Humza Yousaf didn’t turn up to the count tonight. In the end, even on a dreadfully low turnout of 37%, Labour won by 9,446 votes, with more than twice as many as the SNP.
It was a much worse defeat for the governing party than most expected. There should be only one outcome.
We were curious to find out what we’d said, but it seems to have been expunged from The National’s website. We eventually managed to track the email down in our vaults, though, so just as a bit of a change, here it is, as a reminder of a different time.
The greatest intellectual weakness of the independence movement is its attitude towards Trident, and trying to reason with people about it (whether readers or other independence activists) is consistently one of the most frustrating aspects of writing Wings, because nuclear disarmers and Unionists are equally impervious to logic on the subject.
The UK’s nuclear “deterrent” – or as it was more accurately and memorably described by the former Vulcan nuclear bomber squadron commander Air Commodore Alastair Mackie, “a virility symbol, like a stick-on hairy chest” – is the greatest gift to a future Scottish independence negotiating team imaginable.
The rest of the UK gets a lot of economic and infrastructural benefits from Scotland, like water and energy, but ultimately it’s not massively bothered about those. Water is not yet a critical area and energy can be sourced elsewhere, and in any event Brexit shows us that the UK is more than willing to do itself enormous harm in the service of ideological political goals.
Obviously stuff has continued to happen on the Speccy scene since then, so it’s now, in some senses, not quite so definitive. Or at least it wasn’t, until I updated it, which I’ve just done, so now it is again. Of it. Or something.
(I appear to have a debilitating compulsion to write top 100s for no very good reason. There’s also this one, and I’m currently working on yet another as a distraction from the wretched state of politics, so fans of subjectively-numbered lists of extremely old videogames should definitely stay tuned.)
I also wanted to have it all in one post rather than five, so now if you want to see the videos of the original arcade games you’ll have to click the titles of each entry – only the Speccy videos are embedded within the article, so the page SHOULD now actually load up without falling over.
There are loads of new entries, a few position adjustments – don’t get TOO excited, Bomb Jack fans – and a bit of general tidying, but I haven’t rewritten the entire thing because it’s 33,000 words and I’m not a lunatic, although those two facts are mostly unrelated. So if you haven’t seen it before, go and get a cup of tea and some biscuits, because this might take a while.
Holiday Boy is sadly incapacitated today – ironically, having injured himself on his last holiday – but fortunately we do have some graphical content for you, having just been leaked this copy of the SNP’s campaign poster for the next general election.
You can almost smell the mince and carrots, can’t you?
The Spectrum community is arguably more on top of the machine’s history than any other in the world of gaming, so it’s always quite noteworthy when something and/or someone escapes its notice entirely. And so it is with Lukasz Kur.
The screenshot above is of a game called a_e Adventure, or sometimes a_e in King Chrum’s Gold Mines. (According to Kur the character’s name represents “a portion of a forum member’s user name which inadvertantly looked like an emoticon of sorts – a little face with asymetrical eyes.”)
Last night a by-election hustings was held in Rutherglen to which all 14 candidates were invited to hear and answer questions from the electorate on women’s issues. The SNP, Labour, Green and Lib Dem candidates all declined to attend. But the SNP, at least, was represented at the event.
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh on The Gender Of Mountains: “WATCHDOG EXPOSES POLICE SCOTLAND SHORTCOMINGS OVER MSP ‘HATE CRIME’ COMPLAINT « Police Scotland failed to adequately handle an MSP’s complaints over…” Apr 4, 22:45
Jay on The Gender Of Mountains: “Why pay so much attention to posts whose main feature is total lack of ethical consistency? Mind you, various other…” Apr 4, 20:59
Alf Baird on The Gender Of Mountains: “Swinney is claiming Trump’s tariffs will damage Scotland’s GDP but fails to understand that colonial rule is already costing Scotland…” Apr 4, 19:58
twathater on The Gender Of Mountains: “Lead Gunn Barrat’s post on her Dear Scotland site indicates that America has 750 military bases in 80 countries around…” Apr 4, 18:33
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “First mention of the ‘g’ word, Jenny side, for this week, goes to MAI. Very well done. Fascinating to think…” Apr 4, 18:12
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a town surpasses, For honest men and bonnie lasses. I had a squint at the lady…” Apr 4, 17:45
Aidan on The Gender Of Mountains: “That’s assuming everyone who has signed the petition is a Scottish resident with an entitlement to vote, and hasn’t signed…” Apr 4, 17:07
Mark Beggan on The Gender Of Mountains: “Do you know what a palmist once said to me?” Apr 4, 16:48
Andy Ellis on The Gender Of Mountains: “Yeah, the yoons will be fair shitting themselves that 0.1% of the over 16 voting age population have (consults notes)…..singned…” Apr 4, 16:47
Mia on The Gender Of Mountains: ““First Minister John Swinney is set to champion Scottish trade during the annual Tartan Week celebrations in New York, urging…” Apr 4, 14:55
Mia on The Gender Of Mountains: ““In what universe is preparing to protect yourself against a vicious, domineering, bullying, brutal, violent oaf regarded as “aggression”.” The…” Apr 4, 14:37
Mark Beggan on The Gender Of Mountains: “No no not at all. You can take the girls out of Ayrshire but ye canny take Ayrshire out of…” Apr 4, 14:18
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “We’re all doomed. Doomed, I tell you. There is nothing left for us, but to work till we drop. Look…” Apr 4, 14:16
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “The conclusion is inescapable. The poor woman’s been “colonised”. Is it the generic English making her behave like that, or…” Apr 4, 14:11
Marie on The Gender Of Mountains: “It’s as though our politicians are having their strings pulled by powerful people who live in other nation states entirely.…” Apr 4, 13:49
sarah on The Gender Of Mountains: “Thank you for posting the link, IB – I hoped someone would!” Apr 4, 13:30
Mark Beggan on The Gender Of Mountains: “It’s official Mother Nature is homophobic.” Apr 4, 13:30
Confused on The Gender Of Mountains: “stuck indoors, waiting for some workmen to show up … nothing much in the wasteland wings has become check this…” Apr 4, 13:28
Ian Brotherhood on The Gender Of Mountains: “@Sarah (12.37) Thanks for reminder. Have signed and tweeted link. (Currently has 6,430 signatures) petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE2135” Apr 4, 13:01
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “This is powerful and enlightening stuff, MAI. But inevitably, some of the readers are going to be struggling to keep…” Apr 4, 12:49
Hatey McHateface on The Gender Of Mountains: “Mind and get your funeral plan paid up. You’ll be needing that (perhaps more accurately, your relatives will) long before…” Apr 4, 12:38
sarah on The Gender Of Mountains: “Let’s do what we CAN do. There are so many things that worry us and which we can do nothing…” Apr 4, 12:37
diabloandco on The Gender Of Mountains: “Sven , thanks for that – not a lot I can boycott by the looks of it! I’ll just have…” Apr 4, 12:04
Mia on The Gender Of Mountains: “A lot of smoke coming from the US new tariffs. Isn’t that rather convenient? Meanwhile, the deeds of the pathetic…” Apr 4, 11:05
Sven on The Gender Of Mountains: “diabloand co @ 09.12. In 2023, the latest figures I’ve viewed; Machinery and Transport Equipment 19.9 Billion pounds. Fuel 18.7…” Apr 4, 10:18
diabloandco on The Gender Of Mountains: “Could someone tell me what exactly we import from the USA other than Ford and Harley Davidsons? I need to…” Apr 4, 09:12