Scottish Political News

Here is something cheery to take you through to the new year. Look at this map. It ranks countries by how much privacy its citizens have.

The UK is coloured in black. This means that it is among the “leading” surveillance societies. The only assessed countries to come out worse in the study are Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, China and Malaysia. That’s right — in the surveillance stakes we are right up there with China.

The sliver lining in this is that at least Scotland — as opposed to Englandandwales — has a much better score. Nevertheless, to see the island of Great Britain coloured in black along with this who’s who of illiberal states (ah yes, and The Land of the Free™), is quite sobering. Whoever it was that said Britain was sleepwalking into a surveillance society appears to have been right.

Via Boing Boing.

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Hi folks! As you’re probably tired of hearing by now, 2007 saw some significant changes, with the formation of an SNP Government, and Gordon Brown’s long-anticipated ascent to the Premiership (having beaten Stoke City in the play-offs, boom boom), so, as Duncan promised, I’m here to look at how Scottish bloggers have adapted to the changes.

Let’s be paradoxical and start at the end – of Jack McConnell’s tenure, that is. Take a look at this post by Tartan Hero, in which he suggests that Labour have done nothing for the East End of Glasgow while in power. IndyGal, meanwhile, looks at Labour’s record on poverty, while Richard Thomson runs the rule over Labour’s record on education. This is something you’d expect: a government is coming to the end of its term, so it’s a good chance for opposition parties to get in there and take those in charge to task over their performance in administration.

Now, this is where the problem starts: as Roundups throughout the year will testify, the Scottish blogosphere suffers from a paucity of Labour blogs, so there’s very little opportunity for the governing party (or in Scotland’s case, the lead governing party) to put its case across online. And when it does, it has an almost ‘oppositionist’ feel to it. This post over at Ridiculous Politics is essentially a look at SNP policy shifts over the years – no positive content. By contrast, Kezia Dugdale does point out the Labour Party’s stance on green issues. However, even in that post, she makes it clear that she is unimpressed with the Greens. And the SNP.

So it would appear that the blogosphere was a pretty venomous place before the election, but then, with an ugly campaign, it’s only natural that the online battle would reflect that. And the long campaign itself generated a lot of interest: when LibDem MSP Jamie Stone accused the SNP of xenophobia, the reaction by SNP-supporting bloggers was swift, and hostile, as we can see over at Tartan Hero. Criticism then spread to Nicol Stephen, as this posed by Richard Thomson exemplifies.

Nicol Stephen was far from the only leader to cop it though: back in February, Davie Hutchison was noting Jack McConnell’s absence from campaigning efforts, while Kezia Dugdale had a pop at the SNP for registering “Alex Salmond for First Minister” as an alternative name with the Electoral Commission.

So this was a negative campaign, and the blogosphere picked that up, though there were some voices of exasperation – mine included. However, Kezia Dugdale gave me plenty of food for thought when she presented a highly credible, and well-argued, case in favour of the tactic.

Despite that, for some, the blog was an important campaigning tool, and some used it as an excellent way to get their message and policies across. The best example of this is undoubtedly Julie McAnulty, an independent candidate in Coatbridge & Chryston, standing in protest against planned changes in NHS Lanarkshire which would leave Monklands Hospital without its A&E Department. A browse through the archive of her blog will give you a good idea of the issues she was (and still is) campaigning on, and what her position is.

So in many ways, the election was more of a blessed release than anything else. Or at least it should have been until it became a stramash of epic proportions, and anyone who was anyone was reading Mr. Eugenides on election night.

But despite the uncertainty of the result, an SNP minority government emerged, and by the time Parliament – having got round to choosing a Presiding Officer – met to select a First Minister, the election of Alex Salmond was widely expected.

The thing was, though, that for bloggers, very little did actually change. Yes, the SNP achieved in government at Holyrood, but Labour are still in power at Westminster. The upshot of this is that posts like this one by Mark McDonald in March, criticising the then Home Secretary John Reid, can be followed in July by a post like this one from Osama Saeed, taking an unhappy look at Gordon Brown’s security policy.

Even so, the other Holyrood parties still take pelters: take a look at this recent post by Calum Cashley, looking at Wendy Alexander’s position on the constitution, or this one by Osama Saeed on the LibDems’ differing approach to Wendygate and Trumpton.

One last note on Holyrood: the egg-throwing blogs. World of Jack was basically an online method of pointing and laughing at Jack McConnell. Obviously, the blog is now obsolete (and there is as yet no sign of ‘World of Wendy’ or ‘World of Gordon’), but HolyroodBelle had a way with Photoshop. After the election, Labour (and the blogroll makes it blatant that it’s Labour’s doing) tried their hand at a similar tactic at A Little Fishy, though the humour content was lower and the last post was in August. A parallel attempt (again, made by Labour) is over at Parliamentary Questions, which sounds like it covers politics in general, but markets itself as “The spin tackling, political angling, line untangling, politician baiting, murky water trawling, Salmond farm cage rattling blog” and is utterly in line with the expectations raised by the marketing. It has survived (unlike Fishy), but sadly, is remarkably po-faced and a little bit of Photoshoppy goodness wouldn’t go amiss. Also, I don’t think it’s really all that effective at this stage in the Parliamentary cycle: come late 2010, it’ll have its place, but it’s too soon for it now.

Then there was Westminster. In many ways, I can’t really dress this up as a change, as there was, since the Labour Conference in 2006, a grim inevitability about Gordon Brown taking over before the Autumn of 2007, and so it proved, with Blair handing over the reins of power in late June. This meant that people had their thoughts ready about Brown before he even came to power: IndyGal, Caron and Julie were all unimpressed.

And with one election over with, another seemed in the offing: IndyGal was ready for an Autumn election, as was Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting. So when Gordon Brown pulled the plug, Kezia Dugdale was disappointed. Reactionary Snob felt somewhat more strongly than that. From there on, it was downright hostility, and Roundups passim chart bloggers’ hostile reaction to practically everything emerging from Westminster, particularly on Northern Rock and the lost HMRC discs.

So, nothing seems to have changed: Labour are still seen as a bogeyman among Scottish bloggers, and there’s still that element of venom involved. Luckily, we’ll still be here to deal with the venom in 2008, and Reactionary Snob will be your host on Sunday. All the best!

Hi folks! As you’re probably tired of hearing by now, 2007 saw some significant changes, with the formation of an SNP Government, and Gordon Brown’s long-anticipated ascent to the Premiership (having beaten Stoke City in the play-offs, boom boom), so, as Duncan promised, I’m here to look at how Scottish bloggers have adapted to the changes.

Let’s be paradoxical and start at the end – of Jack McConnell’s tenure, that is. Take a look at this post by Tartan Hero, in which he suggests that Labour have done nothing for the East End of Glasgow while in power. IndyGal, meanwhile, looks at Labour’s record on poverty, while Richard Thomson runs the rule over Labour’s record on education. This is something you’d expect: a government is coming to the end of its term, so it’s a good chance for opposition parties to get in there and take those in charge to task over their performance in administration.

Now, this is where the problem starts: as Roundups throughout the year will testify, the Scottish blogosphere suffers from a paucity of Labour blogs, so there’s very little opportunity for the governing party (or in Scotland’s case, the lead governing party) to put its case across online. And when it does, it has an almost ‘oppositionist’ feel to it. This post over at Ridiculous Politics is essentially a look at SNP policy shifts over the years – no positive content. By contrast, Kezia Dugdale does point out the Labour Party’s stance on green issues. However, even in that post, she makes it clear that she is unimpressed with the Greens. And the SNP.

So it would appear that the blogosphere was a pretty venomous place before the election, but then, with an ugly campaign, it’s only natural that the online battle would reflect that. And the long campaign itself generated a lot of interest: when LibDem MSP Jamie Stone accused the SNP of xenophobia, the reaction by SNP-supporting bloggers was swift, and hostile, as we can see over at Tartan Hero. Criticism then spread to Nicol Stephen, as this posed by Richard Thomson exemplifies.

Nicol Stephen was far from the only leader to cop it though: back in February, Davie Hutchison was noting Jack McConnell’s absence from campaigning efforts, while Kezia Dugdale had a pop at the SNP for registering “Alex Salmond for First Minister” as an alternative name with the Electoral Commission.

So this was a negative campaign, and the blogosphere picked that up, though there were some voices of exasperation – mine included. However, Kezia Dugdale gave me plenty of food for thought when she presented a highly credible, and well-argued, case in favour of the tactic.

Despite that, for some, the blog was an important campaigning tool, and some used it as an excellent way to get their message and policies across. The best example of this is undoubtedly Julie McAnulty, an independent candidate in Coatbridge & Chryston, standing in protest against planned changes in NHS Lanarkshire which would leave Monklands Hospital without its A&E Department. A browse through the archive of her blog will give you a good idea of the issues she was (and still is) campaigning on, and what her position is.

So in many ways, the election was more of a blessed release than anything else. Or at least it should have been until it became a stramash of epic proportions, and anyone who was anyone was reading Mr. Eugenides on election night.

But despite the uncertainty of the result, an SNP minority government emerged, and by the time Parliament – having got round to choosing a Presiding Officer – met to select a First Minister, the election of Alex Salmond was widely expected.

The thing was, though, that for bloggers, very little did actually change. Yes, the SNP achieved in government at Holyrood, but Labour are still in power at Westminster. The upshot of this is that posts like this one by Mark McDonald in March, criticising the then Home Secretary John Reid, can be followed in July by a post like this one from Osama Saeed, taking an unhappy look at Gordon Brown’s security policy.

Even so, the other Holyrood parties still take pelters: take a look at this recent post by Calum Cashley, looking at Wendy Alexander’s position on the constitution, or this one by Osama Saeed on the LibDems’ differing approach to Wendygate and Trumpton.

One last note on Holyrood: the egg-throwing blogs. World of Jack was basically an online method of pointing and laughing at Jack McConnell. Obviously, the blog is now obsolete (and there is as yet no sign of ‘World of Wendy’ or ‘World of Gordon’), but HolyroodBelle had a way with Photoshop. After the election, Labour (and the blogroll makes it blatant that it’s Labour’s doing) tried their hand at a similar tactic at A Little Fishy, though the humour content was lower and the last post was in August. A parallel attempt (again, made by Labour) is over at Parliamentary Questions, which sounds like it covers politics in general, but markets itself as “The spin tackling, political angling, line untangling, politician baiting, murky water trawling, Salmond farm cage rattling blog” and is utterly in line with the expectations raised by the marketing. It has survived (unlike Fishy), but sadly, is remarkably po-faced and a little bit of Photoshoppy goodness wouldn’t go amiss. Also, I don’t think it’s really all that effective at this stage in the Parliamentary cycle: come late 2010, it’ll have its place, but it’s too soon for it now.

Then there was Westminster. In many ways, I can’t really dress this up as a change, as there was, since the Labour Conference in 2006, a grim inevitability about Gordon Brown taking over before the Autumn of 2007, and so it proved, with Blair handing over the reins of power in late June. This meant that people had their thoughts ready about Brown before he even came to power: IndyGal, Caron and Julie were all unimpressed.

And with one election over with, another seemed in the offing: IndyGal was ready for an Autumn election, as was Jeff at SNP Tactical Voting. So when Gordon Brown pulled the plug, Kezia Dugdale was disappointed. Reactionary Snob felt somewhat more strongly than that. From there on, it was downright hostility, and Roundups passim chart bloggers’ hostile reaction to practically everything emerging from Westminster, particularly on Northern Rock and the lost HMRC discs.

So, nothing seems to have changed: Labour are still seen as a bogeyman among Scottish bloggers, and there’s still that element of venom involved. Luckily, we’ll still be here to deal with the venom in 2008, and Reactionary Snob will be your host on Sunday. All the best!

by shamanic

Happy New Year everyone. I'm going to take off now to clean up, run some errands, and party like it's 2008 tonight (oh wait, it IS 2008 tonight!), but I want to thank Cernig for putting this blog together this year, Libby and Fester for being such awesome and insightful colleagues, and all of our readers for making this year so successful. We won a MonkeyFister award, were (briefly) nominated for Best Liberal Blog in the Weblog awards (or something similar... there are so many), and are regularly read by some of the most prominent voices in America's public discourse (I'm only slightly exaggerating there).

So to all of you, friends and strangers, commenters and lurkers, linkers and haters, I say thank you for a wonderful 2007 here at The Newshog. I hope we continue to be an informative and entertaining voice for you in the new year.

From Cernig

It's been quite a year for the Newshoggers, what with going group-blog and all. I couldn't hope for a better bunch of partners - Sha, Libby and Fes have all been simply stellar across the board this year and Eric's drop-in posts have been invaluable analysis for anyone serious about FP issues. My thanks to all of them.

I'd like to echo Sha's thanks to you readers out there with a heartfelt "hell, yeah!" Newshoggers readers are some of the smartest movers and shakers of opinion out there. That's not just our opinion - it's the opinion of the folks at Memeorandum, Technorati, BlogBurst and a small host of other aggregators and trackers. This tiny blog continually hits above its weight when it comes to measuring which blogs help shape political discussion and opinion and that's because of you, the readers, who keep us sharp in comments, send us links and spread the discussion. You rock.

And an especial thanks to the bloggers - A-Listers like Kevin, James, Nico and Larisa as well as hundreds of other truly great thinkers and writers from across the consonants of Blogtopia - who have linked to our posts, advised us in emails and sent some eyes our way.

But we aren't done yet. There will be other changes in 2008 to make The Newshoggers smarter, faster, better. Our secret plans are buried deeper than Dick Cheney's oppo files on leading Dem's sexual fetishes and perversions - but we think you'll like them.

Anyways...it's Hogmanay, and I might lose my Scottish citizenship if I don't go and get fall-down drunk. So for now I will say another hearty "thank you all" and go imbibe a dram or two. I'll be back by the second at the latest.

A Guid new Year Tae Yin An' A'

Warmest Regards, C

From Libby: Let me add my thanks to my incredible partners. Hard to believe it's been almost a year. I'm still just as thrilled to be part of this group as I was the first day I stumbled in here. And thanks to our dear readers and our truly awesome linkers and commenters. I think I learn more from all of you, than you learn from me and I cherish you all like family. Best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous New Year to everyone.

I have to disagree with Shamanic's earlier argument that Krugman is implicitly and unfairly criticizing Barack Obama's rhetoric of bi-partisanship. I think our difference lies within the nature of the agendas being pursued and the internal and informal House organizing rules that will allow a projected diminished Republican House and Senate caucuses to be very partisan vehicles.

I believe the GOP would hemorrhage voters if Obama faced Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee (my gut says it's one of the two, but we'll know in a month or so). Obama's coattails could sweep in a dramatic Democratic majority to augment the narrow one getting thrashed between the GOP minority and the 25% man right now.

Bipartisanship is a lot less necessary the closer you get to 60 Senate seats, and while Obama's agenda is hardly revolutionary, I think the general feeling about him is that he will work diligently and -- more importantly -- smartly to implement it, creating stakeholders out of disparate interests.

I'll first disagree on the hemorraging of either registred Republicans or strongly Republican leaning unaffiliated voters from the Republican coalition. Clinton performs the weakest in the head to heads compared to Obama and Edwards, but not by a significant margin against Obama. He does better but not amazingly so.

As Greg Sargant notes at the Horses Mouth, gridlock has a simple explanation:

Partisan gridlock happens because people -- and by extension, political parties -- disagree about stuff. One party wants to do one thing on a particular issue. Another party says No. The first party offers a few concessions. The second party still says No. That's where "partisan gridlock" comes from -- underlying disagreement on issues [my emphasis]

I'll agree with Krugman, and I believe Shamanic will agree with me, that all of the major Democratic candidates are proposing roughly similiar progressive plans in a variety of policy fields. Details definately matter, but the agendas proposed, in broad strokes, are interchangable. Edwards, Obama and Clinton are all broadly proposing carbon dioxide cap and trades/auction/taxes, some form of massively expanded health care payment and access that will eventually lead to some bastard step child of single payer, and about the same Iraq policy and non-comments about residual forces.

And here is the problem with the bipartisanship mien --- addressing CO2 and healthcare are system changing moves that dramatically impact the Republican coalition's ability to restrengthen itself without dramatically recasting itself and rearranging internal power distribution.

Even very optimistically assuming the Democrats pick up a net of seven seats in the Senate and net another twenty in the House, two problems emerge. One is more pronounced in the Senate, as the six potential net pick-up seats have four Republicans (Sununu, Warner, Snow, Smith) who are occassionally willing to defect from the rest of the Republican caucus on their pet issues or to moderate their conservative votes for a swing(ish) state. Other potential Democratic pick-ups will be in New Mexico and Colorado which will lead to net improvements in Democratic margins by almost 2 full votes, and potentially the scandal seat in Alaska. The Democrats will increase the size of their caucus faster than they will increase their vote counts even assuming that no current Democrat defects on any particular vote. Seeing Landrieu lose to a conservative Republican conversely has less impact on any particular vote. The same basic dynamic will play in the House, as Democrats are targetting Republicans who already occassionally defect from the caucus, so a net 1 pick-up is a little less than 1 expected value vote on any given progressive bill.

The second problem is the way that Nancy Pelosi has decided to run her Democratic caucus and the rule sets of the House. She has decided to adapt a "majority of the whole" operation where bills will be scheduled if they have a majority of the entire House behind it. This is in contrast to the Republican rules of 'majority of the majority' where the Republican caucus would have internal whip counts behind legislation which when presented to the entire House would have near unified GOP support even if there was significant internal divisons.

Assuming as I do that carbon dioxide policy and healthcare are coalition rejiggering efforts, they will only pass the House in a majority of a majority rule framework if they are anything that vaguely resembles their campaign intent. In a majority of the whole framework, the Republican Caucus will first have higher degrees of unity due the losses of their marginal and moderate members (see New England in 2006) and the ability to offer Blue Dog/Bush Dog the marginal decision maker value and dictate to their own self-importance. Any GOP+Bush Dog bill on carbon dioxide or healthcare will be a hollow farce in actually achieving its goals beyond shoveling pork to extractive and protected industries. The only way that a good bill gets out of the House and into the Senate where it faces its own concentrated minority opposition, is through majority of the majority rules

Pushing through these two major policy initiatives are coalition cutting efforts that are also good public policy. Even if these are very good first steps and not the entire marathon, the political, and economic pay-offs that should occur will start occurring fairly quickly which means we should expect either hollow shells of bi-partisan bills, or a knock-out, drag down partisan fight as either, and especially both policies, are existential threats to the current Republican Party coalition.

By Cernig

The militant Taliban leader who has been accused by Pakistan's government of ordering Bhutto's assassination has backed calls for an independent investigation of her death.

The pro-democracy icon, 54, was killed last Thursday in a gun-and- suicide bomb attack that government officials claim was carried out by the followers of Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the newly formed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) (Taliban Movement Pakistan).

'The government is carrying out a propaganda campaign against Baitullah Mehsud and the Taliban is unfairly being alleged for the attack,' the militant group's spokesman Maulvi Omar told the BBC's Urdu service by telephone from undisclosed location.

Bhutto's murder was a great national tragedy and therefore an independent inquiry should be held, he added.

...The Taliban spokesman said any independent inquiry that was free from US and Britain influence would be acceptable for them.

Quite remarkable, if true. Either Mehsud is playing an astute game of destabilisation or he really didn't order the killing. Which, do you think?

I have a couple of meme tags still outstanding, one of which needs addressing before midnight and so I’d best get it done.

Jo off of Jo’s Jottings tagged me with Iain Dale’s Eight for 2008 meme. So with world peace and Prime Minister Nick Clegg taken as read, here are my 8 wishes for next year:

1. That the fourth series of <DOCTOR.WHO> will be at least as good as the third; that the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be at least as good as the first; and that the new series of Torchwood will be better than the first (and I’m sure it will).

2. That the Lib Dems get good results in the London elections and the English and Welsh local elections in May.

3. That I’m able to find enough spare time to make some progress on various projects currently sitting on the back burner.

4. That in the light of its inability to handle personal data securely the Government abandons the illiberal, costly, and technically monstrous identity database.

5. That I maintain a reasonable record playing Scrabulous on Facebook and at some point win a game of Settlers of Catan.

6. That the majority of my commuter trains into London are on time (December’s score: 0%).

7. That a sensible Democrat wins the US Presidency.

8. That I lose some more weight, although ideally not through amputation, decapitation or any sort of wasting disease.

Given that it’s December 31st, I’ll not tag on. Happy New Year!

Every year the SNP bang on about making St Andrew's day a national holiday and every year the Scottish CBI point out that public holidays are not cost neutral to business and have to be paid for. Every month we are warned about the dangers of binge drinking by our benevolent overseers. Yet Scotland still enjoys the 2nd of January as a bank holiday because Scots traditionally get so fucking wasted

Maybe I’m just getting older and (more) miserable, but I’ve never been a fan of news years eve. Arbitrary changes of date just don’t seem that much of big a deal to me. It’s not like the whole numbering system on which it is based (you know, this guy supposedly being born) is particularly useful, [...]

That's according to the CBI:THE drive to expand university education has produced a generation of poor-quality graduates that employers do not want to hire, the head of the country's leading business organisation has warned.In a stinging criticism of both the UK and Scottish Governments, Richard Lambert, the director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, claimed many employers believe

That’s according to the CBI:THE drive to expand university education has produced a generation of poor-quality graduates that employers do not want to hire, the head of the country’s leading business organisation has warned.In a stinging criticism of both the UK and Scottish Governments, Richard Lambert, the director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, claimed many employers believe

Virgin Atlantic cabin crew are threatening strike action because they feel they are not being paid enough compared to other airline staff. Richard Branson has written to them to ask them to consider seeking employment elsewhere. The union involved in the agitation is calling the letter "provocative" as opposed to calling strike action which we are left to assume rates no higher than "a bit of fun

by shamanic

Back in 2005, Cernig, Fester, and I wrote for a multi-partisan group blog called The Unpaid Punditry Corps which featured just shy of ten writers of various ideological stripes. It's the truth to say that Hurricane Katrina swept UPC away: the conservatives in the group *freaked* when, a week into the mess in New Orleans, we on the left began noting that what we were really watching was conservatism play out in the devastated streets of an American city.

Anyway, one thing we used to do at UPC was bet a bottle of whiskey on electoral outcomes. These never ended up being paid, but since the Newshoggers crew appears more stable and the Iowa caucuses are just days away, I want to suggest to my partners here that you belly up to the bar and get to betting on the outcome. Losers owe winners a bottle of something. I like Tequila with the 1800 label.

shamanic's Iowa Caucus predictions for Democrats & Republicans:
Dems: Clinton will edge Obama by a point or two, with Edwards coming in a strong third, four or five points behind.
Republicans: Mitt Romney will take it with a pretty clear margin, 5-6 points, over Mike Huckabee, who will immediately blame Pakistani-Americans in Iowa for sabotaging his Jesus-ordained candidacy. Okay, I don't actually predict that last part.

Fester's Take I'll collect my winnings via either a good single malt or Kentucky Bourbon....

Democrats in Iowa

Obama by a point a two

Edwards on the strength of horse trading and 2nd choices will have another two points over Clinton

Clinton does well but her ground game is out-hustled by a tacit Obama-Edwards alliance and smart shifting of caucus goers to maximize the anti-Clinton votes.

Republicans in Iowa

Romney

McCain by a whisker

Huckabee

Thompson

And now where is Condoleeza Rice as she was supposed to be the GOP's savior candidate and the reason why I should have a couple very nice bottles of Scotch in my liquor cabinet from the UPC days.....

Libby's picks: I got bored with the horserace stuff quite some time ago and haven't been following the polls closely but I'll play. Edwards will ride his recent 'mo to a narrow win, followed hard by Clinton in second and Obama in a close third.

On the GOP side, Huckabee will squeak in barely ahead of Romney. McCain at third. Surprise here will be a strong showing for Ron Paul who will come out with low double digits.

Oops! Empty reminds me in comments that I forgot to pick my prize. I'm not a big drinker anymore. The only thing I generally drink besides beer is champagne and I only like Moet White Star. But if I must pick a hard liquor, I'd go with a good Irish single malt, so make mine Bushmills.

Cernig's Picks The reason I don't blog about the races much is because I really don't have a clue about the U.S. system and I'm not a member or even supporter of any US party. That means I don't follow the polls and stories. For me as for much of the rest of the world, it's the eventual candidates for each party, and then the elected President, that really count. But I'll make some wild guesses based on gut instinct rather than polls and reports.

Edwards will be the "Tony Blair" for the Dems in Iowa as elsewhere, with Obama and Clinton running neck and neck just behind him. He'll promise inclusion of all wings of the party and all parts of society, he'll promise to listen, and he'll promise to stay true to the party's ideals - and it will all be cover.

For the Republicans, Huckabee by a nose over Romney, with McCain emerging in third as the candidate for conservatives who aren't either insane fundies or insane warmongers.

If I win (LOL) it has to be best Scotch single malt all the way. Isle of Jura for preference.

by shamanic

Paul Krugman takes a look at the different universes that Republican and Democratic candidates live in -- there's an amazing chasm there, truly -- but continues his attacks on Barack Obama with this opening line:

Yesterday The Times published a highly informative chart laying out the positions of the presidential candidates on major issues. It was, I’d argue, a useful reality check for those who believe that the next president can somehow usher in a new era of bipartisan cooperation.

Krugman previously turned his guns full bore on Obama here, but with such sharp elbows coming out at the NYT, I think it's useful to consider what "bipartisan" might mean in the context of an Obama nomination.

I believe the GOP would hemorrhage voters if Obama faced Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee (my gut says it's one of the two, but we'll know in a month or so). Obama's coattails could sweep in a dramatic Democratic majority to augment the narrow one getting thrashed between the GOP minority and the 25% man right now.

Bipartisanship is a lot less necessary the closer you get to 60 Senate seats, and while Obama's agenda is hardly revolutionary, I think the general feeling about him is that he will work diligently and -- more importantly -- smartly to implement it, creating stakeholders out of disparate interests.

The GOP, in its current unusable form, could very well find itself finished. A new current of moderate Republican thinking would inevitably begin to rise, starting in the northeast where the GOP is all but dead and radiating out from there. The deathgrip that southern conservatives have on the party would eventually be supplanted. If the last decade has shown us anything, it's that America needs at least two strong parties, and what we have right now is a strengthening Democratic party and a mortally wounded GOP. It's not workable.

Contrast this with a Hillary Clinton candidacy and presidency. Republicans would rally against her, possibly losing the election, but they would take their seething anger with them and spill that familiar anti-Clinton bile for the years of her administration. Republicans could again feel that they're victims of some strange Arkansas-based conspiracy, and those in congress would throw roadblocks at every substantive piece of legislation they could find.

I'm not saying that congressional Republicans will come to heel if Obama is elected. I'm just saying that there will ultimately be fewer of them to resist. Hillary would help to keep the current ossified GOP strong for another four or eight years. Let's let it die its phoenix's death, and be reborn as a better party with workable ideas that can contribute again to the dialogue of the American polity.

That's the bipartisanship I'm looking for, and I know that Hillary Clinton can't deliver.

By Cernig

CNN today has a video of the death of Benazir Bhutto which shows her scarf tugged, as if by an invisible hand, as shots rang out just before a suicide bomb detonated. The video suggests that at least one bullet passed very close or struck her a glancing blow.

Meanwhile, the NY Times confirms reports in the Indian Press two days ago ( which we blogged here) which said that the hospital report did not make any mention of the already-infamous Sunroof Lever of Doom.

Athar Minallah, a board member of the hospital where Ms. Bhutto was treated, released her medical report along with an open letter showing that her doctors wanted to distance themselves from the government theory that Ms. Bhutto had died by hitting her head on a lever of her car’s sunroof during the attack.

In his letter, Mr. Minallah, who is also a prominent lawyer, said the doctors believed that an autopsy was needed to provide the answers to how she actually died. Their request for one last Thursday was denied by the local police chief.

Pakistani and Western security experts said the government’s insistence that Ms. Bhutto, a former prime minister, was not killed by a bullet was intended to deflect attention from the lack of government security around her.

...Mr. Minallah distributed the medical report with his open letter to the Pakistani news media and The New York Times. He said the doctor who wrote the report, Mohammad Mussadiq Khan, the principal professor of surgery at the Rawalpindi General Hospital, told him on the night of Ms. Bhutto’s death that she had died of a bullet wound.

Dr. Khan declined through Mr. Minallah to speak with a reporter on the grounds that he was an employee of a government hospital and was fearful of government reprisals if he did not support its version of events.

The medical report, prepared with six other doctors, does not specifically mention a bullet because the actual cause of the head wound was to be left to an autopsy, Mr. Minallah said. The doctors had stressed to him that “without an autopsy it is not at all possible to determine as to what had caused the injury,” he wrote.

It was Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who refused an autopsy, citing mistrust of whether any government findings would be truthful. He certainly seems to have had good reason for that, given the way the government have spun everything surrounding the incident down to even the cause of death and, more importantly, who was responsible.

SIXTY ONE "Because I am in my prime!" as Miss Brodie was wont to say. Oh yes. Sixty one is the eighteenth prime number, the next being sixty seven, which I await with bated (baited?) breath. Oh yes again. Dead Mothers And Other Matters I wasn't going to mention any of my family today, for a change. For years (eleven now, I think) I've wallowed in the coincidence of my mother's death on my

The following review appears in the latest edition of London’s premier music ‘zine, London Tour Dates.

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Counting the Empties

Hutton approaches another Hogmanay. It won't be like the massive celebrations in Embra as captured in the image above. We have had fireworks in the past-our neighbours had some squibs (dampish) and a Catherine Wheel which fell off the Trampoline in mid fizz. Further down Kirk Lane a few rockets were fired in our general direction by roistering Nordics. This year the Nordics have rented out the house to a party (no pun intended) of Glaswegians obviously hoping to see Old Year out in a civilised manner-Iron Bru rather than cheap Scotch -warm towels and not vomit buckets. No street parties here but there may be gentle first footing when the New Year creeps in. On Scotland a bit of excess is acceptable, expected and catered for. Our English neighbours take a days holiday to get over the fun:

here it is two

Huttonian will not see the New Year in. Any phone call after 10pm will be unappreciated

And unanswered

Early in 2007 Gordon Brown and his wife had dinner with Kylie Minogue in what was part of a campaign to "transform his image." Fast forward to the New Year's Honours List and the former 'rear of the year', that's Kyle of course, is rewarded with an OBE. Having said that the official word is that the award is for services to music....that is clearly an oxymoron.

The momentous political events of last May when the SNP ousted Labour, who had ruled Scotland for 50 years, took place against a backdrop of Prestonfield House where Alex Salmond flew as the results came in. For a reminder see this article in today's Herald.

Official government New Year messages are a waste of space and time. Nobody reads them (except anoraks like me). But if politicians are determined to persist with them, then I have to say that the First Minister's effort this year is one of the more polished examples of the genre. Commendably brief, optimistically up-beat, with a hint of self-deprecation, even humour, it was obviously not

by shamanic

Believes that adults should be celibate. Okay, apparently just the gay ones, to which I state clearly and for the record: I hope that Mike Huckabee never has an orgasm again!

By Libby

The police say this isn't entrapment and the courts may bear them out, but I call it creating a crime.

Robin Garrison, an off-duty 42-year-old firefighter, was walking in Berliner Park in Columbus, Ohio, in May when he saw a woman sunbathing topless under a tree.

He approached her and they started talking and getting comfortable, the woman smiling and resting her foot on his shoulder at one point.

Eventually, she asked to see Garrison's penis; he unzipped his pants and complied.

Seconds later, undercover police officers pulled up in a van and arrested Garrison; he was later charged with public indecency, a misdemeanor, based on video footage taken by cops who were targeting men having sex or masturbating in the park. While topless sunbathing is legal in the city's parks, exposing more than that is against the law.

Talk about a setup. Is there anyone who would expect a man to say no to that request under those circumstances? Anyone think he would normally sit around the park showing off his erect penis? Me neither. Yet, if he's convicted he'll end up on a sexual offenders list when the real predator here was the cop.

Meanwhile, am I the only one who is astounded to find out that you can legally sunbathe topless in Ohio? I'm pretty sure you would get arrested for that on the Boston Commons.

I had not planned to blog before the new year but sometimes things just get too much. The other day a 16 month old was mauled to death by a rottie when he was left in the charge of a 7 year old. An 18 year old gives her child to her three sisters who range from 6 to 16. The middle sister takes the child to meet the family pet who happens to also be a refined attacking machine. Bizarrely the child

I am making this the last in my series of posts looking back on the 2007 Formula 1 season. Truth be told, I’ve become a bit sick of writing them every Sunday. I skipped last week. Anyway, next Sunday is in a different year, and it’s a bit off to be looking back when everyone else is looking forward.

Anyway, I promised I would review Formula 1 websites, so here goes. Again, this is all in alphabetical order.

Autosport.com

A reliable source of Formula 1 — and other motorsport — news. It is also the most frequently updated of the F1 RSS feeds I subscribe to. So chances are that if something has happened, Autosport will have the story.

There is also a neat ‘Autosport TV’ feature, containing highlights of certain motorsport events. Bernie take note — this is how things will be done in the future, so don’t leave F1 lagging behind every other series!

Unfortunately, not all of the content on Autosport.com is free. But you can’t have it all. The website also performed badly on the day of McLaren’s WMSC hearing, when the website was down for huge parts of the afternoon, and then when it came back up it got the story wrong. Oh dear.

BBC Sport | Motorsport | Formula One

The BBC’s F1 news website is as you would expect — solid, but not really in-depth enough for obsessives like me. Only the very biggest F1 stories appear on BBC Sport Online, and they seldom contain anything revelatory.

Having said that, there are some neat features from time to time. Heikki Kovalainen wrote a regular column. I also particularly enjoyed reading an article about Kimi Räikkönen’s playboy image! There is also some good video and audio content collected from the BBC’s output.

However, the stories and features also concentrate too much on Lewis Hamilton. I guess this is to be expected from the BBC, but it’s all a bit fawning and not very balanced.

As for the other features, again they are pretty good, although they haven’t changed much for several years. I would imagine that features such as the pitstop guide are excellent resources if you are just getting into the sport.

BlogF1

Ollie White’s BlogF1 was the first Formula 1 blog I started reading regularly. The posts strike a neat balance between news and opinion, although I personally prefer more opinion-heavy pieces.

I have to confess that nowadays my favourite feature of BlogF1 is the weekly caption contest. However, there are some other neat features hidden away from the main blog area.

There is a particularly comprehensive section on racetracks from around the world, complete with images from Google Maps. There is also a stunning complete list of championship statistics going all the way back to 1950, the inception of the Drivers World Championship.

F1 Insight

This excellent blog is, as its title suggests, very insightful. What I love about it is the fact that Clive doesn’t just churn out banal posts about the issues of the day. Instead, he finds an interesting angle and then writes about it, bringing to the reader’s attention an aspect that he may not previously have thought about.

To take some recent examples, there is a post questioning Sebastian Vettel’s reputation as a promising driver. And here is an interesting take on Fernando Alonso — is he going to be the greatest reputation-maker of all time?

In sum, F1 Insight is guaranteed to challenge the conventional wisdom, making it an essential read.

F1Fanatic

Without a doubt, the best Formula 1 blog around! What astonishes me is that you can visit the website every single day and there will be something new — even in the depths of the off-season. There was even a new post on Christmas Day, but you are just as likely to find three or four new posts per day even at this time of year.

The breadth of features is also breathtaking. Book and DVD reviews often appear. The Lapped Legends series takes a look at some of the less talented drivers and teams in F1’s history. And the ‘F1 in the Blogs’ feature is a must-read roundup of the best F1 blogging. The blog has also been known to hold competitions which I have been lucky enough to win!

Main writer Keith Collantine is clearly very dedicated to the website and infinitely knowledgeable about the sport. It could so easily fall into the trap of being a haven for stattos, but it actually strikes a perfect balance between geek heaven and accessibility.

Ah, and I have also had a guest post published on F1Fanatic. So obviously it’s a must-read!

Formula 1 Blog

This is the Formula 1 Blog as in Negative Camber and Grace, whose podcast I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. The blog is rather different to their podcast. You would never guess that it was the same thing. The long, in-depth podcasts are accompanied by very concise, brief, pithy blog posts.

Despite the difference in style, the blog is great for all the same reasons as the podcast. Priding itself on being a “journal of opinion”, forceful opinion is certainly what you get.

One problem is that you have to be registered to comment. This is okay, and understandable in an age where upwards of 95% of blog comments are spam. But I tried to register and never got my confirmation email, so I am locked out (well, not really, but I can’t be bothered going through the rigmarole of registering again). Okay, so it’s not the end of the world, but it is a bit off-putting.

As well as the blog, there is a forum which I hear is buzzing. But forums are not quite my thing.

Formula1.com

This is the big daddy — Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula 1 website. It has come on leaps and bounds in the past year.

The best bit is still the Live Timing facility. If you have access to a computer during a grand prix, having Live Timing open will keep you up to date, with access to pretty much all of the information you would want, updated in real time.

The news section is so-so, but this is more than made up for by the site’s other features. A particular joy is the technical section, which looks in detail at the developments each team makes throughout the season. There is also great information on each circuit, a fine image gallery, profiles on all the teams and drivers and — for the bravest among us — a good section on F1’s Byzantine rules.

Perhaps the strongest part of the website, though, is the database of past races results, stretching right back to 1950. An excellent, in-depth resource if you want to look up old race and Championship results.

However, this section suffers from a frustrating navigational quirk. Say I want to look up the past results of a driver. I can select the driver, say Kimi Räikkönen. Now I want to look at his results from 2002, so naturally I select 2002 from the drop-down menu. But this takes me straight to the Championship Table of 2002, not the results of Kimi Räikkönen. What a pain!

Little annoyances aside though, Formula1.com is better than you might expect. It is finally catching up with other motorsport series. Now FOM needs to move into offering video on the website urgently. An insipid, 30 second long ‘highlights’ clip (which inevitably focuses on the crashes rather than the racing) will not do. Bernie needs to offer more video content online in future. If he is going to take all the interesting videos off YouTube, he had better offer them on Formula1.com.

Fun F1

A fair attempt at an F1 humour website, although not the best.

GrandPrix.com

One of the best F1 news sites going. This website might not have the budget or the big-name status of, say, Autosport, but it undoubtedly has the contacts.

Often the stories are as much about rumours as they are about hard facts. But this is often to its advantage. I seem to remember that GrandPrix.com was the first website to announce that Kimi Räikkönen had signed for Ferrari. Some other websites laughed at the suggestion at the time, but GrandPrix.com was proved right.

It was also consistently ahead of the curve in the reporting of the Stepneygate scandal. You simply had to read GrandPrix.com to keep on top of the facts surrounding the issue. Remarkable reporting.

ING Renault F1 Team - Weblog

A fine companion to the Renault podcast. Once again it demonstrates that Renault are serious about reaching fans in ways that other teams don’t consider. The blog is properly done as well, not half-hearted and with a buzzing comments section.

The design is rather busy for my liking, but to be fair I am not the biggest fan of the content either (unlike the podcast, which is excellent). Nevertheless, this is a lesson to the other teams: this is how it should be done.

ITV Sport - F1

This season saw the ITV-F1 website turn from a reasonable, accessible guide to Formula 1 into a central cog of the Lewis Hamilton hype machine. No doubt it is good for raking in the advertising money, but it is awful for genuine F1 fans.

Nevertheless, there are some top features on the ITV-F1 website. For instance, there are regular columns from Peter Windsor and David Coulthard. And Ted Kravitz’s notebook is often worth a read.

Next year I expect nothing less than a Lewis stalking feature which will plot on a Google Map where Lewis Hamilton is at this precise moment in time.

Linksheaven

A reasonably good Formula 1 group blog.

Pitpass

A fine independent Formula 1 website. Like GrandPrix.com — a reliable news resource, although Pitpass has a much slicker design! I have to say though, it is rather annoying that you can’t copy any of the text if you want to quote it. I can’t think of any other websites that persist on using this user-unfriendly technique that treats normal users — even people like me who want to approvingly link back — as criminals.

I would also rather that the news feed did not contain stories about that awful tripe known as A1 Grand Prix. Yeah, that toytown motor racing series where drivers don’t win, nor do teams — but countries do. What a load of nationalistic gash!

Apart from that, the news reports are good. The opinion pieces are fine, but often come across as a bit curmudgeonly. And the endless predictions of the imminent death of Formula 1 do get tiresome after a while.

Sidepodcast

A great blog to accompany a great podcast! They have recently had a new lick of paint. That’s all I can say. A cracking read, just as much as the podcast is a cracking listen.

Sniff Petrol

The best attempt at a Formula 1 humour site. This site provides some much-needed light relief amid the turmoil and politics of an F1 season.

Highlights include Crazy Dave Coulthard (complete with entertaining descriptions of what Red Bull tastes like), D.I. Blundell’s latest report and the latest advice Michael Schumacher has given to his brother.

Times Online Formula One blog

Ed Gorman’s Formula 1 blog is easily the best of the MSM F1 blogs. I do hope it returns for the 2008 season. I imagine it will because apparently it has been very popular indeed.

I can vouch for that. I think I can thank the comments section of Ed Gorman’s blog for a few of this blog’s readers nowadays. It is still to this day one of my top referrers. Infact, it is the top referrer to this blog all year apart from Google Images UK. And this is all from the comments sections of two posts from October. Blimey.

One problem was that it came to be defined in terms of its (oddly) mostly Spanish readership clashing with Ed Gorman’s British perspective on events. Thankfully in the end the relationship appears to have become the more respectful, ‘agree to disagree’ type, rather than the antagonistic relationship it could have been.

I think that’s about it, mostly because I am losing the will to live. As are you, most likely. Er, any other suggestions, blah blah, etc.?

By any measure, 2007 has been an extraordinary year in which to be Scottish. Indeed, if it were possible to resign one's nationhood, I might do it, as I fear I will be unable to stand the excitement for very much longer. In this morning's newspapers, I read that the Senior Retainer, Mr Alex Salmond, has been voted Scot of the Year, which seems inevitable, even if Mr Tony Blair recently owned up

BEEN A VERY GOOD YEAR Oh yes it has. Been. Sixty. Me, sixty. And this is the last day of it. I've made sixty quite fashionable! Life begins at sixty! Sixty is the new forty-five! And so on, so forth. But not sixty-one, which I achieve tomorrow. Not that - being as it is ten percent of the way to seventy. Seventy which no-one pretends is fashionable. With seventies incontinence, loss of