Hello again! Holyrood is already in recess, Westminster is heading in that direction and many political bloggers are also taking a breather. Tom Harris went underground for a few days, Yousuf is off abroad and Andrew Burns is trying to “regain some semblance of normal family life”. There have been no political posts in the past seven days from any of James, Duncan or Mike. So I have somewhat slimmer than usual pickings this week.

The lead political story for much of the week was of course the selection of a replacement SNP candidate following James Dornan’s withdrawal from the Glasgow North East by-election because of a potentially damaging Sunday Herald article. Forward wondered if David Kerr, the previously rejected candidate, was having second thoughts about standing again. Jeff agreed that this was likely and thought Anne “Indygal” McLaughlin should step into the breach. She issued a prompt denial and Jeff backed down.

Meanwhile Malc took the Scotsman to task for characterising the nationalists’ situation as “meltdown” but Dave (no, not that Dave – do keep up!) suggested that the SNP’s internal discipline might not be as tight as it once was.

Elsewhere, Angus claimed that Grant Thoms — who had declined to stand allegedly because of his now deleted blog — had discovered that “in the new SNP there is no place for those who are prepared to express their views in public, without official sanction”.

Then when it emerged that David Kerr wanted to follow through, and was now the only candidate, Stephen lamented the “Hobson’s choice”. Jeff wondered if Kerr’s lack of local credentials may harm his chances and I tried to get to the bottom of contradictory claims over his supposedly “strong connections” to the constituency.

Next, Kezia alleged “sour grapes” from SNP members who were “almost convinced that the bankruptcy expose in the Sunday Herald was an inside job actioned right from the very top”. BellgroveBelle issued a strong denial, helped by a picture of smiling party members after the selection meeting, whom Indygal said would all have been “very happy” to have Grant as their candidate, had been “delighted” when James was selected and were now “extremely happy” that David will contest the seat.

In the end, Stuart banged all our heads together and told us to grow up. Fair point!

Next a lighter topic: T in the Park. Montague found a picture of Jack McConnell, allegedly the “laziest man in Scottish politics”, taking his ease at the festival. Jim Murphy blogged that it had been a “brilliant event” and a “great advert for Scotland”, but over at the Steamie, Chris Mackie poked fun at the Scottish Secretary for getting “down wiff da kidz”.

John Mason MP went slightly off-message this week, admitting to a Westminster committee that the Alex Salmond for First Minister ballot paper tactic was – to use his words – “a bit naughty”. Stephen described it as a “trick of personality that cannot be repeated to win the debate on independence”, I expressed the view that the nationalists’ proposed referendum question “sanitises and muddies the issue” and Nationalist Mythbusting examined possible alternative forms of wording.

Cricket now. Sandra White MSP lamented what she called “wall-to-wall” television coverage of the Ashes and was roundly criticised by Rob Marrs, Alex Massie, David Maddox, Tom Peterkin, Scottish Tory Boy, Zippy and Jim. Oh, and me — well, obviously!

The news that the Westminster standards commissioner is to investigate Alex Salmond’s expense claims drew a mixed reaction. Jeff described it as “a rare ‘hit’” on the First Minister while Will took exception to the costs incurred to generate such hits, thereby prompting Caron to argue that they’re entirely separate issues.

Reports that the Conservatives may kick the Calman Commission report into the long grass irked Jeff, who argued that David Cameron “doesn’t have a handle on how to ‘deal’ with the SNP”. Wardog thought that the “pan-unionist alliance” is being stretched to breaking point. And Crap Holyrood Chat featured a verbose motion set down by Kenneth Gibson expressing disappointment at the report’s “rather timid recommendations”.

Miscellaneous posts now. Mr H was unimpressed by a Scottish Government housing advice service. Calum Cashley waded into the argument about whether or not the 450th anniversary of Reformation should be marked. Subrosa penned a moving tribute to the people of Wootton Bassett for the dignity they have shown in receiving and honouring our fallen soldiers. Lallands Peat Worrier reviewed the case against Tommy Sheridan. The ever-prolific Jeff cited a survey of 144 Tory MPs on the issue of Scottish independence. Malc lauded European tolerance. And moving further afield, Jack Deighton reported on Republican attempts to question Barack Obama’s right to be US President.

Next some humour: Conan created a series of spoof ‘Hootsmon’ front pages to communicate his opinion of the Scotsman’s editorial objectivity.

I have one interesting new blog to share with you this week: From the Peripheries, which promises “faintly pretentious, questionably engaging and consistently sensible modern Scottish Conservatism, of a liberal and unionist bent”.

Finally, the annual Total Politics Best Blogs Poll has rolled around again. Caron, Jeff, Holyrood Patter and Tom Harris are giving little away, but I have no such qualms.

And that’s your lot! Next week’s editor is still unconfirmed, but please email suggestions to scottishroundup@gmail.com, tweet @ScottishRoundup or use the nomination form in the right sidebar. Humble apologies for the groanworthy headline, and bye for now!

Hello and welcome to my maiden roundup! Many thanks to Duncan for taking what some might consider to be a risk in allowing me to join the team. But rest assured: I’ll be as objective as humanly possible!

There are currently 108 Scottish political blogs listed at Total Politics, and so I had imagined that in compiling this roundup I would be spoiled for choice. In the event, it wasn’t to be. Aside from dearly departed blogs like ASwaS and Kezia Dugdale’s Soapbox, others such as Scottish Tory Boy, Cyber Nat and Political Dissuasion appear to be on hiatus, while yet others, including Tartan Hero and Jamie Hepburn, are now updated infrequently.

But three promising new blogs registered on my radar this week: A Leaky Chanter, Nationalist Mythbusting and Wardog. Oh, and the welcome return after a period of silence of Jim Millar.

Speaking of Kezia, scoop of the week might have gone to Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting, who found a Google cache of a withdrawn Scotsman Steamie post suggesting that she might take on SNP candidate George Kerevan (who is also the Scotsman’s Associate Editor) to contest Edinburgh East. I say “might have”, because despite the elements of a decent conspiracy theory being present it soon became clear that there wasn’t a grain of truth in the story!

Stage one of the Scottish Government’s budget turned out to be nowhere as close as first thought, passing by 107 votes to 16 with just one abstention. However, who knows what might now follow? Will tells us why a failed budget process should mean a new Holyrood election, while James suggests otherwise. Andrew Reeves explains why the LibDems voted against the budget.

Unpredictably, the biggest story of the week was probably the inquiry ordered by Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson into accusations that Scottish ministers, in particular the First Minister, have misled Parliament.

Inevitably, opinions on such an issue vary widely. Brian Taylor examines the background but draws few conclusions. A Leaky Chanter calls it “a very bad day” for the First Minister. Jamie Cooke thinks the inquiry makes Mr Salmond look “stupid rather than dishonest”. Stuart Winton sees parallels with Wendygate, while Robbie Dinwoodie notes that it’s “hardly up there with Profumo or Watergate”. Caron sees the inquiry both as a “storm in a teacup” and “an important storm to have”, while Malc criticises the style of First Minister’s Questions. Jeff thinks the whole issue is “getting a little bit silly already”, and if further evidence of that were needed, Richard Thomson notes that Iain Gray may have told Parliament the wrong number of apprenticeships in England. He wonders aloud if someone should inform the Presiding Officer.

On a less overtly partisan note, Jamie Cooke approves of the Herald’s campaign to have the number of councils in Scotland reduced from 32 to as few as ten, while Ideas of Civilisation is in two minds. Stuart Winton sees the proposal as motivated by the “growing pressure on municipal budgets and the self-evident duplication and bureaucracy” and thus sees irony in the Scottish Executive’s rejection of the proposal as a “costly, bureaucratic exercise”.

Calum Cashley highlights Greenpeace’s inventive plan to stall the expansion of Heathrow Airport. Caron and Stephen evidently approve and have become beneficial owners in the plot of land on which it is hoped the third runway will be built.

The Greens’ free insulation proposal gets a somewhat predictable thumbs-up from James at Two Doctors. Duncan at Doctor Vee is uncharacteristically effusive in his praise of the scheme.

Yousuf Hamid doesn’t think the SNP will be able to handle Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy’s “hug them close” strategy. But Richard Thomson takes the view that much of what Mr Murphy is doing is actually vacuous posturing.

Jeff lands interviews with the candidates for Rector of Edinburgh University – first George Foulkes and then Ian McKee.

Nationalist Mythbusting has a revealing post on the numbering system for monarchs’ titles, explaining “the principle of using whichever numeral in the English or Scottish lines of Kings and Queens happens to be the higher”.

Finally, here’s an interesting post at Poliblog Perspective which provides links to online archives of candidates’ election materials, including those for the Scottish parliamentary elections of 1999 and 2003.

So there we have it: the week that was. Will Patterson will be compiling next Sunday’s roundup. As always, you can nominate posts using the form on the right or by emailing scottishroundup@gmail.com. Bye for now!