For our first unified political and non-political blogging roundup, the main story is the Glasgow Airport Rail Link, or rather the fact that there isn’t going to be one.

Jeffrey Breslin notes the opposition to the axing of the rail link. Neil Craig thinks a better rail link could be built for a lot less money — £20 million instead of £115 million.

Yousuf Hamid thinks it is Edinburgh favoritism:

Following on from the unfair capital supplement that Edinburgh were given despite marching figures it’s another example of Glasgow getting a raw deal. I will blog on Glasgow later but let’s be under no illusions. Yesterday’s decision on the rail link and the 1000 jobs that would have come with it was not about Westminster cuts but the Scottish Governments priorities. And here’s why.

But J Arthur MacNumpty points out that the Greens should welcome this:

Why are the Greens complaining? I’d have thought that given their hostility to air travel, far from making it easier to get to Glasgow Airport, they’d be campaigning for it to become the most inaccessible place in Scotland!

And Lallands Peat Worrier says the rhetoric being thrown around is a bit over the top:

I merely wanted to suggest that the reaction and vocabulary of political opposition must be coloured by the themes I meandered through above. Swinney Denies Anti-Glasgow Bias … Outrage as Swinney Swings his Budget Axe on Glasgow … Quoth Steven Purcell, it represented a “dagger in the heart of the city” … a “clear anti-Glasgow agenda”. While this may resonate with constituents with a particular interest, I’d be terrifically surprised if most of the population found the figure of a hard-done-by Glasgow terribly charismatic.

Moving on to other subjects, Colin Campbell has a rather pretty photograph of Gourock by twilight. On the subject of photos, here’s one of Port Charlotte lighthouse on Islay.

Big Rab is just as good at picking the lottery as Derren Brown.

On the subject of people called Brown, Jess The Dog reviews Dan Brown’s latest book, The Lost Symbol. The verdict:

Brown is a good writer [but] his books could be far better with a bit more effort.

Tom Harris is not a fan of Churchill insurance:

A few years later I made a mistake: I switched our home insurance to Churchill. As soon as this latest disaster happened, I phoned their helpline, to be told that no-one there could help (it was a Sunday night, after all) but that someone would call the next day. Sure enough, at quarter to nine the next morning, I received a call from a very young girl whose script in front of her told me that I was not covered for the damage to the ceiling – even before I had the chance to explain that I didn’t know the cause of the damage.

Caron talks about the Liberal Democrats’ Real Women policy paper — you know, the one that wants to ban airbrushed pictures of women in magazines:

The Debate was about the Real Women policy paper which has attracted widespread media attention. Its design has attracted a bit of criticism. Liberal Democrats are used to having their policies espoused in long, closely typed policy papers, set out in two columns, a bit like the Bible. This one is more like Bella, or Heat than that – but I think it’s good that we’ve produced something in a format that others might actually want to read. Jo Swinson herself suggested leaving spare copies in doctors’ surgeries or giving them to a friend to spread the word rather than helping your local authority meet its recycling target.

Tim Ireland and Stewart Kirkpatrick both have a go at the Scottish Sunday Express, which is shocked that the Dunblane survivors, who are now 18, behave like teenagers. Apparently some of them even drink alcohol! And have sex! Says Kirkpatrick:

The “story” reveals that a couple of Dunblane survivors are 18 now and have been using social networking sites to talk about drink, drugs and sex. This, claims the piece, “shames” the memory of what happened. Says Kirkpatrick:

In essence, these kids are being condemned for being normal teenagers. When they were very, very young they went through a hellish ordeal that the rest of us cannot imagine. One of the kids in the story was shot. These teenagers have performed a miracle in A) still being alive and B) functioning like everyone else. They should be celebrated or, better yet, left alone. This is what we have come to: desperate hacks cyberstalking the victims of tragedy in the hope that they don’t become monks.

Further to the story in last week’s roundup, Tom Harris expands on his views on the family. He’s also profiled in the Sunday Times.

Here’s a suggested website to follow: Wardog.

Andrew Reeves writes about the national DNA database, the one that’s supposed to contain the details of criminals, but has a baby on it:

The fact that the DNA of a baby under one year old has been stored on the police national database, is utterly scandalous and Jacqui Smith MP should be ashamed of herself and the Police.

Neil Craig writes about an alleged witch-hunt in the Liberal Democrats: Debra Storr victim of Lib Dem “witch-hunt”.

Aye We Can is exceptionally angry about Steven Purcell’s living wage proposals:

Taking the piss Steven, the piss out of the low paid who don’t work for your cooncil, but will help fund this through higher taxes, higher charges or poorer sevices. The ex-Woolies workers now on the dole. The Argos shop workers, the Scottish Enterprise office cleaners, the pub and club doormen etc etc. They will never get a sniff of of your money, just feel agrieved. Rightly agrieved.

The Grumpy Spindoctor explains why refuses to darn his socksRoseanna Cunningham never became SNP leader:

Scots should darn their socks and consult their grandparents on how to adopt a greener lifestyle, according to Alex Salmond’s new environment minister. Roseanna Cunningham denounced the country’s “buy-everything-chuck-it-away society” and argued it was time to relearn the thrifty habits of previous generations. Miss Cunningham, who has never owned a car, tumble drier or dishwasher, said Scots could reduce their carbon footprint by following the example of their forefathers.

Unfortunately for Roseanna, we don’t live in the past any more. Nor do most people want to.

Willie Rennie MP thinks the Financial Services Compensation Scheme is proving unfair to safe lenders like the Dunfermline Building Society.

Kezia Dugdale takes exception and redrafts Rob Gibson’s motion on inspiring women politicians.

Iain Hepburn wonders if newspaper websites will be the next target for the Performing Rights Society (PRS):

The comedy in all this, of course, is that many of the tracks at the heart of the row have been uploaded by the artists’ labels themselves. Few, if any, of the big record companies don’t have a YouTube channel for promoting artists’ new videos after all. And that seems to have been overlooked amidst all the rammy. It’s not like Google’s actively uploading all these promos themselves. The labels are doing it, and then watching on as YouTube’s parent firm gets stiffed with the bill.

And that’s all for this week. If you have any blog articles you’d like to nominate, send them to scottishroundup AT gmail DOT com.

Lloyds and HBOS to merge

James of Two Doctors looks at the past of Lloyds TSB and HBOS. Lazychicken thinks there’ll be redundancies, regardless of whether the unions “accept” them. Anseo notes there’s been some domain squatting. Jeff thinks Gordon Brown’s slowness to act has doomed HBOS.

Adopted Domain says “Farewell HBOS”.

Political Dissuasion smells a scandal:

This is a scandal. There has been no mention, no suggestion of a conflict of interest, and as more and more details are revealed, it’s just getting more and more a political deal, rather than financial one. Take the whole “the Prime Minister was involved in pushing through the deal” nonsense. That just sounds like a spun line that the media just took up, nodded their heads and ran with.

Ideas of Civilisation ponders if this will make Scottish independence harder to argue for. Jeff agrees.

Neil Craig thinks there should be an inquiry into short selling. David Farrer is worried. HW thinks the consequences will be severe.

The financial crisis…

…continues. Ben Lomond asks “The death of capitalism?”

Niall thinks banks should become mutuals.

Glenrothes by-election

Over at LabourHome, ACLB thinks Tony Blair should be the Labour candidate, and if he wins, take over from Gordon Brown as Prime Minister. View from North Britain says this shows Labour are self-destructing. I’m not aware what Brown thinks, but his comments are probably unprintable.

David Cairns resignation

David Cairns resigns as Minister of State at the Scotland Office; Richard Thompson has his resignation letter in full. Ewan Spence wonders if Caroline Flint will be next to resign. Bellegrove Belle is disappointed, while Anseo thinks Eric Joyce will be the next Labour rebel. And Malc says that Labour should stop attacking others instead of “getting their own house in order”.

Sectarianism — Scotland’s shame?

Tom Harris says sectarianism is Scotland’s shame:

sectarianism makes you feel embarrassed to be Scottish. I hate it when the subject is even raised when I’m with English friends because I imagine they must look at us as a backward nation.

Alex Massie — correctly in my view — points out that sectarianism is more of a Glasgow problem than a Scottish problem. It’s bigots who should be ashamed, not decent Scots.

Creationism in schools

Tom Harris thinks that Professor Michael Reiss’s words about dealing with creationist students in school science lessons have been misunderstood. Shuggy agrees, and adds that teachers need to deal with it on a case-by-case basis: “I’m also disinclined to discuss things like this at all if I think the individual in question is simply wasting my time and/or is so fanatical in their beliefs as to be impervious to rational argument and evidence. It’s not that uncommon. The question is, how to deal with it? Sometimes you talk about it, sometimes it’s appropriate to close conversations down.”

Iain Gray

Iain Gray’s been elected the leader of the Labour group in the Scottish Parliament. Cyber Nat makes the point that Gray referred to “Great Britain” instead of “United Kingdom of Great Britain AND Northern Ireland – United Kingdom or UK for short”. Cyber Nat, you’re a pedant.

Mr H has a run-down of Gray’s shadow cabinet.

Political Dissuassion isn’t impressed by an article Gray wrote in the Independent.

Kezia Dugdale accuses the SNP of being innumerate:

Was intrigued to see the Sunday Papers carry lines from the SNP calling Iain Gray, “Mr Three Percent,” because according to last week’s Sunday Times poll only 3% of Scots think Iain would make the best First Minister…

So I got my SNP calculator out – you know the one that helps you inflate oil revenues and makes the local income tax balance

Councillor threatens blogger with libel action

Jahangir Hanif in an SNP Councillor. He’s also going through an acrimonious divorce. His daughter Noor apparently doesn’t like him very much, because she wrote a letter to SNP leader Alex Salmond making very serious allegations about her father and saying he should be kicked out of the SNP. Noor also made the letter public. Blogger Kezia Dugdale published the letter, but later took down the blog post after Hanif threatened her with a libel action.

Incidently, the legal threats didn’t work, because the letter is still on the net, just a Google search away. I didn’t know whether the accusations in the letter are true, but if they are not, why else would a 17 year old girl make such serious public accusations against her father?

Miserable Old Fart noted:

But an SNP councillor suing a Labour blogger for mentioning something that was already in the public domain is going to do more harm to the councillor and his party than ignoring it would have done. I hope that Alex Salmond has the sense to publicly distance the party from the individual actions of the councillor, otherwise the SNP will be open to attack for using the law to silence its critics.

Miserable Old Fart also challenged bloggers to publicise this, which Tim Ireland later did.

Tavish Scott’s tax cut proposal

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott wants to cut income tax by 2p in the pound.

Adam Smith Was A Socialist wonders if this is really an “emergency”.

Niel Craig is keen, but cannot fully endorse Scott’s proposal, because:

1) He has made no specific proposal as to how it should be paid for. We said that a 3p cut should be paid for out of the £1 billion a year of pointless windmill subsidies.

2) 2p is a very silly figure to choose. There is a fixed cost in changing the rate which is about equivalent to 1p income tax. Therefore it makes financial sense to go for a 3p cut or nothing. 2p is falling between 2 stools.

3) We have been quite clear that the first priority is encouraging growth & that the way to do that is, as the Irish did, by cuts in corporation tax & rates which should be the priority. Desirable though income tax cuts are it is obvious that a one time only 2p in the £1 cut will provide only a fraction as much to ordinary people as Ireland’s 7% growth (let alone the 9% we are committed to), year on year.

Caron’s in favour:

A tax cut would help to bring children of working families out of poverty – for the first time, more children in poverty come from families where someone is in work. It would give hard pressed Scots, struggling to pay all their bills, a bit more of a cushion.

Fatties

NHS nurses are patrolling the streets, looking for fatties. Mr Eugenides is outraged:

I live in a country where government employees are coming up to me in the street and telling me that I look overweight? I mean, what?

I am genuinely outraged at this because it embodies a lot of what is wrong with the relationship between state and citizen in our modern democracy; in this case, an assumption on the part of the state that my weight is any of their fucking business.

Where does this assumption stem from? By what authority do they harass me on the street and tell me to eat a fucking salad? Because be in no doubt, harassment is what we’re talking about here. It may not be in-your-face, finger-jabbing bullying; no, it’s more insidious than that. You! Yes, you, citizen! Look at the size of that gut! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?

Caron is also against, but for different reasons:

As, to put it mildly, a bit of a porker, I would be exactly the sort targetted by these women. They might well choose to refer me to weight watchers – but I expect I know more about every single slimming club/diet in the history of time than they do. Most overweight people know exactly what they have to do in order to lose weight – it’s not rocket science. Eat less and exercise more. There, I have just saved NHS Ayrhire and Arran a fortune.

The serious side of this is that many people with weight problems struggle with self esteem too and this sort of public dressing down would cause them no end of distress. I wonder, too, whether this violates nurses’ professional conduct in some way. Effectively what they are doing is bullying often vulnerable people.

Other stuff

Flying rodent has an international politics round-up.

Calum Cashley thinks the Lib Dems are being hypocritical by planning to make junk phone calls.

Bill Cameron notes the BBC’s new Gaelic language TV channel, as does Alwin Ap Huw.

Mark McDonald writes in favour of euthanasia for dementia sufferers.

Bernard Salmon thinks liberals aren’t treated fairly by the media, and gives some ideas on how that could be improved.

Fred Barboo thinks it’s OK to be proud of your country.

Mr Farty writes about the woman who claimed benefits for 14 non-existant kids:

“Er, hello, is that the Social? Aye, it’s Mrs Semple. Again. It’s aboot oor wee, er, haud on…Tariq. The poor wee thing’s got, let’s see, Gulf War Syndrome. How much can we get for that? Pardon? Aye, he’s three. Well, Ah suppose he must of caught it from his dad. Along with the mesothelioma, cirrhosis and Madonna’s Disease. Making it up, what makes you think I’m making it up? The Internet wouldn’t lie to me…would it?”

David Simpson wants us to plug his blog, Democracy Scotland.

SNP Watch bills itself as “exposing the tyranny of the minority”.

Signing off

And that’s it for this week. If there are any spelling mistakes or errors, you can blame tiredness caused by my cat, who decided to wake me up at ridiculous o’clock in the morning by attacking my toes, the little shit.