A warm welcome to this week’s Scottish Roundup, which I’ve cunningly produced on a Monday just to keep you all on your toes. There’s a bumper crop of nominations this week, credit for which goes (if credit’s the word) to Doctorvee who nominated about a thousand people for my perusal. “Hero” is a word that bandied around all too lightly these days, but I think it’s reasonable to say that Doctorvee is the greatest hero in the history of the Internet.

Anyway, my faux chumminess is probably starting to grate, so on with the show.

The major Scottish news story was the Gould report into the election fiasco back in May, and a rather curious saga it was, too, with Gould being forced to backtrack just a couple of days after the report’s publication, when it became clear that opposition politicians and hacks were misinterpreting his suggestion of “a notable level of party self interest evident in Ministerial decision-making” as meaning that ministers were allowing party self interest to influence their decision-making. Apparently this wasn’t what he meant at all; what he really meant to say was that no-one was to blame and it was just one of those things. Cynical Chatter from the Underworld reckoned that Scotland is a banana republic; the same fruit was mentioned more than once by Curious Hamster (who has moved; note the new blog URL).

Predictably enough this led to the usual party knockabout; Cllr Andrew Burns was pleased to see that STV was not being blamed for the problems, Kezia Dugdale was “blown away” by the pettiness and hypocrisy of the SNP, and I myself wasn’t too impressed with Nicola Sturgeon’s verbal contortions. 1820 had perhaps the most succinct observation: “Gould looks likes a patsy.” And, as Love and Garbage noted, wee Dougie Alexander can’t even run a poll on his own website, which takes a special kind of incompetence.

The Nats get plenty of airtime in this roundup; this weekend they celebrated their first conference in government by going up to – where else? – Aviemore. The BBC’s near-spherical political editor, Brian Taylor, wrote up the trip on his surprisingly good blog. There were also some observations from My Rambling Thoughts and a good account of the conference jollity from J Arthur Macnumpty. SNP Councillor Mark McDonald can’t believe that Wendy Alexander (pbuh) doesn’t have an opinion on Trident. Havering On is unimpressed by Eck’s plans for a seat at the UN, though.

The other issue bubbling away under the surface, as it has for some time, is the increasingly tense relationship between Scotland and England, and this was explored during the week by John Redwood (another surprisingly good blog, even if you don’t share his politics) and Beau Bo D’Or, whose new logo for the Scottish Tories is irresistible. Indygal often complains about the BBC’s pro-English slant, but on this occasion, it seems, her sister was just being a bit of a numpty.

Further afield, Adam Smith Was A Socialist (liar!) despairs at the right-wing rhetoric of Eastern European politics; conversely, A Place To Stand crunches some of the numbers in the immigration debate and comes to some interesting, and controversial, conclusions. Tartan Hero quite rightly takes Tony Blair to task for his crass suggestion that he’s “like a abused and bullied wife” (it can be arranged, Tone), and the Reactionary Snob takes a big stick to David Miliband for suggesting that referenda are “the refuge of dictators and demagogues”.

Rhetorically Speaking looks at the hypocrisy surrounding the abortion debate, Mike Power is unimpressed by the “revelation” that most BBC employees on Facebook describe themselves as “liberal”, and the Flying Rodent reacts with suitable sensitivity to the news that Princess Diana’s last words were, apparently, “Oh, my God”. And, in far away Washington DC, Alex Massie takes US journalist James Fallows to task for comparing the Armenian genocide to the English “subjugation” of the Scots.

Away from matters political, Kim Ayres has some thoughts on passing 40 – indeed, hitting 41. Calum Carr writes on a troubling incident involved Mrs Carr. Kevin Williamson bemoans the loss of yet another Banksy, and Clairwil has a go at teachers who make excuses for underperforming children when they should be teaching them to read. Whoopdedoo warns of the perils of hugging strangers in the street (they might pee on you). And, for no particular reason, a couple of dog-related items; on the merits of luminous dog sick, and a quite, quite brilliant talking Glesga dug (with appropriately NSFW language).

On The Outside Looking In takes an engaging look at a subject close to my own heart; swearing. “There’s nothing quite like the simple pleasure of exclaiming “fuck!” when something goes wrong”, he says, and he’s absolutely correct.

Finally, following criticisms of the Scottish Roundup last week for being sexist (guest host Indygal having had trouble following through on her original plan for a female bloggers’ special; Doctorvee writes about the controversy here), the Blog Ombudsman has informed us that we are also hideously Central Belt, so it is with great pleasure that I present you with two excellent posts from Teuchterland; Angus Nicolson on Sunday ferry services in the Western Isles, and Silversprite muses on the incredible record of Finland in international sporting competition. (I didn’t even know they had the internet up there, so we’ve all learned something, haven’t we?)

Anyway, that’s all from me. Next week, we have a special roundup focusing on fat foul-mouthed Greek bloggers living in Scotland. Nominations to the usual place.

How did I end up doing this roundup? Well, you see, it all started when I complained that my blog was rarely mentioned in the roundup. I noticed one week that NO female bloggers were mentioned and thought it might be quite funny to wind these guys up – sexism! Shocking behaviour. I thought it would “force” them into plugging me the following week. I was laughing on the other side of my face when they suggested that I do a guest editing spot! That’ll teach me.

Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to do a female only roundup. But I couldn’t find enough – funnily enough there are more men like to spout forth their views than woman. Can you believe that?! So I’m doing the normal roundup and at the end a little comparison of the approaches taken by male and female bloggers – quite interesting differences I think.

ALAS POOR MING, I KNEW HIM NOT …

The biggest talking point this week has to be the resignation of Sir Ming and Love and Garbage has quite a funny posting on it comparing the leadership wannabees to characters in Last of the Summer Wine.

Julie Hepburn who as Policy Advisor for the SNP developed the Citizen’s Pension policy is angry at what she describes as “blatant ageism” but Adam Smith was a Socialist disagrees. North to Leith reckons the speculation about Charles Kennedy coming back will amount to nothing and Indygal – great blogger – reckons Charlie boy was treated abysmally.

Richard Leyton wasn’t surprised at Ming’s departure. He has an interesting piece asking what the purpose of the Lib Dems is now. And he makes the very valid point that the party that’s always pushed for PR, is the party that should be showing how that kind of “new politics” works by going into coalition with the SNP in Scotland.

Gary of Big Sticks and Small Carrots fame is also on the PR bandwagon and points to the difficulty the Lib Dems have at Westminster which doesn’t (yet) have a proportional voting system.

1820 couldn’t care less and indeed, employed a mode of communication that Angry Steve reckons is good for your stress levels!

Best comment on the Lib Dems and Ming’s resignation though has to come from Mr Eugenides – made me laugh out loud!

Talking of departures, was sorry to read that aforementioned North to Leith will be changing hands and Davie Hutchison is moving on. I know Davie quite well – indeed I blogged on him recently. Davie won’t just be missed in parliament, he’ll definitely be missed in the blogosphere.

OK so enough of Ming Campbell and onto …

DRINKING, EATING AND SMOKING ONESELF TO DEATH …

Alcohol abuse has been much in the news of late and Angus Nicolson is not impressed with the Scottish Government’s latest strategy to tackle it. It’s at this point I have to remember that my job here is to tell you what’s out there, not to start arguing with other bloggers!

Mike Power has a great response to the professors who declare that a substantial increase in the price of alcohol is the answer and suggests a substantial cut in their salaries.

More on the abuse of the body and two diametrically opposing views – one from Louise who very thoughtfully gives us a “rant alert” before telling us she’s overweight (she’s not) and no government made her overweight and it’s all her own fault and it’s because she likes chocolate and that’s because it’s nice! The government should do more on obesity according to On the Outside Looking In who suggests ways in which they could do that.

Just while we’re on the subject of things that may or may not harm our sacred temples Kenny Sheerin takes the argument about cannabis – eh nowhere. He finishes by telling us that he’s not on an anti cannabis rant and says “I’m not sure what this is”

OK I’ll do one more on the damage some folk do to their bodies and Oz resident Colin Campbell sees the “funny side” of the problems with kerb crawling in his homeland. Quite interesting to read political blogs on the other side of the world.

Sport – that’s a better alternative to fast food, alcohol and cannabis so I was pleased to be sent some links on sport. Sadly none of them were playing it so that doesn’t work but Craig takes a look at how well Scotland fares in a whole variety of sports and David Farrer is one of many complaining about BBC bias towards English sporting achievements.

ONTO OTHER NEWS …

Elsewhere this week – Osama Saeed and Grant Thoms are both delighted that Alex Salmond is attempting to gain observer status for Scotland at the UN talks on non-proliferation. Grant refers to the move as a “Nationalist sunbeam bursting through the dark clouds of British foreign policy” whilst Osama is a little more low key but still describes it as a “fantastic” move.

BURD BLOGGERS Vs BLOKE BLOGGERS …

Anyway onto the birds vs blokes thing. Okay not “vs” but I think there is a real difference in how men and women communicate in the blogosphere. And I think it’s this – women tend to relate whatever they are commenting on to something personal whilst men tend to simply state opinion. I am an SNP candidate and my own blog is a political blog. But I rarely have a post where I’m not illustrating the point I’m making by talking about a personal experience. I get lots of feedback on that. Some people think I shouldn’t do that and others say it’s why they read it.

I’m not the only one though. Here are some of my favourite female bloggers – see if you can see what I mean.

Bellgrove Belle in this post is talking about Gordon Brown’s decision not to have an election this year but in the same post we also learn that the Glasgow Councillor has been shopping for a new sofa. I like that because non politicos reading it will hopefully see that politicians are just like everyone else.

Aileen Campbell, the youngest MSP in Scotland is making a point about hypocrisy when it comes to supporting Independence whilst chatting about the sore feet she got on holiday. It doesn’t detract from the point she’s making and adds a personal touch.

Labour activist Kezia Dugdale, in her posting on Ming Campbell’s resignation this week, makes her political point eloquently and is comfortable including some personal information at the same time when she talks about being at her Spanish class. Again, all good stuff demonstrating that just because we’re passionate about politics, it doesn’t mean we don’t live in a bubble.

There are some noteable exceptions. Julie Hepburn is one. Julie’s style (in blogging only) is quite masculine – fairly factual although eminently readable. And whilst she generally does the straight factual postings, she’s not averse to mentioning her other great passion in life – chocolate.

Louise is another. She tends not to have political and personal in the one post but what she does is have separate political posts and personal posts.

Clairwil is new to me and although I think she’s being a tad cynical in this posting about begging, I have to confess I laughed out loud and will definitely read her blog again. It’s the narrative style that makes her distinctively female-blogger-ish. You can imagine her telling you this tale in the pub. To me, and perhaps it’s because I’m female, I’m more likely to hear the political point she’s trying to make because of the personal content, some of which I can relate to. Again, I don’t agree with her but you can’t change someone’s views if you can’t get them to listen in the first place – and she got me to listen.

Jennifer Dunn another Glasgow councillor is on honeymoon just now so not updating but she’s hilarious and definitely worth a read. In fact if you read her profile she demonstrates exactly what I think is distinctive about most female political bloggers – the blog is called ‘three targets’ based on her 3 aims for this year – getting elected, getting married, and losing weight. Can the average female in her 20s relate to most politicians? No. But can she relate to this politician’s life? I reckon so.

I think that’s the main difference – you don’t learn a great deal about the person behind the politician with male bloggers. The opposite is generally true for female blogging politicians. The male bloggers then, will probably only appeal to fellow politicos whilst we females are doing what we can to appeal to folk who normally wouldn’t be interested.

The average male blogger with the same views would simply express them without reference to his experience. He might add in a few statistics but is less likely to tell you anything that would enable someone who didn’t know him to relate to him in any way. That’s not a criticism, it’s just an observation. And before I start getting emails telling me about exceptions to the rules, I know – this is not an in depth study, it’s just what I’m picking up from what I read.

If what I say is true and female political bloggers are more likely to appeal to the masses, then we need to look at how we can tell the masses about these blogs. Because as far as I’m aware, blogging is a minority sport and political blogging even more so. So let’s get publicising. Right, thank goodness I’m only a guest editor and I think the Editors of this site deserve bloomin medals because this has taken me all day – not a dish washed, no clothes ironed etc etc. See what I mean, we just can’t help getting personal

Hello there! Roundup time again. The big talking point is still the non General Election.

Reactionary Snob has perhaps the most colourful post on the events. That colour is mostly Brown, mind you.

Gavin Yates got the reaction from Lochaline. Meanwhile, Kezia Dugdale felt a bit stood up!

With an alternative take on events, the ever-thoughtful Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting has some reasons why the SNP should be breathing a sigh of relief now that Gordon Brown has called off any autumn election.

In the wake of El Gordo’s U-turn, a petition was set up on Downing Street’s own website. Mark McDonald noted the petition’s intriguing choice of words. Richard Havers pointed out Mr Brown’s gloating that the petition had only been signed by 23 people. Never mind, it’s reached 13,176 now.

That ties in to the idea of negative credibility. Gordon Brown pointed out how little support an early election had — then people signed the petition in their droves. Cabalamat had a good post, expanding on Chris Dillow’s excellent post on negative credibility.

Meanwhile, Ewan Watt wonders why it took Mr Brown so long to make the decision. Amid the brouhaha, Grant Thoms reckons it’s time for fixed terms to be introduced to Westminster.

Bad luck to Rob Davidson, who has lost money on this. The cannier Councillor Andrew Burns is glad he didn’t place any bets on there being an election. He also wonders about the volatile nature of opinion polls.

Speaking of opinion polls, Fitaloon at Microshaft notes the massive deficit that Labour faces. Apparently the Conservative Party’s lead is the biggest it’s been since before Black Wednesday (although this seems to happen all the time).

Meanwhile, Neil Craig is more concerned with the Lib Dems’ decline in opinion polls.

Mr Eugenides lays in to the shamelessness of Alistair Darling.

Back to Gordon Brown, and Shuggy reckons the PM’s Scottishness is a problem. But it’s not the fact that he’s Scottish, but the fact that he’s Scottish Labour. I find lots to agree with in his analysis.

North to Leith has a look at The Scotsman’s reporting of ministerial car trips. As the adverts say, they’ve gone up as well as down. I do wonder about The Scotsman sometimes. Their attacks on the SNP sometimes look stupid when it gets to the levels of obfuscation that North to Leith has pointed out. More controversial stuff from The Scotsman comes courtesy of The Scottish Patient.

Another bad newspaper is the Daily Mail. I suppose somebody has to keep an eye on it, so I suppose it’s just as well we have Bookdrunk to do the dirty work for us — this time looking at the lack of a link between breast cancer and abortion.

Another controversial media figure is Kelvin MacKenzie, who opened his big gob during this week’s edition of Question Time. Scottish Tory Boy described his anti-Scottish rant as racist. Meanwhile, Iain at Anything Caron Can Do pointed out that his views on Scottish entrepreneurship are a bit misguided. On the other hand, David McDonald thinks he might have been telling the truth.

Speaking of which, can Scotland’s economy be the Celtic Lion that Alex Salmond envisages? Richard Havers is not so sure.

A Scandal & A Disgrace looks at some of the job vacancies at Holyrood.

Osama Saeed comes out against Inheritance Tax. But Julie Hepburn seems to find the debate a little bit distasteful in parts. Another view on inheritance tax comes from Elizabeth Maginnis.

Elsewhere in the world of tax, Kenny Sheerin has a question that nationalists have so far been unable to answer, apparently.

I like your idea for scrapping the Council Tax. But I want to know what happens when you transfer the jobs from the Local Authority to the Inland Revenue. Do the staff members at the local authority get fired?

I’ve never been too keen on the idea of keeping bad policies because it keeps a lot of people in work. This isn’t the Soviet Union. You wouldn’t keep concentration camps on that kind of basis.

You might be aware of the internet campaign to get the Government offer asylum to Iraqi employees of the British Armed Forces — people who are at a heightened risk of death because of the work they have done for Britain’s Armed Forces. The Prime Minister has announced that asylum may be granted to existing employees who have worked for Britain for longer than twelve months. Robert Sharp points out that Gordon Brown is playing a numbers game with people whose lives are at risk.

Another big internet campaign trundles along. Cabalamat has invented a new verb — to usmanov.

What is it about football that attracts dodgy people? In addition to Alisher Usmanov, it’s full of shady creatures like Roman Abramovich, Silvio Berlusconi and Thaksin Sinawatra. Michael Greenwell reckons the new chairman of Celtic Football Club will fit into the scene nicely.

Despite the shadowy figures though, Scottish football is riding the crest of a wave at the moment. Craig asks if Scotland is the new Brazil, which is the cue for us to lose 6–0 to Georgia.

While there have been the continuing rumblings over whether or not an independent Scotland would have to apply to join the European Union, Scotland’s role in another international organisation is in question as well. Would an independent Scotland have to re-apply to join the Commonwealth? David Farrer doesn’t find it feasible — nor do I.

Mr Smith is worried about the relationship between the UK Government and the Scottish Government.

There has been lots of talk in the blogosphere about this, but most of it is predicable. I will just offer two opposing views on Al Gore being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Adam Smith was a Socialist; Angry Steve.

Anastasia Beaumont-Bott has six reasons why David Cameron is a hottie. I’m not sure I’m convinced…

On the slightly more X-rated end of the love spectrum, here is On the outside looking in and his take on casual sex.

Mike Power has views on a different kind of horn. He takes a look at the car crash that killed Diana and dismisses the conspiracy theories.

I liked this post from Brian Taylor about tartan on tour.

Never mind all of that politics nonsense though. The biggest event of the week has been of course the release of Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows. Gordon McLean had these thoughts on it.

Besides that, there was not much reaction from the Scottish blogosphere. But perhaps that is just as well as Inquisitor points out about the bloke on the BBC News website who thinks that Radiohead’s best album is Pablo Honey.

As for me, I will post my thoughts on the album in due course (I would have done already, if I had the time). But in brief, Radiohead are just too far into their comfort zone for me in In Rainbows.

Sarah at Whoopdedoo points out one reason why she would prefer to be male. We’re allowed to have short hair. Woohoo!

This week, 2,000 chickens made a bid for freedom on the motorway near Cumbernauld. Clairwill would have let them take over. But that would leave Cumbernauld covered in chicken poo. Well, maybe it is a good idea then…

In the wake of Tartan Hero’s ranking of Scottish blogs (as discussed here a couple of weeks ago), Holyrood Watcher has looked at an alternative way of ranking them. But don’t take it too seriously!

I’ve spent this week being hypnotised by a magical girl, who is the modern equivalent of Magic Eye puzzles. I think I want to go out with her — she has this amazing ability to turn both clockwise and anti-clockwise at the same time. What do you think?

That’s all for this week. There were a lot of good posts this week. I could have posted more on so many topics, but I was trying once again to limit myself to one per blog.

Next week’s roundup will be a bit of a special I am led to believe, and it will be hosted by Anne McLaughlin of IndyGal. In the meantime though, please remember to get your nominations in via the formy-doo-dah-ringalinga-ding-dong on the right, or by email to scottishroundup@gmail.com.

Hi folks! You have me again this week, chiefly on account of the fact that I’m keeping my Saturday nights free for the next few months, but have nothing to do after Strictly Come Dancing finishes for the night.

Anyway. The Westminster Election that now won’t be happening was the talk of the blogosphere this week. Kez Dugdale announced she wasn’t going to talk about it anymore until it’s called – it turns out that’s going to be a long period of silence. Mr. Eugenides belived that Brown faced a tough decision, and that he faced risks whether he called an early election or waited, and Chris Stephens called for an early election.

On the other side, Julie Hepburn, the SNP’s Prospective Candidate in Cumbernauld, Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch East, noted concerns over the logistics of an early poll, while Jeff saw the prospects of a November election receding following the Tories’ Conference in Blackpool.

Jeff’s instincts were right: by Saturday afternoon, Brown had publicly ruled out an election. Caron, returning to bloggery after a lengthy absence wasn’t impressed. Neither was Anne. Or Davie. Alex Salmond wasn’t impressed either, but in condemning Brown, managed to insult the people of Fife. Duncan, the Kingdom’s best online ambassador, isn’t best pleased. Here’s my slightly exasperated take on the decision.

Meanwhile, the Tories were indeed meeting in Blackpool. This made my journey home from work on Wednesday more interesting, as I was in the same queue for a cuppa as David Willetts and Oliver Letwin, then found myself on the same platform as David Cameron. But it was Cameron’s speech that got everyone else talking. Needless to say, Scottish Tory Boy and Carolyn Brodie, the Tories’ Prospective Candidate in Argyll & Bute were positive. Richard Thomson is charitable, but notes that Scotland didn’t get much of a look-in, a fact also picked up by Alex Massie.

Other bloggers wondered what, if anything, Cameron did actually say: CuriousHamster has his say, along with Kirk Elder. However, Mike Power points out that Cameron did say something… and it was a naughty word!!!!!

Staying with the Tories, the Pod People appear to have got to The Tired Tory, and David Torrance points out that Sir Malcolm Rifkind thinks he can answer the West Lothian Question.

From one Opposition to another: Wendy Alexander wants more money. I do try to find posts that represent contrasting viewpoints, but this wasn’t easy: Mr. Smith, BellgroveBelle, Holyrood Watcher, Justified Spinner, Edinburgh Sucks and ASWaS are all unsympathetic. I haven’t yet found anyone willing to side with Labour on this one.

But in the midst of all this, some bloggers still found time to look at political issues, rather than the processes. BellgroveBelle, David McDonald and Jamie Hepburn MSP all reflect on the demonstrations at Faslane.

Holyrood Watcher considers a proposal to give school pupils no option but to have a school dinner, and Reactionary Snob wonders how the smoking ban will develop. Meanwhile, Kezia Dugdale praises Patrick Harvie for his proposed anti-hate crime legislation.

Elsewhere, it turns out that the Westminster election is not the only vote that won’t be going ahead: Angus Nicolson reports that calls for a referendum on wind farm proposals on the Western Isles are dying down. But one poll has taken place: a By-Election in Argyll & Bute, which was won by the LibDems. Scottish Tory Boy discusses it and wonders what the Conservatives have to do to get transfers from supporters of other parties in STV elections.

And in Europe, Grant takes a look at Esquerra Republicana da Catalunya’s call for the abolition of the Spanish monarchy.

Richard Havers looks at plans to merge Border TV with Tyne Tees, while Cabalamat has a tale about a DRM system that works a little too well. But if you can’t watch a genuine movie on a legitimately bought DVD player, why can 652 different bodies get copies of logs which detail a phone’s owner, who they call, who calls them, and where the phone is? That’s what’s winding up Angry Steve this week.

In music, Robert Sharp looks at the rise of the remix. Personally, I always thought that any piece of music could be improved simply by having Nina Simone perform it, but that’s not an option anymore. Anyway, in sport, David looks the performances of Scottish football clubs in Europe, and Mr. Eugenides suggests a bloggers’ rugby team, though it seems destined to end up with only 13 players, which makes it a rugby league team.

And Holyrood Watcher suggests that political bloggers are weirdos. Surely not? Gordon owns up to a few bad habits, which don’t exactly create a watertight case for the defence, while the imagery conjured up by Caron doesn’t help either. A Strictly Come Dancing for politicians? Ye gods! Although, I suppose you could partner Jamie Hepburn with Ola Jordan, and Julie Hepburn with James Jordan, as they’ve done with Kenny and Gabby Logan this year…

Finally, it’s not just the Roundup that has been celebrating its first birthday, anniversary celebrations go out to Grant Thoms, a.k.a. Tartan Hero (who furnishes us with the Top 10 SNP bloggers at the same time), Davie Hutchison of North to Leith fame, and Richard Thomson, the man behind Scots and Independent. Either something big happened or we were all really bored this time last year. Who remembers which?

Anyway, that’s your lot for this week. Duncan will be here next week, so send him your suggestions, either with the diddlydee on the right, or to scottishroundup@gmail.com. Bye-de-bye!