The big story of the week was the SNP’s 3rd Scottish budget. The budget got through parliament at the first time of trying this year with help from the Conservatives again as well as the holy trinity of the two Greens and Margo.

New money came in due to various budget flexibilities which was used to give the Greens and Margo what they wanted, rather than fund the Glasgow Airport Rail Link. I tried to explain the breadth of business people who backed the Rail Link,  but SNP Tactical Voting didn’t seem to be convinced.

A commenter on Jeff’s blog highlighted the front page on the Evening Times shown on this blog. I can’t see the problem with it myself…

At the beginning of the week there was the story about SNP Councillor John McNamee defecting to Labour. In a balanced blog, Will thinks it’s a scalp but a qualified one, whilst Anne McLaughlin went on the attack.

Then at the end of the week the story broke about Salmond flogging dinners with himself in Parliament for a party fundraiser. Jeff doesn’t think it is a big story and an inquiry will now take place to resolve the issue.

Lord Goldsmith spoke to the Iraq inquiry where he denied he was put under any pressure to say that the war was legal. A Place to Stand remains unconvinced and Crinkly thinks this shows why an Independent Scotland would be more, well… independent.

There is also the announcement from the PM that he will legislate for a referendum on changing the voting system to AV. Alistair Charmichael is somewhat suspiscious however.

This is a week when more doubt has been placed on the commitment some climate change scientists have to ethics, the Age of Stupidity calls on individuals to do their bit and James is pleased that the Scottish Government have finally agreed to a boiler scrappage scheme.

Speaking of green issues and if you will forgive me a digression from politics, Scotzine was nominated and spoke about Robbie Keane’s last-minute loan deal to Celtic. Cue much jubilation from my fellow Celtic fans… well until the Kilmarnock defeat at least.

And that’s the week. Some bad headlines at the start and end of the week for the SNP but they got their budget through in tough times. The Tories continue to hope that by looking responsible they will win votes and Labour hope that the combination of the Tories and the SNP cancelling GARL will play well for them on the doorstep. Oh, and the Lib Dems abstained.

There’s really only one show in town this week and that’s the Pre-Budget Report. Delivered on Tuesday, it’s kept the Scottish blogosphere talking ever since.

Holyrood Patter was unimpressedwith the 2.5% cut in VAT, explaining how little he would have saved had he bought his Ipod after the cut. Wholly Rude wasn’t wholly impressed either. Stephen made the argument that it was a regressive cut which wouldn’t help the poor. This was a point on which I differed from Stephen! 

Adopted Domain felt that this was a political budget, with J.Arthur MacNumpty feeling that it would be the next parliament who would really have to take the tough decisions.

Interestingly, most of the discussions were about what taxes were cut in the PBR rather than the principle of borrowing to boost demand, although Two Doctors and Holyrood Chronicles still raised doubts.

The debate moved beyond the Blogosphere with light-hearted video’s for both Labour and the Tories.

Lest we forget that this started as a banking crisis the Merger Action Group are still protesting with regards to the competition commissions involvement (or lack of involvement) in the merger, and Callum Cashley is continuing his campaign.

However the economy is not the only big issue concerning the Scottish blogosphere, there was also the small matter of our democracy apparently imploding with the arrest of Damian Green. Both Stephen and Malc looked at the potential repercussions of this for our democracy, although Tom Harris was more timid in his criticisms of what had happened, suggesting that this was not in Labour’s interest; Jess disputed the Met’s impartiaity however.

The Glasgow South MP hascaused a bit of a stir defending some of the more ceremonial aspects of our democracy also.

All in all a very serious week with the Scotish blogosphere providing excellent analysis and a real medium for intelligent debate, I’m Yousuf and it’s been a pleasure providing this week’s roundup!