Torcuil Crichton

I do, and I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. I will detail and explore some of those options later in my speech. She is right: it is shameful that we have this shrouded ghost on Garnethill casting a shadow over the city. To summarise, the fire that brought down the Mackintosh building broke out in 2014, as art students were finalising their end-of-year degree show. That fire was devastating and heartrending—I was in a meeting of another cultural board as the news broke, and people cried in that meeting as the smoke rose above Garnethill. Around 70% of the building was saved, although the library and the famous hen run—that glazed passageway so beloved by generations of art students—were lost. Despite that blow, the Glasgow School of Art and its patrons across the globe rose to the occasion and committed themselves to the faithful restoration of the building. That was painstaking and specialised work, but it was moving on apace when a second and much more devastating fire swept through the building in 2018, engulfing not just the Mackintosh building but the neighbouring ABC music venue on Sauchiehall Street. The 2018 blaze was so fierce and all-consuming that its cause may never be known, but its consequences certainly are. Glaswegians are reminded of the destruction every single day, as the charred husk of the Mack building stoops withered and crippled on the city’s skyline. I was up there on Friday, between events at the Royal National Mòd in Glasgow—I congratulate the organisers and the city for hosting a brilliant week in the city of the Gaels. The contrast between the vibrant, youthful buzz of the revived and living culture that the Mòd represents and the tragic shadow hanging over the Mack could not have been stronger.