Scottish Roundup

Thank you for the huge amount of nominations this week on so many different subjects. The main political event of the week was, of course, George Osborne’s budget with its eye watering tax rises and spending cuts.

Stephen sees Lib Dem fairness in there.

Greener Leith rounds up locals’ tweets on the Chancellor’s speech.

Tom Harris and his friends are less than impressed.

Jeff sees the need for all Scottish political parties to play their part in identifying where the savings will be found.

If you are a casualty of the austere economic reality in which we find ourselves, and you enjoy blogging, making money out of writing might be attractive. Newmodeljournalism.com reviews an e-book on how to become a “next generation journalist” and asks whether this could work.

Walk the Sand turns her attention to cuts of a different kind, embodying the spirit of thrift we may all need to embrace in the austere future.

If you need something to cheer you up after all the budget gloom, look at the gorgeous photos of cats and evening skies Conversation Pieces has taken on her new camera

Elsewhere in politics, Eric Joyce MP shares his ideas on Labour’s future defence policy.

Joan McAlpine writes about the controversy behind the British Irish Council’s decision to choose Edinburgh as its base.

2ourism Scotland has a thoughtful analysis of the changes afoot at VisitSscotland

Angus Parent feels that Audit Scotland Concerns about Angus Council are being ignored by the administration.

SNP Cllr Bellegrove Belle was perplexed at receiving online overtures from David Milliband. Her baby is due today, and Roundup wishes her and her family all the best.

In a few years’ time Baby Thewliss may take inspiration from these original Father’s Day Gifts reported in the blogosphere, leather warrior’s armour from RMontalban and the iDad from KidsCraftandChaos.

She may also like to suggest the inclusion of a monkey race in the school sports in a few years’ time after reading Hopeman Man’s account of the favourite race of his childhood.

Shootin’ Fae the Shin tells a tale of a Musselburgh woman who survived hanging for the murder of her baby.

Yeahokbye alerts us to an Edinburgh exhibition of beautiful photos of an old storehouse on a Norwegian island deep in the Arctic Circle.

There’s some football tournament on at the moment and it seems to be moving on a stage. Paul Edie shares his thoughts on football, and also on leadership, which both Fabio Capello and the French coach Raymond Domenech might want to take on board.

Anyway, who cares about football when the Highland Games season is in full swing? Misssy M tells about her husband’s first experience of playing a “marquee” with his band.

It wasn’t so much In a Bundance’s failure to be impressed with Gok Wan that caught my eye, but the miraculous tale of one man’s recovery from illness just in time to ee the football that made me laugh.

Actually, Islay Blog shows us a much healthier pursuit than sitting around, beer in hand, watching the football – beach rugby, complete with video.

Has Ben Lomond Free Press solved the mystery of Horseboy?

The iPhone 4 came out this week and Tom Harris managed to get his hands on one in fairly short order. He’s not so impressed with the idea of reading books in electronic form, though. In a Bundance hopes he keeps his shiny new toy out of the smallest room.

This week we bid farewell, sadly, to Yousuf, who’s hanging up his keyboard as he starts work. I’ll really miss him and I hope he hangs around on Twitter. We may have been in opposing parties, but it’s always good to have another Schumacher fan around. Roundup wishes him all the best in his new career.

Don’t forget that Duncan is preparing to hand over the reins of Scottish Roundup. The entire Scottish blogosphere owes him an enormous debt of gratitude for the immense work he’s put in, week after week, to keep this site going over the past 4 years. If you have any suggestions (or offers) to make about the future of Roundup, please do so here.

That’s all for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed our journey across the blogosphere. Please e-mail your suggestions for inclusion in next week’s Roundup to scottishroundup@gmail.com.