Caron's Corkers - 4th September

It's been a wee while since I've done one of these round ups of good blog posts I've read, and this one is primarily going to welcome some new blogs onto the scene.

First of all, I hope that the transfer window for Scottish bloggers is now closed and we won't be seeing any more of our number moving away for the time being. The last star blogger to leave these shores has now helped set up the Liberal Democrats in Northern Ireland blog. Stephen has blogged passionately about the refusal of the Government to sign the latest EU Human Trafficking Directive. It's something our Liberal Democrat ministers must fight to rectify within the Coalition.

Secondly, Malc, Jeff and James have found greener grass over at their new team blog, Better Nation. This will be a place where we'll find an essential optimism, an anoraky obsession with politics, and a particular interest in the nation of Scotland – as it has been, as it stands now, and its future prospects. They've all promised to do the dark arts of petty politicsl stuff on their own blogs. They are off to a flying start this week with a series of excellent posts including this one on compulsory voting.

Moving to the rest of the blogosphere, Morgan highlights how formula companies are targetting newly trained midwives with offers of help. My advice to any newly trained midwife - head here or here if you need help with offering support to new mothers, not to an organisation which has a clear commercial interest in the subject.

Sara has a thought provoking article on the cost-effectiveness of drugs like Avastin. My key question on this is how on earth do you make a judgement based on each individual person's needs while keeping it fair. There are cases where even a few extra weeks could make the difference between, say a child remembering a parent and not doing so. Where do we draw the line?

Charlotte Gore is letting the train take the strain in the States. Looks like she's adding travel writing to her many talents. Keep 'em coming....

And Jennie analyses how arguments are often won.