Burns night & Feegles

I spent a most enjoyable evening at the Glasgow dinner for Scottish Spina Bifida last night.Somewhere in the region of £60,000 was raised, an excellent top table of speakers, and good friends abounded. Our table remained silent whilst the speeches were made, unlike some who continued to chatter. I put it down to basic BB-type ignorance.
One of the speakers cracked two jokes which I liked - they are almost certainly old.
The first was " Where would we be without laughter?" And the answer? " Edinburgh" Brought the house down in Glasgow as you can imagine.
The second was sexist and Aberdononist, so those of a nervous disposition look away now.
A young Aberdonian tells his Glasgow friend he is getting married in the highlands, and he is going to wear the kilt.
" What's the Tartan?" asks the Weegie.
" I thunk she's wearin' a wee bitty white dress,ken".
Just so you know, "ken" is not his name, but the Scots vernacular for " you know".
What struck me during the evening was that people still laugh at stereotypes, however much we say we are or have to be Politically Correct. There were at least half a dozen homophobic references, innumerable sexist, and a surprising number of sectarian. But they were all taken in good part, pace a complaint to the race relations board today.
And surely - to a degree - that is how it should be. We are all prejudiced about all sorts of things, and to deny it is to deny our very essence. I have a hobbyhorse which is that it's the quirk that makes the genius, and it's the prejudice that makes us behave as we do in all sorts of situations.
I'm presently reading one of Terry Pratchett's books about the Feegles. They are small blue creatures in kilts who inhabit Discworld. Pratchett maintains they are not Scots, but I defy you to tell the difference. They fight, drink, steal, lie, are ineffably not PC and are generally not too bright. One of the great lines is " Feegles can get oot of onywhere - except pubs of course."
But the point about them is they are utterly lovely. They are caring, family orientated, hard working creatures, with whom it is impossible to stay angry for any length of time.
Just like we really are.