Think about it - 4 CDs’ worth of game takes up a maximum of 2.6Gb of space (bump that to 2.8Gb if we’re talking 700mb expanded CDs, I never checked). Large-capacity Memory Sticks are relatively cheap (though nowhere near as cheap as SD cards - boo hiss to Sony storage formats).

I’m having great fun playing Theme Hospital on my PSP. Being able to play the ‘golden age’ Final Fantasy games on the go (and, perhaps more importantly, with the PSP’s sleep system to avoid savepoint woes), would be absolutely ace.

• “tackle the division and inequality in our society”. I think the 10p tax mess shows that Neo Labour doesn’t give a damn about poverty any more. If the Tories had suggested a slight tax cut for the moderately well off, financed by DOUBLING the tax rate paid by the poorest in society, there would have been uproar.
• “Real rights for citizens”. Yes, Labour passed the Human Rights Act which is a hugely important piece of legislation. Since 2001, however, it has set about trying to violate the human rights of people in this country in a systematic manner. 4 million CCTV cameras (which even the Labour-loving Metropolitan Police says don’t cut crime), police allowed to run amok shooting unarmed civilians, internment of people against whom there isn’t even enough evidence for a charge let alone a conviction. I could go on but I’m straining the limits of what you can legitimately put in one bullet point.
• “Ethical foreign policy”. Yeah - Iraq, Afghanistan, extraordinary rendition. They haven’t so much ripped up this promise as put it through an industrial-grade crosscut shredder.
• “We will not introduce ‘top-up’ fees and have legislated to prevent them”. We all know how that one ended. I’m just glad we now have a Scottish Parliament (one of the few Labour achievements they haven’t managed to undermine yet, though Gordon’s doing his best now that us North Britishers have voted for the Wrong Party) and that Neo Labour are no longer in charge of education in this country. Ask someone in 1945, or even in the days of John Smith, whether the Labour Party would ever stop believing in free education and they’d have thought you’d lost it.

Essentially Neo Labour has become a second Tory Party. Given the choice, people would opt for a party which is honest about its right-wing policies over one which lies and spins at every turn, trying to deceive the public. That’s why fewer than a quarter of people in the UK now identify themselves with the Labour Party, and why a mediocre Tory leader is looking more like winning the next UK election.

Still, I suppose there’s a bright side to this from a nationalist point of view: the SNP’s proposed independence referendum in 2010 would almost certainly be after the next UK election. Every time a Tory government is in power in London, support for independence in Scotland goes up, for fairly obvious reasons.

If there are still those - perhaps among those who took part - who want to argue that participating in a Chinese propaganda exercise does not constitute endorsement of the Chinese regime, then that’s up to them. They wouldn’t have the right to form their own opinion in their beloved China.

For the rest of us, the simple solution is to ignore the 2008 Olympics from now on. Don’t watch any of the TV coverage, or buy any of the merchandise.

The beta itself starts on the 25th of March - there’s no indication as to whether this means the usual Xbox Live launch time of 9am, or 12:01 GMT, or 12:01 Pacific Time, or whatever.

PS: Sorry for the atrocious pun,  couldn’t resist