Good morning, and welcome to this week’s roundup. Something I’ve noticed quite a lot recently is that a lot of big stories (particularly to do with the SNP) happen on a Sunday — after the roundup has been posted!

This week was no different, and Jamie Stone’s X-word feels as though, in some ways, it was uttered ages ago. After all, a week is a lifetime in etcetera. Yet the debate over Mr Stone’s comments have been raging on in the blogosphere throughout the week.

Predictably enough, SNP supporters were quite angry. Grant Thoms called the comments “complete and utter lies for the sake of a political career.” Richard Thomson was even angrier, calling the accusation “the last refuge of a thick unionist who is losing the argument.”

On the other side of the coin, James Graham defended Mr Stone’s comments, saying that the SNP were in effect demanding that the “Lib Dems should apologise for stating the bleeding obvious”. He came in for a bit of stick in the comments though.

Meanwhile, Shuggy was impressed with the Lib Dems for once for telling the truth.

Among all the heat, strangely enough Councillor Terry Kelly was able to write something resembling a coherent thought on the matter (as Mr Eugenides in Mr Kelly’s comments and Longrider both also notice).

Reactionary Snob also seemed surprised that calling the SNP xenophobic now earns you a booing on Question Time. He wasn’t too impressed with the panellists on Question Time either — apart from Hardeep Singh Kohli. Small Nation was particularly critical of George Foulkes’s performance on Question Time.

Perhaps most notable, though, was the absense of Jack McConnell. Hardeep Singh Kohli aside, all of the panellists were the leaders of their parties. But McConnell was nowhere. Davie Hutchison says somebody should tell Jack there’s an election on, saying:

It’s not clear whether Jack is ducking the debate himself or if those in control of the Labour campaign don’t think he’s up to it.

Meanwhile, Holyrood Watcher has noted the claim that the event was the seventh time McConnell has declined an invitation to debate with Alex Salmond, and the fifteenth time he has declined to appear on Question Time. As Holyrood Watcher says, the longer he leaves it, the harder it will get. Donald Maclean’s comment there is also worth a look.

Max at Ambuscading was also distinctly unimpressed at the performances on Question Time. Meanwhile, Reluctant Hero has posted his own take on the week’s big talking points.

Also check out Will P’s series of three posts setting out why he is in favour of independence.

Curious Hamster gets stuck into a straw man set up by Iain Dale and his ilk — “everyone on the left hates Bushmerica”.

Meanwhile, Flying Rodent has an absolutely stonking post that gets stuck into claims that Europe is anti-America. Flying Rodent sarcastically asks, “Just How Fascist Are Those Europeans?”

Flying Rodent neglected to mention our hatred of cigarette smoke which Mr Eugenides calls fascist. Harry Potter is doing the sex on stage, but it’s the cigarette smoking that’s getting people up in arms.

The latest new political party to throw its hat into the ring is the Publican Party. They want to reverse the smoking ban and will be standing in four regions in the Scottish Parliament elections. Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting has taken a look and assessed the possible knock-on effects on other parties should the Public Party gain some seats.

Meanwhile, Gordon at Ranting’n’Raving is more worried about what’s happened to all the ashtrays.

The debate about smoking in public boils down to a choice between “the freedom to smoke” versus “the freedom to breathe clean air”. So Shuggy has an interesting question: “why is it easier to proclaim oneself to be a ‘libertarian’?”

Libertarian David Farrer gives a typically libertarian fisking to a Labour election leaflet.

Here is another slightly old story, but the post was written within the normal window for the weekly roundup. Anas has some thoughts on the Unicef report that placed the United Kingdom at the bottom of 21 countries for childrens’ well-being:

Of course the response from conservative commentators to the UNICEF statistics has been to decry the influence of liberalism and falling moral standards. Basically, they claim that society’s been rapidly deteriorating ever since the 60s gave everyone permission to sleep around, take drugs, and to openly show disrespect towards authority. Now that argument would be a lot more plausible if the Netherlands HADN’T TOPPED THE POLL.

Donald Maclean laments the fact that the Scottish Executive has dropped its pledge to cut class sizes for English and Maths classes:

The media don’t seem to have made much of this, yet it’s extremely important for education, discipline in schools, crime and the economy.
If you’ve never seen a lone teacher in charge of a class of 30+, you probably won’t realise what a thankless, dangerous and counter productive task it is. In a good class, it’s like trying to keep up 30 spinning plates.

Leyton has written about the train derailment in Cumbria. He is particularly angry at Bob Crow for already concluding that it’s the management’s fault.

Independent health candidate Julie Mcanulty tackles the idea that she is a single issue candidate, claiming that “PFI isn’t a single issue. It affects all major government and local authority briefs as I will demonstrate…”

Scott is shocked that somebody would throw a concrete slab off a bridge onto a motorway. But it’s not only Glaswegians that get up to that kind of nonsense, and you’ll read about what I witnessed in Edinburgh if you look in the comments.

It might be worth noting a new website called You Scotland. But it might not be worth noting. Apparently the people behind the website were on The Politics Show last week. But the reaction from the blogosphere has been muted and mildly critical.

Take, for instance, this post at Applied Planetary Engineering, this from Richard Thomson, Donald Maclean who reckons the forums are full of dross already and this from Small Nation. I am also unimpressed. I will be writing about that on my blog later though.

Finally, this video is a little bit old, and the news it refers to is indeed old news. But it’s still worth a look. This just goes to show you how much is going on in the Scottish blogo-vlogo-poddo-whatevosphere, and it’s not always easy enough to find.

Because of this I would also like to kindly ask for more of you to start nominating posts and blogs that we can feature here. Since starting the roundup I have discovered countless new Scottish blogs, which was my intention.

But now I am discovering new blogs and not checking them, as the demands on my time would be too high. So please do get those nominations in at scottishroundup [at] gmail [dot] com or by leaving a comment. We really would be most grateful.

If everything goes to plan, Curious Hamster should be in the chair for next week. But until then, seeya later!

Hello and welcome to this rather late edition of the Scottish Blogging Round Up. In my defence all technology hates me and I had rather a time joining up. Still I’m here now, my name is Clairwil. Now lets get down to business.

On almost every blog I’ve visited this week someone seems to be hopping mad about something or at least a bit cheesed off. Shuggy has had his fill of ‘Braveheart shit’ for a good decade or so, Osama Saeed  finds the Tories wanting and Tartan Hero  is gnashing his teeth at the Lib Dems.

The other constant trial of modern life that we laughingly to refer to as a public transport ’system’, has Caron of West Lothian despairing. Incidentally are railway staff trained to be so hostile to the idea of customer service or is it mere coincidence that led Scotland’s rudest people to seek employment on the railways?

Still on travel, Scots and Independent brings us disturbing news of our rulers latest plans to stick their beaks into our business. Is nowhere and nothing private?

Bloody travel has Mr Eugenides shaking his fist at the sky. Not his own travels mind, but those of one Eric Joyce MP who has clocked up an impressive £44,985 in travel expenses last year. I hesitate to chip in with my own opinion but as one of the mugs paying the tab for this, might I suggest that Mr Joyce checks out the great deals on the Easy Jet website, before there is a bloody uprising. A most impressive rant, with a special mention to the first comment beneath the post.

Mike Power  seethes as his his new Mac languishes in a parcel depot in Edinburgh. Why? Oh it’s just that UPS have trouble delivering to that remote and inaccessible third largest city in Scotland, a mere 170 miles from Edinburgh. One wonders if they made their difficulties getting north of Edinburgh known when bidding for the delivery contract. Somehow I doubt it.

Dave Farrer has more about The Sunday Times website and the absence of it’s Scotland section. Perhaps the person running the Times website is my childhood pen friend who expressed total amazement that we had electricity in Scotland. I do hope not, the shock of finding out we have internet access could kill them.  

You might of noticed we have an election coming up this year. Several blogs have been looking at one of the few candidates engaging with the ‘netroots’ . SNP Tactical Voting is impressed and suggests he might be the ideal protest vote. Scottish Political News doesn’t rate his chances much, arguing that his campaign is unlikely to catch on with the public. Deacon Barry see’s the May elections and his campaign as an interesting test of Scottish Bloggers muscle.  You might be wondering who ‘he’ is, let me introduce you to one Mr Duncan Thorp. Drop in on him and make your own minds up.

Still keeping a beady eye on the May elections, Will P gives us his assessment of the independent candidates standing for election, including the aforementioned Duncan Thorp.

Now for the funny lighthearted bit at the end or near it. Go marvel at World Of Jack’s hat trick, here, here and here.  A Bhoy in Leith  treats us with his take on the comic genius Vladimir Romanov’s latest routine. I have little interest in football but I do like a character and our Mr Romanov is fast replacing Mr Mourinho in my affections. Perhaps they could co-host a chat show once they retire from football.

Finally, the Flying Rodent brings disturbing news of Britain’s spreading stupidity epidemic. We must treat this disturbing news as a joke to avoid mass suicides.

To nominate the top stuff for next week email scottishroundup [at] gmail [dot] com.

Toodle pip

Hello and welcome to the 18th edition of the SBR. Lot’s of good stuff as usual and here it all is.

Mr Eugenides makes a rather good point concerning state funding of political parties and the BNP’s election campaign. Reactionary Snob expands on the issue as does Shuggy.

The differences between the English and Scottish versions of the Sun have always been a source of some amusement. McGellie thinks that the Scottish Sun should come out in support of Scottish independence. Stranger things have happened.

Still on Murdoch press, David Farrer has noticed that the Scottish section of the Times Online has been a casualty of their redesign. It is apparently a temporary absence.

The SNP have been trying to get the tolls on the Forth Road Bridge scrapped. C. Wilde has the details.

Tartan Hero is on the look out for a messiah to lead us to the promised land of environmental sustainability. Kezia Dugdale probably doesn’t think that such a leader is likely to arise from the ranks of the Greens.

Over at Scottish Political News, there’s news of an independent (small “i”) candidate who’ll be standing in Lothian. The gentleman in question has a good stab at representing his position in the comments to the post.

A new blog started up this week called SNP Tactical Voting. It probably isn’t necessary to go into too much detail as to what’ll be covered there. Interesting stuff.

But for all the interest, Mike Smithson has noticed that betting on the Scottish elections has not exactly been popular with the punters. Do your own obligatory “tight Scots” joke.

Alistair ponders the possibility of a seemingly unlikely coalition. Liberal Democrat party members may not be as hostile to Independence as their official line would suggest.

HolyroodBelle has, well, just click through.

Moving away from the elections, Kirk Elder has penned a splendidly written piece on Affluenza.

As yet another attempt is made to reform the House of Lords, Holyrood Chronicles ponders the value of euphemisms.

Over at Rolled-up Trousers, Osama points out a problem with Richard Littlejohn’s attitude towards this week’s letter bombs. On a related note, I wonder if moderate motorists will now be dropping their campaign to oppose government plans on motoring? After all, when it comes to this sort of thing, “you’re either with us or against us…”

Angry Steve is angry about yellow boxes this week. Definitely one for the “Stupid Ideas of the Year” awards.

And finally, because your host was involved in a little bit of handbags this week with the U.K.’s “top political blogger”, I can’t resist including this. Be advised that no hamsters were hurt in the making of this post.

And that’s it for this week. Remember to send your nominations for next week to scottishroundup [at] gmail [dot] com when guest host Clairwil will be at the helm. See you then.

Wow, 17 is a high number. How are you all doing? Welcome to this week’s roundup. Hope you enjoy it.

Davie Hutchison wants to know, where is Jack McConnell? Labour are absent in more ways than one. Tartan Hero wanted to know what Labour has done for his area. Remarkably, this SNP member agrees with Labour!

Disagreements can be found between Jackie Ashley and Mr Eugenides. Mr E would quite like to see Tony Blair led away in handcuffs. It is an exciting prospect, isn’t it? CuriousHamster says, “Those of a sensitive disposition may want to look away now.” To which KeirHardiesCap in the comments replies, “No, we want to watch.”

Meanwhile, Mark McDonald is unimpressed with Tony Wright. Mr Wright has called for the Cash for Honours investigation to be halted! If that happened there would probably be riots.

On the issue of Catholic adoption agencies, Will P would rather that the Catholic church and the LGBT community (of which Will P is part) just agreed to disagree. Meanwhile, Flying Rodent is relieved to see that:

Britain’s homosexuals have refused to allow the Catholic Church to raise their children.

Who knows what depraved antics these sacramental deviants get up to behind closed doors – just to think of them anointing and liturgising in front of the eyes of an innocent child makes me sick to my stomach.

On a slightly related note, Bishop Hill has considered what he thinks are the three types of liberalism.

There is a promising new blog called Scotswahey! This week its author, Giles, has done a bit of homework to see how much the Scottish Parliament would sell for. He makes a surprising discovery! I reckon this will be a blog to keep an eye on.

It is a common criticism made north of the border: the media has a heavy English bias. Y is a vowel, live with it reckons that the media isn’t just biased towards England; it’s biased towards south east England, and ignores the north of England as much as it ignores Scotland.

Elsewhere in the world of the media, Holyrood Watcher laments the current state of BBC Scotland’s Holyrood Live programme. I don’t watch it often, but it has to be said that it’s not the same without Iain Macwhirter.

Still on the media, Bookdrunk brilliantly demolishes ITV News’ so-called “exclusive” story that Downing Street has a secret email system. It’s about as secret as Hotmail.

Holyrood Watcher notes that you probably shouldn’t take advice from Tony McNulty if you see somebody being mugged.

Alister at Perspective revisits the Scottish Conservative Party’s logo. He wonders if it could lose both the Tories and the Greens votes.

Scottish Political News has a look at the Conservative Party’s transport policies, and isn’t terribly impressed.

Some fine Photoshopping work at World of Jack.

Kezia Dugdale tries to work out why she didn’t vote in elections while she was a student. She reckons lowering the voting age to 16 could be the answer. We economists know that voting is a waste of time anyway.

This isn’t strictly a blog, although I did say that the Scottish Blogging Roundup wouldn’t focus just on blogs, but on interesting internet-based commentary in general. So check out Anyone But Labour, a rather self-explanatory website with a mainly Scottish focus.

Elsewhere in non blog land, the commenters at Scotsman.com are beginning to hit back against all those people who persist on blaming the same railway companies for everything that goes wrong on the network.

The Scottish Patient derides the Daily Record PM — they can’t even give it away for free, apparently. Myself, I was actually wondering if it had become free yet. Great advertising.

Osama Saeed takes a look at a vicious killer that takes as many per day as the 7/7 bombings did. Meanwhile Councillor Andrew Burns is shocked by another big killer. If it had been anything else “there would have been political uproar.”

Robert Sharp at the, uh, Sharpener asks why the libertarian right is so silent on the issue of Palestine. Sharp reckons it would usually ring all of the libertarian bells.

Iain Dale (no, not that one) over at new blog Anything Caron can do tells us what gets on his (Prest)wick.

Caron herself is worried about this latest bird flu breakout. Philo at The Select Society doesn’t seem so worried. He has found an easy solution to the bird flu crisis. Funny how there’s a much more muted reaction this time round than the Cellardyke relative non-event.

It’s not very political, but I want to draw your attention to the simply fantastic Bloodbus, the story of a Glasgow bus driver. This is such a well-written blog; I laugh like a drain every time there is a new post. And those illustrations! Brilliant stuff.

I know what you’re thinking. I haven’t mentioned a certain person. Well I’m determined not to mention him on these pages because I’d rather keep things neutral-ish around here. Also, a bit like Clairwil, it’s all becoming a bit too intense for me. All I will say is follow the great man’s advice himself and search for “Councillor Terry Kelly” in Google. The results are illuminating.

You know where to look for my opinion on this, and that is my blog at doctorvee. (I just wanted to get that plug in because I reckon it’s been my best week for blogging in ages and I’m a bit upset that none of it can be featured since I’m doing the roundup this week!)

Right, looks like that’s it for this week. Many thanks for your suggestions this week. Please do keep them coming, because I’m always keen on getting more variety on these pages. As always, you can nominate blogs and posts by emailing us at scottishroundup [at] gmail [dot] com. All going well, CuriousHamster will be doing next week’s roundup. Seeya later!