Hi folks! As you’re probably tired of hearing by now, 2007 saw some significant changes, with the formation of an SNP Government, and Gordon Brown’s long-anticipated ascent to the Premiership (having beaten Stoke City in the play-offs, boom boom), so, as Duncan promised, I’m here to look at how Scottish bloggers have adapted to the changes.

Let’s be paradoxical and start at the end – of Jack McConnell’s tenure, that is. Take a look at this post by Tartan Hero, in which he suggests that Labour have done nothing for the East End of Glasgow while in power. IndyGal, meanwhile, looks at Labour’s record on poverty, while Richard Thomson runs the rule over Labour’s record on education. This is something you’d expect: a government is coming to the end of its term, so it’s a good chance for opposition parties to get in there and take those in charge to task over their performance in administration.

Now, this is where the problem starts: as Roundups throughout the year will testify, the Scottish blogosphere suffers from a paucity of Labour blogs, so there’s very little opportunity for the governing party (or in Scotland’s case, the lead governing party) to put its case across online. And when it does, it has an almost ‘oppositionist’ feel to it. This post over at Ridiculous Politics is essentially a look at SNP policy shifts over the years – no positive content. By contrast, Kezia Dugdale does point out the Labour Party’s stance on green issues. However, even in that post, she makes it clear that she is unimpressed with the Greens. And the SNP.

So it would appear that the blogosphere was a pretty venomous place before the election, but then, with an ugly campaign, it’s only natural that the online battle would reflect that. And the long campaign itself generated a lot of interest: when LibDem MSP Jamie Stone accused the SNP of xenophobia, the reaction by SNP-supporting bloggers was swift, and hostile, as we can see over at Tartan Hero. Criticism then spread to Nicol Stephen, as this posed by Richard Thomson exemplifies.

Nicol Stephen was far from the only leader to cop it though: back in February, Davie Hutchison was noting Jack McConnell’s absence from campaigning efforts, while Kezia Dugdale had a pop at the SNP for registering “Alex Salmond for First Minister” as an alternative name with the Electoral Commission.

So this was a negative campaign, and the blogosphere picked that up, though there were some voices of exasperation – mine included. However, Kezia Dugdale gave me plenty of food for thought when she presented a highly credible, and well-argued, case in favour of the tactic.

Despite that, for some, the blog was an important campaigning tool, and some used it as an excellent way to get their message and policies across. The best example of this is undoubtedly Julie McAnulty, an independent candidate in Coatbridge & Chryston, standing in protest against planned changes in NHS Lanarkshire which would leave Monklands Hospital without its A&E Department. A browse through the archive of her blog will give you a good idea of the issues she was (and still is) campaigning on, and what her position is.

So in many ways, the election was more of a blessed release than anything else. Or at least it should have been until it became a stramash of epic proportions, and anyone who was anyone was reading Mr. Eugenides on election night.

But despite the uncertainty of the result, an SNP minority government emerged, and by the time Parliament – having got round to choosing a Presiding Officer – met to select a First Minister, the election of Alex Salmond was widely expected.

The thing was, though, that for bloggers, very little did actually change. Yes, the SNP achieved in government at Holyrood, but Labour are still in power at Westminster. The upshot of this is that posts like this one by Mark McDonald in March, criticising the then Home Secretary John Reid, can be followed in July by a post like this one from Osama Saeed, taking an unhappy look at Gordon Brown’s security policy.

Even so, the other Holyrood parties still take pelters: take a look at this recent post by Calum Cashley, looking at Wendy Alexander’s position on the constitution, or this one by Osama Saeed on the LibDems’ differing approach to Wendygate and Trumpton.

One last note on Holyrood: the egg-throwing blogs. World of Jack was basically an online method of pointing and laughing at Jack McConnell. Obviously, the blog is now obsolete (and there is as yet no sign of ‘World of Wendy’ or ‘World of Gordon’), but HolyroodBelle had a way with Photoshop. After the election, Labour (and the blogroll makes it blatant that it’s Labour’s doing) tried their hand at a similar tactic at A Little Fishy, though the humour content was lower and the last post was in August. A parallel attempt (again, made by Labour) is over at Parliamentary Questions, which sounds like it covers politics in general, but markets itself as “The spin tackling, political angling, line untangling, politician baiting, murky water trawling, Salmond farm cage rattling blog” and is utterly in line with the expectations raised by the marketing. It has survived (unlike Fishy), but sadly, is remarkably po-faced and a little bit of Photoshoppy goodness wouldn’t go amiss. Also, I don’t think it’s really all that effective at this stage in the Parliamentary cycle: come late 2010, it’ll have its place, but it’s too soon for it now.

Then there was Westminster. In many ways, I can’t really dress this up as a change, as there was, since the Labour Conference in 2006, a grim inevitability about Gordon Brown taking over before the Autumn of 2007, and so it proved, with Blair handing over the reins of power in late June. This meant that people had their thoughts ready about Brown before he even came to power: IndyGal, Caron and Julie were all unimpressed.

And with one election over with, another seemed in the offing: IndyGal was ready for an Autumn election, as was Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting. So when Gordon Brown pulled the plug, Kezia Dugdale was disappointed. Reactionary Snob felt somewhat more strongly than that. From there on, it was downright hostility, and Roundups passim chart bloggers’ hostile reaction to practically everything emerging from Westminster, particularly on Northern Rock and the lost HMRC discs.

So, nothing seems to have changed: Labour are still seen as a bogeyman among Scottish bloggers, and there’s still that element of venom involved. Luckily, we’ll still be here to deal with the venom in 2008, and Reactionary Snob will be your host on Sunday. All the best!

Damn! You’ve caught me coming down your chimney to fill your stockings with bloggy goodness. You’re not supposed to look at them until the 25^th, but seeing as the surprise is ruined you may as well get the good stuff now. I’ll be leaving a note though — lumps of coal for you next year.

Just in time for the end of the year, Solidarity have put themselves in the running for the award for Most Ironic Name for a Political Party of the Year. Their one and only elected representative has jumped ship — to Labour of all parties! Jeff and Will P analyse the situation.

But that’s not the half of it, because Solidarity’s only other meaningful member, Tommy Sheridan, has been arrested and charged with perjury. The best coverage came from the excellent Love and Garbage, which covers this story in almost obsessive detail.

But other bloggers stuck their oar in as well. Mr Eugenides was quick off the block with this post. Kevin Williamson was surprised Tommy Sheridan wasn’t charged with more (an entertaining comments thread as well). Jockshire is shocked by the idea that a politician would lie.

Another party that’s in a spot of bother at the moment is the BNP. Perhaps there should be another irony award, as Gus points out:

[Nick] Griffin is described by BNP dissidents as “behaving like a dictator”. But isn’t that what these guys are after?

Elsewhere in racism news, Michael Greenwell reports on a disturbing trend. Apparently some KKK propaganda promotes Scotland as some kind of haven for whites. Some are even using the Saltire as a racist symbol! Michael Greenwell’s post destroys the myths.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the week came when the Scottish Daily Express came out in favour of Scottish independence. This is big news for the independence movement as it brings it into the same league as Diana conspiracy theories, house prices, political correctness / health and safety gone mad, Christmas being banned and Maddie madness.

Grant Thoms jokes about “supping wi’ the de’il”. Coincidentally, he wrote about it in his 666^th post!

However, Scottish Tory Boy, perhaps saddened by the paper’s ditching of his party, prods at the paper’s ulterior motives.

Shuggy is not too keen on press coverage of the independence debate either:

…what’s concerning me is that there doesn’t seem to be any Scot – or even anyone who writes about Scottish politics – who isn’t a) a nationalist, b) a shit-talker.

The press also goofed up a bit with their headline writing a couple of times this week, as Sarah found.

And while we’re at it, the next time somebody tells you that bloggers merely leech off the mainstream media, remember Adam Smith was a Socialist, who has had one of his blog posts plagiarised almost word-for-word in a letter in The Herald.

Indygal celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Scotland Act. Like the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union, there wasn’t much in the way of celebration, although a lot less has been made of this fact.

Neil Craig, as you might expect if you are a reader of his blog, has gone big on the announcement of the new Forth Road Bridge. He wants to know why the new bridge is expected to cost a minimum of £4.2 billion when the original bridge cost £314m in today’s prices and a tunnel might cost as little as £40m.

This is of great importance because if bloggers’ reports are anything to go by, trains are best avoided. Richard Thomson had a difficult journey up from London, squeezed in between carriages B and C with 27 other people.

Meanwhile, Iain Rubie Dale has spotted an anomaly in some ticket prices. Remember also that before you get on the train you could be one of the almost 10,000 people stopped and searched by British Transport Police, as Reactionary Snob notes.

The Liberal Democrats have a new federal leader, and it’s Nick Clegg. Will P takes a look at his prospects.

On the back of his victory, Mr Clegg hired 59-year-old Brian Eno to be yoof advisor. It impressed me. And Richard Havers made the most of the opportunity to say the great man’s full name! He also casts his mind back to a rather embarrassing-sounding foray into pop for David Steel.

Speaking of the yoof, Niall analyses a survey of them.

On Nick Clegg’s first day he caused a bit of a flap by confirming in a radio interview that he doesn’t believe in God. Jeff says that this makes him “question if Nick Clegg has the sufficiently robust scientific and logical mind”. Not sure I follow the thinking there, given that scientific knowledge is, by definition, made up of observable, testable, falsifiable phenomena. And whatever you believe about God, it certainly doesn’t come under the ’scientific’ heading.

Cabalamat reckons that people who believe in God are “about as intellectually mature as children who believe in Santa Claus”. Elsewhere, Bookdrunk thinks Mr Clegg should have stuck to his original concise answer instead of expanding on it later on.

Meanwhile, Angus Nicolson ponders on Tony Blair’s conversion to Catholicism:

…our ex-PM has repeatedly cast himself as one of the most overtly religious leaders we have ever had, whilst obviously totally and utterly unclear about what he actually believed in. As Catholic commentators are noting, his voting record and political stance is close to anathema to the Catholic faith on issue such as abortion, civil partnerships and the war in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Robert Sharp has an interesting view on the Church of England. Does it represent Britain to some extent on the international stage, and if so is it not reasonable for atheists to poke their nose into its affairs?

While the story about Northern Rock has died down a bit, Holyrood Watcher is still analysing it and thinks it is going to end in tears.

On the credit crunch in general Bill Cameron ponders the implications of central banks printing money to try and solve the problem.

Scott at Love and Garbage has a must-read post about his memories of the Lockerbie bombing, which happened 19 years ago this week.

Clairwil has written about her experiences with heroin addicts.

Stewart McDonald tackles the suggestion that the SNP are “villains of the year” towards the LGBT community.

Cassilis sticks up for ‘Fairytale of New York’. But FlyingRodent notes:

Hopefully, those outraged by this trivial non-story will be just as broadminded when they find their teenage daughters sexy-dancing to my upcoming Christmas single Ho Ho Ho, Bitchez (Y’All Muthafuckin’ Reindeer Betta Step Tha Fuck Off).

Celtic Lion has a question about the fondness the SNP and the Conservatives have for Norway and Iceland. It doesn’t seem like much to me. David Cameron made one trip to Norway, and the SNP have been looking to Norway for inspiration for years and years. Celtic Lion are looking for anyone’s thoughts on the matter though.

Mind you, Reactionary Snob definitely thinks that the SNP and the Conservatives are “up a tree”.

Bishop Hill brings to our attention the news that a canton in Switzerland is implementing a flat tax of 1.8%! It will be very interesting to see how well it works.

Cassilis wonders where Boris Johnson has gone.

Perhaps more saliently, Mr Eugenides wonders where Wendy Alexander has gone.

If you can stand to take any more of it, here is some more on Trumptown from akatsukira.

Garry thinks that Gordon Brown should not smile. It is rather scary.

Rory Maxwell takes a look at Labour’s obsession with the Conservatives. A common observation, but it never gets boring to point it out.

Craig ponders why you sometimes get lots of variants of the same product.

Aaand finally, Alex Massie has this interesting post about the importance of cigarettes in cinema.

Aside from the odd mention of God and Santa (in the same breath), this has been a Christmas-free roundup. Not intentional, so I will leave you with this note from ASwaS, celebrating the Winter Solstice.

Things will be quieter next week as bloggers tend to put away their keyboards over the Christmas period. So there will not be a roundup next week. However, I have a feeling that Will P will pop up next week with some kind of post looking at how the changes in government over the past year have affected bloggers.

So the next proper roundup will be on the 6^th of January — late for a first foot, I know. It will be presented to you by Reactionary Snob. So if you’re celebrating, have an enjoyable Christmas and a happy new year.

By the way, I have become aware of some problems with the nomination form. At least one submission was rejected as spam and never got to us. Moreover, it is now letting masses of spam in. So I’ll have a look at that over Christmas and see if I can fix it. But in the meantime, send all those nominations in to scottishroundup@gmail.com. Your suggestions are very much appreciated.

Hi folks! Me again this week, and what a week! Who knew that a golf course would get people talking so much?

So let’s tee off right away (sorry, I’l stop now!). Clairwil reckons that Donald Trump’s plans for a golf resort in Aberdeenshire will, all in all, be a good thing for Scotland, and therefore the rules can stand to be bent a little. Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting agrees, and thinks that Aberdeenshire Council’s planning committee – which rejected the initial application – made the wrong decision. Richard Havers is far more cautious, and Holyrood Watcher, who is clearly not a fan of golf, wonders why anyone who was not willing to come to Scotland’s other golf courses would come to a new one in Aberdeenshire.

However, Aberdeenshire Councillors appear to agree with Jeff’s assessment, with Martin Ford, the Convener of the committee overseeing the application being dismissed from his post at a Council meeting. Cllr Ford receives sympathy from Andrew Burns and Angus Nicolson.

And the process which has led to the plans being called in by the Scottish Government has raised a few eyebrows. Kezia Dugdale smells something fishy, while Angus Nicolson reckons that where planning issues are concerned, not only does everything have to be above board, but it has to be seen to be above board.

But at Holyrood, Nicol Stephen is leading the criticism, much to the delight of Iain Rubie Dale. However, there seem to be more bloggers lining up to take pot shots at the LibDem Leader: Neil Craig takes a look at Stephen’s accusation of ‘cleverness’ on the part of Alex Salmond and wonders when that became a bad thing. While Calum Cashley and Mark McDonald are of the view that Nicol Stephen’s questions have fairly reasonable answers.

Meanwhile, Hacksaw Jim Duggan wonders if Nicol Stephen ought to be throwing stones on this particular issue. And as Richard Thomson and Grant Thoms note, if the reaction of the local press in Nicol Stephen’s Aberdeen heartland is anything to go by, the LibDem Leader’s approach to the story might be backfiring.

Scottish Tory Boy, last week’s excellent rounder-upper, has noticed how quiet Wendy Alexander is over the matter. Conversely, Osama Saeed notes how quiet Nicol Stephen has been over Wendy Alexander’s own political difficulties, and is unhappy about how the press have stopped talking about Donorgate.

Speaking of which, Clairwil discusses Labour donor (at least, until recently) Willie Haughey, who appears to have done rather well out of Labour’s time in office – surely a co-incidence – while RfS looks at the case of Renfrewshire Councillor Tommy Williams, who is under investigation for fraud after being fired from his post as Glasgow City Council.

So scandals have been making waves in the blogosphere, leading Edinburgh Labour Councillor Andrew Burns to write a good post on how all of this spoils politics, and tarnishes the public’s view of politicians.

Elsewhere, terror legislation at Westminster comes under the spotlight, with Bill Cameron taking a look at MPs’ reaction to proposals to extend the time limit on detention without charge from 28 days to 42. And Scott at Love and Garbage takes a look at the UK Government’s approach to civil liberties, following a speech by Jack Straw on the subject.

And during the week, Newsnight produced a report which basically tore to shreds the conclusions reached by right-wing think-tank Policy Exchange on the subject of hateful literature in mosques. Osama Saeed takes a look at the report, while Garry and BookDrunk are exasperated at how the rest of the media simply took Policy Exchange’s word for it, and take a look at the think-tank’s reaction to criticism.

Meanwhile, Kezia Dugdale takes the Tories to task for their policies on single mothers, and looks at alternatives to what the Conservative Party is proposing.

On a similar, and far grimmer note, IndyGal looks at a case of child rape in Queensland, and how the perpetrators have managed to avoid jail. I should advise readers that I personally found the subject incredibly uncomfortable to read about, and it’s a testament to IndyGal’s support for child welfare that she can bring herself to produce a post about it.

To a lighter subject, now, and funding for Edinburgh. Edinburgh Labour Councillor Ewan Aitken calls for extra funding for the Capital, but doubts that it will arrive. On the other hand, Glasgow Labour Councillor Aileen Colleran notes that the Government are considering this issue and wonders why Edinburgh is all that special.

Meanwhile, Mark McDonald and IndyGal are raging at a Scottish Parliamentary Committee’s decision not to support the abolition of the Graduate Endowment.

Elsewhere, Saturday saw the largest protests against fuel prices in seven years, with a protest convoy by hauliers travelling along Scotland’s roads. If they’re looking for a sympathetic hearing, they won’t get one from either Tartan Hero or Iain Rubie Dale.

And the Roundup’s very own Duncan has popped up at Liberal Conspiracy, discussing notions of liberalism and what the concept actually means.

On foreign policy, Richard Havers, Holyrood Watcher and Mr. Eugenides all lay in to Gordon Brown for sneaking into Lisbon to sign the EU Reform Treaty long after everyone else had done so, citing a diary clash as his reason for being late, and Ewan Watt casts an eye over a plan to offer fast-tracked EU membership to Serbia in exchange for their recognition of any independence declaration for Kosovo.

In other news, Cassilis comes out in favour of career politicians, while for everyone else, Angry Steve notes that IT skills appear to be undervalued by employers.

Clearly greater IT skills are needed at The Scotsman whose new-look website has been unveiled to a world that isn’t quite ready for it. Certainly, the main comments up to now have been less than favourable, with both Duncan and David Farrer voicing their displeasure.

Staying with the MSM, and News Corporation catches the eye of bloggers this week. Bill Cameron has his eyebrows well and truly raised by an advert for the company in the Telegraph – a rival publication! And The Sun – one of NC’s titles, of course – trumpets Rupert Murdoch’s decision to pass control of UK operations to his son James, though Garry notes that the paper’s website has modestly declined to give readers the chance to leave their own notes of congratulation on the page.

And finally, Michael Greenwell releases a message on behalf of our canine friends everywhere.

So that’s your lot for this week. I’m off to celebrate resisting the temptation to load all of this week’s Roundup with golf-based puns. Duncan is conducting proceedings next week in what will doubtless be the last Roundup before Christmas. As always, you can leave your nominations through the gadgetyshangalang on the right, or by dropping us a cod at scottishroundup@gmail.com. Bye-de-bye!

What a delight to be asked to write the weekly roundup and also a cracking money saving exercise as it seems this Saturday night ScottishToryBoy will be staying in writing about blogs…good times.

As Doctorvee stated last week, there were a number of posts on one subject and frankly this week is just the same. It has, however, brought back memories of University i.e. starting a task the night before it’s due in and although facing a deadline, still having plenty of time to procrastinate – I, unlike Doris Lessing’s, am full of praise for the internet, but I will get to her later.

There’s another lady to talk about first as it seems that many people are still discussing the future of Ms Alexander with even Murdo Fraser getting in on the act. While it seemed last weekend that the pressure was firmly on Ms Alexander, as the week progressed it seemed the story lost some of the heat, although I am sure some of the Sunday will turn the heat back on her.

The ever wonderful ScottishToryBoy, self promotion I know, picked up on the continued presence of the Labour and Lib Dem coalition at Holyrood, the Lib Lab pact if you will and posted a comment on the Lib Dem voice blog asking why no Lib Dem MSPs were willing to comment on the Paul Green affair. A comment which prompted one Lib Dem activist to express her disillusionment with the Lib Dems, you ain’t the only one judging by some recent Yougov polls that put Nicol Stephen’s popularity at just 4%, a fact Alex Salmond was quick to mention on Thursday!

Over in Nat land, Adam Smith was a socialist believes that the standards of the Scotsman newspaper have went down hill recently while his SNP colleague Calum Cashley believes modern politics scholars will remember the Fifth of November 2007 for the Unionist plot after Parliament voted for a commission to strengthen the devolution settlement. Brian Taylor gives a somewhat less partisan view of the alternative to the National Conversation while Tartan Hero believes the SNP are in a win-win situation as apparently we are all headed in the same direction, just at different speeds although Annabel Goldie seems to think differently:

Alex Neil: I congratulate Annabel Goldie on travelling over 10 years from being anti-devolution to being pro-devolution. At that rate of travel, will she be in favour of independence in 10 years’ time? As former minister Allan Stewart pointed out, independence is more logical than devolution.

Annabel Goldie: In eight years in this Parliament, I have always found Mr Neil’s taste to be too racy for my comfort, and I would certainly not pledge my or this country’s future to the direction in which he wants to travel.

Over at SNP Tactical Voting, while some of his blogging colleagues are endlessly devoting their time to writing about donorgate, Tactical Voter seems to believe that the scandal has run its course. Tartan Hero seems to be going for Charlie Gordon over his involvement in donorgate and struggles to believe Gordon’s conscience is clear while IndyGal seems to find Charlie Gordon’s video statement bizarre while also announcing she has a thing for men in kilts.

The North to Leith blog makes a very welcome return and it’s of little surprise what topic it writes about, yup, you’ve guessed it, Charlie Gordon. It seems however, the Councillor Mark McDonald has missed quite a bit of the goings on, it’s a good job other bloggers did not or I would have struggled for content today!!!

Justified Spinner appears to not like the moniker “Team Wendy” and, like many, is keen to find out who the Labour mole is who releases so much information to the media while the 1820 blog believes the only man that can save Scottish Labour from “jumped up cooncilors and hapless half-wits and numpties” is Baron Foukes of Cumnock and is urging readers to sign a petition in that vein as is the Scottish Patient. On the subject of Baron Foulkes, his speech in the Devolution Review debate on Thursday was cracking, it can be viewed here.

Seems the ever cutting Mr Eugenides is thoroughly enjoying Ms Alexander’s plight and, much like the SNP, views Wendy as a human shield. While many focussed on Wendy and co, J. Arthur MacNumpty blogs about the issue of election costs, an issue that seems to have gone somewhat unnoticed this week.

The Scottish Labour Party’s solo blogging voice, Kezia Dugdale, seems to have made herself an enemy in ConservativeMind where she is compared to Councillor Terry Kelly – Terry Kelly being one of four things ConservativeMind likes to talk about, the other three being chocolate oranges, George Galloway and the wrestler Kurt Angle!

However, it has been interesting to find some other Scottish Tory blogs out there; I felt I was the only one carrying the torch for so long after the demise of former Tory blogs, some more helpful to the party cause than others. ConservativeMind led to me stumble towards Right for Scotland who, like many others, has been blogging quite heavily on the Donorgate scandal while also criticising Aberdeen for rejecting Donald Trump’s plans while stating “If the inbred country bumkin twats want to turn down what is in effect shed loads of free money, housing, jobs and prosperity let them.” Charming!

Freedom and whisky mentions the intervention of the SNP Government in the rejected Donald Trump bid. Osama Saeed has a wee pop at Douglas Alexander not appearing on Question Time while Right for Scotland believes that the family problem Mr Alexander had to deal with was his sister going to jail. Clairwil seems quite critical of Wendy for hiding during the ongoing scandal; certainly she is critical of the excuses Wendy has given.

Over in Labour land Kezia Dugdale is back to blogging after her secondment to Wendy Alexanders office and discusses the issue of prescription charges and who was right, Labour (extending the number of chronic conditions eligible for exemptions) or the SNP (abolition of all charges – every thing is free!) Aside from that, she’s been rather quiet, perhaps still reeling after being bought a drink by ScottishToryBoy who has notoriously deep pockets and short arms!!

Edinburgh City Councillor Andrew Burns is concerned by some contradictory messages from certain quarters over whether or not bikes will be allowed on the Trams while his Labour group leader, Ewan Aitken, hits out at the CoSLA Scottish Government concordat and CoSLA’s reluctance to talk about figures.

Believe it or not some bloggers found other stuff to talk about, crazy I know. Both John Connell and Mike Power discuss Doris Lessing’s acceptance speech after winning the Nobel Prize for literature and seem to have quite similar views on many aspects of her speech.

It seems that the row over Morrissey’s comments in NME has continued and it is quite clear that Anas does not like “the streak of wank that is Morrissey.” I never expected to mention Morrissey in a blogging roundup; I was toying with even going to see him on his tour in Feb – funny that he’s making such comments with a tour looming.

Staying with music, Robert Sharp believes that some confuse evolution with death when they claim MP3’s are killing the music industry. He also comes up with some nice ideas on how a band could maximise their output from a 12 track album every 18 months or so to releasing a single track a month, say, as part of a podcast. An intriguing post, but one I hope my favourite artist, Ryan Adams, doesn’t read, his fondness of releasing numerous records a year is proving to be my downfall.

Onto the serious issue of blogging censorship, well, not quite, but it seems that blogging is restricted at Glasgow City council according to BellgroveBelle although she seems most concerned that people in the IT department don’t even know what a blog is! Seems strange that a vehicle for informing constituents of what you’ve been up to, at absolutely no cost to the taxpayer, should be blocked. I’m glad to hear at least some level of blogging has been returned.

Anyway, I think that’ll do for this week. Thanks to Doctorvee for letting me in on this roundup malarkey, I have to admit I rather enjoyed it and also for passing me the nominations. I have no idea who is writing next weeks roundup but I wish them all the best, you never know, I might even get asked back..

Cheers,

ScottishToryBoy

Well well well. Where to begin? There have been so many posts on one particular issue — many from the same few blogs — that I don’t quite know how to approach this without breaking the loose “maximum one post per blog per week” rule.

Suffice it to say that there was an abundance of top-notch Scottish blogging this week — and not just on that main issue. I’ve been tearing my hear out trying to put this roundup together. So I have upped the limit to two. (And it still wasn’t enough.)

Anyway, first things first. I think it is fair to say that Brown hasn’t been in such a mess since the filming of 2 Girls 1 Cup. But north of the border, bloggers have been more concerned about the leader of the Scottish branch of the Labour party and a donation from Paul Green.

For a primer on the issue, where better to go than Brian Taylor’s excellent blog?

Calum Cashley has been particularly strong on this issue. He outlines why Labour’s claims that this is all “muddle not fiddle” do not add up. He also reckons that Wendy Alexander is obliged to reveal all of her donors.

Guido Fawkes got a good scoop, with a personal letter that Wendy Alexander wrote to Paul Green. Oh dear.

Fitaloon has also been covering this issue in depth. He is calling it kebabgate (geddit?) and has been looking at the people getting skewered.

Bill Cameron brought his blog out of hiatus with a neat quote that sums up a lot of the feeling surrounding this: We’re Labour – the law is for others.

Gus had a couple of interesting comments:

Looks like the Herald broke it because the Scotsman changed its front page from earlier editions to run with it. Well done the Herald. It’s amazing what you find when you remove your head from up Labours arse isn’t it!

But perhaps more saliently (and this is a question being asked in several places):

…how did Bendy Wendy spend £17,000 on an election campaign in which she was unopposed? What the hell did she spend the money on?

In yet murkier waters, Adam Smith was a Socialist smells another rat.

Joe Gordon has an interesting conspiracy theory. Make of it what you will.

However, Alex Massie thinks that the scandal has been blown out of proportion, and not as serious as other Labour scandals from the past decade.

Meanwhile, Love and Garbage has a poll about all of this [party political content] in the official transcript of Gordon Brown’s press conference.

In slightly brighter news from Wendy Alexander’s perspective, David Farrer seems pleased to see her going down the fiscal autonomy route.

The apparent problems with the economy seems to have been forgotten about a bit. But Richard Leyton has been thinking about it, and wonders if the economic downturn is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I suppose ‘yes’ is the answer. It’s a bit like how it’s not actual inflation that matters, but expected future inflation.

Richard Thomson chose to focus on the political taunts that Gordon Brown has been at the receiving end of. He makes some interesting comparisons to similar instances of the past — and noted that it effectively finished them. I’m personally not sure if the ‘Mr. Bean’ thing will stick, but who’s to say?

It certainly feels like a turning point though. Shuggy now thinks he was definitely right about Gordon Brown.

As I write — later than I’d like to think about on a Saturday night — I have just read on the Scotland on Sunday’s website that Paul Green was in line to receive an honour. I am sure that later today the blogs will be buzzing about it.

In the wake of all of Labour’s problems, ASwaS takes a look at the opinion polls, and assesses the prospect of Labour losing the next Westminster election in Scotland.

Reactionary Snob has also been looking at the polls… and at Brown’s brown breeks.

Tartan Hero has information on another poll that will be in today’s Scottish Sunday Express. Approval ratings for the Scottish Executive are at 54%, compared with 11% for the UK Government.

Another big story this week has been the unveiling of Scotland’s new slogan. Welcome to Scotland is perhaps not the most original choice, as Reactionary Snob points out. He calls it the Emperor’s New Slogan and is rather scathing about the accompanying images.

Colin Campbell wasn’t too impressed either. Meanwhile, Cassilis has the full lowdown on the different stages of design.

Osama Saeed, however, is impressed with the new campaign — and notes a contrast between two photographs.

This feels like ancient history now, but it’s still worth including. Will P wrote about Gavin Yates, Wendy Alexander’s new head of communications (he must be busy) who, in a previous incarnation, wrote some less-than-flattering things about Wendy Alexander and Scottish Labour. Indeed, his posts were even featured here from time to time.

Elsewhere, Clairwil has a troubling tale of someone who is suffering from depression because she thinks (but doesn’t know) that she has been raped and isn’t getting any proper help.

Yesterday was World AIDS Day. Posts come from akatsukira and Kezia Dugdale.

Osama Saeed has a very sensible post on the issue of naming a teddy bear after a prophet: If this is a crime, then there are a lot of Muslims guilty of it.

Aberdeenshire Council’s decision to turn down Donald Trump’s offer to build a golf course in the area has been the Lib-Lab pact continues. He points out some figures that show that the Lib Dems have voted with Labour 67% of the time since May.

Scottish Tory Boy agrees with him that it is unfair to talk about an SNP / Conservative alliance.

But the way for that situation has certainly been paved. The SNP appears to have buried the hatchet and has changed its constitution to allow coalition with the Conservatives. Will P says that time has healed the wounds inflicted by Thatcher.

Mr Eugenides notes that the country’s first publicly-funded Hindu school is in a spot of bother with the Hindu Council UK. It excludes many Hindus from attending.

Pat Kane writes in support of “shuttlefolk”, a group of people that Christopher Harvie has derided.

Councillor Andrew Burns continues in his admirable quest for electoral reform, looking at the Electoral Commission’s response to the Gould Report.

Shuggy despairs at The Scotsman’s attempts to get people celebrating St. Andrew’s Day:

Personally, one of the things about Scotland that I used to think was worth celebrating is that we didn’t go in for the ghastly kitsch that is St Patrick’s Day.

Anastasia Beaumont-Bott writes about her journey with LGBTory.

Morrissey has got himself into trouble for comments he made about immigrants. Bookdrunk pointed out the irony of him making these comments having emigrated. Isn’t it always the way? If I got a pound every time someone told me they wanted to leave the country because of all those immigrants…

Flying Rodent was not too impressed with Morrissey’s comments either:

…whenever Morrissey comes back for a visit, all the locals spot him coming and urgently whisper Bollocks, it’s that pretentious twat out of The Smiths. Quick, pretend you’re from Warsaw, and maybe he’ll go away.

However, Clairwil defended him, complete with some brilliant anti-Labour bits.

Jeff popped in to American Express to exchange his Sterling for some dollars and was in for a shock. Scottish banknotes are worth less than Bank of England notes! (My suggestion: could it be something to do with the fact that Scottish banknotes aren’t legal tender, whereas Bank of England notes are at least legal tender south of the border?)

Richard Thomson met two different people, and got two different reactions about independence.

Cabalamat has been looking at Republicans in the USA. He has a rather radical suggestion for a way forward for America.

Gordon McLean has some interesting thoughts on solitude.

Angry Steve finds some ironic graffiti.

Mark McDonald reckons Alex McLeish is a fool for going to Birmingham City. Craig wonders what a contract is worth in sport these days.

Finally, a bit of a blog campaign. Mr Eugenides outlines why we can’t turn them away.

Sorry for the length of the roundup! It was a big week. Thanks as always for the nominations. If you have any nominations, please write either in the form on the right or by email to scottishroundup@gmail.com. Next week’s roundup will be written by Scottish Tory Boy. For his sake, I hope it’s a bit quieter…