Meal Deals.

Mr Smith thinks it would have been cheaper to head down to KFC.

"ALEX Salmond spent nearly £10,000 on formal dinners in the first half of this year, hiring some of his favourite caterers in the process, it emerged yesterday. A parliamentary reply showed that the First Minister held six dinners at Bute House, his official residence, between 1 January and 1 July.Centotre restaurant in Edinburgh, which Mr Salmond has been known to frequent in the past, catered once, at a cost of £1,603. ady Claire Macdonald did the catering for a dinner following the Royal Garden Party for £3,272, and Valvona and Crolla, the Italian specialists, charged £2,010 for a dinner for US congressional representatives."

It's good to see that in these times of economic austerity our elected representatives are up for setting a lead.

Finger lickin' good.

CB-I.

As spotted by Drumlanrig, "The CBI has complained much about the sub-standard level of education in the country. Spelling is poor, for example. But in the programme for its annual dinner in Glasgow last week, the confederation referred to an 'acheivement'. Altogether now, 'i' before 'e' except after…"

They were obviously too busy basking in the glory of Gordon Brown's speech to their annual dinner to spell check.

Guess who's coming to dinner.

Mr Smith reads of the first guests to be invited by Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond to join him for dinner at his Official Residence of Bute House in Edinburgh.

"First Minister Alex Salmond was accused of misusing public funds after it emerged that several wealthy SNP donors were entertained at his official residence at taxpayers' expense. The dinner, which was held at Bute House in Edinburgh, was held to honour Sir Sean Connery, who has donated thousands of pounds to the party over the years. Sir Sean attended the event on June 29 with his wife, as did the bus tycoon Brian Souter and the Kwik-Fit entrepreneur Sir Tom Farmer - the SNP's top two donors. Sir George Mathewson, who has given financial backing to the SNP and is chairman of the Scottish Government's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), also attended with his wife, as did Crawford Beveridge, the former chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, member of the CEA and Nationalist donor."

It does seem rather unlikely that so many SNP supporters all ended up having dinner with Mr Salmond at the same time purely by chance, but Mr Smith has no doubt that as time goes on more of Scotland's great and the good will be invited along to Bute House. Who knows Mr Smith may even get an invite in the inbox, but it does seem rather churlish of Labour MSPs to be moaning about an expenditure of £1,500 for a dinner for some of Scotland's top citizens especially given that the former Labour First Minister Jack McConnell hosted a lot of dinners at Bute House during his time, with many of the guests self proclaimed Labour supporters.