Poetry in motion as delegates hear of hunter gatherers

First Minister Alex Salmond charged on to the stage and launched into the extra flamboyant, poetic language he reserves for the renewables industry.

“It’s a turning point like the discovery of a new world,” he said, waxing lyrical about his pet subject.

“Or the change from hunter gathering to agriculture.”

It represents a “great leap forward for mankind” and a “paradigm shift”, he trumpeted.

However, then one of the country’s other powerful men took to the stage.

Known to be a great supporter of Salmond, Scottish & Southern Energy boss Ian Marchant, was not so keen on poetry.

Lounging on stage with top button of his tieless suit undone, Mr Marchant swept his long hair out of his eyes as he launched into his own views on the subject.

He blamed “poetry” for the European community setting the “wrong date” for their 2020 targets for renewable energy.

“I have this nagging doubt that we have latched on to the wrong year because it makes rhetorical sense,” he said.

“Do we have this 20 per cent of renewable energy by 2020 target just because it makes poetry?”

Instead he kept his views brief and to the point. “Dominance” is what it was all about.

“Dominance is the minimum we should be aiming for,” he asserted.

Lady Susan Rice, managing director of Lloyds Banking Group, looked puzzled and more than a little alarmed as she wondered how much more there could actually be than dominance.

Meanwhile, outside protesters from Friends of the Earth Scotland were busy making their own kind of poetry as they performed a protest against Royal Bank of Scotland’s sponsorship of the conference.

Dressed in oil-covered suits they sang a version of Jessie J’s Price Tag changing the lyrics to tell the story of RBS’s “oily investments”.