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- SINCLAIR USER COMES UNSTUCK (December 17th, 1988).
-
- Spectrum games mag Sinclair User found itself in trouble with the TV
- show Watchdog and a Tory MP both ticking it off for making a joky
- reference to glue sniffing. The show even rang Sir Clive Sinclair but
- not surprisingly he denied all knowledge of the publication.
- The mag had run a competition for Airfix-style models.
- Contained in the copy was the offending line "just think of all the
- glue fumes you've got an excuse to inhale".
- Although the gag caused something of an uproar, SU says it only
- received four complaints. "it just happened that one of the
- complainants wrote to everyone else," commented editor Graham Taylor.
- "In magazine terms, we put our foot in our mouth. Watchdog treated it
- as 'look at those foolish people' story rather than branding us devils
- from hell," he said. "But we sincerely apologise and we're printing an
- apology in the next issue". But Conservative MP Kenneth Hind was
- infuriated by the comment calling it "a disgrace".
- Asked at whether he was surprised at the uproar Taylor
- commented "the furore is over now and we're putting it behind us. What
- with Roy Orbison dying and Gorby cutting his armaments the story has
- slipped into obscurity".
-