Hello there! I am back after a busy couple of weeks for me. As such, I must apologise for the slightly lazy nature of this week’s roundup.

Will Patterson has taken a look at two people who are on the way out in different ways — Mohammad Sarwar and George Foulkes. There is more on Baron Foulkes from Davie Hutchison.

Seemingly, the Home Office will be conducting DNA tests to determine where illegal immigrants should be deported to. Angus Nicolson is not too impressed:

Given that a DNA test will identify only ones’ parental origins, and not ones’ most recent residence, the scientific ignorance is startling.

Elsewhere in Home Office madness news, Liam Byrne has claimed that ID cards will one day become “a great British institution”. Shuggy takes exception.

How about the idea that the Conservatives will back an independence referendum? Mr Eugenides posted his extensive thoughts on the issue.

Holyrood Watcher has received a letter, apparently written to the Presiding Officer by someone who was invited to sit on the forthcoming panel to review MSPs’ expenses. More on that panel comes from David Farrer.

Richard Thomson tackles a staple argument used in debates about public spending in Scotland. Scotland isn’t really the land of milk and honey, is it?

Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting is ambivalent about the Edinburgh trams project, but he has concluded that the SNP have to back it.

There is much more being written about trams on this blog, which is strongly in favour of the project.

Grant Thoms has assessed why the Cameron effect hasn’t taken hold in Scotland.

Bookdrunk has shone a light on (he of Christian Voice) Stephen Green’s “uniquely fucked-up view of the HPV vaccine”.

Why not have a good old point-and-laugh at bureaucracy? I’m sure it’s good for you, after all (laughing, that is; not bureaucracy). Reactionary Snob provides the material.

“Paradoxically”, Bill Cameron admired Bernard Manning — but more because his humour was “refreshingly honest” than anything else.

Meanwhile, Billy the Kidd has been pondering on the freedom of speech that comedians should have. He also gives his two cents on the knighthood of Salman Rushdie.

Over at Red Squirrel’s Lair, the SNP’s decision to abolish the graduate endowment is being celebrated. But there is a but.

While we should welcome the SNP move to drop the ‘graduate tax’, as it has come to be known by some – we should be a little bit more concerned about the quiet dropping of the nationalist’s more radical policies on student finance.

Demea at The Select Society wants help understanding Grammar schools.

Bishop Hill has discovered a handy way of getting council officials to leave your house — just light up.

Finally, many of you might be interested that Matt Wardman has launched a Scottish political blogs aggregator. This basically means that you can read loads of blogs on the one website. (Not mine though. Pah! )

Anyway, you can find it at politics-scotland.co.uk.

That is it for this week’s roundup. Next week’s will be edited by Richard Havers.

Thanks to everyone who sent in nominations this week. Don’t forget there is the form on the right which you can always use, or you can just email us at scottishroundup@gmail.com.

First, a brace of posts from one of my favourite blogs, Rhetorically Speaking, regarding our right to do stuff. Martin Kettle’s article on the film ‘Taking Liberties’ provoked a number of responses around the blogosphere, and bookdrunk’s offering is a good representation of the scorn it deserved. The principle under attack is that we should have the right to do something unless a law specifically prohibits it. Later in the week we find an example of a law which specifically protects such a right – breast-feeding in public. Why are such laws necessary? To acquire “a layer of legal protection” against those who seek to deny that right.

Its nice to browse beyond my usual roll of blogs, and I found Iain Gibson’s site quite interesting. He’s partisan, of course, but I think his style of gossip is actually quite informative about the way a parliament actually operates. Iain’s latest thoughts concern the difficulty the Liberal Democrats face at First Minister’s Questions – how to be original? Meanwhile, the list of committee chairs at Holyrood has been finalised. This, according to J Arthur MacNumpty, has caused a couple of people to throw their toys out of the pram. Davie Hutchinson makes the same point.

Another SNP supporter, Jeff worries that there is no such thing as society because he fails to get any help in moving fridge-freezers, or stopping cat brawls in Princes Street. But trawling through the blogs of councillors, researchers, activists and chair-people from all parties, all over the country, its hard not to get the impression that civil society is alive and well in Scotland.

Jamie Hepburn has just been elected to the Scottish Parliament, so its understandable if he feels positive about The Best Not-So-Wee Country In The World… but Cursed Tea (The Scottish Quine in America) thinks she can feel the optimism from across the pond. Meanwhile, Anastacia’s post about her illness, and launching LGBTory, is strangely uplifting too.

Having said that, following the local elections a few weeks ago, many blogs do carry a slightly tragic air, as representatives who have lost their seats have to put an “Ex” before the word ‘councillor’ on their blog. Up on the Isle of Lewis, Ex-Councillor Angus is depressed about something else: the falling number of children on the island.

If Scotland’s star is rising, then it needs a viable tourist board. Richard Havers worries that VisitScotland is not fit for purpose, and putting it under Executive control will only make it worse.

In UK politics, pretty much everyone has been using the word ‘feral’ in everything they write, after Tony Blair’s recent outburst. In 99% of posts I’ve seen on the issue, the response has been derisory. Shuggy is the 1% who says “Just because it’s Blair that’s saying something, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.” He’s got a general point, although I’m still not convinced that The Independent was the most appropriate target.

The Flying Rodent’s thoughts on the conservative co-option of counter-culture: Witness The Power Of The Free Market TARDIS.

I liked Tartan Hero’s call for the UK to end discrimmination against the Catholic Church.

There’s not much Love on the streets of Falkirk though. Apparently Morrisons have pressed for one of their ex-employees, 22 year old Andrew Love, to be prosecuted for a “racially-aggravated breach of the peace”. Trying to silence one blogger raises the hackles of the rest, and Bill sticks up for the right to free speech. However (and this is one of the best things about blogging), the supermarket manager who made the complaint took to the comments. He claims that he was defending “a member of society that could not defend themselves.” Also on the subject of Freedom of Speech versus Tolerance of Bigotry, Clairwil’s review of The Islamist by Ed Hussain is worth a read. The comments are busy there too.

Finally: a rainbow on Islay.

Welcome to this week’s roundup. If its revised format does not quite sing and dance, it’s not for the lack of fiddling with it by the good doctor.

To begin with, let us consider the delights of Wemyss Bay. A tourist destination to rival San Francisco, Guadeloupe and Bali. All hail to the doyen (OK, one of the doyens) of Scottish political blogging, Freedom and Whisky, who has a splendid post on the Wemyss Bay Incident, a story totally missed by the dead tree press. Of course, Mr F has to work terribly hard to draw out the correct political moral of the tale – and perhaps does not quite succeed – but full credit for trying. And he has put WB back on the map.

SNPTacticalVoting (aka Jeff) dares to make fun of the present (just) Home Secretary for having been in a gang. Well, Jeff better watch it, or I will set the Stockbridge Tongs on him. (Who you lookin at, pal?)

I have a confession to make. I find the whole matter of logos unutterably tedious. But logos, and not least the new London Olympic logo, seem to exert a strange fascination for other bloggers. Thus, notwithstanding the fact that every blogger and his mother was already commenting, the Bellgrove Blogbelle, Mr Eugenides and Robert Sharp all felt obliged to tell the world their views, while even Dr Vee had to have two attempts to get his opinions across. Hey guys, it’s just a logo.

See teachers? Shuggy manages to work J S Mill into a post on drinking. (Pretentious, lui?) Well I was impressed, at least. Though I doubt if Clairwil would have been, as she took the opportunity to have a rant about teachers.

I am not greatly enamoured of rants but I have to admit that Mr E has produced something of a classic this week. You have to read it all to appreciate the level of sustained vituperation but here is a taster:

The only type of pleasure which is not to be curtailed or officially discouraged, it seems, is the quiet, desperate satisfaction these thin-lipped simpletons get from drafting and passing unnecessary legislation; poring over piles of documents late into the night (tightly-typed and printed double-sided on recycled paper, natch) by the flickering, sepulchral light of Fairtrade candles (to save on emissions), trying to come up with exciting new ways of strangling the joy out of life, their spare hand shuttling remorselessly yet fruitlessly back and forth inside their trousers.

You don’t find this sort of stuff on Blether with Brian who is far more concerned with the First Minister’s failure to celebrate the stunning victory over the Faroes. Well what do you expect from a Dundonian?

Meanwhile, in the context of Big Brother, Bookdrunk has noted the fit of vapours which has overcome the MSM when it comes to mentioning that word. See, it’s catching: even I cannot bring myself to repeat it.

Scots and Independent tells us how he almost became one of the Ferrero Rocher set. Has the boy no shame?

Are you part of an oppressed minority? If so, you should be able to sympathise with TiredTory whose political party has already begun the fruitless task of considering how not to lose the next election. (Thanks to Alex for this nomination.)

And yet another oppressed minority: those who fail to take the First Minister’s side in the Libyan farrago. Both Kezia Dugdale and Havering On, in their different ways, have sought to find a different angle on the affair – which is why they are worth a mention.

Angry Steve is also one of the politically incorrect – but I cannot hide a smidgeon of sympathy for his diatribe.

Well that’s it for this week. Nominations for next week, please, on the form on the right.

As ever, my thanks to il dottore, for both opportunity and the assistance.

Welcome to this week’s roundup! You will see that I have at last made the changes I promised. I won’t bang on and on about them here — to save space, I’ve done all that on my personal blog. Fingers crossed everything works. But should anything seem to have gone a bit funny, please contact me.

But I do want to highlight the new nominations form. It is in the sidebar of every single page on this blog now, and it also has its own page here. I’m really keen to get some more nominations in. They are almost guaranteed to be included (unless I forget about it, dohh!). Hopefully this new form will provide a hassle-free way to nominate a post. Thanks to Richard Leyton for originally suggesting putting some kind of contact form in.

As I said, go to my blog for a fuller explanation of the changes. But right now I am going to press on with this week’s roundup.

This week the row over the fact that the Prime Minister (whoever that is) hadn’t yet called Alex Salmond to congratulate him on his victory became so intense that Gordon Brown eventually did pick up the phone. Time for a quick joke courtesy of Richard Thomson.

Richard Havers was not impressed with Gordon Brown’s refusal to answer Glen Campbell’s questions on the matter.

Stuart Blythe saw it not just as snubbing Alex Salmond, but also as snubbing of democracy. Like many others, Bill Cameron saw it as a sign that Labour were sore losers in their heartland, unable to come to terms with the will of the people.

A lot of people also noticed how different the Queen’s reaction was. She took the trouble to fly by helicopter to congratulate the new First Minister. David Farrer wonders if she did it just to annoy Mr Blair and Mr Brown.

What about First Minister’s Questions then? It was Alex Salmond’s first experience in the hot seat, and most think he coped very well. And it was fairly light-hearted. Brian Taylor compiled the best lines.

Louise at My Rambling Thoughts did not take to the humour so well:

[Jack McConnell] sarcastically stressed the words “First Minister” as if he still can’t believe that he was beaten, his face was either grey or white with bitterness and he banged on about how the new Executive should do exactly as he would do.

Mr McConnell had better get used to it. Toxic spotted this in a local bookshop. His book is half the price of Mr Worry. Now that is something to be worried about.

Septicisle at Obsolete has this in-depth post on Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s little comments about abortion. Korakious was pretty angry as well, particularly the comparison with the Dunblane massacre.

Meanwhile, Bookdrunk sums up the situation quite nicely:

Cardinal Keith O’Brien: it’s outrageous that these non-catholics aren’t listening to me

Shuggy was not too impressed with the SNP’s reaction to Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s comments though:

For the SNP to blandly point out that abortion is a matter reserved for the Westminster Parliament simply won’t do because they don’t approve of the situation where certain matters are reserved for Westminster.

I don’t remember Salmond making any similarly anodyne responses when the topic of Iraq was discussed during the election.

What to make of the current transport controversies? Holyrood Watcher pointed out that potential for the cynical point to be made. But he also points out that Labour have always done that sort of thing anyway.

Otan2 points out that a road upgrade probably wouldn’t make much different anyway. According to him, most accidents are caused by people speeding, not the “safety” of the road.

The results of the elections are still being digested, and it is clear that in the STV elections, people who were higher up in the alphabet were more likely to be elected. Not much of a surprise maybe, but all the same Tartan Hero will henceforth be known as Grant Aardvark-Thoms.

More seriously, he suggests randomising the ballot paper so that such advantages disappear. But back to the less serious stuff (or is it serious?), Will P suggests a groundbreaking new ballot paper design: the circular ballot paper. I guess it’s no more nonsensical than the one that was used for this year’s Scottish Parliament elections.

On the controversy surrounding the treatment of Tul Bahadur Pun, Mr Eugenides suggests a simple swap. Seems fair to me.

Osama Saeed is not impressed with Tony Blair’s attitude towards human rights.

If you have a strong enough stomach for tales from Glasgow City Council, visit Not the Record.

Meanwhile, over at A Scandal & A Disgrace, Metal4Life has looked at some hypocrisy from Edinburgh Labour Councillor Andrew Burns, whose blog post made the Edinburgh Evening News for the wrong reasons.

Podnosh has this about ideas from the Demos thinktank about the future of Glasgow. Any thoughts?

Agentmancuso has argued against Local Income Tax proposals. His greatest criticism is aimed at the SNP, noting that the SNP’s proposal could hardly be called local anyway. But he is not a fan of the Lib Dem plans either.

What do you make of the SNP’s stance in favour of keeping the monarchy? Graeme at Waxing the Lyrical thinks that, while there is no real popular movement against it at the moment, if and when Scotland becomes independent there will be.

Robert Sharp was in full-on pedant mode when he wrote to The Times about a mistake in an article about female monarchs. But in the process he notes that as female monarchs overlooked some of Britain’s most successful periods, Japan should maybe take a leaf out of our book.

Labour member Kezia Dugdale has revealed who she will vote for in the upcoming Deputy Leadership election. This blog is truly unique. How many blogs do you know where people would be praised for being “admirable exponents of Blairism”?

Is Bute House minging? David Torrance briefly set foot in it once, and doesn’t remember it being that bad.

Scottish Tory Boy explains why he likes Michael Portillo.

Bishop Hill writes about the “unbearable statism” of the Tories.

Flying Rodent spotted some badly-spelt nationalist graffiti. There are only four letters; how difficult is it to get “Alba” right?

Angus Nicolson reckons that VisitScotland could do a much better job of promoting the Hebrides. Meanwhile, Richard Havers think they could do a better job with Scotland as a whole, comparing their campaigns to those used by Ireland’s tourist board.

Just in case you were wanting to hear the acceptance speech made by Alex Salmond upon his appointment as First Minister, Matthew Wardman has posted full audio and text transcripts.

You might remember last week a few illiberal policies were noted in the roundup. This post from Reactionary Snob on National Illiberal Week was just too late to make it into that roundup, so I have included it in this week’s.

Silversprite has this about Facebook, which appears to be growing uncontrollably now. (Don’t forget the Scottish Roundup Facebook group, whatever that’s for!)

And just in case you were thinking that Scottish Roundup would be a Big Brother-free zone, ha! Yeah right. Here are the views of Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting and Sarah at Whoopdedoo.

That’s it for the moment. Don’t forget to get your nominations in at scottishroundup@gmail.com, or via our jazzy new form. Next week’s roundup will be edited by Holyrood Watcher.