This has been a strange week in politics in some respects but obviously politics isn’t the be all and end all of life as we know it (apparently) and therefore there are other topics that I have covered in this weeks roundup

There were a lot of recommendations this week with a few leftover from last week, so here goes;

Starting with the visit of David Cameron to America to see Barack Obama and BP and Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi over on Red Meg’s blogshe is agreeing with David Cameron that the release of Al-Megrahi was wrong while Frankly’s Blogue explains the due process.

Caron’s Musings has the Florence and Precious Mhango vigil in Glasgow in words and pictures, including one of our very own J. Arthur MacNumpty who Caron spotted in the large crowd of supporters.

I thought there would be more about the Labour leadership race in the macblogosphere, giving my own blog a shameless plug I covered the news late last night that Ed Balls MP was considering quitting the leadership race on my running blog.  Tom Harris MPexplains why David Miliband would be the greatest threat to the coalition.

I did try to get more of a Labour Scottish angle on this but using the Total Politics top 50 Scottish blogs list, all of the Labour ones bar Tom Harris MP are no longer with us, invite only or really out of date.  I tried.

While we are talking about Total Politics blogging guides, it is that time of the year again when the 2010-11 Total Politics best blogs are being compiled and you only have the next week to participate.  For the explanation, rules and email address to send in your nominations can all be found here at the Total Politics site.

I am also going to highlight the proposed tax by Edinburgh Airport, they now want to start charging you a £1 just to drop off someone at the airport, the Scottish Liberal Democrats Margaret Smith MSPand Conservative Gavin Brown MSP both have petitions on this – if you want to tell BAA and Edinburgh Airport where to shove their proposed tax please sign them both!

Suitably Despairing questions whether the Green Party is being played by the SNP as the Home Renewable Energy Grants were axed by the SNP, a very good point put and one to remember as the budget discussion starts later this year.

Stephen Glenn on Stephen’s Liberal Journal talks about the passing of snooker’s great, Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins.

Who would you put on the naughty step? Christian Ronaldo, who has recently become a new father is the choice of Adventures of a lady in training.  While on football, the best round up of the World Cup from the Scottish angle that I’ve read comes from Billy Williamson over at Dear Scotland.

Sticking with the football theme The Scottish Football Blog has come under some pressure on copyright laws, a really interesting read and I for one are very sympathetic to his plight.

As we are on the sticky subject of copyright within blog posts etc, this post titled Blogger gets libel threat for criticising website caught my eye via twitter last night about Gordon Brown MPs website.

As we approach August, those of us who stay in Edinburgh are preparing for the Festivals, Alastair Braidwood on Scots Whay Hae! has done the first part of a few previews of the Edinburgh Fringe, well worth a read.

Now for a musical theme Aye Tunes is well worth keeping your eye on as a great and useful guide to what gigs and other events are coming up soon and for slightly different lists and views pop over to Peenko or perhaps The Pop Cop.  Staying on the musical review theme, Wesley Shearer AKA the Scottish Scribbler writes about the Blue Sky Archives while Have fun at dinner tells us about a folk trio from Aberdeen, The Son(s).

Nulty Goes To Partick has an amusing post, the good, the bad and the ugly (with swearing) about research recently undertaken by scientists about apples, well that is where it starts.

Moving onto home grown vegetables Taexalia tells us the story of her home grown potatoes, a really interesting read and while we are on the something different section Life in a Scots Sitting Room has a great post titled Freaky Trees.

BellgroveBelle explains her personal experiences, the good and bad, of breastfeeding her baby.

The SPVA Sucks! ventures into the territory of mental health issues, too often overlooked and not discussed, specifically screening for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and whether the Conservatives have backed down.

Now I iz 2 is a photo blog by Tom Clark, wow, an amazing selection and still on photos, although unlike Tom’s not an exclusive photo blog, Scotland Here And Now has a great post about the Royal Botanic Gardens here in Edinburgh while on Scotland in the Gloaming has an amazing picture of the Firth of Clyde afterglow.

Going the Extra Mileis fundraising for Help 4 Heroes in fact starting tomorrow the plan is to run over 200 miles in 10 days on Islay and Jura and a little on the Kintyre Peninsula.

I have left this one until last, delibrately, because I really couldn’t stop laughing, honestly, I am not telling you what it is about, but see if you can read it without smiling or laughing? The Missy M Misssives gets the last laugh of this week’s roundup.

That’s all folks, don’t forget to nominate your favourite blog posts for next week’s roundup.

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.

This week’s round up has to mention the awful situation in Haiti first, although as Jess the Dog states, not many bloggers have covered the disaster in detail.  Stephen Glenn has covered the events with what the papers are saying and the need for clean water.

If you have not been able to donate yet, please do so, even a small amount can make a difference!

So, here we are another week, another round-up.  Slightly ironic for me this week as my little blog has not had much of my time at all this year, apparently there is an election coming…..however, there have been loads of nominations, here I try to cover as many as possible, apologies I can’t do them all, they have made some great reading though.

Anyway, over at a place to stand Neil explains how our household gas and electricity bills are expected to rocket fourfold to nearly £5,000 a year by the end of the decade to meet Government-imposed green targets.

Over at the Scottish football blog the Mother of Parliaments took time off from discussing the lack of salt and blaming each other for the weather to discuss a return for the Scotland v England football fixtures.  Personally, as a long time Chelsea fan, I’m just happy we are still above Manchester United.

A fantastic piece from Iain Martin who is Deputy Editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe on why the Welsh Conservatives are much better than Annabel Goldie and the Scottish Conservatives.

Oliver, at Ramblings of a Student talks about the stop and search powers of the Terrorism Act 2000, S44 and how on Tuesday 12 January 2010 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that s.44 was unlawful, this is the stop and search powers I blogged about when used against photographers and Stephen tells us of Mikey the 8 year old terror suspect.

Moving away from politics and into the gardens, Shirl’s Gardenwatch tells us of a hardy wallflower that has survived four weeks of snow and temperatures of minus 12C to flower this week.

Now onto a wee round up of some different blogs Peenko has a keen music theme while smashing mirrors covers photography, there really are some great photos, scroll through, have a look and Taexalia talks about wildlife.  

Back to politics – phew – that was a relief, how did I manage for so long.  Caron tells us about Nick Clegg on the Andrew Marr show while Jeff, over at SNP Tactical Voting writes about the missing Labour candidates and Subrosa comments on the deluded Gordon Brown.

As on my last round up, I am going to highlight Scottish Councillors who keep in touch via blogs, so this time I start with Cameron Rose, a Conservative Councillor here in Edinburgh and Councillor Terry Kelly, a Labour Councillor from Renfrewshire.

So that’s your lot for this week. Next week, Duncan Stephen enters the hotseat and as always, you can send in your suggestions via the thingummybob on the right, with a message to scottishroundup@gmail.com, or with a tweet to @ScottishRoundup.

Another week of some great blog posts across the Scottish blogosphere, covering the obvious topics such as the Glasgow North East by-election, MPs expenses and Remembrance Sunday but there are some obscure ones as well.

So, pull up a chair, get a drink and enjoy.

So, let us start as we should with Remembrance Sunday and poppies.  It is a day to remember those who given the ultimate sacrifice for us to enjoy the freedoms we do, whether it was during the world wars, Falklands, Iraq or even Afghanistan.

On Andrew Marr this morning it was said that someone from our Armed Forces has died in conflict every year bar one since the first world war.

Boxologies asks whether wearing a red poppy is a political statement, whereas over at Big Dollop we have Poppy political correctness gone mad and then there is the argument over whether an MSP should pay for their own wreaths, or not over at Advanced Media Watch, Subrosa and my little blog.

Finally back at Big Dollop we have the awful story from Glasgow of the couple who stole a full collecting tin for the poppy appeal.

This has been a busy week, and with it the 5th of November, Scottish Round Up’s own Duncan talks about an important anniversary, but not Guy Fawkes, read all about 100 years of Woolworths here at Doctor Vee.

Also this week there is still the continuing saga of the MPs expenses, Callum Cashley talks about the second homes of Ministers who also have grace and favour apartments and Dispatches from Paisley has a wry smile about the timing of a government paid advert and Mr Eugenides has a rant, but well written rant about the employment of spouses and other points.

Sill on MPs expenses, but this time moving onto the Kelly Report once again Mr Eugenides has a good piece about the report, and whether the MPs will argue for every penny they can.  Kezia Dugdale likes some of the Kelly recommendations, over at Blether with Brian, he talks about some comparisons with Holyrood’s expenses system and Tom Harris MP was pleased in part for missing some of the announcements.

Both Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting and Andrew Reeves talk about standing for two jobs in two legislatures and how the Kelly Report now stops that, what will John Lamont MSP do now and will he continue to embarrass the Conservatives?

This week has also seen a bad week in Afghanistan for the British Armed Forces with five of our soldiers murdered by one of the people they were training as Microshaft explains, Caron told us what she hoped Nick Clegg would say, across at Jess the Dog we wonder why British Ministers aren’t there as the fallen from conflicts arrive back in the UK.

Aye we can talks in detail about cannabis production in Scotland and the way it was reported on the BBC and staying with drugs, Shuggy blogs about the sacking of Professor Nutt.

Last week the Scottish Liberal Democrats had their Autumn one day conference which got a fair amount of press and blog coverage, especially because it was held in private, although I hate to disappoint, it was always a private conference as we were talking about our constitution long before the Independence debate was added!

Anyway, I digress, it was also the Green Party conference, and Two Doctors tells all.

Adding football into our round-up is always good although as flying rodent explains, all is not well on some terraces.

Thresher’s wine shops went into administration this week closing 53 shops across Scotland as some chap called Andrew explains.

Stephen writes on Linlithgow Journal about the Minister Scott Rennie, who was named herof the year at the Stonewall awards.

Yapping Yousuf throws Mayor’s into this weeks mix, specifically whether Scottish Mayor’s would work.

Phew, right about half way there now, still six topics to comes.

As I said at the start, it’s been a busy week and the Lisbon Treaty and Europe has been on the agenda of many blogs including Jess the Dog, who’s posting titled Brown, Blair, Cameron, Europe, Guy Fawkes, Tom Harris and the Berlin Wall caught me eye, while Chris Jones Leaves on the Line blog has a view and North to Leith has not one but two good postings, here and here.

The awful shootings of US soldiers at Fort Hood has generated further anguish in this week of remembrance.  Fitaloon at Microshaft hopes it is his last post about the deaths of soldiers for this week while Stephen’s aptly named post, the Enemy within is a moving piece.

You would think First Miister’s Questions would reach the Scottish Round Up more often than it does, but this week thanks to Lallands Peat Warrior coverage of the St. Andrew’s Day issue  it does and on the same issue Jeff accuses them of being party poopers.

The East Coast Main Line service is in the news this week, for various reasons, Wardog has a light hearted view as does Andrew Reeves, Will Patterson has a take on this, aptly Leaves on the Line has a view on this and GARL while Subrosa says this East Coast Main Line decision should be stopped.

Before I come to the final piece tonight I also wanted to mention Councillors and blogging and I have selected two that I think keep their local communities and constituents informed.  They are bizarrely both in Dundee, Councillor Richard McCready and Councillor Fraser Macpherson.

Now onto the final section, the Glasgow North East by-election.  This week we have seen Gordon Brown on the campaign trail, £2 coins thrown, candidates being born in two parts of Scotland and the big STV debate between the 4 main candidates, so here goes;

Fraser Macpherson kicks us off on the £2 coin saga, the Grumpy Spin Doctor talks about Glencraft and how the SNP must be ashamed, Will Patterson has the negative-o-meter post assessing how and what the candidates and parties are saying, Kezia Dugdale says that Leaders Lead and followers follow, Indygal goes to Holyrood talks about Willie Bain’s hypocrisy while Advanced Media Watch wants Willie Bain to talk about UK issues and has a wee pop at Alex Ferguson in a second post.

Andrew Reeves did a blow by blow account of the STV non live debate, while Caron covers Charles Kennedy on the campaign trail with Eileen Baxendale, David Torrance covers where David Kerr was born and Planet Politics says sit on it!

Joe Middleton’s Political News from Scotland has a You Tube of David Kerr to watch while Scot Goes Pop asks if this by-election is a free hit for the SNP and Scottish Tory Boy discovers David Kerr’s not local and the last laugh goes to Tom Harris MP on the issue of David Kerr asking the girl behind the ASDA fish counter – what do you sell? Erm fish.

The Steamie Blog is allowing candidates to have their say up to polling day.

Well, that was a mammoth round up and I really hope I have covered as many topics from a great selection of Scottish blogs.

Please do nominate stories as you go along through the week, including your own use the thingymajig on the right or email scottishroundup@gmail.com, there will be an extra round up for the by-election and then back to next Sunday. See you all later.

Hi folks, this is my first time as a guest editor so please be gentle.  Here is my round up of what is making those in the MacBlogosphere tap away on the keyboards this week.

The political conference season is now part way through with the TUC, Liberal Democrats and Labour having been and gone, the Conservatives has just begun and the SNP still to come.

It was decided by the media that Gordon Brown had to make the speech of his life at the Labour conference, Neil Craig has an interesting comparison between Gordon Brown and Sarah Palin.  Callum Cashley didn’t think Brown did as bad as (he) expected and Andrew Reeves (me) thought he pulled it out of the bag but filled it with Lib Dem policies.

Then Murdoch got involved and the Sun is once again supporting the Conservatives, although not in Scotland just yet, if at all.  Tom Harris is big enough to admit that losing their support is a blow to Labour and Jeff says Gordon Brown is now facing Operation Insurmountable whereas Stephen questions whether it is people who decide elections?  Will Patterson explains why this was a good day for the Daily Record and Malcolm says the song is the same.

Up in Aberdeenshire the Trump saga goes on and this week the vote on compulsory purchase orders didn’t go the way many expected.  Stephentells us about an article in Golf week with Trump not playing the game with a hattip to James.  The trouble with Donald is explained by James who also comments about Trump’s crumbling Scottish empire.

Friday was when Ireland went to the polls and as we all know now the YES vote won, Jeff explains why Lisbon is worse for Brown, not Cameron.

It was Cameron’s turn on the Andrew Marr show this morning, although there were no pill popping moments it wasn’t the best interview nor was Cameron good at answering any straight questions, here are just two of my favourite blog posts – Tom Harris on yes or no? Jeff is happy that Marr was equally aggressive with Cameron as he was with Brown.

Tom Harris has a view on the hurdles of an AV referendum while Yapping Yousuf explains if Keynes was weegie.

Callum Cashley thinks Strathclyde should ask the Orange Lodge for money to police the marches as they ask football clubs to police the fans while Caron explains where to get information on cervical cancer jabs following the tragic death of Natalie Morton, the 14 year old who died following a jab, although the jab has been ruled out as the cause of her death.

Subrosa explains the curse of Bute House (with some translation for us English folk) or why Salmond hasn’t paid his council tax.

Kez and Mr Eugenides both tell us about the political expansion of The Steamie from now until the general election where Kez, Caron, Jeff, James and Scottish Tory Boy will now be commenting on behalf of the five major parties in Scotland and how this is a good move.

Angry Steve has some comments about the new alcohol licensing legislation, BellGrove Belle talks about Labour slipping into third place behind the Lib Dems, while Andrew talks about the Tories only having two MPs after the election and Bill Cameron shares his thoughts on the SNP and homophobia.

Duncan gives us a perspective on freeview channels and the big re-tune.

The Big Dollop thinks he is being too simplistic about knife crime following the News of the World hustings with the four main candidates for Glasgow North East – Willie Bain, Eileen Baxendale, David Kerr and Ruth Davidson.

Sarah at Whoopdedoo has an amusing take on the Daily Mail story about the English showing passports at Scottish airports – it just had me howling out loud.

Finally, PJ has been outed by Caron and despite some excellent guest blog posts PJ is holding out on setting her own blog up, but  has set up an amazing website and while we have drifted a wee bit from politics Scotland in the gloaming has some amazing photos and as the best cartoon’s say – that’s all folks.

If you have any nominations for next weeks round-up use the form on the right or send us an e-mail to scottishroundup@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Twitter: @ScottishRoundup. Have a good week.