Scottish Roundup

As I start writing this we are just recovering from having two consecutive days of rain here in Adelaide. A very unusual occurrence in our current drought affected climate. The rain dancers have clearly done their job and the farmers are hoping to sew a crop. My kids were moaning and groaning about not being able to go outside to play and were incredulous about my stories of my early years in the land of the wind and rain. Sunday started off with bucketing rain, some cloud, brilliant sunshine, some overcast… and so it went on. You get the story. Anyway it put me in the mood to craft another high quality Scottish Roundup. Thank you for your indulgence as I take at a look at some of the stuff that caught my eye this week. Oh and thanks Duncan for your suggestions.

Richard Havers joins in with the majority of the population of England and Wales and sticking the knife in to Gordon. Nae Balls would seem to be the theme. (Perhaps he should get rid of Mr Balls instead?) Angus Nicholson highlights the benefit of burying bad stories. Perhaps Gordon could change the law? Casillis tries his hand at political advertising. Don’t look yet Gordon, things are still looking pretty bad (remember John Major?). Doctor Vee on the other hand has just had it with politicians in general.

Meanwhile back in Scotland, the Anything Except Independence Committee is launched. Callum Cashley disects the great and the good who will ponder what extra powers to give to our friends in the Scottish Parliament. Based on recent polling it seems that Scots are happy to have a bet each way. Perhaps they are concerned about the declining oil supplies in the backyard. Councillor Andrew Barns Really Bad Blog (what a great name for a blog) examines the different agendas and responses to the poll. Speaking of empty strategies, Groanin Jock finds a way to boost Scotlands technology industry based on experience in the US. More empty promises? Adam Smith Was A Socialist throws in his 10p worth. Holyrood Watcher weighs in with more, although he seems more concerned about the demise of another Scottish business, sold off to global crap beer specialists based in Holland. Speaking of crap beers, more Tartan Special anyone? I used to love the smell of that brewery as I walked to the rugby at Murrayfield. Sick I know, but Just don’t get caught sniffing in public. Your political career will sink faster than El Gordos.

Speaking of more democracy, Kezia Dugdale pitches in to the How come China is not playing fair after we gave them the Olympics line.

However, with little more than three months to go before the Beijing Olympics, few substantial reforms have been introduced that will have a significant, positive impact on human rights in China. Recent measures from the authorities to detain, prosecute and imprison those who raise human rights concerns suggest that things are just getting worse – the promised, positive ‘Olympics effect’ hasn’t materialised.

And it won’t I doubt. The best that can be hoped for is for a blow torch to be shone on the real China during the countdown to the games. Mr Eugenides runs the numbers. As expected hypocrisy rating very high.

Onto other more uplifting things, Callum Carr continues to document the appalling service from the NHS that Mrs Carr is receiving. Let’s hope he plays Grand Theft Auto rather than taking matters into his own hands. Having had my fair share of wacky medical advice, better to take it out in computer games and virtual blog world therapy.

As a Scottish Cricket Fan living in the land of cricket tragics, it was good to read that there is at least one other Scottish Cricket fan. Allmax describes his love affair with cricket and digs up this amazing fact from the time that Freuchie were UK Village Cricket Champions in 1985.

Also emerging in the wash during that time was the quite extraordinary, but apparently true, statistic that more Scots, as a proportion of the population, played organised cricket during the summer than did the English.

Based on my own experience, cricket teas were very good and hanging out on a summers afternoon, even if it was raining was better than doing housework.

Ideas of Civilisation tackles James Bond and class warfare. My own kids example suggests that that smaller the class size the better. My other connection with James Bond and education was that Sean Connery was a nude model when my dad was at Edinburgh Art College. Scotland strikes me as a cold place for that career path. No doubt that is why he moved on to bigger and better things.

Silver Sprite tackles twitter. I am rather surprised that there is a blog post of things to say about twitter. My wife thinks it is the most moronic thing and looks at me in a suspicious way whenever I am on the computer. Blogging she can tolerate, but for Twitter “What is the point????” I generally have no good answer. Twerpy Twerpy Tweet Tweet.

And in a bid to become famous, Clairwill will be appearing live on her neighbourhood CCTV. Fame at last. And talking of crime fighting measures, Bishop Hill reckons some of our European Friends should be sent to jail immediately. Auld Reekie Rants confirms that being there might not be a sufficient punishment.

And in the if you have nothing better to do department, Grant analyses the new film, Iron Man. I wonder if there is an Irn Bru angle?

And now back to the important business of politics, Tom Paine, writing in the last ditch is often one to skewer the Scots, especially Gordon and the boys. Seems all it takes is a new Maserati and some good Scottish weather to mellow his ways.

On the other hand, honorary Scot for the day, Sally in Norfolk is doing it the hard way. Not quite as luxurious as Tom’s path, but more what I remember of touring Scotland. My trip to the top of Ben Nevis was classic Scottish hillwalking. Glorious sun and warm weather at the bottom and howling wind and snow at the top. And that was May.

And that is about it from sunny and Tartan Special Free Adelaide. Until the next time. May all your beers be good.

Hi folks! Just when you think things are settling down and getting quieter, up pops something that throws everything into confusion. The good workers of Grangemouth Oil Refinery have done exactly that, and are now out on the picket line, as the unions and the employers, Ineos, place their naughty bits on the table and argue about whose are the biggest. Let’s face it, that’s what this is really about.

Anyway, despite the possibility that news of the strike could induce mass hysteria in Scotland and send motorists to the petrol pumps to fill their tank at grossly inflated prices, bloggers put their own private panic to one side briefly to take to their keyboards, and came up with some good stuff.

Richard Leyton isn’t overly affected by the strike but looks at what the workers are striking for and wonders if it’s worth it. Caron, meanwhile, looks at the actions of Ineos and has taken the unions’ side. Iain Rubie Dale takes what you might see as the more typical LibDem view of “A Plague on Both Your Houses”, arguing that both sides need to let ACAS have the final say.

With petrol supplies now potentially at risk, bloggers started considering the issue of panic-buying. Andrew Burns contrasts the Scottish Government’s message – that there’s not going to be a shortage if everyone stick to their usual purchasing habits – with the news that Lothian Buses are running out of fuel. Malc accuses the media of irresponsible reporting, which could lead to more people heading to the pumps to stock up. Reluctant Hero argues that panic-buying is pretty much inevitable, while Holyrood Watcher suggests that it’s actually pretty sensible to stockpile something when you think it’s going to be in short supply.

Meanwhile, the political response has also come under the spotlight: having accused the media of scaremongering, Malc levels the same charge against Nicol Stephen, following the LibDem Leader’s performance at First Minister’s Questions, while Richard Thomson notes that Wendy Alexander never even bothered to ask about the dispute. Jim Millar produces the most thoughtful post on the matter: a look at what this means for the independence debate, as he mulls over the UK Government’s actions – or perceived lack of them – to tackle the issue.

The last word on the petrol crisis, however, has to go to Flying Rodent, who wishes to calm the populace in his own unique way.

However, the populace is still somewhat cheesed off about the abolition of the 10% starting rate of income tax. Kezia defends the policy and Labour’s economic record. Unfortunately for her, she’s very much in the minority: Stephen Glenn is not impressed, neither is Rob Davidson, or, for that matter, This Is Alba.

Caron, meanwhile, reminds us that there are people struggling to make ends meet already who don’t need a tax rise, and Elizabeth Maginnis is blunt about the change: she damns it for making the poorest poorer.

However, as Kezia pointed out, some of those affected by the change will be able to claw money back through the tax credits system. But even this comes in for criticism: Cassilis notes the red tape inherent in getting tax credits, while Ewan Watt simply asks what’s so good about having more people claiming them.

Like Stephen, I just look back at Labour’s original announcement of the 10% rate, back in the 1997 Manifesto, and wonder why Labour is undoing its own actions.

Staying with taxation, Adopted Doma.in offers support for the Greens’ proposed replacement for the Council Tax, a Land Value Tax.

Meanwhile, with the SNP Conference taking place at Heriot-Watt University last weekend (and I can confirm that if the buses do stop running, the Riccarton campus will be completely cut off from civilisation), bloggers have been reacting to Alex Salmond setting a target of 20 MPs for the Party at the next Westminster election. Calum Cashley looks at where those 20 MPs might represent, though Iain Rubie Dale is dismissive of the suggestion. Jeff, meanwhile has two posts looking at where the twenty constituencies could be, though his suggestions don’t go down all that well with Scottish Tory Boy. Not to be deterred, however, Jeff reckons he knows how to get whichever twenty seats the SNP fancy - celebrity candidates! And with the Scottish section of a recent UK-wide opinion poll putting the Labour behind the SNP, Richard Thomson reckons that the twenty-seat target isn’t completely beyond the realms of possibility.

Staying with the theme of SNP representation, there’s a post at Two Doctors questioning whether some of the party’s most hardcore standard-bearers on the internet, they so-called CyberNats, might actually turn people away from supporting them. Needless to say, CyberNat has other ideas.

Meanwhile, this week has seen the launch of what could best be described as a pro-independence superblog: destiNation. For the Union has other ideas, though.

Elsewhere, bloggers are musing about who they’d vote for in the London mayoral election, if they could. Bill Cameron would hold his nose and vote for Boris Johnson. Caron would give her first vote to Brian Paddick, and give a grudging second preference to Ken Livingstone. Bookdrunk is just dismayed at what candidates will say and do to get Londoners’ votes.

The small matter of the US Presidential Election also got people blogging: Andrew Burns notes that Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania Primary, but believes that a 9.2% margin of victory wasn’t enough for her to get back into the race, and the Democratic nomination will be going to Barack Obama. Frankly, I think he’s just saying that so that his hamster will end up as Obama’s running mate. Speaking of rodents, the Flying one considers Clinton’s campaign pledge to ‘obliterate’ Iran.

Staying with foreign affairs, and Mr. Eugenides has spotted a picture of some protesters who could have done to check the history books before they made their placard.

Elsewhere, Greener Leith reports on proposals to regenerate Leith Docks, Calum Carr takes a trip to Kirkcaldy’s Links Market, and Angus Nicolson awaits the arrival of Tesco on the Western Isles.

In other stories, Mike Smith and Almax noted the passing of jazz legend (and presenter of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue), Humphrey Lyttleton. I was thinking of putting one of Humph’s best lines here, but there are too many to choose from.

Staying with music, Frank McAveety is mourning the death of the independent music store, prompting Richard Havers to point out that the Labour MSP is wasting Parliamentary time complaining about market forces, as music lovers head online. Though when they do, they might encounter problems, with Cabalamat looking at Microsoft’s dying DRM system, “PlaysForSure”. Somehow, when I see that name, I just know that it actually doesn’t. And if you’ve got hold of bagpipe music, believing it to be traditional, Colin Campbell might be about to drop a very unwelcome bombshell.

Jeff Zycinski has been to a lecture by former MP Brian Wilson on the Scottish newspaper industry, while Duncan wonders if linking your blog with your Twitter account and your Facebook page is just turning the Internet into a massive echo chamber. Personally, I get around the problem by not touching Twitter with a ten-foot pole, and using my Facebook account primarily to bitch about my co-workers.

Or if you want stuff to get out into the open, you could just leave it in the hands of the Government, which, according to Mr. H, has suffered 100 data losses in the last six months as a result of security breaches, and only been able to recover the information in three of the cases.

Now that we’re onto statistics, Niall is dismayed by figures which show that more money was donated to a donkey sanctuary than the combined income of all the domestic abuse charities. Stephen Glenn, meanwhile, produces his own statistic: the percentage of each Party’s MPs who employ family members. As Stephen admits, however, the SNP and DUP figures are skewed by their small respective sample sizes.

Elsewhere, Angry Steve, last week’s rounder-upper, has hit on a radical way of getting more people onto trains without reducing petrol supplies to zero: make the fares cheaper! And Alastair looks at the perils of flying Continental.

And if that hasn’t given you nasty images, I’m going to leave you with this one provided by Holyrood Watcher, who refers to External Affairs Minister Linda Fabiani’s choice of apparel while at school.

Anyway, I’ll leave you all alone with your sick bags now. Don’t forget that you can submit posts for next week’s Roundup using the zippetydoodah on the right, or by dropping us a cod to scottishroundup@gmail.com. Bye-de-bye!

Muahahahaha.

For some reason I was asked to do the Scottish Roundup for this week - ah, the fools! Every time I see roundup, I think of this… Trouble is, the weeds around here just will not die… I say we dust off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Starting with some light entertainment from Auld Reekie Rants I am sure I was sent an email with some of those jokes at work. Sure enough, they don’t work nearly as well when we tried them on our resident Englishman.

David Farrer, of Freedom and Whisky fame, links to ClydeSights, which seems to be a ship-spotting site. Well, I suppose it is a step up from trainspotting. While I was chuckling about that, I noticed a post about something which does get me angry - in his post Praising the devil he talks about the deification of murderers and despots like Pol Pot, and my own personal favourite, Che Guevara. Regarding the trainspotting comment, David, I had written that before I saw your post… Honest…

Another thing that really annoys me is trade unions and enviro-hippies, and The Devil’s Kitchen has a cracking post which has the two combined. Bishop Hill (no relation) has a post on the biggest enviro-hippy of them all, Al, with his massive carbon footprint.

On a trawl of pages linked from the roundup, I have found a few humdingers. One that deserves particular mention though is Red Star, who is clearly red, but arguably not much of a star talks about Defending class interest in Scotland. “The struggle for independence in Scotland cannot be separated from the struggle for socialism and therefore anything short of the Scottish Workers Republic is not supportable” If that’s the case, then we’re all doomed. Remember folks - “God, guns and guts will keep us safe from commie nuts”. (Bonus points for folk who know what that’s a quote from).

Anastasia Beaumont-Bott is suitably outraged by Tesco selling padded bras for 7-8 year olds… I suppose they have to make their £2.8bn profits somehow…

Young Grant explains why his blogging has been so crap, err, light, lately by the way of a gleefully plundered image on his blog Ropes and Pulleys. For a small fee, I can pop round to his desk and break his legs, if you feel his post on fatherhood isn’t up to the standards we’ve come to expect here in the roundup.

Here’s a post from An Englishman’s Castle, it’s about Scotland, and about equality in the Scottish justiciary, which is why I am including it. That, and there are some fantastic quotes in the post - which I’ll not spoil for you.

Reactionary Snob is suitably scathing of the Pope’s recent remarks while on tour in America.

In a bit of shameless self-promotion, I have a rather good grumble about the attack on our liberties - first it was the smoking ban, now it’s the war on Passive Drinking, and a post on a proposal for anger management for the yoof of today.

On the subject of the youth of today, RfS has a post in praise of cadets - unlike certain a certain whining councillor I had the misfortune to know. It turns out, another councillor has posted about this… Really, that wasn’t the one I was talking about whining…

Both Malc in the Burgh and Scottish Tory Boy poke fun at Wendy Alexander for her third question, well, not being a question… While on politics, Mr Eugenides has a rather amusing post in support of some EU regulation… Yes, I found it rather unlikely too, but highly amusing all the same.

Angus Nicolson posts a comment about CLINT, yes, I read that differently, and thought it was something else… He’s referring to the Local Income Tax proposals. I was referring to something entirely different. I quite like Angus’ tagline “If you want balance then get some scales. This is opinion - my opinion.” That said, I can’t agree with everything he says in his blog, but that can wait for another day, and another fine single malt to get the creative juices (bile) flowing.

I have learned an interesting new term - and not one that would make a sailor blush. Well, maybe. “Cyber Nats” is the topic du jour from the Scottish Tory Boy. Apparently they are the electronic equivalent of Sean Connery - folk who don’t live here, but want to tell us how to run our lives… They exist in the online, drive-by sense, when it comes to interweb polls, and blogs and so on. You know it’s bad when Kezia mentions it too…

Bill and J Arthur MacNumpty have something to say about the ban on blood donation by those deemed to be in “higher risk” groups, with an opposing point of view from Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting.

Ideas of Civilisation gives some tips on tipping. HW tells us, on Holyrood Chronicles, that Kate Moss was spotted in the Bow Bar on the 15th… Good for her. I wonder if she sorted the staff out with “yin for yersel’” while she was there.

Love and Garbage, and Iain Rubie Dale pass comment on the Falkirk man, who was trying to claim he was discriminated against because he is bald… I shall make no further comment, since I seem to be inheriting the family widow’s peak…

Jim Millar has posted some pictures of himself wearing armour. I think he should be wearing that to a council meeting. It might prove to be rather useful. That and I think more people would take an interest in local government if he was to do that regularly…

Almax posts on JK Rowling’s recent court appearance regarding copyright issues surrounding some book not written by her about Harry Potter. I am inclined to agree with his sentiments on the matter, although I think my photo of her, featured in wikipedia, is waaay better than that one.

Now, on to another favourite subject of mine, the breakdown of society, we’re all doomed, check the structural integrity of lamp posts, and your stocks of piano wire… Alex Massie tells us we’re all going to hell in a handbasket because of ‘elf ‘n’ safety!

I think that should probably do it for another week. Readers get bonus points for figuring out which parts of the post were compiled when I was drunk. Readers also get bonus points for realising that was a trick question, and whilst this was composed over several days, I was drunk the whole time. This was quite interesting to do - and the age old problem of if I do it well, they might ask me back, but if I do it badly, it will make me look like a f*ckw*t. More so than *ing out the U and I in *u***i*. Gaaaah! Seriously though, it’s been quite entertaining, for me anyway. Have an adequate day.