20,000 to help food banks this winter.
BAE Systems – which has naval shipyards at Scotstoun as well as Govan – will give £20,400 to help fund local emergency food parcels and ensure that goods can be safely stored, sorted and distributed.
Over the past four years, BAE has donated more than £600,000 to food banks, which have seen increased demand from those needing support amid the cost of living crisis.
Many of the good causes that will benefit from the donation are run by the Trussell Trust and Emma Revie from the group couldn’t hide her delight.
She said: “Thank you to the team at BAE Systems for their incredible support.
“This winter is expected to be the toughest yet, with food banks in our network distributing more than one million parcels between December and February, which equates to one every eight seconds.”
Many of BAE Systems’s employees are also volunteering their time to support those in need in their communities, supported by the company’s special paid leave policy.
Colin Hay, a naval architecture engineer in
BAE Systems’s naval ships business, is volunteering at the Cash for Kids Mission Christmas warehouse in Glasgow, managing the distribution and delivery of thousands of gifts for children across the west of Scotland.
He said: “There are many families struggling and I’m glad to be able to give back to help support the most vulnerable in our community.
“Children’s charities are close to my heart as I’ve seen first-hand the joy they can bring in the most difficult of times.”
In 2022, BAE Systems contributed more than £11.5m to projects supporting its local communities, education and the armed forces through charitable sponsorships, donations, employee fundraising and volunteering.
THERE’S a good chance that if you watched Rangers or Celtic in Europe in the nineties or noughties, you have a fair idea of just who Archie Macpherson is.
Or perhaps, during your Hogmanay one year, ahead of the bells, sipping on a whisky, you came across a send-up of Archie by Jonathan Watson and co on the now sadly no longer with us Only An Excuse.
Even if you ever indulged in the famous Scottish film Trainspotting, you will have heard the voice of Archibald Macpherson.
Because the man from Shettleston is somewhat of a cultural icon.
Archie has worked for the BBC, STV, Eurosport, Setanta Sports, Radio Clyde and Talksport, covered three Olympic Games, six World Cups and was inducted into Scottish football’s Hall of Fame in 2017.
He fought with Aberdeen manager Fergie (below), tussled with Scotland gaffer Tommy Doc and battled Celtic legend Big Jock – relationships prepared for, no doubt, during his pre-broadcasting days as headteacher of Swinton School.
And, during his many visits to Clydebank covering the famous Bankies over the years, the well-travelled broadcaster remembers well the rise and fall of the club under the stewardship of the Steedmans in the seventies, eighties and nineties.
“Clydebank were adventurous,” explained Archie.
“And, they revived the interest in football in the area.
“It’s very difficult to establish a club and nudge its way into acceptance by people like me and the general public and the Steedmans I think did a great job there.”
PUSHING SCOTTISH SPORT AMONG some lesser-known credits in his four-decade-long Scottish football showreel is that
Archie can lay claim to being the man who brought sport, and specifically football, to the masses.
Long before shows such as Clyde 1 Superscoreboard, Open Goal or Sportscene, the media landscape when it came to sport in Scotland was a very different place.
It was the early seventies and sport was held with indifference and disdain, almost completely dismissed unless some football personality broke the law of the land.
That was until Archie entered the fray, pushing bosses of BBC Scotland’s new flagship news programme at the time, Reporting Scotland, to give sport a regular Friday evening sports bulletin and a weekend preview.
Today, we have a 24-hour rolling sports news channel.
But when questioned on whether this introduction – which would lead to wall-to-wall sports coverage – is responsible for fuelling the fire of Old Firm bitterness and perhaps heightening tensions, veteran Archie isn’t buying that one.
“It was always intense,” he says with an authoritative swagger.
“Shettleston was split, there were Rangers pubs and Celtic pubs – not that that is unique to Shettleston, you get that all over the place.