The very late appearance of this post can mean only one thing; yes, its my turn to do the roundup this week. Unlike the good doctorvee, it would appear that I’m fundamentally unable to do anything in a timely and organised manner. (That sound you hear is everyone who knows me nodding emphatically in agreement.) I saw a documentary about people who share this problem and it turns out that I may have Slightly Maddening Erratic Git Syndrome. Unfortunately, no cure has yet been found.

Without further ado then, let’s see what we’ve got in this week’s bag of goodies.

All things considered, it is probably necessary to start with Mr Eugenides‘ reaction to the Tory Party’s new found love of Polly Toynbee. Who else could you possibly turn to at such a moment? Well, the Devil’s Kitchen of course. Perhaps this is intended to be Dave’s “Clause Four” moment. It certainly hacked off very many people who feel they’ve got nowhere else to go. As a slightly impartial observer, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next. Will the enterprising people of the libertarian right (apologies of the generic labelling) succeed in doing something to create a viable alternative or will they try to change the Conservative Party back into something they can vote for? The problem with creating an alternative, as us lefties know only too well, is that the FPTP system creates enormous barriers to entry into the corridors of power. The last new party to succeed, the Labour Party, was created a century ago. The system is very much small “c” conservative and that can be a major problem if you want to create something new.

In other news, Robert Sharp is cross about all the fuss that got up about crosses. Over at No Geek is an Island, however, Will is inclined to back BA. The Flying Rodent, meanwhile, investigates the archives of the London Evening Standard (circa 1897). Won’t somebody please think of the poor vampire hunters?

Reactionary Snob recalls a prediction. Sometimes, it’s not good to be right.

Over at Scottish Political News, attention is turned to the (lack of) “Cameron effect” in Scotland. As with any discussion of the Conservatives in Scotland, the “T” word cannot be avoided.

Shuggy thinks there are better ways to defend the Union than those used by Blair this week.

And talking of the Union, the SNP must have been flattered that the Labour big guns at the Scottish Labour Party Conference seemed to spend all their time talking about the dangers of independence. There’s fear in them there hills. Richard Thomson wins this week’s Best Post Title award as he analyses the conference from an SNP perspective.

Ewan Aitken, the leader of Edinburgh City Council, wonders about that langoustine. It’s caught off Scotland’s coasts but then has to undergo a several thousand mile round trip on its way to our supermarkets. Many consumers might not approve but will they be any the wiser? Councillor Aitken has a suggestion which might help.

Over at The Select Society, the death of Pierre Gemayel triggers a look at a rarely mentioned consequence of foreign intervention in the Middle East

Moving away from politics (one small step at a time), the fantastically named Gadget Vicar – a real vicar – goes to see Borat after reading a review which suggested that the film contained a postive Christian message. Gadget Vicar, perhaps unsurprisingly, disagrees. Also from Gadget Vicar, a brilliantly silly gadget. “Yes, it has” is almost certainly the answer to the question.

Gordon Mclean writes about every bloggers favourite subject: blogs. And also about the fact that people spell his name wrong when they link to him (I’ve resisted the temptation to intentionally do so here for humerous effect because it wouldn’t actually be humerous).

Gary Wood does a spot of investigative journalism and discovers Greggs’ insidious scheme for world domination. Forunately, he was able to do so without becoming entangled in the murky world of habitual mince pie consumption. A lucky escape, methinks.

And finally, a long running blog from Aberdeen may be about to lose its raison detre. Say it isn’t so!

That’s all for this week, folks. Next week, someone organised will do it so it probably will be posted at a sensible time of day rather than so late that it’s basically Monday. Do please send in your suggestion to scottishroundup [at] gmail [dot] com.

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s roundup! I think there’s been a lot of brilliant blogging this week. It’s a shame that I’ve had less time to read them over these past few weeks.

In case you were doubting the relevance of blogs, a little intervention from Matthew Taylor, Tony Blair’s strategy advisor, provides a few clues as to why you might want to listen up. Taylor criticised blogs for being:

…generally speaking, hostile and, generally speaking, basically see their job as every day exposing how venal, stupid, mendacious politicians are.

To which bloggers responded en masse: “Well, if politicians weren’t so venal, stupid and mendacious then we wouldn’t have to!”

Will P has a brilliant post on this issue. He sees Taylor’s comments as anti-democratic.

We shouldn’t fear blogs, we should be excited by them. For the first time outside the newspaper letters page (and even that is subject to editorial control), the people have a medium to present their opinions to a wide audience, and to discuss ideas with people from across (and outside) the country. Now we are all journalists. We are all commentators. We all have access. That’s a good thing. And for Mr. Taylor to complain that we aren’t saying the right things, in the right way, with the right intentions is supreme arrogance. Mr. Taylor is wrong.

I’ve taken a big quote out of it, but, as they say, read the whole thing.

Bookdrunk also has a good post on Taylor’s comments. She notes that Taylor implies that only the centre can decide what counts as “mature discourse”, and only the centre can decide when a complaint is justified. Democracy, eh? Bookdrunk also notes that if the mainstream media didn’t do their fair share of lying, bloggers wouldn’t need to be so angry in the first place.

Meanwhile, Mr Eugenides has this to say:

Blogs are merely loudspeakers through which ordinary people voice their frustrations with the way they are governed… If you’re going to be tough on shrill, be tough on the causes of shrill, too.

Away from the celebration of blogs though. It turns out that biometric passports can be hacked. Who didn’t see that one coming?! Will Howells compares Nick Clegg’s response to the news to that of the Home Office. Meanwhile, Garry Smith has a cheeky suggestion about what we should use biometric identifiers on the National Identity Register for.

Will P asks, when is it acceptable to hold a referendum? He notes that Labour have had some fairly strange answers to that question in the past and criticises Labour’s opposition to a referendum on independence.

Grant Thoms criticises corruption in Westminster. He says that the Mother of all Parliaments has become the whore of all democracies. Thoms suggests that independence would rid us of Westminster’s corrupt culture. But while it would be nice to think that moving politicians to another location would suddenly make them all less corrupt, I somehow doubt it.

Shuggy lays into those who want Sundays to resemble a “waiting room in the dentist – on a national scale” by forcing shops to stay closed. He has a novel suggestion for those who supposedly find shopping on Sundays stressful. If it’s so stressful, don’t do it!

While we’re on religion, Clairwil is fed up with those atheists who are just about as fanatical as religious believers.

Scottish Political News takes a look at the latest unemployment figures, which show UK unemployment to be at a seven year high. He criticises the Scottish Executive, reminding us not to forget Nicol Stephen’s role — or non-role, as the case may be.

Following the resignation of education minister Peter Peacock, there was a minor reshuffle in the Scottish Executive. Holyrood Watcher noted that those who were promoted were once again Labour men from the west: “The mafia takes greater control”.

Mr Eugenides has written an open letter to Rosie Kane. It’s fair to say that if you’re an SSP supporter it is probably best to avert your eyes.

The Devil’s Kitchen considers Fairtrade.

…the fucking stuff is far more expensive that it should be given the minute extra that the farmers receive; someone is making a lot of cash out of the whole business and it is not the farmers themselves.

Finally, one of the twentieth century’s most influential economists, Milton Friedman, died this week. Neil Craig isn’t fully convinced that free market solutions are always the best, but he found Friedman impressive. Meanwhile, David Farrer notes the personal debt he owes Friedman.

Right, I think that will do for now. Remember, we could always do with your suggestions. If you see anything interesting (it doesn’t necessarily have to be on a blog), then do let us know by emailing scottishroundup [at] gmail [dot] com.

Hello and welcome to this week’s roundup (slightly late due to the fact that the I’m a stranger to organisation at the weekends. OK, even more of a stranger than usual). My thanks to Doctorvee for taking over last week at short notice.

Right then, what have we got this week?

Reactionary Snob reacts to the aquittal of BNP leader Nick Griffin and the government’s kneejerk desire to legislate in response. This reminds me of an interview David Dimbleby conducted with Griffin on election night last year in which Dimbleby calmly and methodically took the racist’s arguments to pieces. Free speech is not Griffin’s friend.

Mike Power also has some thoughts on the matter and is satisfyingly rude about the “glorious leaders ” of our country.

While we’re on the subject of racism, Osama Saeed considers the circumstances and consequences of the horrific murder of Kriss Donald in Glasgow.

Over at Rhetorically Speaking, a rare show of unity between hardline Jews and Muslims comes under the spotlight. Unfortunately, this isn’t the cause for celebration it might have been under other circumstances. Some Christians join in too for good measure.

And Bill highlights the less than tolerant amendments passed during the mid term elections on the other side of the world.

Closer to home, Neil Craig gets another letter published in the printed press. It’s a response to Transport Minister Tavish Scott’s defence of the proposed £609m rail link to Edinburgh airport. Considering that the Aberdeen line runs right past the end of the runway, it’s hard to understand why £609m needs to be spent getting trains a few hundred metres closer to the terminal.

Hollyrood Chronicles has the word on Jack McConnel’s response to the soon to be published extensive and detailed inquiry into local taxation in Scotland. Little Jack has more in common with Blair than he would have us believe.

Shuggy takes issue with Polly’s defence of the Surveillance State as does Mr Eugenides. Both are in fine form. On a similar topic, Jarndyce, writing at the Sharpener, has an idea for an incentive scheme for all those MPs who voted for the National Identity Register and ID Crud scheme.
Over at Freedom and Whisky, David spots an SNP politician proposing a whole new level of state surveillance. She doesn’t appear to be joking. Oh my. On a related issue, Angry Steve is angry about a Dundee academic.

And talking of kitchens, the Devil’s Kitchen (heh, smooth or what?) is concerned about Chip and Pin. What happened to DK’s correspondent’s father is all sorts of wrong and very worrying for anyone with a credit card. I worked in retail as a supervisor for a good while and we were always told that you needed the cardholders consent to correct errors made by cashiers. In fact, I can clearly remember being advised by our bank that completing a correction without consent would leave us open to fraud charges. That was a while ago now and it seems that things may have changed and not for the better (unless you’re a retailer or a fraudster).

Changing tack, Mark has written a political obituary for Donald Rumsfeld. The Flying Rodent also bemoans the departure of the Don in fine style.

And finally, over at the Naked Blog (at it since 1997), attention is turned to Remembrance Sunday.

And that’s it for this week. Please do feel free to send your nominations for next week to scottishroundup [at] gmail [dot] com. See you then.

Hi. Sorry the roundup is a bit late and rushed this week. Garry is unable to write this week’s roundup, so you’ve got me again.

Undoubtedly the big talking point among Scottish bloggers this week has been The Scotsman’s new monthly opinion poll. Anthony Wells points out that these will be the first regular Scottish opinion polls we’ve had for a while and judging by all the comment it’s produced it’s been much-needed.

Supporters of independence are pleased that a majority (just) supports their position. Mark McDonald thinks the unionist parties have been squirming on the issue, and Richard Thomson isn’t impressed either. Labour MP David Cairns said that the poll was actually bad news for the SNP because a majority don’t support them even though they seem to favour independence.

David Farrer thinks he knows the reason why.

Meanwhile, from a conservative point of view, Scottish Political News is in despair at Anabel Goldie. With the Conservatives’ opinion poll rating sitting at just 14%, surely Goldie and the Scottish Conservatives need to be doing more to attract support.

Now some news from last week’s annual Adam Smith Lecture which is held right here in glorious Kirkcaldy. Mervyn King used the opportunity to announce that the new face of the Bank of England £20 note will be Adam Smith himself. Reactionary Snob is glad that the man who has become a symbol of capitalism is to be recognised in such a way.

Of course, support for the move isn’t universal. Gracchi in Reactionary Snob’s comments asks, “Where is Keynes?” Meanwhile, Tony at Cynical Chatter From The Underworld doesn’t like the fact that a Scot will be appearing on a Bank of England banknote.

Shuggy has a post on The Sharpener taking a look at proposals to ban flag burning.

Osama Saeed wants to know when the media is gonnae lay off the Muslim stuff, pointing out some stories in the mainstream media where a Muslim angle has been contrived.

Elsewhere in the media, ITV News has been banned from reporting on war. Or something. Garry isn’t best pleased, even though he isn’t the greatest fan of ITV News (who is a fan of ITV News, to be honest?).

Alastair Campbell was speaking for the Politics Society at Edinburgh University recently. I gave it a miss, but Bookdrunk took a look at what the Student newspaper had to say about it and wasn’t impressed at Campbell’s hypocrisy.

Alister at Perspective found out that Ukip have set up an office in the massively multiplayer online role playing game, Second Life. But Alister points out:

…in cyberspace there are no national boundaries and the defence of ‘Britishness’ ‘imperial measurements’ and the ‘pound sterling’ are a bit meaningless.

The Devil’s Kitchen takes a look at the NUS’ opposition to top-up fees.

OK, well, let’s say that we will pay for doctors, nurses and engineers and all those other useful professions, and we don’t pay for the English Literature, History and History of Art students, shall we? Or don’t you think that’s fair?

(At the risk of straying yet further onto Worstall territory) George Monbiot must be fairly used to being criticised from those on the right, but I don’t think Clairwil can be described as being on the right. Nonetheless, she reckons Monbiot must be clinically insane.

Meanwhile Holyrood Watcher thinks that Nicola Sturgeon might need a few English lessons.

And that’s it for this week! Please remember that we could do with your suggestions every week. We’re always looking to try and discover new Scottish political blogs so get your nominations in at scottishroundup [at] gmail [dot] com. Seeya later!