I met Karin McQuade last week. She’s a mother of two and an apprentice sheet metal worker. One time she collected glasses at one of the Glasgow’s Wetherspoon’s pubs. Then there’s Lauren Reid. She went to the Cardonald College school of art, then to a Heriot Watt finishing course. But now she’s an apprentice sheet metal worker as well. They are both part of the workforce at the BAE Systems shipyard in Scotstoun. Lauren told me that her uncle worked in the yards and was always going on about it. “So I just thought I’m going to fill in a form,” she said. Well done Lauren and Karin. Well done BAE.

I met them in the Scotstoun yard - Yarrows in old money - as the first stop of a tour there which was followed by a trip to the Govan yard on the other side of the Clyde. From the outside it is truly impossible to imagine the scale of the work done inside those walls.

I had a uncle who worked in the yards who used to regale me with stories - just like Lauren’s uncle. But he’d talk about slingers hurling red hot rivets from the fires below up to the scaffolds around the ship being built. And catchers who caught the flaming rivets and held them in place for the riveter to batter them home with a ten pound hammer. The Visualisation Suites at Scotstoun are as far away as it is possible to be from those days. In theVisualisation Suite we were taken on a computer driven magical tour of one of the patrol boats currently being built on the Clyde. We visited the galleys, the engine rooms, the rest rooms and the cafeteria’s, you name it - all in 3D. The complete digital design of the entire ship.

It was like Star Wars in there. In glorious technicolour and 3D, it is now possible to deliver the complete digital prototype of the design of any ship waiting to be built in the Clyde yards. And yes that is down to the most minute detail of the build - like the positions of the fire hoses on the walls or the number of screws in the door handles.

It was so authentic that I felt like asking one of the technicians for sea-sick pills. This is ship design travelling beyond the future of the digital future - the best technology for shipbuilding anywhere in the world. And it’s on the Clyde. Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary who calls the shots on the next orders coming to the Clyde should see it.

But the story of the Clyde yards isn’t just about today’s cutting edge technology. It’s about a highly-skilled workforce poised to deliver, as fit and ready as they will ever be for more work. Work that needs to start now. It’s about Glasgow being the best place to build ships in Britain. But it’s also about the proud history of shipbuilding on the Clyde, which once made Glasgow the Second City of the British Empire. It’s about that glorious past. And it’s also about guaranteeing the future. Over to you Mr Fallon. What more do you want?

I’ve been out and about in the last week on what we’ve called the Environmental Task Force Roadshow. I visit local libraries - advertised in advance - and local community council members, tenants association folk or members of the public can come and have a natter about making Glasgow better. I must say overall the reaction to the Task Force and its rapid response clean ups has been really positive. I’m delighted we are making a difference.

Mind you those who come don’t just talk about the Task Force. In the Gorbals longtime community activist Linda Muirhead you would not take a broken pay packet home to Linda by the way - did some straight talking about the parking problems local residents have.

Put simply literally hundreds of people working in the city centre park up in residents parking bays in the Gorbals and then walk to work, before returning at night to their car, and then driving home. The locals struggle to get parked as a result of this grand-scale selfishness. One of my staff saw a gentleman changing out of his trainers in the street. “Excuse me sir, can I ask you if you live here.” The reply made the case for the Gorbals folk “No, I’m a lawyer, I work at the Sheriff Court.” I’ve made a note to get something done so we can work with the community to get a solution to the problem.

The Roadshow goes to the libraries at Hillhead, Knightswood, Patrick and Maryhill this week.