Emasculating a Leader

As I was searching for a picture on my computer the other day, I came across a couple of photos of some plum and frangipane tarts that I had made in 2011.  The photos looked great, and the tarts themselves tasted pretty damn good, but it is the story associated with these little golden treats that will be etched forever in my mind.

It is a story of generosity, followed by horror, ending in relief and kindness.  The hero is Iain Gray MSP.  And the villains are all the bad people in the world who can just sod right off.

Part 1 - Generosity

Iain Gray MSP was, at the time, Labour Leader in the Scottish Parliament and, despite his hugely demanding workload, was thoughtful enough to regularly bring in fruit from his garden for his colleagues.  Often I saw the email come round offering bags of fruit to a good home, but would be working in the constituency office, so couldn't take up the offer.  One day, however, I was working in the Parliament when the email popped up in my inbox from Iain's office informing us of a bumper crop of plums free to anyone who wanted them.

Later that afternoon I dropped by his office and filled a bag full of lovely sweet-sour plums. More than I could possibly eat myself. So I decided I would thank Iain for his generosity by making tasty plumy treats for the Labour group.

Part 2 - Horror

That evening I found a recipe for plum and frangipane tarts - a deliciously simple combination of almonds and fruit in a pastry case.  As I had so many plums, I made one large tart and a few mini tarts, which kept me baking until midnight.

The next day, I struggled up the road with delicate pastries in hand and, having arrived at Parliament 30
minutes later with the tarts still intact, sent round an email to my colleagues advising them that there were sweet goodies available on a first-come-first-served basis 'made with Iain Gray's very own plums.'

In retrospect, given the political environment that I was working in, I should definitely have put more thought into the wording of my email.  But who would have imagined such an innocent act of camaraderie could have ended so badly?!

The tarts went down a treat, and all was good with the world.  Until the next day.  Unbeknownst to me, my email had been forwarded to a major Scottish newspaper and had been included in their daily digest under the heading 'Leader Emasculated by Aide', noting that I had served Iain's plums up to his colleagues.  I was mortified!

Part 3 - Relief and Kindness

Luckily for me, Iain is a VERY nice man and, when I called up to apologise, he told me not to worry about it at all and said that he in fact thought it was very funny.

I'm glad he did, because I was very miserable about it all.  I had tried to do something nice...  Anyways, while I can laugh about it now, I haven't made anything with plums since, for fear of any further unforeseen consequences. And biting into a sweet, juicy plum has more connotations to me than it really should in polite company!