By Siobhan Courtney

Welcome to The Buzz, our weekly round up of how the stories we report are being talked about in the blogosphere, twitterverse and other social media.

The ongoing row over the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi dominated Newsnight's coverage, not only at the end of last week but also this week when Scottish First Minister Alex Sammond backed Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill's decision to release Megrahi.

There was jubilance and Saltires as Megrahi arrived in Libya

Thousands have joined over 35 groups on Facebook disgusted over his release.

The Grumpy Spindoctor blog - obviously after watching Newsnight - says this is a tipping point for the Scottish National Party government.

Vanity Fair's article, How the Lockerbie Bomber Got Away With It starts by saying "the Brits are in a mess" - a sentiment which continues throughout.

On the Pie and Bovril Message boards, a strong debate got underway, with one poster, renton commenting that Gavin Esler gave Macaskill a rough time on Newsnight.

However, renton wasn't as generous towards Kirsty Wark, saying she was sycophantic in her interview with former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton.

So, this week's big question is... why did Prime Minister Gordon Brown stay so quiet over the release for so long?

Right to Common Sense blogs commented on Mr Brown appearing - but only to write a letter to the Ashes team.

In his post Andrew Nutt dubbed Mr Brown's silence "cowardly".

However, Federal Union thinks Mr Brown intervening would open up a bigger political issue that would do him even more harm.

Well, Mr Brown eventually spoke up, saying that he was repulsed by the welcome given to the Lockerbie bomber. However, he still has not commented on the decision to release Megrahi.

And let us not forget how this is going to affect the "Special Relationship", as thousands of posters debated on the BBC's Have Your Say message boards.

The blogosphere is buzzing with tributes to Senator Edward "Teddy" Kennedy, who died, aged 77, following a battle with a brain tumour.

Alas, one blog says, in many ways Ted Kennedy was the most consequential of all the Kennedy brothers.

Monkey Mind kept it short, with his precise, but to the point tribute. And staying on the subject of Monkey blogs, ScaredMonkeys sources a number of US publications in their blog titled The Liberal Lion of the Senate.

Scouring the blogosphere, it is interesting to note that Kennedy is talked about everywhere, not just on sites falling under the political umbrella.

The Outfit talks about Kennedy's fight for a better nation, comparing and contrasting the qualities of Ted, to that of his father Joe.

I liked VivirLatino's post, where they highlighted Kennedy's advocating of many issues for so many of us, including immigration.

WSJ's blog talks about his health care legacy - for balance check out the comments posted underneath.

Withintheblackcommunity talks about his impact upon the black cultural consciousness and the damage there in.

Is Labour's record on education, something it can be proud of?

An opinion poll conducted for Newsnight suggests that over 60% of people in England think Labour has not delivered on education.

Another bumper year for students getting their GCSE results

And as students celebrated yet another record year for GCSE exam results the annual question of "How useful are they?" is being raised.

Constantly Furious's post could not be any clearer on that question.

The Orange Party claim "pupils are paying the price as pawns in a GCSE numbers game to prop up a government charade".

Phrankly Speakin seems to agree with the Newsnight poll and says "the education system is slowly failing us all by becoming obsolete".

But at least someone is behind Labour. Mr Eugenides is impressed, but then again, maybe not....

And finally, for all teenagers, the most important dilemma of all - if you have failed your results, how do you share that on Facebook?

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version