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.

First of all, a huge congratulations to all blogs that were involved in the Scotblogs Awards. Whether your blog secured a high position or not, this entire exercise has been a great way to discover new blogs — and it is because of every one of the 140-or-so blogs that were nominated.

A massive thanks must go to everyone who nominated a blog, all of those who contributed to the over 1,500 votes cast, and the panellists.

The great thing is that even more blogs have been submitted to Scottish Roundup since the deadline for entries closed. Each of them will be featured in the roundup in the coming weeks.

The wonderful diversity and the high quality of the blogs, right the way through the field, bodes well for the health of blogging in Scotland.

Below is the main list you have all been waiting for — the top 100 blogs. For information on the voting process, visit the Scotblogs Awards 2010 page. View the winners in other categories.

• 97=. Scottish Business Blog
• 97=. Philosophical Zombie
• 97=. Hythlodæus
• 97=. Amused Cynicism
• 95=. Islay Info
• 95=. Councillor Paul Johnston
• 94. Captain Ranty
• 93. Pining for the West
• 89=. The Green Isle of the Great Deep
• 89=. One Man Blogs
• 89=. Loose Change
• 89=. David Fagan
• 88. Inside Left
• 87. Bread and Roses
• 86. Slugs on the Refrigerator
• 84=. Smashing Mirrors
• 84=. Better Oot Than In
• 77=. PoliticsScot
• 77=. John Connell
• 77=. Jamie Livingstone
• 77=. Islay Birds
• 77=. I am a Rag Doll – Broken and Bent
• 77=. Domestikated
• 77=. Alter Ego…
• 76. A Wee Bit of Cooking
• 72=. RantinRab
• 72=. My Portis Wasp says
• 72=. Have Fun At Dinner
• 72=. Debra Storr
• 71. Bishop Hill
• 67=. Shopaholly
• 67=. A Son of the Rock
• 67=. A Rabbit’s Eye View of the Hyperborean North
• 67=. …except the Kyles and the Western Isles
• 66. TheCatGirlSpeaks
• 65. *Insert My Blog Name Here*
• 64. Andrew Reeves’ Running Blog
• 63. …and your electron microscope!
• 60=. Eric Joyce MP
• 60=. Caledonian Comment
• 60=. An incredulous eye on the isles
• 59. Scotland in the Gloaming
• 58. Pseudepigrapha
• 53=. Scottish Football Blog
• 53=. Wholly Rude
• 53=. What Oor Willie Did Next
• 53=. Another side of Lesley Riddoch
• 53=. “And Another Thing…”
• 51=. Taexalia
• 51=. Bella Caledonia
• 50. Jess the Dog
• 49. What’s in Kelvin’s Head
• 47=. Whitehall 1212
• 47=. Holyrood Chronicles
• 46. Scots Law News
• 42=. Holyrood Patter
• 42=. Suitably Despairing
• 42=. Scot goes Pop!
• 42=. Ideas of Civilisation
• 41. Newsnet Scotland
• 40. Yapping Yousuf
• 38=. Love and Garbage
• 38=. Kezia Dugdale
• 37. Under the Radar
• 34=. More Than Mind Games
• 34=. Left Back in the Changing Room
• 34=. Greener Leith
• 32=. Stephen’s Linlithgow Journal
• 32=. Phuturelabs
• 31. Calum Cashley
• 30. Last Year’s Girl
• 29. Blether with Brian
• 28. Planet Politics
• 27. Between the Hammer and the Anvil
• 26. Clairwil
• 25. Iain Macwhirter Now and Then
• 24. The Universality of Cheese
• 23. Inksters Give Blog
• 22. Freedom and Whisky
• 21. Aye Tunes
• 20. Scottish Roundup
• 19. Malc in the Burgh
• 18. The Ben Lomond Free Press
• 17. Ian Hamilton QC
• 15=. Subrosa
• 15=. Indygal Goes to Holyrood
• 14. The Pop Cop
• 13. Gerry Hassan
• 12. Caron’s Musings
• 11. doctorvee
• 10. Peenko
• 9. The Misssy M Misssives
• 8. We Know SFA
• 7. Alex Massie
• 6. Lallands Peat Worrier
• 5. Everyone I Ever Kissed
• 4. Go Lassie Go
• 3. J Arthur Macnumpty
• 2. Mr Eugenides
• 1. SNP Tactical Voting

In the interests of full openness and transparency, I have decided to make all the data available for anyone who wishes to look at it. You can download them below in PDF or Excel format.

• Scotblogs awards data (PDF)
• Scotblogs awards data (Excel)

One of the things that really struck me as I was gathering votes was the large differences between the choices of the panellists and the choices of the voters. As such, I thought it was worth mentioning those blogs that scored particularly well in one of the rankings, but ended up with a moderate overall ranking due to doing poorly in the other one.

A wee bit of cooking is an attractive food blog. It caught the eye of panellists, five of whom gave it the nod. This made it the second most popular blog among the panellists. Staggeringly, only one person voted for it in the poll, placing it joint 121st in the readers’ ranking. This has left it 75th overall.

Two panellists gave Pining for the West their vote, placing it 19th among the panellists. Again, just one person voted for it in the readers’ poll. This left it in an overall position of 92nd. (Disclosure: This is my mum’s blog, and I helped her set it up!)

Four blogs received one vote from a panellist, but got no recognition from the readers at all: Bigmout Strikes Again, Shirl’s Gardenwatch, Skip Cottage Curling and Southside and Newington Newsblog.

A further seven blogs received the same number of votes from panellists as from readers overall: Better Oot Than In, Smashing Mirrors, Jim Millar, Mid-Life Bassist, Sea Kayaking with SeaKayakPhoto.com, Type face a week and Scotland in the Gloaming.

One of the things that really struck me as I was gathering votes was the large differences between the choices of the panellists and the choices of the voters. As the overall ranking depended on doing well on both lists, plenty of popular blogs ended up losing out.

As such, I thought it was worth mentioning those blogs that scored particularly well in one of the rankings, but ended up with a moderate overall ranking due to doing poorly in the other one.

The runaway winner of the readers’ poll was We Know SFA, with over 50% more votes than the second most popular blog. But just one panellist voted for it, sending the blog down to 16th place overall.

Likewise, music blog Peenko came second in the readers’ rankings, but only 33rd in the panellists’ rankings.

Three blogs were in the top ten in the readers’ rankings, but did not get the nod from any of the panellists: Newsnet Scotland, Scots Law News and What’s in Kelvin’s Head.

Additionally, four other blogs finished in the top ten among readers, but only garnered one vote from among the panellists: Gerry Hassan, Indygal goes to Holyrood, Subrosa and Ian Hamilton QC.

This category contains blogs that were set up during 2009. For information on the voting process, visit the Scotblogs Awards 2010 page. View the winners in other categories announced so far.

• 25. Pining for the West
• 24. David Fagan
• 23. Bread and Roses
• 22. Smashing Mirrors
• 19=. PoliticsScot
• 19=. Jamie Livingstone
• 19=. Alter Ego…
• 15=. RantinRab
• 15=. My Portis Wasp says
• 15=. Have fun at dinner
• 15=. Cllr Debra Storr
• 13=. A Rabbit’s Eye View of the Hyperborean North
• 13=. …except the Kyles and the Western Isles
• 12. …and your electron microscope!
• 11. Eric Joyce MP
• 10. Psudepigrapha
• 9. Lesley Riddoch
• 8. Newsnet Scotland
• 7. Phuturelabs
• 6. The Universality of Cheese
• 5. Inksters Give Blog
• 4. Subrosa
• 3. Gerry Hassan
• 2. We Know SFA
• 1. Lallands Peat Worrier
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