Good morning all, and welcome to Ewan Watt’s first ever Roundup.

I thought I’d start out today by congratulating those who finished in the Total Politics top 40 Scottish blogs, including the Roundup which lurked in a very impressive 31. No doubt Scottish blogs will have a strong showing in the UK top 100. Some fantastic entries… although no glaringly obvious omissions…

Although the Glenrothes by-election is looking more and more likely to be delayed until November, the race to succeed the late John McDougall still lingered in the headlines this week, notably Labour’s failure to get a candidate. In addition, Gordon Brown has allegedly “stepped in to help mastermind Labour’s bid to beat the odds and win the Glenrothes by-election.”

Mr Eugenides has already suggested that the First Minister should be breaking out the champagne. SNP Tactical Voting claims that the by-election is set to take place on either October 30th or November 6th. Furthermore, in a story close to home, Tactical Voting claims that there’s a strong rumour that Lindsey Roy CBE could be Labour’s candidate for Glenrothes, yours truly’s former Headmaster at Inverkeithing!

There’s also an interesting post here on SNP Tactical Voting about the potential role for bloggers in the forthcoming election. Stephen’s Linlightgow Journal notes that the Labour Party are already calling Glenrothes “hostile territory” and are preparing activists for the proverbial “run not a sprint”.

Next up we venture – rather than Zoom – across the pond and look at John McCain’s (he claims to be a distant relative of King Robert the Bruce y’know) running mate, Governor Sarah Palin. Due to the blanket media coverage I can’t remember what happened the night before McCain’s pick, but I’m sure some of us do. Shattered ceilings or walking on broken glass?

Yours truly thought it to be a fantastic pick, although deeply regretting the fact that I didn’t take a punt on Palin after I was told this two months ago by a McCain backer in Washington. The Debatable Land is waaaay ahead of the rest of us and is already looking at a Palin Vs Clinton match up in 2012, adding that it’s not “beyond the bounds of comprehension to anything like the extent it might have been just four years ago.” Pitty for the guy I know who owns Petraeus2012.com!

Playing Devil’s Advocate is Caron’s Musings who admits having no idea “what was in John McCain’s mind when he picked her to be his running mate, or why on earth she accepted”. Walk 500 Miles for Scotland is for Barack Obama and admits that another four to eight years of Republicanism will be hard to take.

Time will tell.

Closer to home, the Scottish Liberal Democrats selected Shetlander Tavish Scott to replace Nicol Stephen as their leader. J. Arthur MacNumpty is deeply sceptical about whether Scott can get the Lib Dems out of their present “mess”, adding that the member from Shetland will merely offer nothing more than a “visceral hatred” of the SNP.

Anthony Barnett goes a little further, asking if the selection of Scott is a clear example of the Lib Dems voting “for the hole into which they are digging.” Over at the Sound of Gunfire, apologies are offered to Mike Rumbles after Bernard Salmon confesses to regularly jinx Lib Dem leadership candidates.

Two Doctors takes Scott to task over his oscillating stance on an independence referendum and offers up the option of a “multi-option referendum”, an option that has not endeared the new Liberal leader. Richard Thomson congratulates Scott for receiving “a stonking” 59% of the votes cast, and after some complex arithmetic points out that his party must have a membership of 4,029.

The Scottish Government were taken to task for allegedly failing to fulfill its election promise to put 1,000 extra police on Scotland’s streets. Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal highlights the fact that the SNP have failed in this election pledge because they pledged 1,000 more police rather than 1,000 more recruits by 2011. Scottish Unionist grapples with the SNP’s spin machine revealing that the Scottish Government has overseen a net gain of 74 police officers and not the 150 as initial claimed. Mr Smith Goes to Holyrood asks why the SNP made such an election commitment if they had no chance of achieving it in the first place.

After a cracking medal tally in Beijing, Team GB returned to Blighty. Alongside their heroes welcome, Team GB encountered political bickering about whether Scotland should have its own team at the Olympics. Tom Griffin points out that acting Scottish Labour leader Cathy Jamieson has already distanced herself from Gordon Brown’s calls for a British football team to compete in 2012, suggesting that the home nations should compete against each other in a tournament with the victors going on to represent Team GB. Then, as Bill Cameron pointed out, Scottish – or British – Olympic hero Chris Hoy became the political football for allegedly poo-pooing the idea that Scotland should seceed from Team GB.

Richard Thomson claims that Hoy said no such thing. Scottish Unionist claims that this year’s Olympics were the “most political I can recall”, while at Ideas of Civilisation serious questions about a Scottish Olympic team are raised, in addition to the question that perhaps even the “SNP can be too Scottish.”

Meanwhile, Mr Eugenides went Union Jack hunting as the Scottish members of Team GB took part in an open top bus on the Royal Mile. His sociological experiment found one UJ. Otan2 scoffs at the BBC for calling “the shipping forecast, Jerusalem, Greensleeves and harmonies based on the chimes of Big Ben” British. Bill Cameron just enjoyed Boris Johnson’s “bravura performance”.

The Ben Lomond Free Press is shocked, disgusted and surprised at the World Health Organisation’s report about health inequalities in Britain, notably the fact that a male in Calton will live 28 years less than someone living fifteen miles away in Lenzie. Meanwhile, the Duke of Sutherland is offering the nation two of his paintings for £100m.

Bernard Salmon looked at the “kerfuffle” over the Duke of Sutherland’s offer, noting that he would be “quite happy” for the taxpayer to purchase such an important piece of culture that’s actually worth £300m if necessary to keep them here.

The Daily Rabble finds the SNP’s attack against the Calman Commission “annoying”, while Clairwil looks at racism in the workplace.

The Cumbernauld Comrade celebrates the fact that according to a team of researchers at the universities of Manchester and Sheffield, his home town is the fourth most cheerful place in Britain.

Havering Havers looks at the collapse of Zoom Airlines, notably the SNP’s excuse that the Government should be using its energy windfall to help the Scottish economy.

Malc In the Burgh was perplexed as to who would be firing questions at the First Minister from Labour’s side of the aisle, while Angry Steve believes that Edinburgh is a “great place to live”, irrespective of the research that had so pleased Cumbernauld Comrade.

Mushkush ridicules the war on drugs and calls on Scotland to buy opium from Afghanistan and emulate the Swiss by producing legal heroin. SNP Watch claims that the ‘modern’ Conservative Party are still the same old Tories.

Finally, Ideas of Civilisation analysed the falling standards of game shows and how this reflects on society at large.

Thank you all, that’s that for next week. I leave you in the more able hands of Will Patterson next week, so do get your nominations in by emailing scottishround@gmail.com.

Yes, believe it or not this is the 100th roundup ever. At least, that is according to how the posts have been categorised, which could be a bit hit and miss in fairness. That is the main roundup, not counting specials or non-political roundups. The maths whizzes among you will have worked out that this means that Scottish Roundup is two years old in a month’s time.

I won’t get too self-indulgent about it though. I have decided to celebrate by posting this roundup late. Sorry about that. I decided I would do it this week when it looked like I was going to be substantially less busy than I turned out to be. Plus, the ’silly season’ has not provided any shortage of good stories, so this is quite a long roundup!

By the way, if you missed the non-political roundup, it was published here on Wednesday. Now on to this week’s roundup!

Alex Salmond made a rare slip-up this week when he appeared to express support for Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies. He was so embarrassed that he ended up phoning Morning Extra on Radio Scotland, as Brian Taylor outlined.

Ideas of Civilisation looks at the pitfalls of praising Thatcher. It always seems as though politicians of any party will be just too happy to associate themselves with Thatcher, only to run a distance from her the next week (or morning as was the case with Salmond this week).

James at Two Doctors disputed that Thatcher’s economic and social policies were all that different. But he found a lot to agree with in the rest of Alex Salmond’s interview.

Labour, of course, took full use of the opportunity to have a pop at the Tartan Tories. But many bloggers pointed out a certain flaw in Labour’s reasoning. For one thing, it was just this week that Iain Gray was trying to hook up with the Tories, which Mr H wrote about. Richard Thomson thought it was a good idea for Iain Gray to seek a cross-party approach. That was until the Conservatives thumbed their nose at Labour, as Jeff noted.

Will P pointed out also that if Labour found Thatcherite economics so abhorrent, they should have spent the past 11 years trying to reverse Thatcher’s policies. As did Alasdair, who also pointed out that it was Gordon Brown who invited Margaret Thatcher round to Number 10 for tea. As did Scottish Tory Boy.

Kezia Dugdale retorts, however, that Thatcher’s tea trip was just a matter of courtesy. She also notes that the person chosen by Alex Salmond to be Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, George Mathewson, happens to be fan of Thatcher.

In other Labour-irony-failure news, Caron notes Labour’s tactic of attacking Fife Council budget cuts as they prepare for the Glenrothes by-election. But Labour are strangely quiet about their own period in charge of Fife Council.

Meanwhile, Holyrood Watcher wonders why Labour weren’t better prepared when it came to having their next candidate for the constituency lined up. Will Patterson also wondered when Labour will find a candidate. Malc took a look at the prospects in Glenrothes.

Incidentally, Jeff reckons he knows the date of the Glenrothes by-election — 30 October.

Sticking to Labour’s woes briefly, Mr Eugenides has come across an intriguing theory as to why Gordon Brown has been a failure as a Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, Political Dissuasion lets of some steam about Labour while responding to Tom Harris.

This week there was a terrible air tragedy in Madrid. North Britain asks if the plane that was hit by the catastrophic failure should have been in action in the first place.

There have been moves in Britain’s airports this week as well, but Richard Havers thinks the BBC’s coverage of the story leaves a lot to be desired.

Greener Leith is not very impressed with Alex Salmond’s decision to “rubber stamp” Forth Ports’s planned developments at Leith Docks.

In other environmental comment, in the week when an old message in a bottle was discovered by beach cleaners in St Andrews, Alasdair points out that the real story is all the rubbish that ends up on beaches, not any messages inside them.

Protests of a different kind in China. While the Free Tibet movement has been getting plenty of coverage with the Olympics in China, North Britain notes some of China’s forgotten protesters.

While we’re on the Olympics, Alex Massie looks at government funding for sport and the arts — and concludes that it’s worth it.

Alex Massie has also been prompted by the Olympics to consider the debates around independence. Is it right to focus so narrowly on the economy? Scottish Unionist looks at various politicians’ reactions to Team GB’s success in the Olympics.

Meanwhile, Robert Sharp wonders where India are in the Olympics? Why doesn’t this huge country win more medals?

Richard Thomson is sceptical as to whether or not an athlete’s nationality really matters. In a similar vein, Jeff has a look at certain words and what exactly they mean. What does it mean to be “proud” of an Olympic athlete?

There was trouble for the Scottish Government this week as it appeared to breach the Scotland Act 1998 when it engaged in talks with the Norwegian government about a subsea cable. Scottish Unionist collected some of the defensive (and offensive) Cybernat reactions.

North Britain wonders why Westminster is worried about this sort of thing all of a sudden. But Adopted Domain is suspicious about the timing of this revelation.

We can’t seem to get rid of the flags issue. This week saw yet another flag-based controversy as a Scottish Government tourism leaflet was Photoshopped to replace a Union Flag with the Saltire. Tom Harris called it “dishonest and Stalinist”.

Meanwhile, Scottish Unionist looks at flags and what they mean. Jack Deighton had some other thoughts on flags.

Stephen Glenn stepped over to Open Democracy for a look at the Scottish Lib Dem leadership campaign.

In the wake of Gary Glitter’s return to the UK, Big Rab asks what should be done about sex offenders given the crime’s large re-offending rate.

ASWAS compares the tax policies of John McCain and Barack Obama. He knows which one he prefers.

Meanwhile, there are also tax problems in Scotland, as Mr Smith noticed. Apparently the tax man is struggling to stay prompt because he hasn’t opened letters quickly enough. Would the authorities accept that as an excuse from the taxpayer?

Julie McAnulty looks at ageism.

Shuggy has been thinking back to Michael Gove’s comments about Nuts And / Or Zoo Magazine. He notes that this sort of thing only seems to become dangerous when the proles get their hands on it.

Malc in the Burgh was entertained by Boris Johnson’s appearance on ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’.

Richard Havers wonders where VisitScotland’s priorities are.

Mark Gallagher has some thoughts on Denis MacShane’s ideas on Georgia and Russia. (Is it wrong that whenever I see ‘MacShane’ I first think of Lovejoy?)

And an interesting move in terms of government reaching its people — Stirling Council is now using Twitter. But look out for pitfalls in the world of web 2.0 and the government. Cabalamat noted that the new Number 10 website apparently falls foul of copyright law.

Finally, congratulations to ‘Bellgrove Belle’ Alison Thewliss, who got married a couple of weeks ago as Indygal reported.

That’s all for this week. Next week’s roundup will be edited by Ewan Watt. Get your nominations in by using the form on the right or by emailing scottishroundup@gmail.com. Thanks!

I still haven’t decided whether this is the first non-political roundup or simply the return of it. Whatever, welcome along and I hope you enjoy what you read and find some good posts that would have otherwise escaped your attention.

By the way, I’m looking for a better name for this thing. ‘Non-political roundup’ doesn’t cut it for me — so if you have any ideas for the name of this roundup then get suggesting in the comments!

It is August which means it’s festival time in Edinburgh. Mr Eugenides does his best to avoid the shenanigans. But Alan Sharp has done the opposite and writes about his experiences entering a stand-up comedy competition. Rather him than me.

Meanwhile, rhythmaning reviews the Steve Reich Evening. Sounds like it was great!

The other event that is rather dominant at the moment is the Olympics. In the wake of Michael Phelps’s enormous medals haul, Scott at Love and Garbage reckons he’s come up with the perfect way to rake in the medals — multiple darts events.

Inchy took a while to get into the spirit for the games, but he got there in the end. Gordon McLean is much more enthusiastic about the Olympics.

In other sport news, Alex Massie considers an historic occasion — Scotland playing the auld enemy in cricket for the first time ever. In the event though, the one-day international was disrupted too much by rain and was abandoned as a draw, which Colin Campbell predicted. I suppose Scotland should be happy with that result. As Colin notes: “Better an honourable rain assisted draw than a shellacking I say.”

Meanwhile, Big Rab defends penalty shoot-outs in football — though I wonder if he would have defended them had Dumbarton lost!

Mike Smith reflects on his school days and concludes that they were not the best days of his life. Mr Farty has fonder memories of his youth, but is not so sure it would be as good if he was young today.

Alanna considers a subject that is probably close to many of our hearts — broadband prices. Meanwhile, Robert Sharp faced a bit of an interrogation when he tried to leave TalkTalk. And Peter at Naked Blog had trouble trying to deal with Virgin.

Mr H lets it all out about the various kinds of people you find in bus shelters. Things don’t get much better when he gets on the bus because he also wants smokers banned from buses. 1st Lady has some observations of her own about buses.

Andrew Learmonth has an amusing post about giving up smoking, and seeing a naked lady in the flat opposite his.

Misssy M reflects on her days as a professional Southern Belle! She reckons that floating around this world somewhere there are around 900 photographs of her wearing a smelly green dress. Personally, I don’t think I’d want to be reminded of the experience, but she seems to want to find some of the photographs.

Big Rab has a bee in his bonnet about funny crisp flavours — and it’s all Thatcher’s fault apparently!

Jaggy had a pretty bad experience as one of those “customers”. He had trouble dealing with the used car salesman (a classic).

Ewan Spence looks at Last.fm to see who should have won the Eurovision Song Contest.

Lism bemoans the state of music at the moment, particularly all of the “landfill indie” sloshing around at the moment. She concludes that there is much better music coming out of North America at the moment.

Cameron McEwan did not like Mamma Mia. I wasn’t going to see it anyway, but at least Cameron’s review made me smile.

Jack Deighton [full disclosure: he's my dad!] liked Wall·E a bit more.

1st Lady notes that, despite all the roadworks in Edinburgh at the moment, there are still some fine views.

Finally Woken looks at that most human of traits — being unable to admit when we are wrong.

Cat has spotted a trend that she doesn’t like. Anyone else seen a lot of lovebites recently?

As a nightowl myself, I recognise what Jacq Kelly says about walking through the city at night time.

Dilligaf received an invitation that he couldn’t fail to refuse. Meanwhile, Groanin’ Jock has found some more Chinglish.

Noddy brings us a guessing game. I won’t give it away..

Craig at Craigblog notes the irony of newspapers writing about Peaches Geldof’s desperate attempts to get into the papers.

Mr Farty developed his own twist on the phonetic alphabet.

Finally, Anas has an exclusive: an interview with the pigeon in his kitchen.

So that’s it, the first non-political roundup. Hope you enjoyed it. I have to say, big thanks to Misssy M who provided me with so many great suggestions. I really enjoyed discovering some new blogs. Some of the posts have made me chuckle in an otherwise crappy week so far! Hope you have all enjoyed reading the roundup as well.

The next non-political roundup (GAH! — must get a better name for this) will be on 17 September. It was due to be written by Jacq Kelly from Salt n Sauce, but going by the information in this post that might not be happening. So I’ll see if I can arrange someone else to do it.

In the meantime, please do nominate any great posts or blogs that you know of either by using the easy form on the right of the page, or by emailing scottishroundup@gmail.com. Thanks!

Hi folks! Once again we’ve proven that there is no such thing as a silly season. August is in full swing and this week there’s been plenty for bloggers to get their teeth into.

We start in Fife, where the death of John MacDougall MP from a long illness could have massive implications for UK politics. Anseo begins, by distilling the reactions to MacDougall’s passing. But already, attention is turning to the now-forthcoming Glenrothes By-Election, and already, mud is being thrown. Scottish Unionist accuses the SNP of preparing for this poll before the late MP had even died, a claim attacked by ASWaS. And Scottish Tory Boy takes a look at some of the potential Labour candidates.

Meanwhile, View from North Britain raises some procedural points that are worth bearing in mind, there’s a post over at Political Betting on the timing of the poll, Jack Deighton considers a few tidbits of political history and Stephen Glenn looks at the Westminster picture in the Kingdom. And Adopted Domain considers some of the policy issues that may come into play.

Elsewhere, the Labour Leadership contest is in full swing, and on the whole, the blogosphere doesn’t seem to be overly impressed. Holyrood Watcher is dismayed that the candidates are all of a mind to junk the Council Tax without actually appearing to know what they’d put in its place. Calum Cashley is exasperated at Andy Kerr’s suggestion that Labour is the “natural party” for Scotland. Cyber Nat is amused that few people seem to know who the candidates are, while at Ideas of Civilisation, there’s a look at the bickering between Labour MPs and MSPs over who should call the shots. What would Voltaire have said about Scotland, if he’d been around to see that?

On the procedural aspects of the contest, Scottish Tory Boy doesn’t like the Electoral College system, while Kez produces a handy explanation of the realities behind the supportive nomination system.

And of course, there’s also the Deputy Leadership contest between Bill Butler and Johann Lamont – Scottish Tory Boy takes a look.

Meanwhile, the LibDems are filling their vacancy too: Calum Cashley takes a look at speculation that the next Leader might just be keeping the seat warm for a certain Mr. C. Kennedy, while Ross Finnie supporter Caron reviews the Leadership Hustings that took place in Dunfermline.

Still, one Leadership election has concluded: with John Mason heading to Westminster, there was contest to replace him as Leader of the SNP on Glasgow City Council, and David McDonald reports on the outcome: a clear win for James Dornan. David goes on to trail the upcoming Baillieston By-Election.

Elsewhere, Jeff thinks that Alex Salmond might want to consider staying on as MP for Banff & Buchan beyond 2010.

And an opinion poll by YouGov appears to put the SNP in a strong position: Anthony Wells and ASWaS take a look, while Jeff has spotted that on a performance like the one forecast, all three of the Labour Leadership contenders could find themselves out of Holyrood in 2011.

And the result prompts Jeff to ask if the SNP ought to seek some sort of arrangement with the Greens for the Regional Vote, and idea that Two Doctors promotes. This discussion gets an analysis going atIdeas of Civilisation about the rise and fall of smaller parties since 1999.

Meanwhile, much of the focus has been on the Caucasus, with Georgia moving into South Ossetia to put down an uprising, and Russia moving into Georgia in reply. Niall is cynical about the conflict, in a post broadly echoed by Robert Sharp who suggests that it’s not so easy to pick out who’s “right” and “wrong” in the conflict. In another post, he looks at the patchwork of nationalities in the area, while Malc in the Burgh compares the situation in South Ossetia with the recent history of Kosovo, and notes the double standards at work. Ewan Watt is just relieved that Georgia wasn’t admitted into NATO.

Across the Atlantic now, and with the US Election just two and a half months away, Ewan takes a look at who the Vice-Presidential candidates could be, while Alex Massie takes a look at Obama’s latest attack ad on John McCain.

Oh, and there’s also the small matter of the Beijing Olympics. Gordon McLean is enthralled, Mr. Eugenides is appalled that a display in the Opening Ceremony designed to celebrate China’s ethnic diversity featured people from only one of many ethnicities in the country, while Michael Greenwell is baffled that the BBC should remember Deng Xiaoping more for presiding over a resurgence of table tennis in China, than for presiding over the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Back closer to home, there’s stunned reaction at Ideas of Civilisation and Better Oot Than In to the Policy Exchange’s plan to treat the North of England as some form of post-apocalyptic wasteland and allow anyone north of Birmingham with a bit of cash to flee to the South. They must have carried out their research in Chorley. However, Boxthejack reckons that there are some good points in the report.

Meanwhile, the NHS gets a look-in: IoC looks at the story of a dead patient being left in a hospital bed all day, while Julie McAnulty wonders if Vale of Leven Hospital is being left to wither on the vine.

Richard Havers calls into question Gordon Brown’s success as an author, while Shuggy is stunned that Brown’s latest book is being attacked by the SNP for identity politics.

Bishop Hill’s post on studies into climate change is worth a read, but not for the faint of heart or the short of time.

Alasdair is glad that he doesn’t get his news from CBBC Newsround. So are we, I suppose.

Stephen Glenn takes Tom Harris MP to task for his attack on PR.

Richard Havers takes a look at how wind turbines aren’t necessarily great news for the Scottish economy.

Alasdair looks at the decreasing relevance of Westminster.

Two Doctors launches an attack on the CyberNats.

Cabalamat is in favour of eugenics.

Anastasia Beaumont-Bott has a thoughtful post about how rape is dealt with in the justice system, following the overturning of a decision to cut a rape victim’s compensation on the grounds that she was drunk.

From Clairwil we have a tale that could go in an ITV documentary called “When Junkets Go Wrong”!

And finally, Duncan discusses being a contrarian, and concludes that it’s dangerous for everyone to agree. He’s right, you know.

That’s your lot for this week. Suggestions can, as always, be e-mailed to us, or you can fill out the snazzydoodah on the right. Duncan’s here on Wednesday with the first in our new series of non-political Roundups, and he’s back on Sunday with our 100th Roundup Special. But from me, it’s bye-de-bye!

Hello, and welcome to this week’s roundup!

I simply have to start with Clairwil’s mammoth but excellent post on the subject of poverty and education. Well worth a read.

SNP councillor Jahangir Hanif was suspended by his party this week after the Evening Times published photographs of him firing a Kalashnikov while holidaying in Pakistan. Boxologies failed to see what the fuss was about. Jeff Breslin also felt that the SNP overreacted by suspending Councillor Hanif. But Labour MP Tom Harris was not so sympathetic towards Councillor Hanif’s plight.

Ideas of Civilisation drew a parallel with Mike Watson and noted that such incidents will hit all political parties from time to time.

Louise thinks the only foolish and inappropriate thing that’s happened is the SNP’s decision to suspend him. But for Jim Millar, “Councillor Kalashnikov’s” actions demonstrated a shocking lack of judgement.

Mr Smith puts the blame on the electoral reform for diminishing the calibre of Scotland’s councillors and says he should be forced to resign by the SNP.

It looks as though the SNP are making moves to try and get the support of the Liberal Democrats by making their local income tax proposals more palatable. Here is the Lib Dem take from Lib Dem Voice.

This all happens at a time when Vince Cable appears to be moving the federal party away from LIT. Here is James from Two Doctors with his take on it all.

Meanwhile, Adopted Domain wonders if the SNP would be better off adopting Land Value Tax (as well as considering the SNP’s stances on oil and trams). But ASWAS is not so keen on LVT. Jeff looks at how the numbers add up in Parliament.

Just in case last week’s stooshie over the Saltire appearing on trains wasn’t enough for you, this week a new flag controversy has emerged. The bridge between the two issues is provided by Alasdair.

Jamie Hepburn spotted that the Saltire will be banned from the Beijing Olympics as a result of the Beijing ‘House Rules’ which ban all flags that do not represent an Olympic member.

Scottish Unionist wasn’t too surprised that the SNP latched on to this, but nonetheless felt that the IOC rule is too rigid. Malc in the Burgh is no fan of the rule either. Stephen Glenn pointed out the myriad of different flags he has competed under.

But Political Dissuasion thought it was “one for the CyberNats to go over-the-top on”.

Meanwhile, Anseo has spotted that Scottish Labour leadership candidate Iain Gray is also apparently trying to brainwash people into favouring independence!

While we’re on the Scottish Labour leadership campaign, does Andy Kerr really think that it is the worst job in Scotland as North Britain noticed?

Councillor Ewan Aitken has stood up and said what everyone outside the Labour Party has already realised — they need to face up to the reality and be prepared to change.

Will Patterson asks, where are the websites of the leadership candidates for Labour and the Lib Dems?

David Farrer saw Gordon Brown at the Edinburgh Book Festival. He noted that the PM appears to be much more comfortable and better looking than he is on television!

Over at Open Democracy, David from Britology Watch wonders if the whole of Britain ought to have a say in any referendum on Scottish independence.

North Britain and Alex Massie consider the current state of affairs in South Ossetia. Meanwhile, Cabalamat rounds up commentary on South Ossetia from the blogosphere as a whole.

This week a lecturer suggested that common misspellings should be accepted. Neither Colin Campbell nor Ideas of Civilisation were impressed.

Mr Eugenides did not like what he heard from Michael Gove on the subject of Nuts And / Or Zoo Magazine.

Finally, it’s sad to see another blog shutting down, but it’s time to say goodbye to Alastair’s Heart Monitor.

That’s your lot for this week. Will Patterson is in the hot seat next week, so get those nominations in! You can use the box on the right, or the email address as always which is scottishroundup@gmail.com. Don’t forget that in a couple of weeks we’ll have the first non-political roundup, so if any non-political posts have caught your eye then do please let us know so that they can be included!