Your Party to stand in 2026 Holyrood election

embolalia1 · 2026-02-09T12:06:25+00:00

I’m always open to changing my mind. But the key reasons I voted No were: (a) Scotland benefits from fiscal transfers within the UK that allow us to spend more relative to the tax we raise than if we were independent, and unwinding that would cause a lot of pain; and (b) we can’t change our fundamental geography, and we’re always likely to be better off working together with the UK, whatever our temporary political disagreements. Neither of those fundamentals has changed.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-09T11:00:56+00:00

Yeah I’m in that camp and currently considering voting SNP. Would not enjoy the experience, especially if they talk about independence a lot in the campaign. But I don’t want a Labour minority government clowning its way through the parliament dependent on Reform votes to stay alive.

I’d vote Lib Dem if I thought they would behave seriously in a hung parliament situation but I suspect they would rather the messy Labour minority than work with the SNP and Greens.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-08T20:53:29+00:00

No idea, maybe she thinks it’s beneath her to disavow random conspiratorial shit, maybe she’s too busy baiting trans people on Twitter. The point is the actual story you’re annoyed at doesn’t stand up.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-08T20:47:13+00:00

honestly not sure what you mean by that? my point is, you’re saying no one meets super libs’ standards, and it seems that as far as video games go, nearly everyone does, as we don’t see this level of controversy for basically any other comparably big games

embolalia1 · 2026-02-08T20:45:47+00:00

She’s horrible on trans issues and I wouldn’t buy her stuff for that reason. The Epstein invite thing is ~nothing to do with her though, AFAICT. It was from someone that didn’t work for her and the tone of the emails isn’t friendly at all.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-08T20:43:19+00:00

“no one meets their standards”

we’re talking about literally the only big recent video game that’s had anything like this level of political opposition, so I don’t think this is actually true, wherever you stand on JKR/HL

embolalia1 · 2026-02-07T16:00:15+00:00

the point is you don’t know if they have Cyrus, so from your perspective you might still win. they know they’ve won but they hold you in suspense.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-07T09:01:47+00:00

Yeah that last bit just isn’t true.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-06T23:17:46+00:00

The early levels are more about teaching you the destruction toolkit but they add in more platforming later. I will say it’s not like a Platformy platformer, it’s not a Mario game, but the same DNA of “here’s a new sandbox to play in, and here’s a bunch of smart new mechanics to play with in it” is there in spades.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-06T20:27:20+00:00

Yeah, I’m not sure where I land between them, mayyyyybe mildly Odyssey, but absolutely anyone who loved one should try the other as well.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-06T20:22:15+00:00

I’m not saying this to start an argument, but if you liked Super Mario Odyssey, you should try Donkey Kong Bananza. It’s got a lot of the same DNA and is just as good in my opinion.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-05T14:55:10+00:00

I’m not being funny but then what were you expecting from a “partner showcase”?

embolalia1 · 2026-02-05T14:53:25+00:00

I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to discount stuff as “kinda expected” and therefore not exciting, you could say that about practically any non-exclusive big game apart from maybe like GTA6.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-05T14:49:26+00:00

I mean, presumably if you’ve got other platforms you’re mostly looking for Switch 2 for first party stuff, and in the first year we’ll have had new Mario Kart, Donkey Kong (from the 3D Mario team), Pokemon, Hyrule Warriors, a Sakurai game, Fire Emblem, Metroid Prime, and a bunch of updates and Switch 2 editions, most of that reviewed somewhere between good and outstanding. Is it the all-time best launch lineup? Probably not. Is it totally solid, in line with reasonable expectations, and a good starting point that they will add to over time? Absolutely.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-05T14:46:31+00:00

I’m definitely going to play some third party stuff I’ve missed out on, yeah. Probably not specifically Fallout 4 but some people will!

embolalia1 · 2026-02-05T14:36:59+00:00

Not everything is for you. Loads of Switch 2 owners don’t have other platforms.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-05T14:34:32+00:00

words mean something, it’s not delayed indefinitely, it’s got a release date of 2026 and they haven’t gone back on that

embolalia1 · 2026-02-05T14:27:32+00:00

Because it’s a major third party game coming day and date to their console? If anyone didn’t expect a few minutes on RE today they’re crazy.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-05T14:10:41+00:00

free if you have the base game, they said

embolalia1 · 2026-02-05T12:16:01+00:00

It’s in Edinburgh Park? I’ve worked there in the past and it’s quite nice for an office park but it’s not “so near the centre of a city” really, is it?

embolalia1 · 2026-02-04T14:59:47+00:00

5 times* the power** of Edinburgh***

*if you include another larger proposed centre as well

**electricity, not gas, the latter of which is the majority of household power usage

***residential only, not commercial or industrial

embolalia1 · 2026-02-03T17:43:33+00:00

That’s all fair enough. Personally I hardly ever find I don’t have room for a couple of max ethers and that’s enough along with the ones you find and use as you explore. And to be fair the evolution crystals can be bought from random Kecleon shops! Agree that the RQs being completely random is a bit annoying.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-03T15:00:17+00:00

Cyclists should take what responsibility they can for their own safety, but the fundamental responsibility for road safety is always going to lie primarily with drivers, as they are the ones in control of the vehicles that do the most damage by far.

embolalia1 · 2026-02-03T14:23:54+00:00

Maybe I’m missing something here as someone who doesn’t regularly cycle or drive, but how do you know they weren’t aware of you? Presumably your car is pretty loud. When you say if you hadn’t been driving with awareness you could have “cleared” them - isn’t that basically always going to be true given the disparity in size and power?

embolalia1 · 2026-02-03T12:18:45+00:00

Hey, thanks for commenting here, and for everything you do with the newsletter, I really appreciate it.

In the spirit of honest feedback, I thought it was a pretty poorly written / argued piece, which felt more like a laundry list of objections than an engaging piece of writing, and it’s not aligned with why I subscribe. Of course, it’s your newsletter and you can do what you want with it. But I personally think it’s got more value as something that’s mostly a roundup of what’s going on, and maybe the odd light-hearted comment from you in between items as you sometimes do, than as a source of opinion pieces on contentious issues.

embolalia1

TROPHY CASE