I have generously taken time away from my busy schedule and unforgiving head cold to summarise what has been going on in our bonnie country of Scotland this week… so what follows is a hot mess of the highlights that stood out for me and my ‘deprived of oxygen at an early age’ brain cells….

Ultimo boss, Michelle Mone launched a fund raising drive this week for the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund.  Now when I first cast my curious eyes over the pictures that accompanied the piece in the paper – of the Gabreselassie family  working the fields in Ethiopia- my natural instinct was to determine if the mother’s breasts were looking noticeably uplifted, friendly even…. one wouldn’t be surprised if Michelle had generously sent a few sets of her new push-up bras by recorded delivery, scheduled an impromptu photoshoot with Mrs Gabreselassie, and then unveiled the bemused potato picker later in the year as the new face of Ultimo, but no, upon reading the details of the venture my cold heart defrosted ever so slightly, this was a more serious affair.   Scots are being encouraged to give up a treat for 40 days during lent and donate the cash saved to help stop global poverty (here’s hoping wives around the country choose to give-up chocolate over sex then or there is going to be no money in the pot and a hell of a lot of wayward husbands hitting the bottle).  Michelle will also be travelling to the North Pole in 2 weeks time to undertake a month long 2000-mile expedition.  No comment need be made on the hardship her poor breasts might take during the trek but I’m confident Michelle has had her breast team of experts design her a form fitting number that will see her through her road trip minus the convenient road, warmth or Little Chef’s.  Ah well.  It is all for a good cause after all so get thinking…. What treat are you prepared to give-up?

In other news the Ministry of Defence have released reports of flying objects spotted over a range of locations in Scotland, with one electrician in West Lothian having described his sighting to be a ‘Toblerone shaped’ UFO.  Both mysterious AND delicious sounding… well count me in!  Of course they are just ‘reports’, and for the most part they have been made by men who work 60 hour weeks…. Think fishermen (long periods of time spent at sea, almost hoping to see ‘something’ other than water), bakers (notorious for sampling their own butter based delights with the sugar hits as a result causing paranoid delusions ) and candlestick makers… I’m not quite sure where I’m going with this.  But it might be fun to read up on the claims and slip on your ginger Scully wig for an afternoon or two – god I miss the X Files!  The reports are available to download for free for a month from The National Archives.  The truth is out there!

As an Editor (with an imminent expiry date) it has been my added responsibility to showcase a few of the blogs that have been nominated on Scottish Roundup this week.  I KNOW – pressure cooker responsibility!  And apparently I am meant to read the blogs before I promote them? Well, that’s just not my style.  But you can trust my instinct. So here we go…

There is an adorable blog to be found (if you look hard enough or just click on my link for ease) that talks about lipsticks and dressing like Marilyn Monroe, it is called Beauty Bombshells.  There is another blog that posts pictures of hung parliamentary members……. but I’m a little confused, the blog was in no way arousing.  Over at Come Dine With Me’s sister blog, ‘Have Fun At Dinner’ you can download a free Scottish Compilation album!  And don’t you worry it is a ‘legal’ playlist that is just perfect for nights in making love to (I’m hoping for your sake) the loved one.   Jan Patience is a journalist and she writes about Art.  I like Jan; she has a bit of spunk about her.  There is also to my surprise a blog about apples and pears AND a blog to compliment it called Salt n Sauce.  That blog likes to ask you the reader a lot of questions!  Over at Lewd Awakenings you will be introduced to Phoebe Henderson, the Skinny’s resident sex columnist… a fun read but may I suggest you wear a paper bag over your head – the convenient kind with cut out eyes, it’ll help to spare you any public blushes.  Douglas Carswell writes about money and the internet, two of my favourite things and Leith Records is quite the lovely website, showcasing Scotland’s finest music.

And then just like that…. it has all come to an end.  Another week wrapped up on Scottish Roundup!

I have to get back to my own blog now who is giving me severe *side-eye* glances.  He doesn’t like to share much.  Next week, Love and Garbage will be rounding up the strays so keep nominating the fun blogs you find on the interweb by filling in the convenient ‘Nominate Your Blog’ widget to the right of this mess or by emailing, tweeting or tagging.  That’s right, tag a wall today and see your nominated blog in print next Sunday! Au revoir.



Hi folks! It’s been another wacky seven days, and that’s left lots of bloggy goodness for me to sift through this week.

Of course, the main focus of attention has been on Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s donning of her MSP for Glasgow Govan hat to write a character reference for Abdul Rauf, pending his trial for benefit fraud. Though it hasn’t yet been given ‘-gate’ status. Lettergate, perhaps? Anyway, Yousuf notes how the papers currently make bad reading for the DFM, who is at least defended by Alex Salmond, citing the Code of Conduct for MSPs. However, in his defence, he omits a number of qualifications written into the code, prompting Tom Harris MP to accuse the FM of misleading Parliament.

By Thursday lunchtime, there were calls for the Deputy First Minister made by all opposition parties to make an immediate statement to the Scottish Parliament, but the Tories then went on to agree to delay the statement until after the brief Parliamentary recess. Andrew and Stephen rip into the Tories for this apparent U-turn.

However, the main thrust of arguments seems to surround Sturgeon’s judgement in the matter, with Jim Millar and Dave calling it into question. Stuart agrees to an extent, though finds the over-reaction and hyperbole exchanged by both sides exasperating. Subrosa isn’t overly happy either, but believes that it’s not a resigning matter.

Meanwhile, Malc offers the DFM his cautious backing, and stronger support comes from Caron, who argues that she would have done the same thing under the circumstances.

Also, Jeff takes a look at dodgy characters given support by politicians of other political hues and wonders why they don’t have ’serious questions to answer’ as well, while James Kelly worries that this row will ultimately impact on the service and support that Parliamentarians will be willing to offer their constituents.

And speaking of MSPs duties, Richard Havers clocks a nearly-empty Holyrood debating chamber and wonders quite what MSPs are paid to do in the first place.

Still, Lettergate, or whatever you want to call it, has knocked Lunchgate off the front pages, but Ideas of Civilisation has managed to produce three posts on the story and its implications. Stuart, meanwhile, condenses his views on the story, the reaction to it, and its reporting into one thoughtful post.

And the reporting of the two stories draws comments at Bella Caledonia, where it’s noted that they’ve been prioritised ahead of other, arguably more serious matters.

Incidentally, there might be another ‘-gate’ brewing: SNP Tactical Voting-gate. It turns out that Jeff is the subject of a press release by Margaret Curran, and he doesn’t seem too cut up about it. But I daresay he won’t mind the supportive character reference from James Kelly.

The real online scandal can be found in the companies trying to use the present trends for social networking sites as a source of a quick and easy buck (so easy, in fact, that it doesn’t really require the services of a third party to sort out): Contently Managed has the story.

And speaking of social media phonies, someone’s been gallivanting around the internet pretending to be Councillor Terry Kelly – remember him? Of course you do. The fake has been wreaking havoc on Comment is Free, he/she/it/they went on to make an appearance in the Comments section over at Harry’s Place. This got the attention of CiFwatch, and ultimately, the real Terry Kelly had to venture onto Harry’s Place to try and clear things up, augmenting his response with a post on his own site. Since then, Terry has had to issue further posts on the matter, given continuing attacks and the appearance of the story in the local press. Now at the risk of editorialising, everyone knows that I’m not exactly the man’s biggest supporter, but really, this just isn’t funny anymore.

Anyway, in more pleasant blogging news, Contently Managed are publicising the latest Scottish social media dinner, to be held this Wednesday, and Tom Harris has his top ten tips for political blogging.

In other news, the Scottish Tories had their shindig this week, and Fitaloon offers two supportive posts. A less supportive post comes from James.

Andrew hails the defection of Glasgow SNP Councillor Alex Dingwall to the LibDems. It’s interesting that John McNamee’s defection to Labour provoked far more comments from across the spectrum, but this move provoked little comment from outside the LibDem blogosphere, save a quick post from Yousuf. Perhaps it’s because Cllr Dingwall was more respected, more of a stalwart, and has fewer bones to bury than his South Lanarkshire counterpart. Or perhaps it’s because he switched to the Liberal Democrats rather than Labour. Who can say?

Stephen notes with dismay that regardless of the outcome of the election, VAT may be going up to 20%. Leaving aside the monetary impact, on the plus side, this makes it easy to calculate – simply divide by five, then add, or to calculate the net amount, simply divide by six then subtract. On the other hand, it’s a passport to nervous breakdowns for accountants and financial or purchasing systems administrators…

Richard Thomson notes the support for a referendum on further legislative powers for the Welsh Assembly and asks why, when that vote is backed, and a referendum on the Alternative Vote has government support, the economic situation is too murky for a vote on Scottish independence.

Further afield, Subrosa takes a look at the possibility of Sarah Palin making a bid for the US Presidency in 2012.

More locally, We Know SFA considers Steven Pressley’s chances of keeping Falkirk in the SPL.

On a more sober note, Stephen discusses the overshadowing of the Opening of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, with the death of Georgian lugist Nodar Kumaritashvili.

On a lighter note, Ellen Arnison is perturbed to be turning into her mother.

Here’s an intriguing gem over at Except the Kyles and Western Isles: an obituary of Highlands & Islands GP Dr. Martha Devon from the 1960s.

Kasia has her reflections of Valentine’s Day.

From the gallery, Claudia Massie conjures up a romantic image of Perthshire, while Heidi Kuisma gives us a couple of images which are decidedly less romantic, though do have something to say about the way we live.

Finally, good news from BellgroveBelle, who is expecting her first child – congrats!

And that’s very much your whack for another week. Portis Wasp is in the hotseat next week, and as always, you can nominate posts for inclusion using the diddlydoodah on the right, dropping us a line at scottishroundup@gmail.com or following our Twitter account @ScottishRoundup. But from me, it’s bye-de-bye!

The big story of the week was the SNP’s 3rd Scottish budget. The budget got through parliament at the first time of trying this year with help from the Conservatives again as well as the holy trinity of the two Greens and Margo.

New money came in due to various budget flexibilities which was used to give the Greens and Margo what they wanted, rather than fund the Glasgow Airport Rail Link. I tried to explain the breadth of business people who backed the Rail Link,  but SNP Tactical Voting didn’t seem to be convinced.

A commenter on Jeff’s blog highlighted the front page on the Evening Times shown on this blog. I can’t see the problem with it myself…

At the beginning of the week there was the story about SNP Councillor John McNamee defecting to Labour. In a balanced blog, Will thinks it’s a scalp but a qualified one, whilst Anne McLaughlin went on the attack.

Then at the end of the week the story broke about Salmond flogging dinners with himself in Parliament for a party fundraiser. Jeff doesn’t think it is a big story and an inquiry will now take place to resolve the issue.

Lord Goldsmith spoke to the Iraq inquiry where he denied he was put under any pressure to say that the war was legal. A Place to Stand remains unconvinced and Crinkly thinks this shows why an Independent Scotland would be more, well… independent.

There is also the announcement from the PM that he will legislate for a referendum on changing the voting system to AV. Alistair Charmichael is somewhat suspiscious however.

This is a week when more doubt has been placed on the commitment some climate change scientists have to ethics, the Age of Stupidity calls on individuals to do their bit and James is pleased that the Scottish Government have finally agreed to a boiler scrappage scheme.

Speaking of green issues and if you will forgive me a digression from politics, Scotzine was nominated and spoke about Robbie Keane’s last-minute loan deal to Celtic. Cue much jubilation from my fellow Celtic fans… well until the Kilmarnock defeat at least.

And that’s the week. Some bad headlines at the start and end of the week for the SNP but they got their budget through in tough times. The Tories continue to hope that by looking responsible they will win votes and Labour hope that the combination of the Tories and the SNP cancelling GARL will play well for them on the doorstep. Oh, and the Lib Dems abstained.

First of all, a huge congratulations to all blogs that were involved in the Scotblogs Awards. Whether your blog secured a high position or not, this entire exercise has been a great way to discover new blogs — and it is because of every one of the 140-or-so blogs that were nominated.

A massive thanks must go to everyone who nominated a blog, all of those who contributed to the over 1,500 votes cast, and the panellists.

The great thing is that even more blogs have been submitted to Scottish Roundup since the deadline for entries closed. Each of them will be featured in the roundup in the coming weeks.

The wonderful diversity and the high quality of the blogs, right the way through the field, bodes well for the health of blogging in Scotland.

Below is the main list you have all been waiting for — the top 100 blogs. For information on the voting process, visit the Scotblogs Awards 2010 page. View the winners in other categories.

• 97=. Scottish Business Blog
• 97=. Philosophical Zombie
• 97=. Hythlodæus
• 97=. Amused Cynicism
• 95=. Islay Info
• 95=. Councillor Paul Johnston
• 94. Captain Ranty
• 93. Pining for the West
• 89=. The Green Isle of the Great Deep
• 89=. One Man Blogs
• 89=. Loose Change
• 89=. David Fagan
• 88. Inside Left
• 87. Bread and Roses
• 86. Slugs on the Refrigerator
• 84=. Smashing Mirrors
• 84=. Better Oot Than In
• 77=. PoliticsScot
• 77=. John Connell
• 77=. Jamie Livingstone
• 77=. Islay Birds
• 77=. I am a Rag Doll – Broken and Bent
• 77=. Domestikated
• 77=. Alter Ego…
• 76. A Wee Bit of Cooking
• 72=. RantinRab
• 72=. My Portis Wasp says
• 72=. Have Fun At Dinner
• 72=. Debra Storr
• 71. Bishop Hill
• 67=. Shopaholly
• 67=. A Son of the Rock
• 67=. A Rabbit’s Eye View of the Hyperborean North
• 67=. …except the Kyles and the Western Isles
• 66. TheCatGirlSpeaks
• 65. *Insert My Blog Name Here*
• 64. Andrew Reeves’ Running Blog
• 63. …and your electron microscope!
• 60=. Eric Joyce MP
• 60=. Caledonian Comment
• 60=. An incredulous eye on the isles
• 59. Scotland in the Gloaming
• 58. Pseudepigrapha
• 53=. Scottish Football Blog
• 53=. Wholly Rude
• 53=. What Oor Willie Did Next
• 53=. Another side of Lesley Riddoch
• 53=. “And Another Thing…”
• 51=. Taexalia
• 51=. Bella Caledonia
• 50. Jess the Dog
• 49. What’s in Kelvin’s Head
• 47=. Whitehall 1212
• 47=. Holyrood Chronicles
• 46. Scots Law News
• 42=. Holyrood Patter
• 42=. Suitably Despairing
• 42=. Scot goes Pop!
• 42=. Ideas of Civilisation
• 41. Newsnet Scotland
• 40. Yapping Yousuf
• 38=. Love and Garbage
• 38=. Kezia Dugdale
• 37. Under the Radar
• 34=. More Than Mind Games
• 34=. Left Back in the Changing Room
• 34=. Greener Leith
• 32=. Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal
• 32=. Phuturelabs
• 31. Calum Cashley
• 30. Last Year’s Girl
• 29. Blether with Brian
• 28. Planet Politics
• 27. Between the Hammer and the Anvil
• 26. Clairwil
• 25. Iain Macwhirter Now and Then
• 24. The Universality of Cheese
• 23. Inksters Give Blog
• 22. Freedom and Whisky
• 21. Aye Tunes
• 20. Scottish Roundup
• 19. Malc in the Burgh
• 18. The Ben Lomond Free Press
• 17. Ian Hamilton QC
• 15=. Subrosa
• 15=. Indygal Goes to Holyrood
• 14. The Pop Cop
• 13. Gerry Hassan
• 12. Caron’s Musings
• 11. doctorvee
• 10. Peenko
• 9. The Misssy M Misssives
• 8. We Know SFA
• 7. Alex Massie
• 6. Lallands Peat Worrier
• 5. Everyone I Ever Kissed
• 4. Go Lassie Go
• 3. J Arthur Macnumpty
• 2. Mr Eugenides
• 1. SNP Tactical Voting

In the interests of full openness and transparency, I have decided to make all the data available for anyone who wishes to look at it. You can download them below in PDF or Excel format.

• Scotblogs awards data (PDF)
• Scotblogs awards data (Excel)

One of the things that really struck me as I was gathering votes was the large differences between the choices of the panellists and the choices of the voters. As such, I thought it was worth mentioning those blogs that scored particularly well in one of the rankings, but ended up with a moderate overall ranking due to doing poorly in the other one.

A wee bit of cooking is an attractive food blog. It caught the eye of panellists, five of whom gave it the nod. This made it the second most popular blog among the panellists. Staggeringly, only one person voted for it in the poll, placing it joint 121st in the readers’ ranking. This has left it 75th overall.

Two panellists gave Pining for the West their vote, placing it 19th among the panellists. Again, just one person voted for it in the readers’ poll. This left it in an overall position of 92nd. (Disclosure: This is my mum’s blog, and I helped her set it up!)

Four blogs received one vote from a panellist, but got no recognition from the readers at all: Bigmout Strikes Again, Shirl’s Gardenwatch, Skip Cottage Curling and Southside and Newington Newsblog.

A further seven blogs received the same number of votes from panellists as from readers overall: Better Oot Than In, Smashing Mirrors, Jim Millar, Mid-Life Bassist, Sea Kayaking with SeaKayakPhoto.com, Type face a week and Scotland in the Gloaming.