Hi folks! It’s been a weird week – there have been a couple of odd twists and turns that no one would really have expected and you could be forgiven for thinking that there were a few early April Fools kicking around. Turns out that truth is stranger than fiction. Read on…

The first shock to the system was the European Parliament bursting onto the political scene following Gordon Brown’s speech to MEPs in advance of the upcoming G20 summit – a gathering not so eagerly anticipated by Holyrood Watcher. Unfortunately, it was nothing the PM said that got the Chamber noticed, but one of its members: Dan Hannan, Tory MEP, who launched into a blistering attack on the Prime Minister, publicised by Hannan hmself:

Bill Cameron cheers the intervention, which was largely ignored by the MSM, while Stuart wonders what the blogosphere fuss was about. Tom Harris MP, however, wonders if it’s right for a British MEP to be criticising the British PM abroad (I wonder what he makes of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet’s comments, as referred to by Bill). Tom’s comments, however, are torn into over at Political Dissuasion.

On a wider note, this story has offered Dan Hannan his fifteen minutes of online fame, and that’s got Tom Harris thinking: how would party machines handle it, if every candidate in an election took to bloggery or YouTube as the main way of promoting their campaign? Jess the Dog looks at the issue as well, concluding that the individual will become more important than the party.

And with the power of blogging being considered, there comes its flipside: Jeff looks at some of the risks.

Meanwhile, the online row over All-Women Shortlists continues. Kez takes up the case for the defence. Political Dissuasion uses some fairly robust tones to condemn the policy. Malc re-iterates that they shouldn’t be necessary, but wonders how we can get more women involved in politics, while James looks at gender balancing measures taken by the Greens, while criticising AWS. Over at Ideas of Civilisation, meanwhile, there’s the usual thoughtful, balanced reflections that we’ve come to expect, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of both sides.

Elsewhere, Dundee became a hotbed of political intrigue this week, after Lord Provost John Letford left the Labour Group and voiced his intention to vote in favour of an SNP administration at the upcoming Special Meeting of the City Council. BellgroveBelle hails the news that Dundee is about to become an SNP-led City, while Jeff reckons that the people who voted for Letford as a Labour candidate have every right to feel a little cheated. Stuart, meanwhile, comes in with the local knowledge and puts out two posts on the subject.

Continuing our theme of surprising tales this week, a report by the BBC’s Brian Taylor looks at how the SNP and Labour have started to co-operate on alcohol policy – a move hailed by Andrew Burns, and Lallands Peat Worrier who criticises opposition for opposition’s sake, and adds a charming new term to the political lexicon in the process.

Meanwhile, former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin’s house was vandalised by a newly-organised gang. As a former employee of Fred the Shred, Clairwil can’t resist a touch of Schadenfreude, James suggests other alternative approaches, while Yousuf does not see the funny side.

Still, what happened to Sir Fred isn’t likely to happen on any Donald Trump property: Richard Havers reports that the Menie Estate is now locked up.

And Duncan takes a look at reverse graffiti, which may suggest that Government condemnation of the vandalism at Fred Goodwin’s Morningside pad might not be overly effective.

Staying with security matters, it transpires that ordering a vegetarian meal on a flight gets your card marked as a potential terrorist, much to the chagrin of Caron and Stephen. It’s not often that carnivores like me get the chance to be smug these days, so I’m milking this one for all it’s worth. Then eating the cow afterwards.

Still, on a very serious note, at least vegetarians are getting fed, unlike the six people with learning difficulties who were simply left to starve to death while in hospital. Julie McAnulty has two posts on the scandal.

Elsewhere, the proposal to do away with the Act of Settlement has come under scrutiny: Jess the Dog is opposed to any change; James is suspicious of the timing and thinks that if you want to end discriminatory practices in choosing the Head of State, then the best bet is to elect them. Jeff is equally suspicious of the timing but hails the idea that, as a Catholic, he could marry Prince William if he wished. No you can’t, Jeff. He’s mine!

Anyway, back to reality. Malc notes that Gordon Brown supports self-determination. For the Falklands.

Yousuf suggests that a strong LibDem polling may actually be quite a good thing for Labour.

Holyrood Patter takes a look at MSP expenses.

Over at Leaves on the Line, eyebrows are raised at a Scotsman interview with Lord George Foulkes MSP, whose constitutional ideas would leave him out of both jobs.

Speaking of the Scotsman, Stephen spots the paper’s report on how Scotland will only learn the identity of its six MEPs for the 2009-14 Parliament on the Monday after the Thursday poll, and notes how the paper neglected to mention that this is what happened in 1999 and 2004.

Forward comments on looming strike action at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail.

And no Roundup is complete without a look at the MSM and its priorities: this week it’s the turn of Ideas of Civilisation to reflect on what makes the media tick. Personally, I think the MSM could take a leaf out of the blogosphere’s book when it comes to priorities, but I’m too busy to go into any further detail now as I intend to spend the rest of today on thisissand.com.

So as I’m off to play with virtual sand, that’s very much your lot for this week. Don’t forget that you can e-mail your suggestions for next week, or send them on through the twiddlywhosisface on the right. Bye-de-bye!

Ah, irony.  You’ve got to love it.  I’m back in the hotseat this week, and we begin with everyone’s favourite political party – the Lib Dems – and a round-up of their conference.

LID DEM CONFERENCE

So, with that out of the way…

Just kidding.  The Liberal Democrat conference marked a first for the Scottish blogosphere, with Lib Dem footsoldier Stephen Glenn providing a live feed on each day’s action.  He also found time to comment on their youth wing – Liberal Youth Scotland – and the discussion of the ban on gay blood donation.  And, I am assured, he still had plenty time to drink.

Bernard Salmon also gave his thoughts on the blood ban discussion, the economy and Tavish Scott’s speech.  Political Dissuasion makes a return to blogging to agree with the Lib Dem Conference that independence should be “killed off” – for the moment while Richard Thomson is amused that the Lib Dems should talk for so long about something they think shouldn’t be talked about.  The Grumpy Spindoctor reports the SNP’s response…

Caron comments on the Lib Dem Conference broadcast – which she thinks misses out on a key issue (social housing) and laments the fact that she had to enjoy it from the comfort of her own home (get well soon!).  Justified Spinner thinks there were more Lib Dems (and indeed, Scottish Labourites) who stayed away from conference than actually went.  And no, he wasn’t there either.

POLLS AND THE POPE

Away from the Lib Dems and onward to (less) important matters.  Jeff paints the latest polls as a disaster for the SNP, Yousuf celebrates a major boost for Labour while James speculates on a future government if the poll were to be replicated in an election.

The Pope’s comments about condoms “aggrevating” the problem of HIV/AIDS have been met with varied reactions.  I present (what I think is!) a balanced piece and give my own view while Stephen is slightly more scathing in his analysis.  There are some who think the Pope makes sense on the issue, as this comment demonstrates.

ALL-WOMAN SHORTLISTS

After Brian Taylor’s piece citing the tensions in Airdrie & Shotts over the proposed imposition upon the local Labour party of an All-Woman Shortlist to replace John Reid as Labour candidate in the constituency, Will points out why it shouldn’t be necessary while Yousuf defends the principle and the discussion on my own piece raises some interesting points, dominated, as it is, by male voices.  Does this point to a lack of interest in politics among women or simply a lack of opportunity to get involved?  Or is it simply a reflection of my predominantly male readership?  I suspect the latter…

Jeff takes on the issue in this piece and is (fairly harshly, I think) accused of misogyny and sexism for suggesting that candidates should be selected on merit only.  Will comes to his defence in a second piece, arguing against AWS, which brings the circle back round to the start of the discussion.

Got to love politics – mass discussion, little agreement, no action.

ELSEWHERE:

Suitably Despairing compares the seagull problem to World War II.

Big Rab composes an ode to Fred Goodwin.

Ideas of Civilisation has an idea to improve our schools.

Lallands Peat Worrier on Margaret Curran no longer writing Labour’s 2011 manifesto.

Holyrood Watcher on slopping out.

Jeff & Subrosa on a quiet FMQs.

Advanced Media Watch on whether ex-pat Scots should be allowed to vote in Scottish Parliament elections.

The Steamie thinks the Big Lebowski is the Scottish Minister for Transport.

Will Patterson answers 20 questions on blogging.

And some of the jokes on Jeff’s piece about the proposed “Cow-Fart Tax” (I kid you not) will have you groaning until we do this again next week.

That’s it for this week.  Tune in again same place, probably about the same time, where Will Patterson is back in the editing seat.  Let him know if you have any suggestions for inclusions, by either filling out the wee boxey thing on the right or by emailing scottishroundup@gmail.com.  Arrabest!

Hello, and welcome to this month’s NoPoScoBloRo. Or non-political roundup if you like the old clunky, more more sensible way. This is our monthly look back at what’s been great in the world of Scottish blogging.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the standards of certain newspapers. See the latest political roundup for the reaction to the Sunday Express’s story about Dunblane survivors.

The Daily Mail has also been getting a deserved bit of stick though. Gary Marshall brilliantly weaves together several of the most ridiculous Daily Mail stories to show how one person might be endangering her life in the eyes of the Mail.

Thanks to Armin Grewe of IslayBlog (who, incidentally, will be hosting NoPoScoBloRo in a couple of months), we have a lorry-load of Islay related posts this month. Unfortunately, they didn’t come in this lorry which was created specifically for Islay’s needs.

The Islay Birds blog notes the presence of lapwings. Meanwhile, Armin has an appeal: Islay Pipe Band needs your support.

That post mentions Coffee Break Scottish, a course Radio Lingua Network to help you “learn Scottish”. All in aid of Comic Relief. John Connell knows someone who might find it useful. It even got some coverage in Germany.

Big Rab has this to add in the discussion about the Scots language / dialect / whatever you care to call it.

A tougher language to learn is Merkan. Mr Farty continues his series.

Twitter continues its inexorable rise. This month saw the first ever Edinburgh Tweetup. I was in attendance and can confirm that it was a great evening! Shame I had to catch the last train home. The Glasgow tweetup will be held next week.

Amy Palko looks at the rules of the playground on Twitter.

The rules are very much on the mind of Lis, who looks at the differences between Facebook status updates and microblogging on Twitter. This makes the recent redesign of Facebook to something more resembling Twitter a bit strange. But I have to plead guilty to automatically updating my Facebook status via Twitter.

Incidentally, in the comments to a recent roundup subrosa asked why Scottish Roundup doesn’t have a Twitter account. As I explained, I didn’t see what the purpose of one might be. At the same time, it seems a bit odd not to have a presence there. Does anyone else have any opinions on this?

Amid plans to restructure Scotland’s football leagues (again), a few bloggers have been throwing their two cents in. Will P has this plan of action to try and sort out the mess. Meanwhile, Jack Deighton wonders if the new proposals spell out the death of Scottish football (and there is a part 2).

Lots of people are talking about the film Watchmen at the moment. Not being a film buff I don’t know much about it, but I’m told that these reviews from The Other Side of the Mirror and Jay Stringer are worth reading.

Milo McLaughlin brings us a video of some crazy dancing instigated by Edinburgh band Found.

Neil McIntosh takes a look back at another great bevvy ad of his youth.

Jackie Walker looks at how an increasingly independent society has led to higher levels of divorce.

But John Kirriemuir has other relationship matters on his mind, as he tries to work out if he wants children. Maybe his mind will be made up if he reads about S-E-X and C-O-N-D-O-Ms at Nintendo and Chocolate.

Misssy M outlines some instances where children were a bit more forthcoming with their swears.

Billy The Kid notes a recent revision in the TV Licensing rules. Do you need a license simply for having an internet connection?

Mono has a complaint about Graze, whose product left a bad taste in the mouth.

Sara is worried about the security of Irn Bru. Let’s hope the recipe doesn’t get lost.

Scotland in the Gloaming has a great photograph taken from Haddington.

Amy Palko received a gift while walking along the Royal Mile.

And that is the non-political roundup for this month! Next month’s will be brought to you by Scott at Love and Garbage. As always, we could do with more nominations. So please get them in either by using the form on the right or by emailing scottishroundup@gmail.com. Thanks!

Tim Ireland and Stewart Kirkpatrick both have a go at the Scottish Sunday Express, which is shocked that the Dunblane survivors, who are now 18, behave like teenagers. Apparently some of them even drink alcohol! And have sex! Says Kirkpatrick:

The “story” reveals that a couple of Dunblane survivors are 18 now and have been using social networking sites to talk about drink, drugs and sex. This, claims the piece, “shames” the memory of what happened. Says Kirkpatrick:

In essence, these kids are being condemned for being normal teenagers. When they were very, very young they went through a hellish ordeal that the rest of us cannot imagine. One of the kids in the story was shot. These teenagers have performed a miracle in A) still being alive and B) functioning like everyone else. They should be celebrated or, better yet, left alone. This is what we have come to: desperate hacks cyberstalking the victims of tragedy in the hope that they don’t become monks.

Further to the story in last week’s roundup, Tom Harris expands on his views on the family. He’s also profiled in the Sunday Times.

Here’s a suggested website to follow: Wardog.

Andrew Reeves writes about the national DNA database, the one that’s supposed to contain the details of criminals, but has a baby on it:

The fact that the DNA of a baby under one year old has been stored on the police national database, is utterly scandalous and Jacqui Smith MP should be ashamed of herself and the Police.

Neil Craig writes about an alleged witch-hunt in the Liberal Democrats: Debra Storr victim of Lib Dem “witch-hunt”.

Aye We Can is exceptionally angry about Steven Purcell’s living wage proposals:

Taking the piss Steven, the piss out of the low paid who don’t work for your cooncil, but will help fund this through higher taxes, higher charges or poorer sevices. The ex-Woolies workers now on the dole. The Argos shop workers, the Scottish Enterprise office cleaners, the pub and club doormen etc etc. They will never get a sniff of of your money, just feel agrieved. Rightly agrieved.

The Grumpy Spindoctor explains why refuses to darn his socksRoseanna Cunningham never became SNP leader:

Scots should darn their socks and consult their grandparents on how to adopt a greener lifestyle, according to Alex Salmond’s new environment minister. Roseanna Cunningham denounced the country’s “buy-everything-chuck-it-away society” and argued it was time to relearn the thrifty habits of previous generations. Miss Cunningham, who has never owned a car, tumble drier or dishwasher, said Scots could reduce their carbon footprint by following the example of their forefathers.

Unfortunately for Roseanna, we don’t live in the past any more. Nor do most people want to.

Willie Rennie MP thinks the Financial Services Compensation Scheme is proving unfair to safe lenders like the Dunfermline Building Society.

Kezia Dugdale takes exception and redrafts Rob Gibson’s motion on inspiring women politicians.

Iain Hepburn wonders if newspaper websites will be the next target for the Performing Rights Society (PRS):

The comedy in all this, of course, is that many of the tracks at the heart of the row have been uploaded by the artists’ labels themselves. Few, if any, of the big record companies don’t have a YouTube channel for promoting artists’ new videos after all. And that seems to have been overlooked amidst all the rammy. It’s not like Google’s actively uploading all these promos themselves. The labels are doing it, and then watching on as YouTube’s parent firm gets stiffed with the bill.

And that’s all for this week. If you have any blog articles you’d like to nominate, send them to scottishroundup AT gmail DOT com.

Hi folks! This week has been something of a morass of morality, which makes a pleasant change from the usual dreary economic headlines. Perhaps we’re just recessioned out.

Anyway, we start with Tom Harris MP, who caused a stooshie this week when he posted his reflections on teenage pregnancies and a society that tolerates them. If you haven’t read it yet, have a look at what the fuss is about.

Of course, Tom’s decision to single out adolescent mothers (and how ironic that we should be rounding this up on International Women’s Day) didn’t go down too well: BellgroveBelle rips into him for passing judgement on constituents who will undoubtedly need to turn for him for help. Caron and Callum remind him that the girl isn’t the only person involved in the process, while James suggests that he should be criticising his own government for the situation. Even Terry Kelly sticks the boot in, wondering how it is that he and Tom Harris can be in the same party.

But the condemnation is not universal, the always reflective Ideas of Civilisation plots a middle course, while Bucket of Tongues wonders why the sentiments expressed are seen as right-wing.

On a similar note, Jess the Dog reflects on the death of 23-month-old Brandon Muir at the hands of his mother’s partner.

Elsewhere in this week of moral condundra (I do hope that’s the plural – it sounds so much better than ‘conundrums’), comes the Scottish Government’s war on binge drinking. It meets a muted response in the blogosphere: Bucket of Tongues goes through it, and is sceptical; Holyrood Watcher flags up a potential legal obstacle to the proposals for a minimum price; Shuggy isn’t impressed and Bernard isn’t convinced that making booze more expensive will make it less attractive. Meanwhile, Big Rab attempts to look forward to the next initiative. However, the proposals do have some supporters, most notably Tartan Hero, who accuses the Opposition parties of not having any solutions to offer.

Meanwhile, there’s been an excrement/fan interface scenario for the Scottish LibDems, the suspension of Councillors who left the official LibDem group on Aberdeenshire Council to form their own, and the resignation from the party of one of them, Debra Storr. Most of the Liberal Democrat blogosphere is sympathetic to her: Iain Dale is choosing his words carefully, Caron is staggered at the treatment being dished out to a long-standing friend of hers and the party, events give Stephen something to think about and Callum suggests that other Councillors have done the same without redress. Indeed, events have now drawn attention outside Scotland, and Liberal Neil is troubled by developments. Bernard provides a timeline of events.

However, the party’s Executive does have a defender, in the form of Liberal Youth Scotland member Ruaraidh Dobson, who argues that the Councillors have brought the party into disrepute.

In other news, Peter Mandelson ended up covered in slime (I’m resisting the temptation to make the obvious jokes here) this week, after a run-in with a custard-wielding member of Plane Stupid. James hails the protest, while Bucket of Tongues disagrees with the group’s aims, but supports their protest. Ewan Watt thinks along similar lines, though acknowledges that things could have been slightly less amusing. Tom Harris, however, isn’t impressed, and finds comparisons between the protester and the Suffragettes to be somewhat wide of the mark. Still, at least she wasn’t pregnant.

In the wonderful world of political intrigue, the report into the Glenrothes By-Election was completed and, following SNP concerns at the absence of a marked register, Kezia believes that the party scored an own goal. Jeff thinks it was a no-score draw. And following Kez’s call for a Government minister to take responsibility for the loss details, and given that it’s Jim Murphy who’s in charge of elections in Scotland, Leaves on the Line asks whether she really meant to call for the Secretary of State’s head. Duncan considers some of the report’s points.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Roundup without a reference to the constitutional question, and this week is no exception. Kez notes the poor election results for nationalist parties in regional elections in the Basque Country and Galicia, and suggests that nationalism is on the wane in Europe. Closer to home, however, Malc and Kevin both attack the Unionist parties for supporting an amendment to a Scottish Parliament motion which opposes a referendum on independence, while Bernard notes that the referendum issue isn’t one that’s going to go away any time soon – and even suggests circumstances where it might be acceptable – a viable alternative for further devolutionary powers. Of course, the Calman Commission is in the best position to deliver that, and Justified Spinner reckons that with two of the parties in it supporting extra financial powers, it could offer Scotland de facto autonomy.

Meanwhile, in terms of how the constitutional debate is conducted, Malc is exasperated at the negative tone from both sides and feels that we could all learn a thing or two from Barack Obama’s view of partisanship.

Interestingly, Stuart draws comparisons with the Obama administration and the SNP Government, and argues that the former may draw lessons from the performance of the latter.

And with Gordon Brown popping across the Pond to see the new President, Jeff produces a handy (and hilarious) guide to the PM for American readers.

But while Brown was away, he left PMQs in the hands of Harriet Harman, who, as Stephen reports, managed to mislead Parliament by asserting that Sir Fred Goodwin got his Knighthood for charity work. Instead he got it for services to banking: proof positive that we should never make monuments to the living, as they can still disgrace the stone.

And while Harman was misleading the Commons, a report by two former Presiding Officers concluded that Alex Salmond did not mislead the Scottish Parliament when he described the Scottish Inter Faith Council’s funding situation, as Justified Spinner discusses.

Meanwhile, this weekend saw Scottish Labour’s Conference in Dundee, and Yousuf was heading to Caird Hall in good spirits. Jeff, however, took a look at the coverage of the Conference, and wasn’t too impressed with what he saw. Holyrood Patter, meanwhile, sees a pattern: at SNP Conferences, Nicola Sturgeon speaks on a Saturday and Alex Salmond speaks on a Sunday, while at the LibDems’ Spring Conference at Harrogate this weekend, Vince Cable was speaking yesterday and Nick Clegg today. As HP notes, at Labour’s shindig, Iain Gray spoke yesterday while Jim Murphy spoke today.

Anyway. As Opposition parties spent Thursday at Holyrood attacking the SNP’s record, Calum drew comparisons between SNP actions in Edinburgh and Labour actions in London. And AMS suggested that Iain Gray’s chagrin at broken SNP promises may be a little rich.

Bishop Hill notes that the NSPCC are somewhat antsy about criticism on Facebook.

On a similar theme, someone is antsy about criticism from Angus Nicolson, and is trying to hack his blog.

And David Blackwood has a tip for Lewis Moonie, who is trying to avoid journalists: give them something, anything, like a press release, and then they’ll go away with what they wanted. Personally, I always thought that if you gave them a press release they’d expect one every time.

No such reticence for the Roundup’s very own Duncan, who makes it into the Sunday Herald this week.

Cabalamat asks if the UK’s relationship with the US is as special as we think, and finds that maybe, we’re reading more into it than our American counterparts.

Shuggy contributes to discussions of civil liberties by suggesting that human beings aren’t exactly saintly, but that while we may need our wings clipped occasionally, members of the Government are by no means above us.

Subrosa notes Glasgow Council’s efforts to set its own Minimum Wage, and wonders if this is Councillor Steven Purcell’s first move in an attempt to gain the Leadership of Scottish Labour.

Julie Hepburn tells the story of when the European Elections came to Cumbernauld.

Neil Craig takes a look at predictions made for the year 2000 made a century earlier.

Cabalamat takes a look at the details of Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension, and suggests that, having created minus £24billion of wealth, his pension should have a similar reddish hue.

And finally, Mr. Eugenides compares Murdo Fraser’s suggeston that Barack Obama should be invited to the UK with the reaction to an idea to invite the Pope, which was criticised by a certain Mr. M. Fraser.

That’s a wrap for another week: Cabalamat is in the hotseat next Sunday, and you can, as always, send us your sugestions by dropping us a cod or filling out the twiddlydoodah on the right. Bye-de-bye!