News and Political

Five years ago Torcuil Crichton at Whitehall 2012 visited Japan to hear the stories of the Hibakusha; the survivors of the Hiroshima atom bomb, these stories are recounted in his recent post:  “Most of us only read history but Sunao Tsuboi, he is testimony. As a 20-year-old student, Tsuboi stood little more than 600 metres from the centre of the blast: the original ground zero.”

Mark Gallagher notes the ongoing Hiroshima commemorative events.

Love and Garbage look at the Lockerbie Release a Year on and recount some of their recent comments to the Guardian website:  “I have sat as a Scots lawyer, increasingly bemused by the series of theories argued in the media. The following is not a criticism of Mr White, but draws elements of a general misunderstanding of the legal position present throughout the London based media. Perhaps if the London media spoke to some Scottish lawyers (or read their commentaries) rather than asking English practitioners to comment on Scottish legal matters the media might be better informed”

SNP Tactical Voting looks at a recent Holyrood poll: “It seems like a long time since the last one but a decent poll has been released from TNS-BRMB via The Herald.”

Health and Exercise

Belinda at Freedom to Choose has covered a number of NHS issues this week, including the cost to bring in enforcement officers to ensure the smoking ban is upheld at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee and the NHS Fife’s annual review meeting. Belinda put into perspective the cost of the enforcement officers when there are so many other issues in the NHS: “Isn’t abuse of staff vastly more objectionable than smoking in a doorway out of the rain?”

John at Morhamburn also blogs about the NHS, looking at whether NHS Scotland can take the proposed job cuts: ‘Either the NHS is big enough in Scotland to be able to pare away at it for the next few years without affecting patient care; or it is its very size that allows the NHS to deal with so many sick people, and to deal with them properly.”

Mark at Morhamburn discusses the Scottish Government’s alcohol summit and how much the alcohol problem is costing Scotland: “It cannot be argued that there is no alcohol problem in Scotland.  It was reported earlier this year that alcohol misuse cost Scotland £3.56 billion each year or £900 for every adult.”

Tim Carmondy at kotte.org has an interesting article looking at why athletes are different from you and me.

Home

Our homes are important to us; Taexailia contemplate the purpose of her own doorstep and the power struggle which can occur there: “My doorstep is for welcoming friends and family, accepting parcel deliveries, having a coffee in the morning sunshine, pondering my plan for a butterfly and bee garden. It is not a place where strange men should feel it is their right to disturb me, patronise me, try to manipulate me and lie to me.”

If you need some interior inspiration, such as a new sofa, head over to Yeah…Ok…Bye for a very nice Chesterfield sofa or any of her other great interior finds.

Food & Drink

For starters Wendy at A Wee Bit of Cooking comments on how great the tomatoes have been this year and gives us a simple recipe for tomato and basil soup – one of my favourites. Then Is there a Plan B looks at the difference between a couple of supermarket chickens – are you particular about the type of chicken you buy?

Do you remember getting your bottle of milk in nursery or primary school? Ellen Arnison reminisces about school milk and looks at its future: “It took me back for a moment. To a classroom, the smell of Copydex, a pair of nobbly tights under sandal buckles and what happened when I rubbed my thumb on the silver top of the milk bottle.”

Interesting

Finally there’s Missy M’s hitchhiking confession and Mark Frauenfelder highlights a memo from the 1970s from an oil company owner, who has no time for pleasantries.

Well it’s my first time here at the Scottish Roundup, I was feeling rather relaxed about it until I started reading articles on some of the nominated blogs, articles relating to both spelling and grammar, with Mike Ritchie noting:

“There is so much available to read as social media continues to expand but, unfortunately, a lot of it is riddled and marred by bad spelling and poor grammar. To me, rightly or otherwise, such factors indicate a sloppiness and a questionable attitude to detail.”

Then there’s Ellen Arnison at In a Bun Dance who recently noticed a spelling mistake in the London Aquarium, I’m sure to be under scrutiny!

This roundup will be a tour heading from the South to the North of Scotland focusing on what’s going on around Scotland at this point in the summer.

In Ayrshire, Socrates MacSporran discusses the upcoming London Olympics and the relevance of ‘team GB’ to “a small far away country of which we know little” (a title we may have previously been referred to as).

Sandy Stevenson provides us with many photos of Scotland, old and new, on Tour Scotland Photographs, from a statue of a dwarf near Peebles, to a crannog in Loch Tay.

On the Paisley Blog Brian McGuire discusses the problems Scottish holiday makers have as they miss their local food and drink: “A survey of passengers at Glasgow Airport has also revealed that Irn Bru and square sausage are the items holidaymakers miss the most.” Thankfully plans are in place to ensure they can get what they’ve been missing, before they even leave the airport.

Scotchpotch has an interesting poll currently, asking, “Should we pulverise The Proclaimers and make Leith (the place that spawned them) into a landfill site for Edinburgh?” The current result is very close so ensure to get your vote in!

The Edinburgh Festival posts have started to appear throughout the blogosphere, with the Arts Extravaganza already underway in the city and not long until the Fringe starts. The Edinburgh Spotlight is previewing some of the opportunities available to you, including dining 100ft in the air above Princes Street Gardens.

Throughout the country, university students are destined to be part of Coca Cola’s recent marketing campaign with new vending machines described on Revolver blog which may bring ‘happiness to all’!

Secret Scotland highlights one of the risks of being a tourist in Scotland – the midge – which he claims “It looks as if the Scottish midge has its roots in Glasgow, and taken after the example of the city’s legendary ‘hard’ men”.

Over at Other Aberdeen we get some pointers on the etymology of Mounthoolie, the name of a large roundabout in Aberdeen, a roundabout which has been designated by Aberdeen City Council as an ‘Urban Green Space’. “It’s ours, all ours to enjoy whenever we want to. But how is it possible to enjoy a roundabout?” Well you’ll have to visit Other Aberdeen to find out.

My Nairn recommends a trip to the Highland Aviation Museum, where there’s been a recent addition of a Nimrod that reached the museum by road. There are not many museums left where you can actually clamber into the exhibits.

Wendy from a Wee Bit of Cooking shares a great shot (as usual) from a road trip to Ullapool. Then we head to Caithness, where Not Delia visits the Caithness Smokehouse; the most northerly UK mainland smokehouse for our most northerly blog link of this roundup. Not Delia informs us that “[the smokehouse owner] is willing to smoke pretty much any foodstuffs his customers care to bring him”.

Now if you feel you’ve not had quite enough links to keep you going all week, Biogal at Panoptifier has provided you with a list of interesting links, from Bromosexuals to Juanita W. Goggins. If you’d like a quick extra laugh The Big Dollop can provide you with the kind of antics which you may expect more from the Duke of Edinburgh than the Prince of Wales.

That’s a small selection of what’s going on in Scotland, with quite a few new blogs in the mix. Please submit your nominations by using the form on the right of the Scottish Roundup site or by email to scottishroundup@gmail.com or by tweeting @ScottishRoundup.

This has been a strange week in politics in some respects but obviously politics isn’t the be all and end all of life as we know it (apparently) and therefore there are other topics that I have covered in this weeks roundup

There were a lot of recommendations this week with a few leftover from last week, so here goes;

Starting with the visit of David Cameron to America to see Barack Obama and BP and Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi over on Red Meg’s blogshe is agreeing with David Cameron that the release of Al-Megrahi was wrong while Frankly’s Blogue explains the due process.

Caron’s Musings has the Florence and Precious Mhango vigil in Glasgow in words and pictures, including one of our very own J. Arthur MacNumpty who Caron spotted in the large crowd of supporters.

I thought there would be more about the Labour leadership race in the macblogosphere, giving my own blog a shameless plug I covered the news late last night that Ed Balls MP was considering quitting the leadership race on my running blog.  Tom Harris MPexplains why David Miliband would be the greatest threat to the coalition.

I did try to get more of a Labour Scottish angle on this but using the Total Politics top 50 Scottish blogs list, all of the Labour ones bar Tom Harris MP are no longer with us, invite only or really out of date.  I tried.

While we are talking about Total Politics blogging guides, it is that time of the year again when the 2010-11 Total Politics best blogs are being compiled and you only have the next week to participate.  For the explanation, rules and email address to send in your nominations can all be found here at the Total Politics site.

I am also going to highlight the proposed tax by Edinburgh Airport, they now want to start charging you a £1 just to drop off someone at the airport, the Scottish Liberal Democrats Margaret Smith MSPand Conservative Gavin Brown MSP both have petitions on this – if you want to tell BAA and Edinburgh Airport where to shove their proposed tax please sign them both!

Suitably Despairing questions whether the Green Party is being played by the SNP as the Home Renewable Energy Grants were axed by the SNP, a very good point put and one to remember as the budget discussion starts later this year.

Stephen Glenn on Stephen’s Liberal Journal talks about the passing of snooker’s great, Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins.

Who would you put on the naughty step? Christian Ronaldo, who has recently become a new father is the choice of Adventures of a lady in training.  While on football, the best round up of the World Cup from the Scottish angle that I’ve read comes from Billy Williamson over at Dear Scotland.

Sticking with the football theme The Scottish Football Blog has come under some pressure on copyright laws, a really interesting read and I for one are very sympathetic to his plight.

As we are on the sticky subject of copyright within blog posts etc, this post titled Blogger gets libel threat for criticising website caught my eye via twitter last night about Gordon Brown MPs website.

As we approach August, those of us who stay in Edinburgh are preparing for the Festivals, Alastair Braidwood on Scots Whay Hae! has done the first part of a few previews of the Edinburgh Fringe, well worth a read.

Now for a musical theme Aye Tunes is well worth keeping your eye on as a great and useful guide to what gigs and other events are coming up soon and for slightly different lists and views pop over to Peenko or perhaps The Pop Cop.  Staying on the musical review theme, Wesley Shearer AKA the Scottish Scribbler writes about the Blue Sky Archives while Have fun at dinner tells us about a folk trio from Aberdeen, The Son(s).

Nulty Goes To Partick has an amusing post, the good, the bad and the ugly (with swearing) about research recently undertaken by scientists about apples, well that is where it starts.

Moving onto home grown vegetables Taexalia tells us the story of her home grown potatoes, a really interesting read and while we are on the something different section Life in a Scots Sitting Room has a great post titled Freaky Trees.

BellgroveBelle explains her personal experiences, the good and bad, of breastfeeding her baby.

The SPVA Sucks! ventures into the territory of mental health issues, too often overlooked and not discussed, specifically screening for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and whether the Conservatives have backed down.

Now I iz 2 is a photo blog by Tom Clark, wow, an amazing selection and still on photos, although unlike Tom’s not an exclusive photo blog, Scotland Here And Now has a great post about the Royal Botanic Gardens here in Edinburgh while on Scotland in the Gloaming has an amazing picture of the Firth of Clyde afterglow.

Going the Extra Mileis fundraising for Help 4 Heroes in fact starting tomorrow the plan is to run over 200 miles in 10 days on Islay and Jura and a little on the Kintyre Peninsula.

I have left this one until last, delibrately, because I really couldn’t stop laughing, honestly, I am not telling you what it is about, but see if you can read it without smiling or laughing? The Missy M Misssives gets the last laugh of this week’s roundup.

That’s all folks, don’t forget to nominate your favourite blog posts for next week’s roundup.

First of all a very big thank you to Lallands Peat Worrier for stepping in at the last minute to make sure you didn’t go without a Roundup. He’s written here about why he is a supporter of this site.

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 Read the rest of this entry »