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!