Scottish Roundup

Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s roundup! Political action has been a bit thin on the ground this week, but there has still been some excellent blogging for us to highlight.

Unfortunately, though, disaster has hit this week’s roundup. I had spent all afternoon writing it when, just as I was almost finished, I lost almost the entire post after an unfortunate incident involving a slipped mouse. Seemingly WordPress’s autosave function doesn’t work unless you give the post a title, for some reason I can’t even begin to work out.

Sadly, I also got rid of the list of posts I was planning to include, and it is only by a stroke of (rare for me at the moment) luck that I have found a few of the posts. I’ve forgotten a lot of them. I still have what the team suggested this week and, of course, your nominations. But I don’t have the patience, time or energy to write the full post out again.

So please accept my apologies as I produce this list of interesting posts with little added commentary from myself.

There has been talk this week about the role of the Lib Dems within the Calman Commission. According to James, rumour has it that the Lib Dems are beginning to feel rather sidelined. But Malc does not buy the theory so much.

Meanwhile, James Kelly wonders what exactly Tavish Scott means when he says he is “not instinctively against” holding a referendum on Scotland’s constitutional future.

Eyebrows were raised this week when it was revealed that the development in Leith may end up being named Edinburgh Harbour. Caron ponders on the move, while Ally at Greener Leith notes that it is not exactly living up to the promise to put Leith on the map. Andrew Reeves adds his thoughts.

Both Kezia Dugdale and Ewan Aitken find themselves being instinctively against proposals to make criminals contribute towards the funerals of their victims.

The Daily Mash has got to the bottom of what went wrong at HBOS.

Meanwhile, Jeff has an interesting suggestion which he thinks will help the economy in a number of ways.

Meanwhile, Yousuf looks at quantitative easing, and concludes that “drastic times call for drastic measures”.

Subrosa looks at higher education in Scotland, and sees the current economic situation as the perfect opportunity for the system to refocus.

Over at Malc’s, guestblogger PJ takes a look at charity.

Sistah in Scotland offers this perspective on the 13-year-old father.

Stephen Glenn asks if it’s time for the Lib Dems to begin contesting elections in Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, Bernard Salmon wonders if Labour’s woes will present an opportunity for the Lib Dems to capitalise.

Jeff returns to the missing Glenrothes by election voting register.

Something else which went missing is Sellafield’s records of where they have disposed of nuclear waste, which leaves Big Rab nervous.

Meanwhile, Subrosa notes the difference in energy policy between Alex Salmond and Jim Murphy.

Richard Thomson has a very interesting idea, suggesting that Scotland could take control of its own electromagnetic spectrum and take a different approach to that of the rest of the UK.

Neil Craig suggested featuring his apology to The Scotsman for failing to notice earlier that they published his letter on “an atrocity by our own government & others which is as evil as anything Hitler did & should have been front page news everywhere.”

Meanwhile, Stephen Glenn brings attention to the “blackout” campaign which highlights New Zealand’s proposed new copyright laws which will assume you are guilty until proven innocent.

You may also be interested in The Carnival on Modern Liberty. The Convention on Modern Liberty has an event in Glasgow this Saturday.

Finally, here are some law blogs that were nominated ages ago and got forgotten about. Belatedly, and with apologies, check these out. Bloggers may be particularly interested in TechnoLlama, a technology blog.

Have a look also at Scots Law News, Jonathan Mitchell QC, The Lockerbie Case, Absolvitor, Rob Edwards and Amnesty International’s Scottish Human Rights Blog.

And that’s it for this week! Phew. Next week, thankfully for the sake of my own sanity, the roundup will be edited by Ewan Watt. So get those nominations in by emailing us at scottishroundup@gmail.com or by using the handy form on the right. Thanks!