For a week devoted to putting Edinburgh under the microscope, one of the stand-out stories in The Herald this week was Glasgow’s decision to change its policy on high buildings.

Think Red Road flats and Glasgow has long seen height as a solution, which in a city where land supply is less of an issue than Edinburgh, might seem unnecessary. Hasn’t Charing Cross suffered enough without a 36-storey sky-scraping block of student flats? Then again, it’s hard to think of something which can make the west end of Sauchiehall Street worse.

The despoilation of much of Victorian Glasgow in the 1960s illustrates how badly things can go if there is no restraint or respect for the past, and Edinburgh citizens should be forever grateful a halt was called before the Abercrombie plan to turn Princes Street into a two-deck super highway lined with brutal Stalinist blocks was executed. Potterrow and Bristo Square was just the beginning.

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But at least Glasgow can summon a can-do attitude when necessary, and the India Street student skyscraper can’t be as bad as the grim post-war government offices it will replace. Since Edinburgh University got away with the Appleton Tower in the 1960s, overlooking Bristo Square and the only half-wrecked George Square, tall buildings in........

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