So Capn Cook didn’t discover owt – he just mapped it. And Oz was conquered, not colonised. Mind you don’t offend any sensitivities then by suggesting England had any positive role in the history of Downunder.
Or is that a term no longer acceptable to the new NSW academics?
Statistics don’t lie, do they? The higher the batting average the better the player. Top of the list of Test cricket’s batting averages is Andy Ganteaume. The Trinidadian played one test for the West Indies v England in 1948 and scored 112. The politics at the time prevented him playing any more tests so his average remains the best.
Andy joked he was a “one cap wonder” and kept his feelings to himself until 59 years later he complained bitterly about “the establishment” in his autobiography, My Story, The Other Side of the Coin. He died on February 17, 2016 aged 95.
Not better than Bradman, of course, but it’s better to be a one cap wonder or a one hit wonder or a one day wonder than being no wonder at all. Well played, Andy.
The anti-colonial era is over! There is a new pride in belonging to the British worldwide club – which rejects the demands of envious foreign cultures.
NZ has voted to retain its union-jacked flag!
Look on, you outmoded defectors – and weep.
Without webhelp, which publication uses this headline today?
‘Beware the IDS of March, Duncan Smith quits…’
No clues.
If the UK votes for Brexit, the SNP will try to defect again. And I can see why! The UK is tired of filling their begging bowl and the defectors need to look for another source of bail-outs. The EU of course is the prime candidate, with a long history of supporting lost causes with other people’s cash.
The fact is: good riddance to bad SNP rubbish! If only the silent Scottish majority would get vocal NOW, rather than when push comes to shove.
They’re ‘immoral’ – so she’ll bag Trident, with moral support from Jeremy. So what in my day was known as a deterrent will be left to the eight (known) ‘players’: USA, Russia, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and N Korea.
Should we draw in our horns then? Accept our role as a has-been bystander in world affairs? Rely on our friends (!) to deter the rest?
Answers please to Janus’s Bunker, somewhere too close to the Baltic Sea.
The board game for budding entrepreneurs, Monopoly, is available in numerous different varieties as is the less expensive card game, Top Trumps. The trouble with Trumps is that sooner rather than later all the players remember the data on each card and the game can become boring. Dealt the right hand it is simply a procession to become Top Trump. Some households on seeing the nature of Trumps have banned it from their leisure time.
But the Trump card lives on effortlessly, in cruise control, master of its domain and seeking out new pastures. It could be all wind farm at the end of the day but the real worry is if it took over the world. Where would we be then?
Pope: If you build walls, you’re not a Christian. It’s not in the Gospel.
Trump: If ISIS attacks the Vatican, he’ll wish I were President. How dare he say I’m not a Christian?
But building a better wall around the Vatican, manned by Trump’s Troops, would prove Trump’s Christianity. Would it, Pope mate? Naeh, that’s different. Blessed are the peace-makers – especially meek ones, allegedly.
The Chariot seems recently to have become obsessed with the politics of failure. The UK, the EUSSR, the slimmed-down USSR and the USA (which should be discreetly sectioned for its own safety) are all failing or already failed, yet they are an almost inevitable topic of debate on these pages. Thanks for some cuddly canine relief, Araminta.
Now I realise that many of you have been blinkered by your local media, but please broaden your horizons a smidgen. The only region of the globe that is currently a rapidly growing economic powerhouse is the Asia-Pacific. China may be taking a slight breather right now, but it’s a big bugger and getting bigger and better all the time. Have you looked at India recently? Getting ready to overtake China in most KPIs India is – goodness gracious me!
Indonesia has begun to drag itself up by its bootstraps, and as a result is on the verge of joining the big-boy’s club. Many smaller nations in the region are also doing their best to achieve economic take-off while they watch, possibly with a sprinkling of schadenfreude, the old failures in the West bickering about nothing and doing less.
Where stands Australia in all this?
Very comfortably, thank you. We survived the GFC better than any other nation, we have a wealth of goods and services for sale (at sensible prices) and we’ve lately developed the knack of being the guy who sets up and brings to fruition several very large, very popular trade agreements.
We don’t try to bully other nations – we can’t, they’re bigger than us – we’ve stopped lecturing them about how they should become more Western and are making it clear that we now see ourselves as Asian-Pacific folks.
We have a foreign minister with the ability to take the UN by the scruff of the neck and make it do things in days rather than years. And she does it with a smile that has even elected dictators wriggling with delight. Julie Bishop, for the temporarily bewildered. I shan’t post a piccie lest you guys have instant conniptions.
OK, Austrayia has its problems, we’re not perfect. But we’re not far off, and we look forwards, not back. Have a squiz at some Aussie media and see for yourselves.
In out, in out, shake it all about!
Boadicea's Chariot 
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