WHEN invited to dinner with the Prime Minister, even political opponents might normally be expected to be on their best behaviour.
But one of the guests at Wednesday night's soiree at Gordon Brown's constituency home spent half the evening playing with his Blackberry mobile phone under the table.
Green party co-convener Patrick Harvie even sent "tweets" – electronic messag
es – to his Twitter site giving on-line updates of what was happening throughout the meal.
"Hell, they're talking about football" he wrote at about 7:10pm.
"Discussion over the main course got to the substance," he added some 50 minutes later.
"Not surprised that I'm the only one heading home by train instead of limo!" he observed as the party drew to a close about 9:30pm.
Mr Harvie told The Scotsman he "switched off" as soon as the game was mentioned.
But other guests found common cause in their disgust over Barry Ferguson and his Rangers team mate Allan McGregor, who enraged club and country by showing a V-sign at a Scotland game after being dropped over a drinking session.
Apparently the more contentious issue of a GB football team in the London 2012 Olympics was avoided.
Mr Harvie's fellow guest, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott, who sat next to the Green leader, said he thought that Mr Brown had been a "most forbearing host".
"He was remarkably relaxed about Mr Harvie playing with his Blackberry," he said. "I thought that it showed very poor manners and a detachment from the rest of the guests."
Mr Harvie partly excused his actions by pointing out that he finds talk of football incredibly tedious, although Mr Scott pointed out that he "tweeted" throughout the evening.
The Labour contingent, including Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy and Holyrood leader Iain Gray, were relaxed about the social faux pas.
"All Greens love birds, so no surprise he was tweeting," a spokesman for Mr Murphy said.
When he joined the conversation, Mr Harvie is said to have impressed the Prime Minister with "his passion and analysis" of green economic measures.
Mr Harvie, who has promised to reveal even more about the evening on his blog, said: "I was delighted to see that I had impressed the Prime Minister so much, let's hope that he may now do more in bringing forward a green stimulus package. Neither he nor Mr Salmond have done nearly enough on that."
Both he and Mr Scott agreed the food was excellent.
"I was glad that we got a good helping of vegetables," said Mr Harvie. "Too often you only get a sliver of carrot and a potato with your lump of meat."
Mr Scott added: "It was good solid Scottish food. Salmon and lamb, very well done and tasty."
He was struggling with jet lag after arriving from America in the morning and going straight to the memorial service in Aberdeen for the men who died in the North Sea helicopter tragedy before being whisked off to the dinner in North Queensferry.
As a father shortly expecting his fourth child, Mr Scott was impressed by the family-friendly atmosphere of the house, often home to the Browns' own children, John and James.
"I could tell it was a house set up for small children," he said. "Things that might be dangerous for wandering little hands were out of the way.
"And when I went to the toilet I noticed it was dominated by a big picture that had clearly been painted by a toddler."
It added to the welcoming atmosphere for all the guests, who also included STUC Secretary Grahame Smith and CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan.
However, contrary to expectation there were no ladies present.
Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister's wife, welcomed and said goodbye to the guests but did not join them to eat.
And Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Conservative leader, was unable to attend because she had a stomach bug. Her place was taken by a senior Downing Street civil servant.
While the sight of two armed police outside the Browns' russet coloured house on top of a hill commanding views of the Firth of Forth was foreboding, the overriding mood of the evening was one friendliness.
"There was a point when the three Labour politicians tried to gang up on the rest of us over nuclear power, but it was all in good humour," said Mr Scott.
He praised Mr Brown for the initiative and said it was one that should happen more often.
COMMENT: A black mark for such antisocial BlackBerry useIF YOU are the guest at a sit-down dinner with anybody, let alone the Prime Minister, it really is a bit lairy of somebody to spend the evening gazing at their BlackBerry.
But this seems to be something that is encroaching more and more into social occasions and it is a development that is very antisocial and should not be encouraged.
I was recently at the opera sitting next to a young woman who spent her whole time gazing into one of these machines and I wondered: "Why are you here?"
Somebody had probably paid a lot of money for that ticket for her and I wondered why she had not simply turned it down rather than waste the evening.
It really is the worst sort of behaviour, because essentially you are saying to the people around you that you do not care for them and are not interested in them.
You are in effect saying that the people at the other end of the BlackBerry conversation or the web page you are looking at is far more interesting and important.
I'm afraid to say it shows a severe lack of emotional intelligence on the part of both that young woman in the opera and this leader of the Scottish Greens.
If you think back to the 1950s and a sit-down dinner – if somebody spent most of their time reading a book it would be seen as the height of bad manners, and mobile phones and BlackBerrys are just the modern equivalent of this.
It is particularly rude to the other guests sitting next to you, because you are saying to them that they are not worth conversing with.
The trouble is that you can do almost anything you want with them these days, they are no longer just for making telephone calls. In effect people can cut themselves off from the world around them with these things.
In theatres it is particularly annoying because people have them on in the dark and you can see the glow reflecting back on their faces.
It is almost as bad as mobile phones ringing in the middle of performances.
These devices are all very well for Dollywood or when you are stuck in lift like Stephen Fry was, then you can Twitter all you like whilst you are alone, but they have no place at social occasions.
Also, if Patrick Harvie was very young you might not be as surprised, but you would think that somebody in their mid-30s who has got to the top of his political party might know a bit better.
• Peter York is a social etiquette guru.
