Bloody hell, what a pasting we took over that one!
We are referring to yesterday's Diary entry on The Glasgow Herald and Lady Claire's clarion call for the rate of Hospitality VAT to be reduced from the standard rate of 20% to 10% or below, something that, she maintains, would be good for the tourist industry. While we have no doubt that that is, in general, true, we did our own sums, nevertheless, and discovered that the real cause of a labouring tourist industry is not, necessarily, the 20% VAT rate at all but the sky-high charges of hoteliers in the first place. For example, Claire's place, Kinloch Lodge Hotel at Sleat, charges an extraordinary £440 per night of which the VAT is only £88, leaving Claire and Godfrey in pocket to the tune of £352! It is known as the Scottish Highlands Hotelier Syndrome. It is also the reason why we never, ever stay with a Highlands hotelier or contribute a solitary penny to his finances.
Anyway, sorry about that slight diversion. What we really took the pasting for was that we missed the whole point of the article ie what this meeting with the Herald writer was about was the publication of Claire's forthcoming autobiography titled "Lifting the Pot" or something like that. Claire, apparently, is a good cook.
We had no idea Claire was an author as well as an hotelier and good cook so guilty, m'lud, as charged. In mitigation, we require to say that we are not very bright, have a short attention span and, obviously, did not read the article to its conclusion. We shall try and pay more attention the next time we see an article of importance in The Glasgow Herald.
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