With the end of the year comes mild nostalgia, endless navel gazing and jumped-up awards ceremonies. In the past couple of months one or two people suggested to me that there should be an end-of-year Scottish Roundup awards ceremony. After canvassing opinions among some other bloggers, most agreed that it was a good idea.

So here they are: the Scotblogs awards.

I had originally planned on running this throughout December. But I have been quite busy so it has been pushed back to January. I figured that if it’s good enough for the Oscars to be held in March and the Mercury Music Prize to be held in September, holding the Scotblogs awards in January would be just fine!

I should point out that the Scotblogs awards will not just be about patting each other on the back (though no doubt that will form a part of it). But primarily it is intended as a celebration of Scottish blogging as a whole, and a way to promote new and under-appreciated blogs.

As such, there will be two stages to the awards. The first stage, which will run from now until 6pm on Wednesday 13 January 2010, will be a nominations stage. I know that some bloggers prefer not to be involved in such blogging awards. So before voting commences, those who would rather opt out can, while everyone else can nominate their favourite blogs.

Self nominations are allowed — indeed, they are encouraged. Remember, this is all about discovering blogs, so we’d love to hear about your blog.

During this period I would also greatly welcome any input on what the categories should be. There will be a best blog overall, but I would also like there to be categories. Best politics blog? One for each of the political parties? Best music blog? Food? Sport? Personal? Photography? Suggestions are very welcome!

The second phase will be a voting phase, which will run from Thursday 14 January until 6pm on Wednesday 27 January. To prevent a select few blogs running an effective campaign to get their readers to vote, the awards will be based on a mixture of votes from a panel of established bloggers and readers’ votes.

Readers and panellists will be invited to select their favourite blogs from the list of nominations. At the end of the voting period, the blogs will be ranked based on the amount of votes they received from readers, with a separate ranking based on the panellists’ choices. The final rankings will be based on the average position on the two tables. In the event of a tie, the readers’ votes will take precedence.

I hope that’s not too complicated!

The panel is based largely on the “team” of regular contributors that was put together a year or so ago, with a few additions:

• Colin Campbell
• Lis Ferla
• Stephen Glenn
• Yousuf Hamid
• Malcolm Harvey
• Holyrood Patter
• Philip Hunt
• James Mackenzie
• Misssy M
• Will Patterson
• Sara
• Scottish Tory Boy
• Duncan Stephen

…But I’d quite like to have a couple of others added to the list because the panel is a bit politics-heavy just now. So if you would like to be on the panel, send me a quick email with a sentence or two explaining why you think you should be on the panel.

You can use all the usual ways to nominate a blog for the awards, although please make it clear that you are contacting us about the awards and not for the roundup (which will appear as normal on 3 January). I suggest that you email scottishroundup+awards@gmail.com. You can also get in touch via Twitter @ScottishRoundup.

Hello, and welcome to this week’s roundup. It’s the last one of the year. As normal, we are taking the week between Christmas and new year off. However, stay tuned for a special announcement some time next week!

In the meantime, though, let’s get on with this week’s roundup.

The year in music

We are sidling up towards the end of the year — indeed, the end of the decade. I can hardly believe it. The end of the year has come so quickly, particularly since the last few months have been particularly hectic for me. I have only just got my head around the fact that we are in the same month as Christmas.

But plenty of people have been much more prepared than I. If there is one breed of blogger that loves end-of-year retrospectives, it is the music blogger. And why not? I shall certainly be publishing an end-of-year list on my blog.

But Peenko has gone one further than that already, asking a handful of Scotland’s top music bloggers to contribute to one massive end-of-year list. Good work! I have never heard of the Phantom Band, although now that they have the bloggers’ seal of approval, I may have to check them out.

More immediate is the matter of who will be today’s Christmas number 1. Personally speaking, I think both Joe McElderry and Rage Against the Machine would make good number twos (bringing a new meaning to “yule log”). But how funny would it be if Joe McElderry reached number 1? Andy Gilmour rages against the campaign to beat the X Factor candidate to number 1.

Elsewhere in music land, for those of you needing a bit of audio assistance in feeling festive, you could do a lot worse than checking out the daily run-down of Christmas songs on Aye Tunes. It certainly beats a tiny lump of choc.

The other end-of-year fixture in the music world is the predictions as to which bands will be big next year. But Ian at Have fun at dinner is a bit peeved at the BBC’s “tastemakers” (of whom only one out of the 65 is based in Scotland), who overlooked Scottish bands completely.

You can trust The Pop Cop to be more open-minded, with the latest instalment of the Music Alliance Pact, highlighting music from around the world chosen by bloggers from those countries.

Snow week

You cannot need any more reminding of the time of the year. The Christmas festivities. Long nights, dark mornings, dark evenings… and, come to think of it, dark afternoons. Jack Deighton reflected on the darkened mornings too (like father like son).

There is no doubt that it is winter. But as if that wasn’t enough, it has become rather chilly this week.

It was forecast to be comparatively mild on Islay yesterday. But Islay Info notifies us of the snow expected there in the next few days.

Predictably, Big Rab viewed this through the prism of Dumbarton Football Club. No wonder yesterday’s match was postponed.

Meanwhile, Taexalia took a peaceful exploration in an area at Burntisland in Fife. Few human tracks were to be found, though the snow prints revealed a fair bit about the local wildlife.

Of course, here at Scottish Roundup we couldn’t feature a bit of photography without including something from the ever-excellent Scotland in the Gloaming.

Speaking of photography, Gordon McLean decided to re-visit why he takes photographs.

Unpredictable environment

The world’s big-wigs have been spending two weeks in Copenhagen waggling their jaws about the environment. Predictably, the result of the Climate Change Conference has been moderate, with the predictable negative reaction following close behind. The blog coverage on all sides has been… predictable.

So here is the alternative blog coverage on environmental matters. Stuart Winton has been looking at litter. He headed out and about in Dundee to take some photographs, concluding that a recent campaign of on-the-spot fines is ineffective. And the piles of cigarette ends can be added to the list of unintended consequences of the smoking ban.

Those interested in the environment may be interested in one of this week’s nominations, The Blackbus blog. The author describes himself as “living a simple life in the Highlands”, including a quest to be “free from the grid.”

In other news…

We have covered blogging rather a lot in recent weeks, so I am reluctant to feature it again. But the fact that blogging was a central theme of this week’s First Minister’s Questions can not go unmentioned. Subrosa has a run-down of this week’s FMQs.

The mild furore surrounding Alex Salmond’s choice of Christmas card design carries on, with continued complaints about the SNP’s “politicisation” of Christmas. Stephen Glenn looks at the cards being sent out by other political leaders.

The Scottish airline Flyglobespan went into administration this week. Dave at Holyrood Chronicles is among those disappointed — he used Flyglobespan regularly.

Education-watchers in Glasgow may be interested in Metronautical College, described as “A humorous blog about the forced merger of further education colleges in Glasgow.”

And that is your lot for this week, and indeed this year. But that doesn’t mean you should stop sending in those nominations. It really helps us out in the quest to increase the diversity of blogs featured, because at the end of the day one person can’t scour the whole blogosphere to find out what’s what.

So keep those suggestions coming in. Email scottishroundup@gmail.com, or let us know via Twitter @ScottishRoundup.

The next roundup will be brought to you on 3 January by Caron Lindsay. But keep an eye right here next week, because there might just be something interesting happening before that…

Hi folks! You’d think we were winding down for Christmas, but despite the arrival of the Doctor Who-themed Christmas idents on BBC1, there are still twelve days, a series of dull, uncomfortable office parties and the traditional scrum in front of the cosmetics counter at Boots to go. The upshot of this is that the so-called season of goodwill hasn’t quite materialised yet.

A period of not-so-quiet reflection

Of course, it should come as no surprise that the Scottish blogosphere has kept its hands well wrung this week: look into the navel, don’t look around the navel, you’re under.

Anyway. The MSM are still paying close attention to bloggers, to the degree that two big names in the Scottish press have ventured online to make their own points about the situation: Iain Macwhirter, who is not 100% sympathetic, and Joan McAlpine, who is far more taken with what she’s seen online.

And what of the rest of us? I take a look at the two stances, while Duncan sees the stooshie as an opportunity for the Scottish blogosphere to get “leaner, cleaner and keener”.

Lallands Peat Worrier notes that the de-activation of the blogs that have been pored over by the press has created a new problem:

One of the main sadnesses of the Wardog et seq. phenomenon is the hasty deletion of the whole history of commentary these authors produced. Under the threatening promise of writs, I can entirely understand that hasty retreat may be the rhythm indicated. Equally, however, it robs the public (or whatever clutch might be interested) of an opportunity to read the material and think for themselves. Particularly since the more lurid elements cited in the newspaper commentary string together connected material – in an unhistorical and intellectually dishonest way – that turns asides (even those too spicy for most mainstream characters) into concerted campaigns in a manner which any calm read through of the whole text couldn’t support. With deletion, that corrective expedient is now impossible.

Meanwhile, Ideas of Civilisation notes that this debate has overshadowed pretty much everything else (hence its place at the top of the Roundup this week):

The worst of all this is that it allows all sides to engage in a ‘holier than thou’ battle which won’t change a single thing about life in Scotland. Not a single teacher will be hired, pupil taught to read or nurse trained as a result of these tawdry and ultimately tiresome battles.

However, life is (slowly) returning to what passes for normal, and happily, both Subrosa and Mark MacLachlan are now back and blogging.

Incidentally, on a side note, Tom Harris MP has his own cautionary example to explain why we don’t have more blogging Parliamentarians:

Unfortunately, there are good ways and bad ways of having a higher media profile. After the broo ha-ha over my Heaven knows we’re miserable now post last year, a number of colleagues told me: “I was thinking of starting a blog, but after what happened to you, I don’t think I’ll bother.”

A lesson for us all, that whoever you are, what you post can get you into trouble at some point.

The Gravy Train rolls on

With the publication of more MPs’ expense claims, there’s a chance to re-visit that sense of exasperation we all felt a few months ago. Angus Nicolson picks up on Jim Devine’s claim for flood damage to his bathroom,and asks if MPs are failing to take out insurance cover on their second properties, or claiming for the insurance premiums as well.

Clairwil compares the claims with the support made available to those in need of state benefits:

From time to time I fill out Community Care Grant forms for my more impoverished clients to help them buy furniture and household goods. There are no £75 kettles for these folk. As the grants are drawn from a limited budget people are expected seek out the bargains so whilst you might want a £75 kettle, the decision maker will call you up establish that you own a pot and your hob works therefore you don’t need a kettle. Fancy a fridge? Not if you have a windowsill to keep a pint of milk on and no essential medication that needs keeping cool. What about an oven? No -you own a perfectly good microwave. A Duck House – no chance! A Bell Tower -piss off! Removal of that troublesome wisteria – when hell freezes over.

Meanwhile, Dave is perplexed by a 2 hour phone call to Canterbury made from Gordon Brown’s phone – and paid for by the taxpayer.

Caron, meanwhile, thinks that Alex Salmond’s claim is too low, arguing that it’s a mark of how little time he’s spent at Westminster representing Banff & Buchan.

On a similar note, Tom Harris defends the right to dual mandates, pointing out that the people of Gordon knew already that Alex Salmond was MP for Banff & Buchan as well, and were still happy to vote for him.

More on money

With the Pre-Budget Report being delivered to the Commons this week, Herald journalist Torcuil Crichton describes it as “Alistair Darling’s welcome to the hard decade”, while STV reporter Jamie Livingstone adds up the total amount of money that will not be available to the Scottish budget. Meanwhile, Stephen liveblogged the key points.

However, it’s Alistair Darling’s unwillingness to continue to accelerate Scotland’s capital spending programme – a move supported by Iain Gray – that causes a great deal of damage, prompting PoliticsScot to consider the position of Iain Gray as the Leader of a Scottish Parliamentary Group that’s tied to the fortunes and actions of the UK Government:

Similarly, the image being used so effectively by the SNP just now that Gray was ‘ignored’ by Darling and is lacking influence must be replaced by the image that it is simply a disagreement between two politicians and by conceding the right for the Scottish Labour leader to openly criticise the party down in England.

Christmas card-gate

Sometimes it’s depressing just what the political class gets polarised about. This week, Alex Salmond’s choice of Christmas card initiated a bunfight. Wrinkled Weasel finds it a little bit Leni Riefenstahl, while Tom Harris is less than impressed at the apparent politics behind the design.

On the other hand, Jeff is exasperated at how even Christmas cards are reduced to games of partisan one-upmanship, and Anne McLaughlin is baffled that anyone could be offended by the First Minister of Scotland sending out a card displaying the flag of the country he’s First Minister of.

Cllr David Fagan, however, isn’t a fan of the painting, but doesn’t see the card as political in the way that he understands the term:

I think it might be worth taking the FM at his word when he says (or rather his spokesperson says) that the card is not political. Assuming that there is some meaning and significance to the imagery and title of the painting then it is nothing at all to do with left or right politics. It is not an image which speaks about ideology or about access to or redistribution of wealth. Actually, it is pretty much inconceivable that any of the other big parties could use a leader’s Christmas card for such a message (they are much more likely to be attracted to an image of family unity)

No, this image is not political in any meaningful sense of the word. It is romantic, pure and simple. And for those of us on the unionist side of the debate, that makes it the perfect image for a SNP First Minister embarked on what is ultimately a romantic campaign for independence.

Class Sizes, Broken Promises and Minority Government

With one Education Secretary having to step aside as a result of the SNP’s class size pledge having to be watered down, Ian Robertson over at Liberal Scotland takes a look at whether or not there should be such an emphasis on reducing class sizes in the first place.

And with accusations that the FM set out to mislead over the pledge, Stuart Winton wonders if the charge of dishonesty will stick:

Thus Mr Salmond’s pledge seems of the pie crust variety – made to be broken, and perhaps more delusional than dishonest. In truth, if politicians had to be brought to book in some way every time a promise of this type was broken then they would all be deemed pathological liars and the whole process would never get anywhere.

However, the Government gets no sympathy from Andrew Reeves, who wonders what the point was of the SNP writing its manifesto at all.

But with the various cries of ‘Broekn promises!’ being bandied about, James wonders why those who didn’t want the SNP’s policies to be implemented in the first place are complaining.

And on a similar note, with civic groups playing a role in most policy debates – even if it boils down to the politicians playing “My pressure group’s bigger than your pressure group”, Lallands Peat Worrier takes a look at how lobbyists are shaping the discourse fo the minority Government.

The s-tram-ash

In Edinburgh, cyclists are up in arms about the new tram lines on Princes Street, with the possibility that the lines might cause them to fall off their bike. Surprisingly for someone who isn’t a lover of the trams, Calum Cashley isn’t overly sympathetic, but Jess the Dog is appalled that cyclists will need new courses to learn how to navigte them:

The tram rails are supposedly “right on a cyclist’s natural line”. That’ll be just like pedestrians, pavements, zebra crossings, traffic lights at red, etc. So why not include this in the training package? Or is this just another excuse for lycra-louts to whinge? They won’t be happy until the world is one big velodrome….

Meanwhile, Cllr Cameron Rose reminds us that Tram Line 3 hasn’t quite died the death yet, though now isn’t the best time to be going ahead with it. Will the madness ever end?

The continued row over climate change

Neil Craig celebrates a chance to challenge the present orthodoxy on the science of climate change on Radio Scotland.

Change in general

David Farrer marks the passing of Borders, and notes that change is a part of life. For everyone.

Sports Personalities

Caron isn’t backing Jenson Button for Sports Personality of the Year; Stephen is backing Beth Twaddle.

And speaking of sports personalities, We Know SFA look at the row between Hugh Dallas and Motherwell gaffer Jim Gannon. I can’t see any awards being handed out for that one, though.

Nominations, please!

That’s it for another week – next week, Duncan will be presiding over the last Roundup before Christmas, so don’t forget to nominate your favourite posts! As always, you can use the twiddlydoodah on the right, or drop us a line at scottishroundup@gmail.com. And if you’re of a mind to do so, you can even follow us on Twitter @ScottishRoundup. But for now, it’s bye-de-bye!

This week has been a week of changes, proposed changes, beginnings and endings. When I agreed to edit this week’s Roundup I assumed that I would settle down to a large pile of opinions on the St. Andrew’s Day massacre of the UK constitution by Mr Salmond.

However, his desire to rewrite Britain’s unwritten constitution would appear to have taken second fiddle in the Scottish blogosphere to a level of concerned introspection over some bloggers and their departure from the online debate. As such I will deal with both issues and welcome some previously unseen bloggers who have appeared in the recent past.

There has even been a Scottish reshuffle, in case you missed it!

St. Andrew’s Day Massacre or A Date with Destiny?

Alex Salmond’s proposed referendum on the future constitutional status of Scotland was unquestionably the big political news of the week. Dean MacKinnon-Thomson suggests there may be some political manoeuvring on the part of the First Minister in comparing all the so-called ‘Unionist’ parties as ‘like Thatcher.’

SNP Tactical Voting identifies that perhaps there are outcomes to Alex Salmond’s strategy that are positive for the SNP. Namely that the other parties have found it difficult to find a clear response to his overt apparent reasonableness and that it is more position statement to achieve a consensus rather than immediate all-out independence. I find myself in partial agreement. For a really good round up, if a little biased, we have this recommendation from Bella Caledonia.

Yousuf, so I retain political balance, suggests that there may be a simple reason that Mr Salmond is proposing a referendum he knows he can’t win – to placate his own membership. And, he speculates that Alex may well have done a lot to protect the Union, by his actions, rather than break it up.

Why the rash of departures?

I’ll be honest I don’t personally get too excited about blogging introspection. But, there has been a lot of activity, or should that be inactivity, on the Scottish blogging scene this week.

The question appears to rotate around the point of whether blogging should, or should not, be anonymous. And what you can say as a consequence.

I remember an episode of ‘Yes Minister’ when Sir Humphrey described open government as, ‘we should tell the press anything they could easily find out for themselves.’ Anonymous blogging may protect people from reasonable invasion of privacy and external pressure but it should not be an excuse to voice opinions that you would not be happy to be linked to you personally, if ever it became clear that you were who you weren’t saying you are.

Thus the departures of blogs like Subrosa, commented on by Caron Lindsay and a more general over view from Stephen Glenn and Andrew Reeves suggest that there is some disappointment at the loss of a number of blogs.

Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting suggests that perhaps some of the criticism of blogging has gone a bit far. But, Yousuf offers a contrary view.

But if there are any of you out there still in mourning you can always read the last posting of Advanced Media Watch here!

And other news…

There have been a rash of suggested postings and blogs for this week so here are just a selection to cheer you all up!

Although not a new blog Slugs on the Refrigerator lends a new angle on life, Kat describing herself as an Iowan expat! Kat has quite a talent for photography.

Philosophical Zombie invokes Kenneth Clark (not the MP, but the former MP’s father) in his commentary on Scottish housing, “If I had to say which was telling the truth about society, a speech by a minister of housing or the actual buildings put up in his time, I should believe the buildings.”

For those with the nose and taste for whisky you can visit the page of master blender Richard Paterson who works at Whyte and Mackay, I wonder if that advert will rustle up a case for this week’s editor, we’ll see! You can actually stay for free at Jura Lodge if you play your cards right!

For those that prefer the peatier taste of Islay you can visit the Islay Blogging Roundup. It will come as little surprise to those that know Islay that this blog tends towards things natural and man made, both of which are affected by the sea air. Speaking of the sea Eric Joyce gives his thoughts on Trident, perhaps not as pleasant on the palette as Islay’s famous export.

And finally, for those that want a financial reason to stay as part of the Union you might want to consider this from Love and Garbage.

And if you got to the end of this posting, thanks for reading.