Hello again

[Kowalski]

Like warmleatherette has said Oz is very expensive for a lot of things.

When I went to Oz it was $2.5 to the pound so that made their minimum wage similar to ours, currency fluctuations now make $15 sound a lot.

[Hillman avenger]

Did you ask the Australians why they hadn't set up a Freedom of Movement agreement with Indonesia and the Philippines.

No
Perhaps because they have not created a common market with those countries. Freedom of movement is a feature of an open market not an end in itself.
Thanks to all for the welcome.
Oh and by the way always thought champagne was over-rated.

Why haven't they set up a common market with them and how do they prosper without one, It's very odd.

Simple enough.
Little in common economically, culturally or politically.
Few opportunities for synergy or economies of scale.
Australia's main SEA partners are China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.
No history of war between them.

[Hillman avenger]

Like warmleatherette has said Oz is very expensive for a lot of things.

When I went to Oz it was $2.5 to the pound so that made their minimum wage similar to ours, currency fluctuations now make $15 sound a lot.

True.
Everything except food.
They greatly regret following our example and privatising energy supply.

[Zambo]

Yes
Did that.
Cairns area a bit sweaty.

I got in touch with a couple of old school friends, one in Brisbane and one in Melbourne. Also have a niece in Sydney, so that helped with the accommodation. Stayed in Burleigh Heads as well and was going to drive from Brisbane to Sydney and stop off in Coffs Harbour but bush fires had closed the Pacific. Didn't do Perth, Adelaide Ayers or Darwin so that's on the agenda. We just went to the local travel agents and gave them our itinerary, and said book us some excursions. Worked well. I'd recommend anyone to drive the Great Ocean Rd.

[Hillman avenger]

I hesitate to start on you till you've enjoyed the big bowl of scouse you've had boiling away since before you left and a good sleep, but did you miss these people. Must say it somewhat rebuts your impression that Australians are against Brexit " to a man".
Is it possible that they couldn't understand your accent and they assumed you were talking about football or something ?

And all that niceness didn't last long, did it?
Of course their politicians are making the most of what we have done. But during the referendum campaign, the PMs of Canada, Australia and New Zealand all said we would be wise to Remain. I remember well how their interventions were greeted here.
It simply underlines the futility of believing that somehow the Commonwealth will spring back into life. It won't.

[Royal24s]

I hesitate to start on you till you've enjoyed the big bowl of scouse you've had boiling away since before you left and a good sleep, but did you miss these people. Must say it somewhat rebuts your impression that Australians are against Brexit " to a man".
Is it possible that they couldn't understand your accent and they assumed you were talking about football or something ?

And all that niceness didn't last long, did it?
Of course their politicians are making the most of what we have done. But during the referendum campaign, the PMs of Canada, Australia and New Zealand all said we would be wise to Remain. I remember well how their interventions were greeted here.
It simply underlines the futility of believing that somehow the Commonwealth will spring back into life. It won't.

Yes it did. Niceness lasts forever - it's one of the few things which does.
We all love to play silly buggers here but there's no malice in it. I really was a bit worried about you because obviously there's a real person behind the chat room facade and over a few years of exchanging words it seems as if you KNOW some people . Of course you don't , but you are aware that a human being lurks behind the forum character and that human being is subject to all the perils of the real world.
Now, it's probably some form of Stockholm syndrome, but I'd be very genuinely concerned if you had a problem which I could not do anything about and I promise you that I would never wish you anything but well in your life and affairs.
Anyway, that having been said, can we get on with acting like a big pair of twats in here
now ? Incidentally, you will note that for the purposes of brevity here I have assumed that people from Liverpool are actually human, which is of course a controversial view.

[Sid Pervcat]

I have assumed that people from Liverpool are actually human, which is of course a controversial view.

I have assumed you are a cunt.Which is of course the correct view.

[Hillman avenger]

A few other observations.

They simply do not have the famous Aussie lager, Fosters.That connection is entirely fabricated.
Although they DO have alternative sources of tasteless fizzy beer.

The deal re refugees Trump was so upset about...small detail..US got in return access to Northern Territories to establish operations.Perhaps he didn't understand that. To be fair, he hadn't realised Puerto Rico's connection to the US either.

Big guilt trip about the Aborigines...as a result in recent times they have been showered with money. But so excluded from normal society what they frequently do with that money is drink. From what I could see the guilt was justified.

Serious Aussie political commentator observed that the White House is now effectively bypassed in US governance, with the scary exception of the military.

[Roy Twing]

Big guilt trip about the Aborigines...as a result in recent times they have been showered with money. But so excluded from normal society what they frequently do with that money is drink. From what I could see the guilt was justified.

If true, sounds like the aussies have somehow become afflicted with the same cancer of hand-wringing liberal guilt-trippers which has effectively destroyed this country.

[Royal24s]

I have assumed that people from Liverpool are actually human, which is of course a controversial view.

I have assumed you are a cunt.Which is of course the correct view.

Well again, this is a controversial point. It's certainly been said before, so there may well be something in it.

[Royal24s]

A few other observations.

They simply do not have the famous Aussie lager, Fosters.That connection is entirely fabricated.
Although they DO have alternative sources of tasteless fizzy beer.

The deal re refugees Trump was so upset about...small detail..US got in return access to Northern Territories to establish operations.Perhaps he didn't understand that. To be fair, he hadn't realised Puerto Rico's connection to the US either.

Big guilt trip about the Aborigines...as a result in recent times they have been showered with money. But so excluded from normal society what they frequently do with that money is drink. From what I could see the guilt was justified.

Serious Aussie political commentator observed that the White House is now effectively bypassed in US governance, with the scary exception of the military.

I expect you could find people with a wide variety of opinions just like anywhere else Hillman. I know I met a lot of people there in the top end who took a less charitable view of the "bungs" as they called them , but just like anywhere else political correctness is probably rife in the chattering classes there.
It is true that they're usually pissed out of their brains in fairness and I don't think anyone today needs to feel guilty about whatever happened to their ancestors . Actually a lot of their own ancestors got transported there to live or die in fucking horrible conditions for some minor crime, but I don't feel guilty about that.

[Royal24s]

Actually, did you see the way their ancestors have criminally damaged beautiful caves and geological features with their childish drawings and graffiti ? I bet they don't feel guilty about that and it wouldn't be fair to take it out on them now.

[Royal24s]

L

[Kowalski]

The Aussies should have encouraged the Aborigines to set up businesses such as casinos like the US did with the Native Americans.

Just showering them with cash to drink themselves to death with is helping no-one.

[Hillman avenger]

I believe the reason that native Indians are involved in casinos (and, strangely, fireworks) is that in some states where casinos are not legal, they hired legal bods who found that under the terms on which they moved to their reservations they were entitled to an exception to those laws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_gaming
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/n ... ny-tribes/
So they were not encouraged to do this, but overcame opposition.