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It has been announced that the Scottish Executive will be re-branded as the Scottish Government. This is an announcement that has long been expected and should come as no surprise to anyone in Scottish politics. One of the main problems with the word Executive was that it wasn't clear and descriptive enough. There is no other government in the world apart from that of Northern Ireland who uses the term Executive. There has often been confusion in the first eight years of the Scottish Parliament, with members of the public and journalists failing to correctly identify what is done by the Government and what is done by Parliament. It is good that the SNP Government is moving quickly to address this and Alex Salmond and his team are to be applauded for doing so.The re-branding will extend to...

Since the SNP became the biggest party in the Scottish Parliament at the May 2007 elections, it seems that they have systematically debunked the accusations levelled at them for years by the other political parties. Alex Salmond moved quickly to shake off the "narrow nationalist" tag and has shown himself to be a statesman on the world stage, even with the limited powers of devolution. Far from being narrow and inward looking, every aspect of SNP policy looks outward to the rest of the world.Another of the favourite terms bandied about was of course "tartan tories". The idea that anyone can take this seriously now is laughable. It is actually Labour themselves who have killed off this particular line of attack by going into a "pan unionist coalition" with the Tories and the Liberal...

Following Friday night's salmon with a creamy orange sauce, I served a very Scottish dessert - Cranachan. I almost gave up the idea. While shopping for fish (and the elusive rosemary) on Friday morning, I was also looking for raspberries. Unfortunately my local vegetable shops only stocked imported French raspberries, which seemed a bit exhausted of the trip across the Channel and looked a...

A colleague of mine has self-published a collection of poetry. A Curly Haired Loss, for a Curly Haired Boy by James Hugh Ferreira Shaw (Book) in Poetry Local writer - "A collection of contemporary poems by James Hugh Ferreira Shaw". ... (40 words)Scotland Angus Fun JamesShaw poetry scottish poet scotland culture...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had another Estonian friend visiting and I treated Margit, her colleague and another MacEstonian to a Scottish meal. The Estonian visitors had heard rumours of haggis, the Scottish national dish of lamb bits and other things, so I decided to make some exactly a week ago. My choice of haggis is MacSween of Edinburgh, and I bought both a vegetarian and traditional version. These were served with neeps (alias mashed turnip, seasoned with butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg) and tatties (potato mash, seasoned with salt, pepper, milk and butter).We drank my current favourite whisky and Whisky Mac cocktails. For the latter you mix 1.5 oz Scotch whisky and 1 oz green ginger wine. I suspect my ginger wine (not easy to find!) wasn't the green one, as the cocktail...

Any self-respecting Burns Supper begins with a proper Scottish soup - either Scotch Broth or Cock-a-Leekie. As the latter is a) considerably cheaper and b) considerably easier, then that's what I made for our Burns Supper last weekend. Amazingly, so few ingredients (a chicken, some leeks and some juicy prunes) can result in such a flavoursome soup. I did dig out my Marigold bouillon powder - you know, just in case - but didn't have to touch it after all.The amounts given below are the ones I used. If you want to follow the exact amounts given by the Scottish foodwriter Sue Lawrence, then click on the photo above.Cock-a-leekie (Cock-a-leekie supp ehk šotlaste kana-porrusupp)Adapted from Scots Cooking: The Best Traditional and Contemporary Scottish Recipesby Sue LawrenceServes 10 as a...

Last Sunday the Tallinn chapter of the MacEstonians Society held a Burns Supper. Well, there is no official chapter or society as such, but as few of the previously temporarily Scotland-based Estonians (hence the Mac + Estonians) have returned home (incl yours truly) , then we thought that Burns Supper would be a perfect opportunity to catch up. There were ten of us around the table, some of whom had come from as far as Tartu and one even from Edinburgh. This was particularly handy, as we had fresh haggis to go with our neeps and tatties that night, that followed cock-a-leekie soup and preceeded a delicious Cranachan. Scottish music and recitals of Burns' poems were there, too.But what to you serve between the courses and along the whisky? Well, whisky and onion marmalade, obviously. Last...

Family trip to the Scottish Deer Center ... (7 words)General Fun Personal Scottish Deer Center wildlife scotland fife...

I have been meaning to put together a site of Scottish Blogs for ages. I did have a page of Scottish RSS when the format was more obscure. ... (57 words)Angus Internet General Scottish Blogs XML RSS Scotland blogosphere insight...

The Da Vinci Deception - 66/40 - K-House(Link) ''Dan Brown's bestselling book, The DaVinci Code is a real page-turner but constitutes an intentional and very malicious attack on the person of Jesus Christ and Christianity. It has caused much confusion among those inadequately informed about the origins of the Gospels and the history of the early church.'' ... (57 words)Podcast Christian DaVinci Deception Code Christianity Gospel JesusChrist Jesus DanBrown...

I have been making Church websites for just about as long as I have been on the Internet and time was coming round for a refresh for my local church's site. Instead of just tidying up the CSS I wanted to use a new CMS (Plone was a major possibility). ... (182 words)Christian Python Internet Angus Church Website CMS Firedrop video photographs Carnoustie...

IronPython has settled into Codeplex (Link) ''IronPython is the code name of the new Implementation Running on .NET of the Python programming language. It supports an interactive interpreter with fully dynamic compilation.'' It is a while since I have touched it. ... (66 words)Software Python IronPython Python .Net...

Further up the coast is the interesting Montrose Basin and Arbroath Harbour. Sadly the level of detail is still pretty poor (though you can make out the shape) though I am sure Google are working on it. ... (85 words)Internet General Angus Montrose CuttySark Harbour Arbroath Basin Boats...

The reaction to this film has been rather interesting to watch. Some good and some bad. The opportunity to tell the real [1] story has been taken but sadly the existence of the book, game and film has been challenged. ... (178 words)Christian Paul DaVinci Jesus DanBrown Reaction preaching religion christian...

This is rather fun - I won't reveal my score. Lateral Thinking Problems - Preconceptions(Link) ''Lateral thinking problems that challange your preconceptions.'' ... (22 words)Fun Mindhack puzzle lateral thinking...

Michael Ford posted my Bookmarklet for Firedrop to his blog. However it looks like ReST messed it up so here it is (this is a HTML post). ... (49 words)Internet Software Python Blogging FireDrop Bookmarklets...

The latest version of Firedrop2 is out including some code by little ol' me. There's some more interesting stuff coming in future versions. ... (83 words)Firedrop Blogging Blog Offline OSS OpenSource...

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Highlands and Islands | Thieves steal 8ft carpet python(Link) ''Thieves have stolen an 8ft snake from the home of a reptile rescue volunteer in the Highlands.Lorna Watt, 27, was fostering carpet python, Diesel, when it was taken from her flat in South Kessock, Inverness.'' ... (49 words)Python Scotland Highlands Islands Python Snake Kessock Inverness...

aye dot com and all that ajax...