Market not worth saving

Published on Monday 15 September 2008 21:12

Please excuse me for refusing to join the chorus of hand-wringing over the demise of Glasgow's Paddy's Market. Even without the links to crime, it's a dirty, dusty disgrace.

Everytime I've visited either it or the Barras – that other so-called "Glesga Treasure" – my asthma has been left in near shock that anyone could inflict such conditions upon their lungs, as well as scratching myself all the way home for a long shower.

We shall hear plenty of bilge over the coming months about the historical and cultural significant of these Dickensian fleapits from effete romanticists and that peculiar brand of Toytown socialist which fetishises anything that can be labelled "working class". Let's be clear about this: any shop in similar conditions would find the same characters howling for their demolition under health and safety regulations. But then most of their defenders wouldn't be found dead within a mile radius of either.

MARK BOYLE

Linn Park Gardens

Johnstone, Renfrewshire