It’s been a busy week in Politics, both Scottish and Westminster and I am sat writing this while watching Scotland play Argentina in the Edinburgh 7s which took place this weekend at Murrayfield, which is where I have in fact spent most of my weekend.

So let’s kick off this weeks roundup in the North East, specifically in Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen where The Misssy M Misssives urges a plea to Save Union Terrace Gardens, David Officer Photography claims Aberdeen’s been sold for a pocket full of gold while on Fraser Denholm’s blog he has a copy of a letter to the Scottish Enterprise from the Royal Institute of Architects in Scotland about the Proposed Union Terrace Gardens Competition.

Moving onto the national big news story that broke this week where last night, in between Doctor Who and the Eurovision Song Contest, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws MP resigned.  This is the first casualty of the new Liberal Democrat – Conservative coalition government.

There are many, many blog posts on this one topic so I will try and include as many as I physically can – first we have David Laws’ dignified and honourable resignation on Caron’s Musings, on Andrew Reeves running blog he talks about the hypocrisy of some Labour bloggers/tweeters, SNP Tactical Voting has A Laws unto himself, Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal asks whatever happened to privacy?

Here are a few more talking about David Laws MP – Jess the Dog, Tom Harris MP, Caledonian Comment (who also goes onto discuss the appointments of Peers and the Ipad) and Hythlodæus.

David Laws resignation has resulted in Danny Alexander MP being moved to Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Michael Moore MP has been promoted to Secretary of State for Scotland, Scot goes Pop questions why Alistair Carmichael MP didn’t get the job.

David Laws started the week announcing the first cuts the coalition government need to make and Malc in the Burgh explains the first cut is nowhere near the deepest while Create Share Love thinks the facade is slipping on the coalition.

So, from David Laws MP to Eurovision (no puns at the back please), around 120 million people were watching the show listening to Graham Norton’s commentary and Doctor Vee who was watching writes as if the real Kate Nash wasn’t bad enough.

Following the campness of Eurovision let’s chat about the Queen’s speech that took place this week and over at Another side of Lesley Riddoch you can download a podcast (or two).

The appointment of 56 Peers also took place this week, J Arthur MacNumpty has a fantastic write up of the Scottish perspective while over at An Incredulous Eye on the Isles writes about the appointment of John Prescott as a Lord, he begs the question, who says Gordon Brown doesn’t have a sense of humour?

NHS cuts are still in the news and Councillor Fraser MacPherson on Dundee’s West End is quizzing NHS Tayside about the future of elderly persons’ services at ward 6, Royal Victoria Hospital, Dundee and while we are on the NHS, and Your Electron Microscope questions the Scottish Government’s removal of funding for training homeopathic doctors.

Subrosa has a shocking story about the MoD £7 million procurement of 75 unarmoured vehicles, in fact when you check the story out, the vehicles would look more at home on any of Scotland’s gold courses, unfortunately they have been produced for our troops in Afghanistan.

Lallands Peat Worrier asks if this is the end of “Scottish” Labour?  While The Gallus Glaswegian explains why 33 is the magic number in the race to be the next leader of the Labour Party and Calum Cashley asks if Labour are bankrupt?

Tom Harris MP talks about the Labour leadership battle.

Oh, by the way, back at Murrayfield, Scotland beat Argentina 19 – nil, in case you were wondering.

We know SFA covers the launch of the new Celtic kit, while Indygal goes to Holyrood explains why her feet are killing her on the streets of Dennistoun, Planet Politics tackles Glasgow City Council on gesture licensing and Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal has a great cartoon with the headline – Feeling Blue and Rudderless Under the Goldie Tide.

Suitably Despairing covers the story of the proposed new Forth Road Bridge.

Flares n Seagulls is an alternative music magazine well worth a read, John Connell tells us about the best band he ever saw, but they won’t be reforming and In a bun dance reminisces while working and over at the Scottish Football blog there’s a review of 3D TV.

For those photo fans Scotland in the Gloaming is a must visit site, where there are some stunning sunsets, my favourite is the one of the Forth bridges and better Oot than in, has a day off with her camera and red dress.

Insert my blog name here has three embarrassing tales from the subway and over at …Except the Kyles and Western Isles we have a fantastic history of Craignure ferries with pictures, staying with ferries, A Rabbit’s Eye View of the Hyperborean North has the story of the Pentland ferries being praised by MSPs in Holyrood.

A Son of the Rock explains Dunfermline’s art deco heritage while Islay Birdstells of sightings of different birds on Islay, sticking with Islay, the Islay Blog has a roundup of the annual Whisky festival.

Over at Pining for the West there’s a book review or two to get your teeth into, this one specifically on a collection of short stories, Not the end of the world by Kate Atkinson.

To wrap up Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow explains that as a new day dawns a new mission statement is launched on his blog, what’s in Kelvin’s head.

Well, as the great Bugs Bunny says, that’s all folks, over 120 blogs visited to bring this weeks round up, I hope you enjoy the mix and don’t forget, to nominate a blog post for next week just email or as always use the thingymajig on the right hand side of this page.

Hello and welcome to this week’s roundup! Attention is gradually turning away from politics and ahead to an “ice cream summer”. I can certainly tell you that on a scorching 25 degree Saturday afternoon / evening, there is definitely no better way to spend my time than sitting in front of a computer in a stuffy room trying to collate the best of the week’s blogs.

Even though the coalition deal was sealed over a week ago now, bloggers are still getting used to the situation. NoYo is optimistic about the situation, pleased at the potential for a new style of politics to emerge. Neil Craig is less keen on the prospects.

Coalition does involve compromise, and Caron has already been made uneasy by the way the government has treated Sehar Shabaz:

Home Secretary Theresa May is imminently deporting Sehar Shabaz and her 8 month old daughter Wania. Sehar was at the centre of controversy earlier in the week after she and her baby were detained at Dungavel after both Tavish Scott and Alistair Carmichael had said that child detention would stop. It has now been confirmed that the Liberal Democrats have been successful in ending this practice and no children will be detained at Dungavel in the future.

That’s all well and good, but I’m not convinced that sending them to Yarls Wood is actually a better solution. I’d have liked to have seen all detention of children suspended while the system was reviewed.

More policy difficulties come in the form of the compromise over the Conservative proposal to repeal the Human Rights Act. As Scott from Love and Garbage pointed out, this was never really going to be on the cards. Nick Robinson comes in for particular criticism for failing to understand the constitutional reality of this matter. Lallands Peat Worrier adds his analysis of the situation.

Meanwhile, Alastair Tibbitt from Greener Leith was invited to 10 Downing Street to discuss “the big society” with David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

Of course, there is the kneejerk anti-Toryism for the coalition to contend with too. Dean MacKinnon-Thomson looks at the challenges that face the Conservatives in Scotland.

At first glace, as Prime Minister Cameron entered Holyrood [his first visit anywhere as PM] he could still hear the faint noise of a protest. “Tories, Tories, Tories, out, out, out,” was the familiar cry. Out pumped the traditional battle cries, out flew the red banner- socialism invoked and the elderly Ms Thatcher still treated as the Great Satan.

However on closer inspection this mob of socialists, anarchists, and Bolsheviks turned out to be predominantly teenagers and students- members of the fresh faced Scottish Socialist Youth. They chanted, they hated, they protested…but most of them could hardly remember a Conservative government, and they certainly weren’t around for the miners strike.

You could sense that this wasn’t your traditional anti-Tory protest at all, this crowds opposition, hate and hostility was born from second-hand experience; a borrowed synthetic rage. Borrowed from youtube footage of Ravenscraig, Orgreave and Wapping. Most of it all just names to these student protesters.

And with the Lib Dems now partnering with the party that’s so unpopular in Scotland, what next for the Scottish Liberal Democrats? That is what Planet Holyrood calls the Tavish Scott Question.

In a similar vein, Ideas of Civilisation wonders if the chances of any party partnering with the Liberal Democrats in the Scottish Parliament have been scuppered. If so, will this close the door on an independence referendum?

But while Westminster tiptoes its way towards a more consensual style of politics, Patrick Harvie thinks that the consensual atmosphere in Holyrood needs to be turned down a notch:

It was useful to talk of consensus on the issues we did agree on. But it’s time to recognise that we have no consensus on how to reach those long term [emissions] targets, or even on how quickly to get started.

Now that the election is over, Kezia Dugdale presented a series of entertaining stories from the campaign trail.

Peter Cherbi looks into an apparent “anti-client policy” at the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission.

Meanwhile, Planet Politics bemoans the lack of engagement shown by Dundee City Council, following the apparent failure of a community council.

Tom Harris went beyond the call of duty in order to find out about the reality of abusive drug addicts clogging up pharmacies.

Eagle-eyed Will Patterson was apparently one of the few to spot that the Scottish Conservatives had a reshuffle this week, and was straight in analysing Annabel Goldie’s moves.

Dark Lochnagar has a novel take on the deficit situation.

Following on from last week’s closure of The Pop Cop blog, Ellen Arnison is left wondering how she would feel if her blog was shut down.

If you’re looking forward to the Eurovision Song Contest this week, you can probably do a lot worse than subscribe to Ewan Spence’s Unofficial Eurovision Podcast.

Scott Liddel shared his photographs from a trip to Edinburgh Zoo.

That’s your lot for this week! Many thanks to Lallands Peat Worrier who suggested the lion’s share of these posts. As you can see though, we could still do with more blogs about stuff that isn’t politics.

Please don’t be shy! Nominate away. If you see any good blogging that you should be featured here, please use the contact form on the right, or email scottishroundup@gmail.com. Also don’t forget you can now follow us on Twitter @ScottishRoundup.

We’re also looking for more guest editors too. So if you fancy giving it a bash please do not hesitate to contact us!

It is my honour to be doing the Scottish roundup the first full week after the era of ‘new politics’ and the first full week of the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition. Ok, so Scotland didn’t see a single seat change hands since the 2005 election but we’ll gloss over that for fear of missing out on gazing with misty eyes into that new dawn.

While an air of uncertainty hung over the May 6th result, Malc crunched the numbers by looking at the various options for potential coalitions and Stephen Glenn insisted that “you have to work together to get things moving, advancing and rolling along as best you can”, clearly keen for the Lib Dems to get cracking with implementing on their policies, regardless of who Nick Clegg teamed up with. Lesley Riddoch stepped back (with Gerry Hassan and Kenny Farquharson) to consider the wider impact of the result.

It was, of course, the Lib Dems and Tories who eventually joined forces, a result that Duncan gave a tentative thumbs up to, but it wasn’t long before Joan McAlpine was considering whether “the Lib Cons” had a mandate in Scotland with Julie McAnulty even ahead of Joan to criticise, concluding as she was that the end of the union was nigh as ”the only truly left win party left in Scotland is the SNP”.  

Hugh Stewart believes Scottish decisions could rule how successful the new Government is north of the border. Hythlodaeus took a comprehensive look at what the Lib Dems got out of the deal while Bright Green Scotland gets a little confused between ‘progressiveness’ and fighting cuts but seems well and truly up for a scrap on both subjects.

Planet Politics suggests that Cameron and Clegg,  ”the political Ant and Dec, may get on well and have much in common as regards personal background and policy, but their MPs, wider parties, grassroots members, activists, supporters and voters aren’t perhaps such natural bedfellows.”

Glasgow East, a promised key battleground for the SNP vs Labour, was picked over with emotions still running high. Bellgrove Belle lamented on a Labour campaign (allegedly) based on “scaremongering and fibs” while Indygal took offence at new MP Margaret Curran (allegedly) suggesting that the SNP didn’t even have a right to challenge in certain seats. It wasn’t just the Nats who were considering the fallout, Iain Dale allowed a post from an anonymous Scottish Conservative considering how his/her party could break into Glasgow East and beyond.

Lest we forget, this was the week that Gordon Brown bade farewell to being Prime Minister of the UK. Subrosa took a look at his legacy and found it wanting.

Love and Garbage raised a metaphorical magnifying glass at the 55% rule hidden in the Tory / Lib Dem coalition agreement while Two Doctors aired his concern that the rule is not power to the people but “cynical tinkering”.

Bundance has a handy few dictionary additions. I personally see ‘Lembit – feeling sorry for someone you never thought you ever could’ taking off.

And last, but by no means least, the blogger at The Pop Cop could do with some blogging support. His site, which is a labour of love and a great service to the Scottish music scene, was taken down by Google for seemingly ridiculous reasons and his request to help lobby Google to have the three years of his work returned to him is well worth repeating here.

So there we go, that was the week that was. The first of the Liberal Conservative alliance! I was only able to make the above blog post links ~35% female but, hey, that’s still a heck of a lot better than David Cameron was able to manage in his Cabinet.

Hi folks! We may well have been expecting a Hung Parliament for some time, and the Scottish blogosphere went through all this three years ago, but let’s face it, we were always going to go into overdrive, weren’t we?

Anyway. Big Rab had a few observations on the big day, and on results night, FlyingRodent, Malc, Subrosa and Holyrood Patter all followed the many twists and turns.

And what a night it was! We ended up with the loss of Labour’s majority, a Hung Parliament and seats changing hands left, right and centre. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, anyway! The Scottish electoral map looked exactly as it did this time five years ago. This bizarre, change-but-no-change outcome obviously got you to your keyboards, with Anne McLaughlin, Planet Holyrood, Allan, Angus, Jeff, Jess the Dog, Lallands Peat Worrier and Stuart all lining up to offer their respective takes on the situation.

But with Labour’s share of the vote actually going up in Scotland, Dark Lochnagar and Subrosa wonder what Labour have to do to lose support for Scottish elections to Westminster.

Of course, this result only served to highlight how the election was, in a way, a tale of four nations, with the Tories beating Labour in England, Labour beating the Tories in Wales, the Conservatives remaining in fourth place in Scotland and the Tory alliance with the Ulster Unionists coming fourth in Northern Ireland. Alan Trench and Joan McAlpine look at the ramifications for relations between the constituent parts of the UK, but Jess the Dog and Alwyn ap Huw argue that regardless of whether or not the Tories have a mandate to govern Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the mandate they have to govern England should be respected.

Looking at the parties, however, Neil Craig argues that as a result of this outcome, everyone could lose.

Despite losing their majority, Scottish Labour bloggers’ tails were up following their results north of the Border. Tom Harris MP, Kezia and Richard McCready all hail local successes in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee respectively, while Yousuf ventures that while overall the night was disappointing for Labour, other parties had a far worse evening.

For the Liberal Democrats, a sombre tone emerged, with Caron dismayed at Willie Rennie not being re-elected in Dunfermline & West Fife, and Stephen reflecting on some of the main moments in his own campaign in Linlithgow & East Falkirk.

A reflective mood emerged in the SNP camp: Steven is disappointed and looks at how the party ought to react; Mark suggests that the evening, while a disappointment after a wave of overambitious pronouncements, wasn’t as grim as it’s being made out, while Osama thanks his campaign team in Glasgow Central.

Patrick Harvie MSP hails the victory of Caroline Lucas in Brighton Pavilion.

Lallands Peat Worrier, meanwhile, looks at how the BNP performed in Scotland.

But with the results in, attention has turned to the Government that might emerge from it. Stephen discusses the issues that at at stake in a potential Tory-LibDem Coalition. Duncan doesn’t think such a tie-up would be a bad thing, but Caron is less sure. From outside the LibDems, Joan McAlpine and Jeff question what principles are at work in an agreement between Messrs Clegg and Cameron.

Another alternative is the so called ‘Progressive Alliance’, which appears to consist over everyone but the Tories. Eric Joyce MP and Boxthejack seem broadly in favour, but Dave pours cold water on the idea. Dark Lochnagar takes a look at the body language of the party leaders and suggests that pretty much rules out any deal involving Messrs Clegg and Brown.

One of the key points in any deal (or blocking ny deal) is electoral reform. Neil welcomes the prospect (and notes that the Tory refusal to agree to a UKIP offer in which they would stand down if the Tories offered a referendum on EU withdrawl could well be what denied the Tories a majority). Caron and Stephen crunch the numbers in favour of electoral reform, but Shuggy is less convinced by the arguments offered in favour of PR.

And despite Labour figures offering reform to the LibDems, re-elected Labour MP Tom Harris is not impressed at the idea, arguing that First Past The Post is less rubbish than other systems. James Kelly argues that, by refusing to support the electoral reform which could make or break a deal with the LibDems, Tom Harris has effectively argued in favour of a Tory Government, while Lallands Peat Worrier reminds us just how many Labour MSPs supported a Scottish Parliament motion backing electoral reform last week.

Meanwhile, with a great deal of pressure apparently being brought to bear on the respective parties to reach a deal quickly, Andrew Burns asks what the rush is.

And whoever ends up taking office, there’s been a lot of discussion at what impact the result has on the SNP, and particularly its prospects for retaining office next year. Dark Lochnagar, James and Jeff all reflect on how things might pan out.

Finally, Anne McLaughlin reminds us of the perils of phone canvassing!

But other things did happen this week, and Joan McAlpine and Andrew Reeves express outrage at the murder of gay teenager Jack Frew.

Ali takes a look at an advice column ghost-written for Danny Dyer in Zoo Magazine, which this week proposed violence as a method of settling a domestic dispute. Ali argues that if we expect sensitivity from Zoo Magazine, we’re going to be disappointed.

Fitaloon and David Farrer report on the Homecoming Parade which took place for troops in Edinburgh yesterday.

Rob McDougall was at the finish line of last weekend’s Great Edinburgh Run.

Scotland for the Senses goes on an Armchair Tour of Scotland, while Jade explores the joys of local travel.

Finally, Dear Scotland looks at how footballers present themselves in the media, and Rob presents his SPL team of the season.

So that’s it for another week – I daresay there’ll be a lot to go through for next week’s Roundup, and if you have any posts you’d like to nominate for it, then as always, you can fill in the swingamajig on the right, or drop us a line to scottishroundup@gmail.com. And yup, we’re on Twitter as well: @ScottishRoundup. Bye-de-bye!

Hi folks! As announced last night, here’s a bonus Roundup (aren’t we good to you?) summing up the final days of campaign bloggery. There’s nothing more that can be done or said: all that’s left now are the results, and their aftermath.

Starting with Labour, Tom Harris offers us his final thoughts, and also puts himself in the frame as the director of Labour’s next party political broadcasts. They’d be worth watching if he did them.

Yousuf charts the role Glasgow has played in the history of the Labour Party.

However, BellgroveBelle and Anne McLaughlin MSP look at some of Labour’s campaign material in the city and aren’t overly impressed. Allan doesn’t particularly like what he sees from them in neighbouring Renfrewshire either.

Mr. Eugenides casts his eye over Labour calls for tactical voting, while Steven wonders how Labour can square the use of the word ‘future’ with constant references to the past.

Meanwhile, Jess the Dog hails this as a day of change from Labour, while Paul Pearson looks at the Labour candidate who tore into Gordon Brown this week. With allies like those…

Cllr Cameron Rose explains why he is a Conservative, while Fitaloon endorses his local Tory candidate.

Stuart asks if the key question for this election revolves around David Cameron’s ability to bring about change. Alex Massie argues that Cameronism (is he worthy of an ‘-ism’ yet?) appears to stop at the Tweed.

I suppose in that context, maybe this Tory poster, flagged up by Andrew Reeves, which depicts the UK but omits the Western and Northern Isles, isn’t bad. It’s still pretty embarrassing when the message is “We’re all in this together”, though.

BellgroveBelle and Holyrood Patter both endorse the SNP, with BellgroveBelle also reporting on Tusday night’s ‘Ask Alex’ event.

Stephen Glenn sums up the LibDem position, with an obvious focus on Linlithgow and East Falkirk, where he’s been on the ballot paper.

Allan is backing the LibDems this time, but Joan McAlpine clearly isn’t.

The Shoogly Peg hopes for a Hung Parliament, while Subrosa is of the view that none of the parties deserve her vote.

Jeff discusses a blogpost he wishes he hadn’t published about postal votes – and the unfortunate consequences it’s had for him. Caron looks both at that and the possibility that the Tory candidate in Livingston has broken the Data Protection Act.

Neil Craig looks at campaign activity (or perhaps, lack of it) in Glasgow, while The Shoogly Peg gets exasperated at everyone’s claim to being part of a ‘two-horse race’.

James reviews the last Scottish Leaders’ Debate, and Stuart focuses on the speakers’ answers to the expenses questions thrown at them during Sunday night’s proceedings.

Tom Harris gives us a transcript of a slightly surreal canvassing phone call.

Angus Nicolson sums up the candidates’ positions in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, while Philosophical Zombie looks at the overall campaigns.

Alan Trench assesses the ‘devolution literacy’ of the parties’ manifestoes.

Paul, James and Malc give us their reflections on casting their vote.

Lallands Peat Worrier gives us his version of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Allan looks forward to tonight’s proceedings, while Dave isn’t sure where to get his coverage from. Why, from Joan McAlpine on BBC Scotland, of course!

Crystal Ball time: Boxthejack, Julie and Bright Green Scotland all take a look at the result and its aftermath will be.

Jeff takes the view that if David Cameron walks into Downing Street, his opponents should show grace in defeat.

Mr. Eugenides looks at what will come next for Labour, and is amused at what he sees.

Mark reminds us that there’s also been a Council By-Election in Glasgow today, to replace Steven Purcell.

Former LibDem candidate Kelvin Holdsworth has his thoughts on the election, and compares attitudes involved in politics with those involved in the Church.

Returning Scot looks at the mood of the nation, and reflects on attitudes to equality in Norway.

Caron has warm recollections of polling days past.

Finally, Ellen asked her kids what they thought of the election.

And that’s it: I’m aware that besides myself, Holyrood Patter, Malc and Subrosa will be liveblogging. If you’re doing the same, drop us a line in the Comments section, but that’s it for this Special Roundup – I’ll be back on Sunday with the weekly edition, and as always, you can nominate posts for that by filling in the thingummydoowop on the right, or by sending us an e-mail to scottishroundup@gmail.com. We’re also on Twitter @ScottishRoundup. Bye-de-bye!