THE ASSEMBLED troops at what’s become known as Big Currie’s pairty at Islay Show, were a bit perplexed that this year the big yin had really splashed out, for right behind his plant hire company stand was a bright yellow helicopter in much the same livery as his lorries!

On closer inspection, The Raider learnt, though, that things are not going that well for the Currie team that they can afford to buy a whirlybird for their regular off-island adventures. The helicopter was, in fact, part of a fund raising effort for the Scottish Charity Air Ambulance – and a fine way for you to spend any charitable donations that you might have.

Just one final thought: If you had ever met the big yin on the yumps between Port Ellen and Bowmore, then you’d be terrified of him and his chopper – should he ever get a real one!

BBC and balance

After a day of farmer bashing by the BBC – and its now customary poor, imbalanced reporting – a wee glimpse at one point was a better way to end the day for farmers.

The Raider is delighted that Aunty Beeb’s shoddy reporting of the IPCC climate change report only made it to number 10 on its ‘most read’ list of stories on that day – while at number nine was a story concerning something called ‘vagina steaming’. We kid you not.

If you want to be further cheered, it’s worth going to the BBC website, clicking on the climate change story and scrolling through the 2600 comments. It would appear that the public have not all been fooled by the rhetoric from what seems to be a daily stream of anti-farming bias on screen and wireless.