A non-toff snout in the trough

Hello, and welcome to this week’s roundup! It’s been a good few weeks since I’ve edited the roundup, so I should say thanks to Will for doing such a great job holding the fort over the past couple of months, particularly amid some perplexing technical issues.

Headline of the week comes from the aedjt (is that pronounced how I think it is??). The bother Michael Martin has found himself in seems to be symptomatic of the wider problems within the Labour Party, says aedjt. Jeff wonders how it all look from the outside. As an outsider, I’d say it looks pretty bad.

Meanwhile, Tartan Hero notes the irony in the fact that for some people the Speaker of the Commons is too common. But for Indypal2, guestblogging at Indygal, the issue comes down to greed and no amount of complaining that you’re being picked on by toffs can avoid it.

Christopher Harvie made a bit of a gaffe this week with his comments about Lockerbie and Scotland’s youth. Mostly it seems to have been an excuse for people to mention which towns they think are a complete dump. Will P says he must never have seen Chorley. For Jeff it’s Blackpool. The adejt asks if Mr Harvie has visited Methil which is in the constituency of Kirkcaldy where he stood last year. To be fair, even Kirkcaldy is a bit of a tip.

The whole thing was a bit of an open goal for fashion critics as well. Iain Rubie Dale points out that Mr Harvie regularly wears plus fours to the Parliament. Meanwhile, Holyrood Watcher critiques his clashing jacket and shirt!

Like Will P, ASwaS points out that this is what happens when you ask for non-politicians to get elected. Andrew Burns sympathises and thinks that Mr Harvie’s apology should be the end of the matter.

But doubtlessly Christopher Harvie will have to learn how to be more tactful. Many agree that he might have had a point but just expressed it clumsily. Mushkush admits to having visited Ground Zero, but thinks that the idea of turning Lockerbie into some kind of tourist attraction is “really dignified and sensitive as well.” Presumably that was sarcasm.

Richard Havers points out, “Harvie’s attacks have an air of arrogance, and mis-placed use of the language that inflames debate rather than furthering it.”

Elsewhere, Christine Grahame has opened her big gob again, and it’s pretty embarrassing as usual. Surreptitious evil despairs.

Someone else who would have done well to keep his mouth shut this week is Matt Drudge. Bill Cameron was none too impressed when the gossip columnist spilled the beans on Prince Harry’s deployment to Afghanistan.

It’s the Scottish Lib Dem conference this weekend. No dropping off at the back there. Scottish Tory Boy “genuinely cannot think of anything more boring that a Lib Dem conference”, but still decided to write a post about it anyway. Neil Craig seemed similarly exasperated as he analysed the motions.

The SNP bloggers weren’t too impressed either. Justified Spinner is scornful of Nicol Stephen’s approach to the SNP for cooperation on the issue of Local Income Tax.

In the interest of balance, I should find someone with something nice to say about the Lib Dems. I looked high and low, but all I could find was Brian Taylor.

With the abolition of tolls on the Forth Road Bridge, congestion has predictably increased. Kezia Dugdale notes that the rush hour has now become a rush hour and a half.

It’s not all bad news in the realm of transport though. Alastair’s train ran six minutes late for 24 days running. But Alastair realises why this is a good thing.

Meanwhile, Bellgrove Belle wants to know why her bus had a TV on it.

Bishop Hill has done some excellent investigation work on Planet Relief and E-Day. The BBC don’t come out of it looking too good. There was also much hilarity when the trumpeted E-Day actually saw higher than usual rates of energy consumption.

Jamie Hepburn, Richard Thomson and ASwaS all hail the removal of the graduate endowment.

Over at Silversprite, there is an interesting post outlining the views of a non-blogger on this whole blogging malarkey. It’s an interesting thought — who does read blogs?

Breaking my informal “one post per blog” rule, I must include this brilliant post about bloggers in the Outer Hebrides. Among them are three bloggers from Berenray, which has a population of just 124! It is yet another reminder of just how big the Scottish blogosphere is, and it makes me wonder why I bother even pretending that I can adequately “round up” these diverse and numerous blogs.

In a similar vein, don’t forget the Islay Blogging Roundup. If ever you finish the Scottish Roundup wanting more, visit it for a peek into life on Islay.

Kyle McRae tested out CNN’s new iReport service, a news site based entirely on user generated content that never sees the touch of an editor. Unfortunately, a spurious story about a forest fire in the Highlands — complete with classic hoax image — made it onto the front page.

Scott laments the steady decline of Radio 5 Live. (That’s a topic dear to my heart as well. The post is coming up on my blog soon.)

Finally Woken, an Indonesian living in Scotland, writes about the hassle an Indonesian national faces when they have to visit another country.

Meanwhile, Cassilis casts his glance stateside, and conducts a pre-post-mortem on Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Her shrill demeanour lost her votes, says Cassilis. But Alex Massie reckons it’s down to her main strategist. The same man was responsible for Labour’s terrible “Forward, Not Back” slogan.

David Farrer conducts his regular survey of the geographical distribution of jobs in the UK, concluding that government policy is playing right into Alex Salmond’s hands.

Constitution fans take note — David Torrance reports that Kenneth Clarke is not too keen on Malcolm Rifkind’s East Lothian Answer.

Over at Craigblog, Craig ponders the “buy one get one free” offer that might not be so good for you.

Finally, Mike Smith rants about the tyranny of the telephone. As a fellow hater of the telephone, I have to say I know exactly what he’s talking about!

Aaaand relax. There ends this week’s roundup. Having had several weeks off, this has been quite a reminder of how draining it can be to spend your Saturday night compiling this thing. I don’t know who’s doing next week’s roundup yet. I haven’t thought that far ahead. But whoever is doing it, be assured that your nominations to scottishroundup@gmail.com will be considered. Don’t forget the little from on the right as well. Thanks for reading.

Comments are closed.