IBob

Okay...who let the woodturners in? They're like the bluddy bagpipe players: most of 'em need to practice, but you really wish they wouldn't...(

Funny how folk get fixated on gold? Try looking at silver: you get a slab you could use to club to death your bank manager for the same price as your measly ounce of gold.

Yep, there was certainly a good reason he was Premiere for 20years: "Bjelke-Petersen's Country (later National) Party controlled Queensland despite consistently receiving the smallest number of votes out of the state's leading three parties, achieving the result through a notorious system of electoral malapportionment that resulted in rural votes having a greater value than those cast in city electorates."

Hm...now who does that remind us of, currently running for office??????

Yep, the Jo & Flo show. I also heard (though it would bear checking) that he had tarmac road all the way out to his place when all else was dirt. And what sticks in my mind was that, if anyone tried to confront him with any sort of criticism, he simply refused to respond or acknowledge it in any way: he wouldn't even begin to engage, just pushed out the bluster and the party line, insisted black was white, up was down. And the odd thing was that all this, including police corruption, took place against a backdrop of conservative behaviours that saw police roaming secluded beaches, arresting nude bathers, and a bookshop in Brisbane having posters of Michelangelo's David confiscated as full frontal male porn. As for the goings on down at the Gold Coast.... It really was like the wild west, bandit country.

Gutless, yes. Also, at best, frighteningly misguided. Okay, end of rant...(

This is the same Home Secretary who twice appointed inappropriately linked people to head the inquiry into institutional child abuse.

What I am referring to is that the murder took place in London...and the British Home Secretary, Theresa May, refused to hold an inquiry. The widow eventually got this refusal overturned in the high court.

You think you have problems? In the UK they have a Home Secretary who thinks it's okay to brush a murder under the carpet rather than risk uspetting someone important who was probably linked to the murder: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/marina-litvinenko-alexander-murder-inquiry-report How can they be so stupid as not to see what a slippery slope political expediency is???? Yes, I'm cross!!!!!

m...corruption...well, we are talking about human behaviors here, right? And anyone who's been to Oz will have observed there's huge tracts in the middle with not much human behaviour around. In fact, some might argue the same applies to some areas of the cities on some evenings of the week, too...but not me, of course! Still, I reckon the Oz picture is skewed: you'd expect it to be kinda blotchy...like pimples...down the right hand side there???

Depends on how they're doing their sums...after all, if it's PPSM (Porkies Per Square Mile), clearly Oz will have an advantage?

OME, it seems to me that when the going gets difficult, the likelihood of friction and resentment increases: unmarried mothers, the unemployed, immigrants, and so on, readily become suspects in the general dissatisfaction and the hunt for reasons. That happens everywhere, not just Oz. Yes, there will always be bludgers, but they're not the problem, and in my opinion we're missing the bigger picture when we unload our resentments on what is actually quite a small group, and worse still, paint all unmarried mothers, unemployed, immigrants etc with the same brush. Do you remember in the 70s, when we were all wondering what we would do with the extra time and wealth we would soon have due to 'modern technology'. So, what happened, that we now have both Mum and Dad working, and still can't make ends meet? Here's what happened, and this is Oxfam talking: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/18/richest-62-billionaires-wealthy-half-world-population-combined Well, that is my view, or part of it.

Hm...now there's a man thinking outside the cubicle.........

Thank you for your clear and thoughtful reply, OME. Theory is all very well, but these are difficult things in reality, for most of us, and I acknowledge that. It's a pleasure to read someone thinking about such things, rather than just asserting their prejudices. Certainly you are right that I do not live in a metropolitan area, not even in Oz. My interest comes from living in a number of places (including Oz) in my lifetime, and having experienced various degrees of warm and not so warm welcome in the process.

[ATTACH]47841._xfImport[/ATTACH] A devilish cunning device that forces you to fight, tooth and nail...well, okay, nail...for every square, unless the rolls are installed in a counter-rotating fashion. I know...I was there...(

The size of the actual roll is irrelevant over here, now they've invented the dispenser that doesn't...

I'm not quite clear what your position is, OME. Two questions? 1. Are you in general agreement with those items that you quoted. 2. If so, who specifically do you feel is/are not toeing the line on all this? I'm not trying to be a clever b*******, neither am I interested in nitpicking. I'm genuinely wanting to be clear on your point of view here, since you obviously saw some good reasons for starting this thread. Thanks.

Hopefully I have it entirely wrong, and I shall be most obliged to you for boxing my ears if i do....but do you not think all those items, and especially the last bulleted one, should apply equally to the new arrivals AND the less recent arrivals???

I don't think you can assume that, turbo. Although it's certainly interesting that you have. And you're also presupposing that staying 'up' with 'the rest' is the preferred position......no?

Interesting to read the various responses here, OME. My attitude looks to be similar to yours: in my case I think it's an age and generation thing, also very much the 'longhand' styles of communication I prefer (I seem incapable of a short answer). My son created a Facebook account for me, I took myself off after about a year when the inane verbosities and the faux empathising got the better of me. Last year I also ditched my smartphone and went back to my old flip-phone. Maybe I'm living backwards (like Merlin in The Once and Future King) as I am also an automation engineer with excellent legacy customers, while back in '69 I was troubleshooting mainframes for a living. My view? I don't see any 'should' about it. But then I grew up in a diversified world and am resistant to homogenisation. I do count myself as fortunate to have lived a life that began before the computer era, so that I have some of the manual 'old school' skills. But having said that, I find I read the posts of one or two people here with envy: those people who are able to make the 'new' media work for them in their family and personal lives. Much as I dislike 'shoulds'...I'm thinking that I should try again.

Oh, hold on just a mo...I also owe OME an apology for questioning his brief history of the antipodes...which does appear to match up, just depends where you happen to be standing. As for Kiwis, we have watched with horror and embarrassment the propaganda game your ruling folks have been playing, blithely citing NZ as a go ahead sort of place at any point where it suited their aims and policies..........the most recent and obvious being the raising of our PM to near cult status (a position he certainly in no way enjoys here) as a means of casting further aspersions on your own recently departed PM. Believe me, NZ is small and vulnerable and certainly not roaring ahead. It is lucky only if it does not get caught up in the boom and bust of it's neighbours.

Erm well...we should definitely apologise for Joh B-P: he was a Kiwi from some one-hoss north island town, though he denied it...just as he denied everything and anything that didn't suit him...

Well, OME, part of me feels as though I should apologise...but I can give you every assurance thatI had absolutely nothing to do with this state of affairs. Meanwhile, and all levity aside, your reading doesn't quite seem to fit with what has been written down from this end. But it's all water under the bridge now, innit....and a bit early in the year for being quarrelsome...)

Don't listen to any of 'em, SrP: we arrived 2 hours ahead of even the easternmost Ozzies. Though it's widely suggested that we're also 25years behind. So...wait a minute (counts on fingers)... I can confidently report that 1991 arrived in one piece with an interesting whizzing noise, then the sun came up, and the tide went out and we set to scorching the snarlers...