Secondly, we have some news from the Scottish Blogosphere. Roundup congratulates Subrosa on her success on having one of her posts translated into French and Italian by those nice people at Wikio. If you want to submit your blog to them, you can do so here.

A new Labour Blogger, Once More, with Feeling has appeared this week and given her thoughts on the impending Labour leadership election.

And now onto the Roundup proper, featuring, among other things, the alliterative range of subects in the headline.

In politics, Munguin’s Republic tackles the issue of Public Sector Pensions and wonders if the coalition government will make a difference.

There’s mixed news on the immigration front. On one hand, Stephen praises the Supreme Court’s decision against the “Discretion test” which allowed the removal of LGBT asylum seekers to face persecution in their home countries while Joan McAlpine brings the worrying news that Precious and Florence Mhango’s time may be running out and urges help for them.

Holyrood may be on holiday at the moment but Nick Clegg’s announcement that the AV referendum will be held on the same day as next year’s Scottish elections has caused controversy amongst bloggers. Jeff says we should accept it, The Shoogly Peg will be supporting AV, making the argument with some interesting bathtime analogies. Subrosa, however, fears that respect has become irreverence and First Person worries that the AV referendum will overshadow the Holyrood poll.

Looking forward to Holyrood, Lallands Peat Worrier thinks that Labour may be preparing to use the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Ali Mohmet Al Megrahi features in Labour’s campaign plans. Jeff dusts off the crystal ball that said the General Election would take place in March and that the SNP would win Glenrothes to predict wipeout for the Liberal Democrats.

Andrew Reeves is concerned that the Holyrood Government is scrapping energy saving grants for homeowners.

There’s resistance in the Church of England over women becoming bishops. Working Hypothesis makes the thought provoking point that those who oppose the consecration of women are on the same continuum as those who think it is acceptable for men to beat women.

Is There a Plan B? recounts the problems she’s faced with finding a dentist, even a private one in Scotland.

In a Bun Dance has one of those health and safety gone mad stories – women in Glasgow being denied the wonderful tea and toast that’s the best comfort food in the world after giving birth because the toasters have set off the fire alarm.

Scots Whay Hae looks back at the life of Paul Reekie the musician and writer who died recently. Sticking with a literary theme, Big Beat from Badsville has a very entertaining dual perspective review of Val McDermid’s Fever of the Bone from Donna, the blog’s author, and her dad. Certainly makes me want to re-ignite my interest in crime fiction.

I’m sad to see the end of an era in Wick with the closure of the Town and County Club as reported by the Rabbit’s Eye View of the Hyperborean North.

The Vinyl Villain opens my eyes to a long forgotten Smiths track. Hopeman Man tells how a Prince CD given away with the Daily Record reminds him of his dad.

Turning to sport, I was sure I’d be able to find lots of posts about the World Cup Final which surely deserves a mention but it took a bit of searching and a plea on Twitter to elicit this from the Ben Lomond Free Press and Left Back in the Changing Room doesn’t subscribe to the fashionable notion that Spain are boring. Clearly that major event has not set the Scottish Blogosphere alight, but Stephen’s been keeping us up to date with British success in the Tour De France

My 11 year old animal loving daughter would never forgive me if I didn’t include Kilchoan’s heartwarming story of how a very lucky lucky duckling was rescued and adopted.

Keeping with the cute, school librarians were never this kind in my day – look at this super collection of bears Bear Bahoochie gave to her library monitors at the end of term. Ford is definitely my favourite.

I know it’s the middle of Summer, but the cold Winter nights will be on us sooner than we’d like. Glasgow Whisky Festival announces new highland participation in its event in November. Andrew reminds us what can happen, though, when people drink irresponsibly.

Next week Roundup is in Subrosa’s capable hands. Please continue to submit your nominations via the nice form on your right, by e-mail to scottishroundup@gmail.com or by tweeting @ScottishRoundup.

Stephen sees Lib Dem fairness in there.

Greener Leith rounds up locals’ tweets on the Chancellor’s speech.

Tom Harris and his friends are less than impressed.

Jeff sees the need for all Scottish political parties to play their part in identifying where the savings will be found.

If you are a casualty of the austere economic reality in which we find ourselves, and you enjoy blogging, making money out of writing might be attractive. Newmodeljournalism.com reviews an e-book on how to become a “next generation journalist” and asks whether this could work.

Walk the Sand turns her attention to cuts of a different kind, embodying the spirit of thrift we may all need to embrace in the austere future.

If you need something to cheer you up after all the budget gloom, look at the gorgeous photos of cats and evening skies Conversation Pieces has taken on her new camera

Elsewhere in politics, Eric Joyce MP shares his ideas on Labour’s future defence policy.

Joan McAlpine writes about the controversy behind the British Irish Council’s decision to choose Edinburgh as its base.

2ourism Scotland has a thoughtful analysis of the changes afoot at VisitSscotland

Angus Parent feels that Audit Scotland Concerns about Angus Council are being ignored by the administration.

SNP Cllr Bellegrove Belle was perplexed at receiving online overtures from David Milliband. Her baby is due today, and Roundup wishes her and her family all the best.

In a few years’ time Baby Thewliss may take inspiration from these original Father’s Day Gifts reported in the blogosphere, leather warrior’s armour from RMontalban and the iDad from KidsCraftandChaos.

She may also like to suggest the inclusion of a monkey race in the school sports in a few years’ time after reading Hopeman Man’s account of the favourite race of his childhood.

Shootin’ Fae the Shin tells a tale of a Musselburgh woman who survived hanging for the murder of her baby.

Yeahokbye alerts us to an Edinburgh exhibition of beautiful photos of an old storehouse on a Norwegian island deep in the Arctic Circle.

There’s some football tournament on at the moment and it seems to be moving on a stage. Paul Edie shares his thoughts on football, and also on leadership, which both Fabio Capello and the French coach Raymond Domenech might want to take on board.

Anyway, who cares about football when the Highland Games season is in full swing? Misssy M tells about her husband’s first experience of playing a “marquee” with his band.

It wasn’t so much In a Bundance’s failure to be impressed with Gok Wan that caught my eye, but the miraculous tale of one man’s recovery from illness just in time to ee the football that made me laugh.

Actually, Islay Blog shows us a much healthier pursuit than sitting around, beer in hand, watching the football – beach rugby, complete with video.

Has Ben Lomond Free Press solved the mystery of Horseboy?

The iPhone 4 came out this week and Tom Harris managed to get his hands on one in fairly short order. He’s not so impressed with the idea of reading books in electronic form, though. In a Bundance hopes he keeps his shiny new toy out of the smallest room.

This week we bid farewell, sadly, to Yousuf, who’s hanging up his keyboard as he starts work. I’ll really miss him and I hope he hangs around on Twitter. We may have been in opposing parties, but it’s always good to have another Schumacher fan around. Roundup wishes him all the best in his new career.

Don’t forget that Duncan is preparing to hand over the reins of Scottish Roundup. The entire Scottish blogosphere owes him an enormous debt of gratitude for the immense work he’s put in, week after week, to keep this site going over the past 4 years. If you have any suggestions (or offers) to make about the future of Roundup, please do so here.

That’s all for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed our journey across the blogosphere. Please e-mail your suggestions for inclusion in next week’s Roundup to scottishroundup@gmail.com.

Before we look at these, though, I should, unusually, draw your attention to an earlier post on this site introducing the Scotblogs Awards. Be sure to get your nominations and suggestions for the first phase in by 6pm on Wednesday 13th January. ScottishRoundUp+awards@gmail.com is the address for all awards related correspondence.

But now, back to those end of year reviews. Duncan’s top albums of the year introduced me to good music I’d never heard of while Islayblog looks back on a diverse blogging year and Brian Inkster gives a fascinating review of his project building homes for those living in poverty in Argentina.

The snow is still with us and while Subrosa and Better Oot than In print some beautiful photographs of snowy landscapes, Andrew warns that their innocent hobby could lead to trouble, especially if they don’t notice a Policeman has strayed into the shot.

The Big Event of New Year’s Day was, of course, the end of David Tennant’s tenure as the Doctor, which attracted comment from around the Blogosphere. Tom Harris , who deserves our congratulations on his 40th anniversary as a Who fan, loved it while I wasn’t so fussed and Stephen took us all in an entirely different direction

Bloggers have been dusting down their crystal balls to make predictions for next year and with a general election in the offing, political bloggers are uncharacteristically nervous and seem wary of predicting too many good things for their parties. Yousuf, with his party facing what we shall euphemistically call a challenging time concentrates on the SNP while Mr MacNumpty sees pitfalls for everybody and Stephen plays it safe. Kelvin’s diverse range of predictions cover the Church to Twitter to a new supermarket in Glasgow and, interestingly, he very positively predicts a hung Parliament. Freedom and Whisky takes a more satirical approach. Hythlodaeus predicts SNP gains at the expense of the Lib Dems. But then he also says the General Election will be on a Monday.  One thing we do know for sure is that it will be Easter soon – although Andrew argues it’s too soon to be selling eggs.

Hopes for the year ahead include rhythmaning who wants to see the BBC better serve jazz lovers in 2010 and Joan MacAlpine highlighting Stuart Cosgrove’s call for investment in Scotland’s digital media industry

Finally, Lallands Peat Worrier reminded us that 55 years ago on Hogmanay a child was born who would grow up to be our very own First Minister. It seems appropriate to end this by reminding you of another of his special talents.

May you and your’s have a happy, healthy and peaceful 2010. Next week, Roundup will be in the capable hands of Mr MacNumpty. Please send him lots of suggestions via the panel on the right of this page, or by e-mail to scottishroundup@gmail.com, or via Twitter @ScottishRoundup.

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 20^th 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.