A mixed bag this week, though on the whole a gloomy one.  Firstly, Alex Massie casts his sceptical eye over the possibility of a Lab-Lib coalition at Holyrood after May.  He warns that “the campaign will be a depressing auction between Labour and the SNP who will compete to promise greater levels of heroic resistance to evil London. It will not be an elevating campaign.”  Dispatches from Paisley is just as pessimistic: “It is more likely that Labour will win by attacking the SNP’s record in office, than by unveiling some sort of popular policy initiative, like the Lib Dem’s £10,000 tax threshold which was simple and showed common sense.”  Hard to disagree with any of that, but he lightens the mood a little with a suitably sardonic take on the publication of a Scottish Who’s Who.

Mike Richie has a very welcome dig at bureaucratic jargon.  (If only, I would also suggest, David Miliband had read it in time.)  So we might agree about saving English, but Alasdair Mac Gill-eain at Bella Caledonia shows there is much less agreement about the need to save Gaelic, though he argues passionately and persuasively that we must.  Linguistic heavyweight Lallands Peat Worrier continues this theme with a wider musing on the tension between oral traditions and modern literacy.

He also offers a discussion of the Scottish Parliament’s deliberations on assisted dying that, almost uniquely, treats this complex subject – so often reduced by each side to a petty imputation of bad faith by the other – with the seriousness it deserves.  To its credit, the piece is not soundbite-friendly, but perhaps this quote will give a flavour: “If the godless feel vexed by the persistent belief in divine ontologies of God, saints, angels, divine sons and so on – feel put upon by the unwelcome figuration of sin being imputed to their lives – imagine the reciprocal difficulty the pious must have with atheistical empty cosmological space.”  Fellow non-believers might wish more atheists, instead of cheaply belittling religion, thought and wrote like this.

Elsewhere, Lenathehyena points out the hypocrisy of Aberdeen City Council cutting services for the elderly and disabled while raising the Chief Executive’s salary and borrowing hundreds of millions for ego-massaging projects like Ian Wood’s Memorial Park.  Speaking of the Granite City, Aberdeen Events and Flares n Seagulls both give us the lowdown on what’s on there.

Continuing the good old pessimism, Better Nation explains why AV is a poor compromise between FPTP and full PR, Suitably Despairing bemoans the Scottish Government’s “increasingly unambitious” climate change targets, and Adam Ramsay at Bright Green Scotland neatly tells the story of how the left has lost (“the right have played a blinder”) though, on the deficit, admits he “literally can’t work out what the problem is”.  Stuart at Scottish Socialist Youth has a very thoughtful piece on how an unholy alliance of neoliberal right and postmodernist cultural left has warped our understanding of the true, grim nature of prostitution.  Subrosa is uneasy about the growth of halal meat, and BellgroveBelle bemoans the lack of baby changing facilities at the City Chambers (despite, I seem to recall from a distant Doors Open Day, having the most marble in the world outside the Vatican).

More cheerfully, Tom Harris extols the joys of conference season, while Indygal writes supportively about people coming out, with a touchingly quaint disapproval of casual swearing.  Munguin’s Republic mocks the week’s FMQ, while Subrosa has a look at the new Judiciary of Scotland website.

Some of this week’s blogs have a libertarian take on various matters of health: Freedom-2-Choose (Scotland) argues we should be wary of official claims about the health benefits of the smoking ban, A Burdz Eye View mocks the Scottish Government’s attempts to get us to consume more Vitamin D, and offers some alternative suggestions of her own, and In a Bun Dance protests against the convictions of two men who provided “a real alternative to costly and impersonal regulated fertility clinics”.

For those normal people out there who aren’t political obsessives, try Glasgow Podcart and Dear Scotland about local bands, Scots Whay Hae saluting a graphic novel about a soldier returning from Afghanistan, The Life Craft and Beavers at Bamff promoting a couple of worthy causes, or a football podcast at The Terrace.  View from the Stalls has a handy rundown of what’s coming up in theatres around central Scotland, The Thumbcast offers a “grumpy, shambolic, sometimes legally dubious and occasionally inaudible” pop culture podcast, while Misssy (sic) M gives us the immortal line: “My mum once confessed that she and another teenage friend invited another girl with them on holiday mainly because she had sores on her legs that needed lancing every couple of days.”

Teddy has some very funny and almost certainly defamatory things to say about (among others) David Beckham.  His deconstruction of the mathematics of three-in-a-bed is, I think it’s fair to say, unprecedented.  Perhaps the only line I can safely quote is: “So the next time someone tells you that what you’ll be attending is a sombre occasion, why not rock that funeral or memorial service with your best sombrero? It’s only right.”

Finally, Planet Politics has an interesting piece (including a clever send-up of Animal Farm) on why the success of Westminster bloggers in joining the MSM establishment hasn’t been replicated in Scotland.  (One of the few bloggers to achieve Scottish MSM recognition, The Universality of Cheese, has, for once, a post that’s nothing to do with politics at all.)  PP quotes the man behind the now-defunct SNP Tactical Voting as saying: “Let’s face it, blogging is enjoyable but irrelevant, self-indulgent but inconsequential.”  And on that happy note, till next week!

This is my first attempt at doing the Scottish Roundup, so I apologise in advance if it is not up to the usual standards.

The talking point of the week would have to be the visit of Pope Benedict to Scotland which caused a flurry of commentary across Scotland and the Scottish Blogosphere. New group blog Better Nation continued its high-flying start with a jointly authored provocative post about whether or not the Pope should be welcomed to Scotland or asked to pack his bags. Seraphic and Joan McAlpine blogged on their personal experiences of the Mass led by the Pontiff in Bellahouston Park and The Burd reminded us all about the role of St Ninian in Scottish history and the fact that the Papal visit included a St Ninians Day Parade.

Meanwhile, in Holyood, it was Deputy Day as the leaders were with the Queen and the Holy Father. Moridura notes that the 2010 General Election showed a large swing from the SNP to Labour as the voters fled from a potential Tory Westminster Government and that the 2011 Holyrood campaign is a Scottish Labour vs SNP campaign. Subrosa gives an insight into how the SNP will be conducting their 2011 campaign as demonstrated by the Deputy First Minister which is to basically blame Labour for the economic problems.

This essence of the campaign is highlighted by Alex Porter over at Scotlandunspun by suggesting the SNP should actually leave Westminster as part of a tactic placing the blame for the economic problems on the Union as a proxy for Labour and the Tories (one for spending too much and the other for austerity). The idea being that if the Union is blamed for the cuts then independence becomes appealing. Kenneth Joseph Murray at Newsnet Scotland writes the final word about this topic (this week anyway) by looking at the human cost of the economic problems we face and argues that green energy and fiscal autonomy means Scotland can ride out the current economic problems. Newsnet Scotland also covers the Scottish Parliament’s Health & Sport Committee examination of the recommendations from Labours Alcohol Commission.

The causes of the financial problems facing Scotland and the UK can be confusing to many people but The Burd gives clarity to the economic situation by highlighting her bellwether measures that, in fact, can be used by everyone. If I were to add my own it is the number of construction cranes I can see when I walk around Edinburgh city centre.

The SNP and Labour will not be the only parties standing in the Scottish elections and Will Paterson blogs that the Scottish Greens are targeting Scottish Lib Dem voters who are disaffected with the Westminster coalition. He urges caution however, with this approach with a detailed analysis of what would happen across a number of Constituency seats and the Regional Lists if the Scottish Greens did well.

Over at The Shoogly Peg there is a post that the Scottish Lib Dems could use to counter any disaffection by pointing out that Nick Clegg is not a two-faced sellout.

This week also saw a lot of coverage about the future of two Royal Navy aircraft carriers which are due to be partly built in Scotland including extensive work at Rosyth. Suitably Despairing blogs on this but also tells us about hopping around naked. He goes on to confess his soft spot for the Navy but does ask whether or not the UK needs aircraft carriers. He then references Caron‘s blog over at Caron’s Musing who points out the irony of Alex Salmond devoting a lot of political time trying to ensure that the UK Government builds the aircraft carriers in a place that, if he has his way, would not actually be part of the UK. He also notes that the shipyards on the Clyde and Rosyth could be in fact used to build the technology required for supporting the nascent renewables industry in Scotland.

The Labour leadership battle is almost over and Jamie Cook at Not a Westminster Village highlights how his hopes for a dramatic and exciting relationship with one of the candidates in fact became a slow burn connection that could be something special. Torn between two brothers he has plumped for the elder Miliband and sets out his belief that David can unite and energise the various wings of the Labour Party.

Politics at a local government level in Scotland is going to become even more fraught in the coming months with council finances under pressure with Edinburgh Council cropping up in three blogs. Cllr Andrew Burns states that the first public consultation on cuts was not well attended nor well received. Peter McColl at Bright Green highlights the problems Edinburgh Council is having spending £168k in Craigmillar but Cllr Cameron Rose found that a cut in the education budget would actually lead to an improved service.

However it has not been all politics in Scotland this week. Love and Garbage and Lallands Peat Worrier both blog about the ruling from Lords Hardie, Bonomy and Wheatley that appears to legalise domestic abuse and both wonder why the mainstream media have not picked up the long term legal implications of the ruling. Both blogs take what could be seen as a complicated legal judgement and make it accessible to those who are less well versed in law.

Over at the pro-smoking site Freedom to Choose, there are three posts covering health statistic correlations, health inequalities and various smoking stories.

The weather is starting to turn and Lisa-Marie wrote an excellent recipe for some seasonal cake as well as a hearty soup and tasty casserole.

Ellen seeks more support when shopping from Asda, Tesco & Sainsburys. Areas for improvement include trolley design, undearwear shape and store layout.

Seumas offers an interesting non-political insight into how the EU works blogging for the duration of his 107 day internship.

There are more touching, although for different reasons, personal blogs from meagainstthepoolswimchallenge and Abyssinia, Henry who are facing their own challenges.

We also have some good photo and design blogs from rmontalban and yeahokbye including the brand new A Glasgow Album with an already fantastic array of images from Glasgow. Aye Tunes has some good info and commentary on the Scottish music scene.

Eleanor and James Crossing Scotland Coast to Coast is a blog giving details of a fundraising kayak 100k journey by 11 year old Eleanor and her dad James. They are fundraising for Marie Curie Cancer Care and the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. You can find out how to sponsor them here.

Finally, a new blogger got so annoyed at one of Scotland’s top bloggers, Tom Harris MP, that he set up his own blog just to respond. Like many bloggers though, he got hooked straight away…..

I hope that this edition meets you Scottish Round-up expectations and thanks for reading.

It’s been a busy week.

The Scottish Parliament resumed after its summer recess, marking the unofficial start of next year’s Holyrood election campaign, and the Scotland football team returned to international competition, marking the unofficial start of the ‘Reinstate Berti Vogts as Manager’ campaign.

Elsewhere in the real world, this week’s roundup contains posts on men, masculinity and ultra-cool arty calendars. It’s an eclectic mix.

The return of MSPs to Holyrood this week provoked a furious reaction to what has to be one of the biggest issues facing society today. Not reducing the deficit, fighting poverty or meeting the challenge of Scotland’s alcohol culture. No, Green MSP Partick Harvie was the voice for the thoughts of the nation when he tweeted on Monday his great disappointment that Microsoft products have been installed on Scottish Parliament computers. It can only end in tears.

If you want to keep up to date with the errant twitterings of Scotland’s political classes, I’ve posted a rundown of Scotland’s Top Political Tweeters.

But it wasn’t all railing against The Man for our elected representatives this week. In fact, rather than one big issue dominating the Scottish political blogosphere over the last week, there are no real themes which have bridged the political divides. To illustrate the point, on her blog, SNP MSP Ann McLaughin described the timetable for her week in Parliament, while Carron set out her personal manifesto for the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Labour’s Eric Joyce, meanwhile reflected on the chasm between reality and the political debate on drugs, while the Rebel has a plan to see more normal people in parliament. As if.

With the announcement at the beginning of the week that the SNP Government was not going to bring a Bill on an Independence Referendum to Parliament before next year’s election, a myriad of Independence-supporting bloggers debated the hows, whys and wherefores of the issue, mostly with each other. Calum Cashley led the way with his eminently readable treatise for Independence, while Joan McAlpine argued that the Scottish Government could bypass Holyrood and take their case directly to the people. The Burd calls for a rethink. The Lallands Peat Worrier interrogated the legal case for such a referendum, while Love and Garbage weighed in with the counter argument.

(Serious point though – where have all the Scottish Labour bloggers gone? The blogging world needs a new Kez or Yousuf to keep it balanced).

But to be honest, I preferred Love and Garbage’s posts on Hans Moretti or Morcambe and Wise.

Scotland’s football performance this week against Lichtenstein was a different type of comedy. More like John Cleese’s Basil in Fawlty Towers  - the scene gripped  the viewer with tragic, cringeworthy demonstrations of personal awkwardness that was both difficult to watch and impossible to walk away from.

‘Horror’ was a word that came up on some of the post-match posts. Rob at Left Back in the Changing Room questions Craig Levein’s approach, while Alex Massie lays the blame on the national malaise: “we tell them that they’re hopeless and yet demand they achieve great things”. At least Big Rab at the Ben Lomond Free Press made me laugh!

Alex is right – there’s something about football that encapsulates the Scottish national psyche, both the good and the bad. I suppose that’s why another couple of posts caught my eye this week.

Lallands Peat Worrier trawls the tales of the Court of Session to bring us the case of John McCormack’s dismissal from Hamilton Academical, and lays bare the culture of misogyny still prevalent in parts of Scottish life.   

Elsewhere, Ellen tells her tale of sectarianism, tribalism and football, asking: “Could someone tell me how to sort it out and explain it to the children?”.

But don’t be put off just yet with stories of grim social realism, failure in sport and sexism. Here’s the light at the end of the tunnel!

Gillian at Cocktails at Naptime has a guide to communicating with your man. It was so good, I sent a link to it in an email to my wife – who was sitting at the other side of the room  J  

Yeah…OK…Bye highlights a beautiful thing, an Ink Calendar.  Nadine takes up a challenge close to my over-worked heart in Eating My Way Around Edinburgh, and reviews Santini’s, which in my humble view is the best Sports-Centre-Changing-Room-Themed-Restaurant I’ve ever eaten in.

A group of non-profit organisations are participating in #BeGoodBeSocial, a social media get-together to be held next month in Edinburgh. Ross McCulloch sets out the inspiration (and the confirmed line up) in his tribute to #NFPtweetup.

Inspired by Missy M in Roundups passim, I’ve been spending a bit of time this week with the loveliness that is Blipfoto. I can definitely recommend it to those of you who haven’t been, even just for a look around. These are my efforts. After spending far too long looking round the site on Saturday night I had a big list of cool stuff to link to here, but as my laptop died this morning with the links inside, you’ll have to look for yourself. I promise it will be worth it.

There’s been some great stuff written and posted on the Scottish Blogosphere this week – so thanks to those of you who’ve made me laugh, cry and think! Please also accept my apologies to those of you who wrote posts which I’ve not managed to include, I lost a few links in this morning’s Great Laptop Disaster.

Happy blogging.

J

* Alex Massie

You’ll all be familiar with the worthy collective venture that is the weekly Scottish Roundup. In the best spirit of civic nationalism, the roundup gives Scottishness its widest possible definition. When it is working at its best, weekly guest editors collate suggestions from the blog-reading public, make their own choices and often highlight a missed essay, a neglected site and otherwise contribute to the inter-connectedness of the Scottish blogging world. These seems to be excellent things, devoutly to be wished and encouraged.

Recently, a few of us have ganged up to relieve Duncan of the perpetual burdens of administration. To whit, this month it is my turn to play officious servitor*. Of late we’ve not been fostering as polyphonous a range of on-weekly authors as I’d like to see, so consider this an earnest call to arms. Or at least, some other less martial metaphor that nevertheless communicates a sincere invitation to participate. Have you previously edited a roundup and fancy doing it again? Do please let me know and we’ll line you up. You may be a long-time reader, but don’t maintain a blog yourself. Please don’t let that dissuade you. Perhaps you are rattling away at a new (or old) blog and want to shamelessly plug your own prose to a potentially broader audience. Editing an weekly edition is an obvious way of doing so. Still not convinced? One last civic-minded argument then, to sway the waverers. Its obvious enough, but the project’s ongoing survival is entirely reliant on the good offices of volunteer writers and composers. We could use the assistance. If you’d like to volunteer or ask about what specifically would be involved, do just pop me an e-mail at ~ lallandspeatworrier@gmail.com.

* P.S. If this month doesn’t suit, do nevertheless let me know and we can line you up later in the year.

..I’ll just get you the keys after I’ve phoned the papers.” The William Hague story has caught the eye of most of us. Has the press gone too far this time? Ideas of Civilisation thinks so.

As Edinburgh International Film Festival shifts its focus towards first and second-time filmmakers, there has been a collective call to encourage others to get out and make movies, regardless of financial circumstances. Filmmaking at Edinburgh from Uncultured Critic

To whoever nominated this- thanks, it’s a welcome and different addition to The Roundup. Spooky tales from the gallows from Shootin Fae the Shin

Bella Caledonia mulls over the legend of William Wallace.Wallace, by contrast, was a gey complex case: myth folding on myth. The closer you got to his own day, the more mythical he got: Wallace in Flesh and Stone

Yeah Okay Bye on cheese etiquette  Yes, there is an etiquette surrounding cheese!

Caron from caron’s Musings believes that very often  common sense is flung out the window when it comes to “child safety”. Caron muses over the bureaucracy that could close a nursery in Fife. Despite my own over-anxiety as a mum, I realise that swaddling children in red tape is neither sensible nor effective.

Big Rab at the always wonderful Ben Lomond Free Press looks at the prolofereation of the word aspirational and asks what it really means.

Bright Green Scotland wins the best post title of the week award for sure.Why I superglued myself to the Royal Bank of Scotland

Three Scots political bloggers have joined forces to start a new blog . It’s called Better Nation and the contributors are bloggers you will know from SNP tactical Voting, Malc in the Burgh and Two Doctors. A fine pedigree.  Read their posts  here and here for a sample .

As a Mum and a dog owner the horrible news that a girl was attacked by three dogs in Dundee certainly got me thinking about responsible dog ownership.  Ellen asks what can be done to stop a repeat of the terrible attack by dogs on Rhianna Kidd in Dundee ?

Absolvitor discusses the news that the City of Edinburgh Council are embroiled in a complex legal fight to evict a community organisation from premises in the Craigmillar area of the city in Eviction and Equalities in Edinburgh

The Absurdist champions our libraries in the face of underfunding, under-use and, to make matters even worse, a severe drubbing from Quentin Letts on Radio 4

Let’s sing-a-long-a-Lallands-Pat-Worrier

Love and Garbage is even more excited than before about the trial of Tommy Sheridan now that Andy Coulson has been called as a witness

Andy G ends his stint at the tapas bar in Edinburgh but comes back with some stories.

Dark Lochnagar deals with groundbreaking, expensive  and fairly obvious scientific research

My real life person has  a new blog which allows me to write about kids stuff and this week’s post is about something that every Scottish mother has to cope with. Not sleep deprivation, colic or reflux, but the arrival of the Health Visitor

Photo-blogging

And now to what’s fast becoming my favourite part of the Roundup- the Blipfotos. So many of our established Scots  bloggers have a Blipfoto account as well.

Rab does

I do

David  Lewis does

Adelaide Green Porridge does

Andrew Reeves has a Flickr account

And some others just blog in their Blips. Like…

Meeester Feature

Alive and Kicking

Beefy Lorelei

Daisy Glaisy

In My Life

Stewart Bremner

Eco Dad

Wingpig

Lady Findhorn

Joe Blogs

Scobes

Red

Ben’sView

It’s  a Dobb’s Life

That’s yer lot for this week. Lallands Peat Worrier takes over the reins of the Roundup for the next wee while. Keep blogging and nominating through this site, by Tweet on  Twitter @ScottishRoundup and via email scottishroundup@gmail.com Thanks to everyone who has nominated whilst I’ve been administrating. See you out there in Blogland.

Misssy M