Burns' Supper, January 2024

We were delighted to join again with the Honorable Company of Master Mariners, the Company of HR Professionals, the Distillers’ Company and, for the first time, the Painter Stainers’ Company to hold our annual Burns' Supper on 21 January at Vintners' Hall.

The evening combined all the traditional elements of a Burns Supper (The Selkirk Grace, the piping in of the haggis, the address to the haggis, the Immortal Memory and the Toast to the Lassies) and being very modern, as well as ancient, the Lassies respond to the Laddies Toast. 

This year the Master Scrivener proposed the Toast to the Lassies by asking Chat GPT to consider the difference between men and women. The AI tool advised the Master to be cautious and suggested that men and women are different when it comes to conversation style, problem solving, attention to detail, expressing emotion, fashion and handling stress. The Master's Consort gave Chat GPT a mixed review and reminded the gathering that in French the gender assigned to the word intelligence is feminine. 

The haggis was addressed in Scots by Karen, the Clerk to the Human Resources Professionals, and in English by (her husband) James, the Clerk to the Distillers, who also arranged for us to have a dram of 'Timorous Beastie' whisky.

Lots of people, Scots and otherwise, made an effort to dress in tartan (one Master sporting a pair of trews in the Lord Mayor's tartan) and the whole event was a time of great friendship between the four Livery Companies involved. The full set of photos will be posted in the members area when we receive them.