Welcome to my first ever Roundup. I was concerned that this week, being the first week of the Summer holidays, combined with a bit of actual Summer and Andy Murray doing so well at Wimbledon might mean a blogging drought, but, no, the Scottish blogosphere was full of its usual high quality wit and wisdom.
The week kicked off with Kelvin talking about his speech to the crowds at Pride Scotia in Edinburgh. To coincide with the London event, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg wrote on Labour List, something Stephen hailed as a good thing.
This week the big news, or so we thought, was the celebration of a decade of devolution – but over a third of our MSPs didn’t even bother to turn up to see the Queen. While Subrosa and Fitaloon slammed MSPs’ lack of courtesy to Queen and Parliament, Jeff suggests how we could avoid a repeat for the 20th anniversary, Malc points out divisions in the SNP ranks on the issue of the monarch and highlights the fact that they don’t intend to give us a say in whether we want a monarch in and independent Scotland and the cute Greek baby looks at the excuses for absence in more details. Moridura takes a look at the principle of monarchy in an independent Scotland and Will reviews a new book on the effects of devolution on our sense of being British.
Scottish Unionist takes a more compassionate approach, rounding up the quotes of the day to help those who missed it.
To mark the occasion, the BBC commissioned a special poll to find out what we the public want for the future governance of Scotlland. Brian gives us the official version, Bernard sees opportunity, the Lovely Peat Worrier spots a dilemma for Labour and Richard gets round to discussing Calman.
In another poll, on General Election voting intentions, Tom Harris turns positive reframing into an art form.
The various goings on in the run up to the as yet uncalled Glasgow NE by-election is discussed. Jeff highlights the SNP delay in selecting their candidate while Yousuf delights that his party is for for once ahead of that particular game and Subrosa warns us that a blast from the past is back. Kez hits back with a potential scoop about the SNP candidate. Belle responds to Labour attacks on Glasgow East MP allegedly straying into the North East seat.
In the meantime Holyrood Chronicles has a look at Michael Jackson’s (no, not that one, the one who headed up the British Army) claim that Scotland would be safer as part of the UK and playfully questions the patriotism of the Scottish Lib Dem leader. Sticking with defence issues, Subrosa tells us that Gordon Brown may ditch nuclear weapons. Doesn’t he need them to use against the troublemakers in his Party? Finally, Willie Rennie rages against the cost rises in the aircraft carriers project, upsetting one of the unions in the process
This was the week that Gordon Brown tried to give his Government the kiss of life with big ideas in his Building Britain’s future relaunch. It’s fair to say that Mr Eugenides is not impressed.
Brown also showed that he is pretty rubbish at the art of making up euphemisms this week. He needs to be more subtle than using the phrase zero percent rise, which predictably unleashed a firestorm of ridicule across the blogosphere. Mr E’s reaction was somewhat subdued but Willie took him to task. He wasn’t the only Labour politician to be caught with his foot in his mouth, as Indygal amongst others pointed out.
On the wider economy, Jeff says Labour is stripping the cupboard bare for electoral gain while Andrew muses that RBS sponsorship at Wimbledon exposes the Govt’s failure to control public money given to bail out the banks.
The Government stepped in to nationalise the east coast main line after National Express ran out of hard cash to pay the franchise fee. Tom Harris, former transport minister gives his expert opinion.
James, over at The Two Doctors find little cheer in the announcement that ID cards will not be compulsory.
Bernard tells us that we don’t need nuclear power if we invest enough in renewable energy.
Andrew is horrified at the unnecessary deaths of two Police dogs in Nottingamshire.
Pride mingles with sadness at Andy Murray’s defeat in the Wimbledon semi finals, but the Steamie covered the race between the parties to offer commiserations, showing the Tories can win in Scotland. Ewan has the shortest and last word on the hotly debated question of Murray’s nationality in the wake of his defeat. Elsewhere, Yousuf warns that would be tennis stars of the future will be let down if the SNP Government fails to improve sports facilities.
All this in the week that Scottish Tory Boy emerges from a long hibernation just as Jeff was timeously lamenting the lack of Scottish Tory blogs. Was this really a coincidence? Mind you, Tory blogs are clearly like buses – you wait for months and then loads turn up at once.
They’’ll have lots to wade in on – Subrosa agrees with Jeff that Annabel’s days are numbered.
Stephen shares with us a new take on Labour’s honesty pledge for their candidates.
And spare a thought for moral_code, for whom a bout of Swine Flu has meant more time to blog. In a way, it’s reassuring that the illness is relatively speaking, mild, but we at Roundup send our sympathy and best wishes for a speedy recovery.
That’s all from me – next week you will be in the capable hands of Will.