Well, they asked me back so either they were desperate or I didn’t mess it up too badly on my first round-up outing.  But it’s always a pleasure to surf the Scottish blogosphere in search of rambling, ranting and ruminating about all things Scottish.

But what’s this?  Philosophical Zombie writing about the revolt in Libya and A Scottish Liberal pondering the psychology of its deluded dictator.  What’s in Kelvin’s Head offers thoughts and a prayer for Christchurch, while Moridura manages to combine New Zealand and Libya in a post about Black Tuesday.  

Elsewhere, on the eve of Ireland’s General Election, Bella Caledonia analyses the state of Ireland and Irish politics from Dublin, Alex Massie considers where Ireland currently stands in the Kubler-Ross model of grief and Sean McP senses change is in the air in the People’s Republic in his Blogfeast.

More globetrotting:  Bright Green Scotland flits to Cardiff to interview the Welsh Green leader, Craig Murray considers if an American killer has diplomatic immunity in Pakistan, Go Lassie Go wonders if the layout in the Norwegian Parliament might be good for Holyrood and Dear Scotland wonders why the *glamour friendly* twixt Scotland and Brazil is being played in England.

Holyrood Chronicles hotfoots it to Spain, SNmr commemorates the end of the Banana Wars, Another Side of Lesley Riddoch sends a podcast from the most Northern town in the world, and Scotland for the Senses even manages to find a little bit of Italy in Perthshire.

Some bloggers focus on UK matters: Munguin’s Republic has a wee pop at David Cameron’s interpretation of an ethical foreign policy, Scots and Independent tries to define the Big Society (while Ellen Arnison decides it’s patronising nonsense), the Absurdist imagines – hilariously – a conversation between Jacqui Smith and civil servants, Sub Rosa laments no one noticing that the British Government robbed its pensioners and Caron’s Musings manages to link the EU, fluffy handcuffs and the AV referendum all in one post.

Sheesh!  Did no one stay home this week?  Fortunately they did, allowing me to use my most favourite Scottish word – in the world!

For what we get from the staycationers is a remarkable, rip roaring gallimaufry (look it up!)

Ben Lomond Press reckons the SPL and Scottish League merger is a marriage of connivance;  Suitably Despairing is eh, suitably despairing, at the news that baby boomers are the worst eco villains; The Streetlamp Doesn’t Cast Her Shadow Anymore - what a great blog title! - looks at the band, Conflict, and how one of its songs became a criminal offence; Will Patterson bids adieu to one of the Parliament’s old guard in his Notebook, as does Iain McWhirter Now and Then, Tales from the Dark Side entertains with his awards for the worst guide in the world and the Drum Up outlines which up and coming Scottish cyclists the Braveheart Fund will be supporting in 2011. Oh, and Jacqui Blogs Off with a tale about Strawberry, the Blue Meanies and Bulldog (you’ll just have to read it).

In what can only be termed – enviously – as the Pointy Heids Corner, Malc at Better Nation examines whether states can, or should, legitimately use force;  Scot Goes Pop explores the themes at work in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go; Devolution Matters discusses constitutional reform and flawed constitutional processes; A Place to Stand debates Public Choice theory and the reinvention of political science; Lallands Peat Worrier dissects Scotland’s recorded crimes and offences involving firearms and Absolvitor celebrates a legal victory over local authorities that might help families with a child with additional support needs. 

Don’t these boys realise we all kent their faither?!

More talent in evidence in the blogosphere and in Scotland. Scots Whay Hae looks forward to Glasgow’s Aye Write festival, Let’s Get Lyrical posted a review and audio clips of its session with Alasdair Roberts and Robin Robertson, and A Burdz Eye View (yep, that’s me) rounds off her contribution to Get Lyrical month with a guest post from a Mad Mackerel.  Thoughtland made a passionate defence of libraries, and the Mitchell library in Glasgow, in particular, while the Scottish Book Trust details how one teacher in residence found expression through poetry. Song, by Toad promotes the latest album from Ringo Deathstarr, Peenko has a whole host of downloads available, including Admiral Fallow, King Creosote, Mondegreen and Broken Records, and the Indelible Ink strand of Dear Scotland reviews the biography of the wonderful Stuart Adamson (the Skids, Big Country).

Ach but we wouldn’t be Scottish without a fair number of us focussing on the parochial.  Which doesn’t mean these bloggers didn’t have big thoughts to share nor points to make. 

Thus, Freedom-2-Choose highlights new Scottish Government guidelines which aim to make mental health services smoke free, Planet Politics seeks an apology from Dundee Council’s leader over spurious claims about the previous Labour administration’s alcohol consumption, and Holyrood Horrors pokes fun at a Unionist defecting to the Unionists.  Meanwhile, Lena the Hyena and  Blerr de Blerr Blerr  lament the loss of arts and enteprise funding for the Union Terrace gardens project in Aberdeen.  And in probably the most parochial post of the week on an issue of wider significance, Ewan Aitken reveals how he is still fighting for the No 12 bus. 

Finally, Nicholas beneath the Kilt wraps up this theme rather neatly with his post on why Power Corrupts, taking us all around the world and all the way home again, and sharing a word or two of Burns on the way.

That, folks, is your lot. 

Around the world in 50 Scottish blogs, and if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to shake the sand out of my flip flops and pack the suntan lotion away for the next trip.

Be gentle, dear reader, for this is my first round up and I apologise in advance if it’s pants.  I’m not good at following rules so will only have myself to blame for your ire, given that I cherrypicked my way through the nominations and just don’t really do whimsical.

But hey, we weren’t exactly in whimsical mood this week.  Boy did we want Osborne and co to feel our anger and it translated into some fantastic posts.  Not for we Scots bloggers the obvious path of retreading the cuts announcements but lots of quirky, off piste angles and thoughtful analysis.  Made me proud to be among youse.

Bella Caledonia set the tone wondering if Scotland will find its mettle and reject “the shock in the shock doctrine”.  Bright Green fired off its anger for doomed youth with a post analysing the impact of cuts on future generations and Caron’s Musings asked “who will speak up for the poor now” in a post that considered the good and the bad in the measures announced.

The Ben Lomond Free Press discussed the consequences of the cuts for his area and for micro businesses like his, while the Misssy M Misssives provided a fantastic family sized microcosm of the economic challenges facing us all. Freedom-2-Choose Scotland explored ASH Scotland’s plea to be insulated from the cuts.  Suitably Despairing highlighted the potentially catastrophic impact of just one of the Spending Review’s many measures, but Craig Murray took a different view of “the Left’s irrational addiction to high public spending”.

Scotland Unspun (also published by Newsnet Scotland) detailed how Britain’s sterling crisis is distorting Scottish GDP – warning: this excellent post needs a clear head to do it justice!  But there is hope: Shopaholly showed that there is an alternative by living smaller and learning to love saving.

The Liberal Democrats’ culpability for the cuts came under close scrunity from Scotland’s bloggers, with Michael Moore in particular getting a bit of a doing from Go Lassie Go.  And Another Thing ruminated over the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats’ failure to keep their manifesto promises while Scot Goes Pop! wondered “at what point do they (Lib Dem members) say ‘up with this we will not put’?  Elsewhere, the Will Patterson notebook analysed the ups and downs of the Scottish Green vote since 1999.  And Gerry Hassan lamented the lack of big ideas to create a bigger Scotland; fortunately, he posits a few top class ones of his own.

The defence review and the HMS Astute incident also provided fertile blogging ground.  Malc at Better Nation pondered the impact of the RAF base closure on the small town of Kinloss. Sub Rosa highlighted the alarming but also very funny case of the sub that ran into Skye while Set in Darkness – Life considered it a disaster, though “thankfully not a nuclear incident”.

Some of the myriad Nationalist bloggers explored Alex Salmond’s speech to the SNP’s annual conference, including Munguin’s Republic and Lallands Peat Worrier, who,in a separate post considered if the young Salmond deserved the epithet of “infant Robespierre”.  The new SNP campaign choon prompted Sean McP’s Blogfeast to travel through a lifetime of “working together” for the SNP

All things womanly featured in a number of posts.  The meaning and relevance of feminism was expertly dissected by an extremely articulate teenager in the Higher Plane Diaries, while Change your thoughts, change your life made the case for female entrepreneurs being better than male ones. Kirsty Logan wrote an open letter to drunk dudes in bars and The Absurdist mused poignantly on being a year older and why she’ll never regret another birthday.

Reconstruction of Scottish football is on the menu again – Jim Spence considered the pros and cons while Dear Scotland applied Chinese numerology to SPL reorganisation and concluded that “turd + polish = turd”.  But there’s more to sport than football, as eloquently demonstrated by Skip Cottage Curling who recounted a bizarre criminal scandal to hit Canadian curling and the Drum Up which featured a series of posts on Graeme Obree, a greatest living Scot if ever there was one.

Another greatest living Scot, Dame Evelyn Glennie, inspired Beyond the Dragon’s Breath’s wonderful poem.  A particularly riveting and enthralling jaunt through Edinburgh from Shootin fae the Shin took us from the Abbotsford Arms to Barefit Park, with a shocking murder along the way.

As usual, Scotland’s wondrous natural resources inspired bloggers and photograhers alike. In a bundance celebrated the delights of Mull, Islay Natural History Trust posted a fantastic photo of the common buzzard, the novelty of snow in October was framed perfectly by Beefy Lorelei and Martin Third captured this amazing cloud formation over Linlithgow.

Some more photies to delight you – this of the Lewis Chessmen currently on display in Aberdeen (from daisyglaisy), Ben’s View of a well stocked gantry (it might be the nearest some of us get to malt whisky for some time) and eh, this spotted in the Meadows in Edinburgh by MVP Photographs.  A gorilla busking.  And if that wasn’t surreal enough for you, try Balloon man gets on a bus, captured by Adelaide Green Porridge.

On the music front, Aye Tunes promoted Edinburgh Popfest this weekend:  the line up certainly whetted my whistle, and tickets are still available for Sunday;  Amy McDonald was captured on stage in Aberdeen by Day of the Tripods ; Song, by Toad challenged his own prejudices against exclusives and remixes and Peenko provided a damn fine smattering of Friday freebies.  Have fun at dinner went record shopping with Neil Pennycook from Meursault who revealed he just wants to get on stage with his top off…

The soap opera that is the Tommy Sheridan court case continued, with Absolvitor posting this very funny summary and the Sheridan Trial giving a blow by blow account of each session.  There will be more lurid stuff laid bare (no pun intended), I’m sure.  But no Love and Garbage this week due to illness and work overload – get well and come back soon, we miss you!

One final round of wonderful posts for you, from parents of children with support needs, highlighting the injustices they face daily and the maelstrom of emotions they endure.  As I marched yesterday against the cuts and for a better way, it was families like these who were at the forefront of my mind.  If any group deserves protection from the coalition’s cuts and a better way from decision makers and service providers, it’s them. But no pity required, thank you.

Oh Mammy; Clare, Derek and the Twincesses; Gallus Effie; Soft Thistle; Jacqui’s Blog Off