Scottish Political News

Tha an t-sèasan ball-coise a' tòiseachadh an-diugh. Dh'fhaodadh seo a bhith lìog inntinneach am bliadhna seo. Chùm Hibs a' chuid as motha den cluicheadairean aca a thàinig anns an treas àite an t-sèasan seo chaidh. Neartaich Hearts, Obar Dheathain is Dùn Deagh an sgioban aca agus bidh iad a' smaoineachadh gun urrainn dhaibh a bhith a' strì airson an treas àite am bliadhna seo. On bha Celtic a’ irioslachadh ann an Eòrpa, is dòcha gun tig sgioba seach an Old Firm anns a’ chiad no an dàrna àite!
Tha mi a’ falbh gu Easter Road far am bi Hibs a’ cluich le Dùn Phàrlain. Tha mi a’ faireachdainn math air a’ bhuil.

Tha an t-sèasan ball-coise a’ tòiseachadh an-diugh. Dh’fhaodadh seo a bhith lìog inntinneach am bliadhna seo. Chùm Hibs a’ chuid as motha den cluicheadairean aca a thàinig anns an treas àite an t-sèasan seo chaidh. Neartaich Hearts, Obar Dheathain is Dùn Deagh an sgioban aca agus bidh iad a’ smaoineachadh gun urrainn dhaibh a bhith a’ strì airson an treas àite am bliadhna seo. On bha Celtic a’ irioslachadh ann an Eòrpa, is dòcha gun tig sgioba seach an Old Firm anns a’ chiad no an dàrna àite!
Tha mi a’ falbh gu Easter Road far am bi Hibs a’ cluich le Dùn Phàrlain. Tha mi a’ faireachdainn math air a’ bhuil.

It seems that the idea of a Scottish Olympic Team is causing quite an uproar amongst Scottish "establishment" figures. It seems obvious that the First Minister will not commit his Scottish Executive to backing the idea for fear that this would lead to an upsurge in Scottish pride.

That is really the heart of the issue. If the political will was there does anyone really believe we would still be hearing proposals for a "British Football Team" from politicians who simply don't have a clue about the strength of feeling in Scotland and Wales. There is very little chance of such an idea receiving any kind of support from Scots or Welsh foortball fans and there is every possibility that a "Team GB" football team would be booed off the park if the football matches were indeed to be held at Hampden.

Scotland would be far better represented by an exclusively Scottish Olympic team. The fact that we are not independent is neither here nor there. If Hong Kong can have a team then there is no reason why Scotland can't have one also.

I would like to urge everyone reading this to support a proposal for a Scottish Olympic team and to make their feelings known on the issue of a GB football team. Congratulations must go to the Scottish Football Association for having the guts to take a stand against a combined GB football team.

A bheil thu a’ lorg airson dreuchd? ‘S urrainn dhut a bhith a’ lorg le Gàidhlig aig ScottishJobs.com.
Chan eil dreuchdan an-sin an-dràsta ged a tha dreuchdan gu leòr aig an dreach Beurla. Sgrìobh mi thuca agus tha mi ‘n dòchas gum bi iad a’ ceartachadh seo a dh’aithghearr.

Hello there. It is Stuart here this week. Our inaugural roundup (by Garry Smith) received a very positive welcome, if my quick Technorati search is anything to go by. New Scot Akatsuki ("My new colleagues consider me Scottish, even though I explained that I wasn't born in Scotland, nor have any Scottish ancestry.") was the only one to indicate mild disappointment - "Just linking to others for

Chuir an soitheach-fànais Discovery air bhog an-diugh gun dhuilgheadasan. Bidh iad a’ siubhal gu an International Space Station. Bha e a’ chiad soitheach-fànais le sgioba gu bhith a ‘cur air bhog bho NASA o chionn 2003 nuair a deach an soitheach-fànais Colombia a sgrios.

Shit. I deleted another blog and I think it might have affected this one.

Spotted on algae.com:
LONDON, SUNDAY:- Refugees from Earth were today offered a lifeline by the Clangers, who have issued a statement that "People wishing to find an escape from the bigotry, violence, pollution, random killings, pointless hatred and general stupid-wankerism of this unhappy planet can come and live with us, if they don't mind eating soup every day. We will even allow them to reproduce, like the orange froglets."
This information was welcomed by representatives of people with more intelligence than the average crocus. Colin from my jobseekers course said "Fantastic, when can we go?"
Earth people will be picked up later this months in the musical space boat by Tiny Clanger, who added "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."

Anns a’ Phàrlamaid an seachdain seo, bha Linda Fabiani (PNA, Alba Mheadhanach) a' cur air adhart gluasad airson am Pàrlamaid gu bhith a' cruthachadh sgioba Olympic Albannach.

Please send your suggestions for the weekly roundup of notable Scottish political blog posts to spbreview AT gmail DOT com. It is my good self doing the roundup this week, and it will be a day or two later than planned, due to my jetsetting lifestyle (I actually use Ryanair). I have already spotted one cracking post for your delectation, but you will just have to wait til Wednesday to see if

Bhuannaich Lunnainn a’ cho-fharpais airson na Geamannan Olympic ann an 2012. Am bi seo math air Alba? Dh'fhaodadh gum bi pàirt dhen bhall-còise a’ cluich an-seo, ach dh'fhaodadh gum bi sinn a’ call maoineachadh spòrsa a phàigh airson an leasachadh air Lunnainn.
Cha chluich Breatainn ball-còise co-dhiù a chionn ‘s nach eil sgioba ball-còise Breatannach againn. Is dòcha gum bi sgioba Olympic Albannach againn ann an 2012!

Cuideachd, an seachdain seo, chuir Glaschu iomairt air bhog airson na Geamannan Commonwealth ann an 2014.

On behalf of Stuart and myself, I'd like to welcome you to the first ever Scottish Political Blog Review weekly roundup. It really is a pleasure to have you here. Now that I come to write this, I feel a little daunted. I'm so used to peddling my woolly-headed-liberal-leftie-wishy-washy nonsense, how will I ever manage to be objective?* I suppose I'll just have to do my best. And yes, that's a

The Scottish Political Blog Review is to publish a (hopefully) weekly roundup of Scottish political blogs. I'm Garry (occasionally aka CuriousHamster) and I've volunteered to help out after Stuart set the ball rolling. Given that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it's going to be run along similar lines to Tim Worstall's excellent Britblog Roundup. The first review is coming soon and

New Scottish political blogs are coming online thick and fast now. I will try to put up the links as soon as possible, but as it is holiday time I am a bit behind. You can accelerate the process by telling us about any new ones you find, or start up yourself. We have a new recruit to the editorial at SPBR - making this a group blog. More soon. If you'd like to help out too, just give us a shout

Helen, Alice, Tam, Heather, Pablo, Ramon, Dick, Janet, Graham, Sarah, Will, Mel, Jody, Ben and quite a few other people's grand day out. Organised by Tam, hosted by me, with a guest appearance by the cat.
It's rather lucky really that the largest-ever demonstration in Scotland (allegedly) is happening about twenty yards from my front door; on the other hand it means that everyone in branch and all their pals are in and out all the time, having glasses of water, using the bathroom, picking up more copies of Socialist Appeal and other literature and stuff which is selling like hot cliches, sorry, cakes, and storing tables and chairs and all sorts. Still, it's good that we have a base close to the Meadows, and Marjorie is very excited to have all these people in and out of her house. We also have some folk from London staying who absolutely adore her, as does everyone before they get to know her. (So small. So fluffy. So cute. Such a funny little purr. And the scars on my legs which she inflicted two months ago are nearly healed up.)
But I spent four hours yesterday - helped by Heather and my wee sister who has been absolutely wonderful throughout the entire thing - making cheese rolls to sell. This was going to be either a triumph or the greatest cock-up committed by a Socialist organisation since someone said "This Blair bloke looks nice, let's give him a go," and at the moment - because I don't want to be complacent - it looks quite like the former. Two hundred rolls - yes, that wasn't a typing error, two hundred - at 50p each, they're nearly all gone, and we've sold loads of papers, six books which is good because a book at six or eight or ten quid is not often an impulse purchase, and lots of packets of crisps. To be honest the roll triumph is probably just because there weren't gigantic queues at the stall; there were queues at the food vans, the toilets, and very possibly the first-aid tent, because the main activity pursued during any large gathering, from Greenham Common to Glastonbury to bloody Crufts, is queueing, and thinking "I'm hungry" and immediately purchasing a slightly squashed bread roll for 50p is preferable to standing in line for half an hour to spend [GBP]4.50 on some chips.
I tried to join the bit of march that set off at 1pm, but it was just like standing in a queue going nowhere at all, so I gave up. This was a shame, as I was dressed in white head-to-toe in order to look like a slightly bitter angel (however my skirt only just fit, and when I put my phone and stuff into the pockets came a bit undone, giving me an air which was less celestial than who-ate-all-the-pies), but shit happens. They managed fine without me anyway. The whole thing seems to be a wee bit more militant than it was originally designed to be, which is good. Through the window I can hear the anti-war people yelling from their stage, and 120,000 or 200,000 (I'd say the latter, because official statistics are, well, official) people hanging around - well, it gives me a bit of hope.
Not a lot, and maybe too much, but a bit.