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Australian values — a user’s guide

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I’ve said it many times before. Australia is the best damned country in the world with the exception of some island nations in the Caribbean with some very liberal banking laws.

For all that Australia can be a confusing place, especially for Australians. There are three tiers of government, all pretty much worthless and in various stages of decrepitude shuffling between inertia, chaos all the way along to abject failure. We have a corporate world blagging its way around a laughably cobbled together regulatory system while trying not to snigger too much. There’s a mutant media that routinely crucifies people, more often that not for no apparent good reason and a taxation system that, frankly, I gave up on a long time ago.

Last week the Turnbull government announced a range of changes to the 457 visa scheme and rounded it off with tightening requirements for citizenship. At a presser and then again in an interview with Leigh Sales on the ABC, our Prime Minister, resplendent in an electric blue suit, equivocated in response to what were some fairly mild inquiries on his thoughts on Australian-ness and what he considered might be Australian values.

Full column here.

553 Comments

  • Dismayed says:

    Did any one see mad barnaby’s ridiculous surly teenage school girl pantomime act on Q&A last night? This guy is almost as big an embarrassment to this Nation as trump is to the US, almost. Tanya P made mad barnaby look very silly, well just helped him confirm it that is.

    • Henry Blofeld says:

      I like Barnaby, Dismayed do think he would make a good PM!

    • .Lou oTOD says:

      No I didn’t see your version, you must have been the only person watching it.

      • Dismayed says:

        Like a parachute the mind must be open to work, eyes to cannot see when they are covered by blinkers. You suffer from both. By the way the Mike Walsh is no longer running at midday neither is Ray Martin who followed him you like Barnaby have lost sight of what year it is. .

    • Perentie says:

      I didn’t think that Barnaby made a goose of himself on Q&A. Barnaby is a bit of a goose and he was just being himself last night. There’s a subtle difference.

      But Barnaby tells it like it is. Unfortunately the notion of “telling it like it is” has somehow evolved into simply talking crap in everyday, down to earth language. Barnaby is very good at it, Abbott was OK, Trump is Dux of the school.

      But crap is crap. Kevin Rudd talking about programmatic specificity was crap. Simple or complex, crap is crap.

      • Jean Baptiste says:

        Barnaby is poor on preparation. He doesn’t cover the court for return of service. Sign of someone not used to being contradicted.

      • Dismayed says:

        Perentie, mad Barnaby tells it like he want it to be. Like he thinks it was back in the glory days of the 50’s when apparently the Nation rode on the sheep’s back? Very far removed from reality is his position.

        • Mack the Knife says:

          Tanya P and Barnaby were in agreement. I think your parachute has a huge hole in it.

          • Dismayed says:

            MTK Put down the XXXX and open your eyes. Barnaby was huffing an puffing and sulking and talking about policies that are not even remotely like the ones Labor took to the 2016 election. Tanya was asking “What year are you in Barnaby?” Seriously dinosaur try and keep up.

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    The sheer genius of POTUS Trump revealed even more yesterday, Mr Insider, when he told an interviewer he would be “honoured to meet Kim Jong-un, under the right circumstances” A BIG wow there and the old adage “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” rings true once again. Am sure dear well meaning Mr Baptiste would be choking on his Wheaties as he “digests” this news today! Trump is a real “think outside the square” President, what a man!
    http://tinyurl.com/n7x5csk

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      “Wheaties” ? Maybe that’s your problem Enery, you’re still eating baby food.
      Trump’s winging it, he hasn’t got a clue, the nasty playground bully style that might have worked for him in business, or at least he thinks it did, wont cut it with Kimmie. The Donald is all over the shop like a gymnastic tumbler with diarrhea desperately hoping that his new bestie Mr Xi will get him out of the hole he has dug for himself.
      It would appear that Mr Xi has had a quiet word in The Donald’s ear behind the scenes.
      My man in Washington tells me they are giving Donald a little extra time to demonstrate irrefutably that he is just a floundering blowhard wrong footing himself instead of the “enemy” before replacing him with Pence.

      But happy “goosey dreams” anyway Enery.

      • Henry Blofeld says:

        Magic reply my esteemed Mr Baptiste and I do detect a “weakening” of your stance against Donald. “Floundering blowhard” not really a tough attack on him is it. Imagine if you will, and its on the cards, POTUS Trump walking side by side with his new “Frenemy” Kim Jong-un on the lawns of the White House. I am looking forward to Donald coming to visit us here in Australia possibly later this year, I may dash out in front of his car shouting “run over me Donald”, such is my admiration for him. Cheers dear friend.

        • Jean Baptiste says:

          I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you run out in front of his car shouting “run over me Donald” if you’re wearing nothing but a “Fan Boy Trump Big Hair Toupee.”
          Be cunning Enery, the Secret Service could ventilate you before you clear the gutter.
          Great plan though!

      • Perentie says:

        Yep, China would be ensuring that they’re in control. The chances of Trump phoning me would be greater than him phoning the president of Taiwan again.

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    What do Dictators and Tyrants eat, Mr Insider? We know Adolf “allegedly” loved vegetables, cabbage and the like, but then spent the evening farting wildly and to be a dinner guest of Adolf was not a highly valued invite, sometimes ending in a trip to the Russian Front should one laugh amongst the gas! But others too as this article tells us re a new book “Dictators’ Dinners: The Bad Taste Guide to Entertaining Tyrants”. Gaddafi loved a good Camel Steak and Fidel was partial to Turtle Soup, and so it goes on Tyrant after Tyrant.
    http://tinyurl.com/k8g77do

  • JackSprat says:

    Silicon valley will be the death of us all.
    All those retirees dependent on dividends will be in trouble if Amazon’s ( “The River of no Returns”) business model becomes the norm. It will add a new dimension to “asset rich income poor” as Amazon is not interested in profits – just growth.
    One can understand why traditional retailers are really worried as they are expected to produce a profit.
    Video is well worth watching as it describes Amazon’s methodology.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MOwRTTq1bY

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      My last reply must have taken a wrong turn! What we have here Jack Sprat is the beauty of the evolution of unrestrained capitalism that we all love so much. The trickle up effect becomes the “big suck up”. The Big Club , those with the means employ the brightest and best to figure out new ways to get it all for themselves. If theres money to be had, they’ll get it.
      Fear not, there’s always the safety net of welfare. Oh! Hang on!

      • Carl on the Coast says:

        You envious old bugger, there was no “wrong turn” with your last reply JB, it was to the left as per usual me old mate.

        • Jean Baptiste says:

          No Carl. It disappeared into the ether. But the essence of the suggestion contained therein is extended to you. Twice as long and twice as hard with your head down a rabbit hole, till you get some sense into ya.

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      Enough already with this polarising good debt and bad debt exclusiveness How about a fair go for mildly delinquent debt, rehabilitated criminal debt, disadvantaged debt, asperger’s debt , confused gender debt………………………

    • Dismayed says:

      Good link. JS should get someone to explain the picture charts thingies here and the numbers. He will have trouble understanding because it is opposite to the position he has taken which cannot be changed because to do so would mean he would have to admit he is wrong or just even consider some facts from his “propaganda central”? o my HAHAHA

  • Dismayed says:

    I see the great Australian right wing conservative bashing blaming and shaming the Unemployed goes on apace in the Australian. The coalition having failed the Nation for years want to further shame and blame those doing it the toughest cheered on by the Australian and the conservative freaks in their comments section. Even though all evidence shows Unemployment payment cost have dropped. The governments own figures show 0.6% of Welfare recipients are “gaming” the system and most of those are known to have health and or addiction problems. ( the coalitions answer cut health funding) But since when has the coalition and their disgusting supporters let facts get in the way of a good old bashing blaming and shaming of the those struggling in society?
    (still cant get a dissenting comment published in the Australian right wing fruitcakes only apparently) Oh I see Yvoneetas gets a run over there.
    https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/05/budget-bash-unemployed/

    • JackSprat says:

      Dismayed, when you are up the proverbial creek without a paddle, one has to look at the the areas of highest expenditure and that is welfare.
      The revenue area is pretty well stuffed and falling.
      As a very well paid person in a merchant bank said to me recently, there is a limit to how much one is prepared to pay for lifestyle by staying in Australia. There are penalties everywhere. Take home pay and career opportunities are at the top of the list. So it is useless to expect the 40% who actually pay positive tax to rescue the revenue by paying any more tax because they can work anywhere in the world.
      As to the IMF saying that the budget will be back in balance by 2020 – well we know where they get their info from – Treasury – and we know those guys have been wrong for at least the last 12 years.
      If the clowns who inhabit the major parties ( Labor and Liberal) do not get together and come up with a coherent policy on budget rationalization , it will not matter what is being paid to whom – the kitty will be empty and the IMF will be dictating just how we are going to get out of the budgetary mess that Howard and Rudd started and the deficit chaos that Rudd and Gilliard can take credit for.
      The more I talk to people, the more I get the feeling that they are fed up totally with Canberra on both sides of politics.
      Left wing zealots like your good self are high on the list as one of the reasons for the impasse.
      Hope you enjoy living in a third world country because that is where we are heading if we do not pull together.

      • Dismayed says:

        JS To want to see more people given opportunities without being blamed and shamed by those that live in echo chambers like makes me a “Left wing zealot” ??? You diatribe above has absolutely nothing more than a delusional attack on me. Well done or proving my point. Usual weak effort from you.

        • JackSprat says:

          Maybe not that but all your posts from propaganda central makes you one.
          Or maybe just a mouthpiece.
          I have noticed that your terminology such as “echo chamber” comes into vogue quickly and is used widely.
          Do you ultra lefties get a “word of the month” from propaganda central and are instructed to use it or do you just blindly follow something else?
          Just curious.

          • Dismayed says:

            JS Oh my goodness talk about straws, grasping at etc. Anyone left of the centre right is some sort of “ultra leftie” to you. You are actually Malcolm Roberts aren’t you. You frequent right wing echo chambers, because you do not want to hear anything that would cause you to actually consider new information. I read widely to try and understand why people like you are so scared of the modern progressive world. You and mad Barnaby just don’t want to let go of 1950 do you.

          • JackSprat says:

            How are the Dr Zeuss books these day?

      • Dismayed says:

        JS. Revenue has grown over $100 billion in the last 12 months. You really should get out of the echo chamber you inhabit. Spending has stayed at 26% of GDP or just below for each year of this failed coalition government. Debt has increased over 60% in 3.5 years. Even though revenues have grown each year. Taxation levels have increased. Your coalition have blown it. Way past time to own it.

        • JackSprat says:

          And revenue is at what % of GDP?
          And how much did prior expenditure commitments grow last year?
          And how much were the proposed savings knocked back by Billy and his useless crew.
          I would get out of your “echo chamber” Dismayed – propaganda central is conning you … still

          • Dismayed says:

            Sigh. Tax revenue is 24% of GDP up from 21.8% under Labor. You continue to refuse to acknowledge Swan CUT spending in Real terms in the last 2 Labor budgets and Reduced overall taxation. The 2013 PEFO showed debt was to peak in 2014 at about $250 billion it is now over $100 billion More than that 3 short years later. Do you not understand that the Coalition LIFTED spending back to above GFC Emergency levels it has remained at 26% of GDP. Oh I suppose the Infrastructure spending during the GFC was bad debt but now any infrastructure spending the coalition undertake is good debt?? Get your head out of your arse for a change and take in some oxygen to allow your brain to take in information. I don’t know where propaganda central is apart from the News publications you will only read because it reconfirms your already held bias. Get someone to explain tings to you. You are getting worse than Milton.

          • JackSprat says:

            Dusmayed, you conveniently forget that Labor left in the additional expenditure in the Lib’s first budget, would not pass the cuts and their previous miserable attempt at government left future governments with a whole bucket load of unfunded liabilities.
            Go read Dr Zeuss – it will further your abilities in all sorts of directions.

    • Carl on the Coast says:

      You been chowing down on dried fruit and nuts yourself Dismayed?

      Who da thought a hard working roustabout drill hand would side with dole cheats?

      • Dismayed says:

        Don’t defame me Carl. Dried fruits too high in sugar content nuts every day at least 60g. those of us who are centred and from the sensible centre want to see more opportunities for all those of you that live in echo chambers just want someone to blame.

        • Carl on the Coast says:

          With regard to ‘blame games’ and worn out tag lines, you’re the undisputed supremo on here mate.

          • Dismayed says:

            don’t defame me Carl. You are seriously out of touch with reality. Did you even review the link with data showing spending on various things including a drop in spending on unemployment and continued massive increase in spending on the Old Age pension?

          • Carl on the Coast says:

            Dismayed, re your link, you obviously did not read the bit where the author Van Onselen declares “nothing in-princuple against cracking down on legitmate welfare cheats”. Your over-sensitive reaction to any reasonable comment on your posts appears to indicate you don’t see a problem with those who attempt to fiddle the system, mate. And as for your use of the term “Old Age pension”, it just shows how out of touch you really are.

            Do try and keep up.

    • Uncle Quentin says:

      There are two glaring points that the dole bludger bashers ignore.
      1. There are no jobs and
      2. There are no jobs. I realise that is one point, but it is so glaringly obvious I felt that it should be mentioned twice.
      750,000 job seekers chasing 182,000 jobs, but we are not going to get some honest recognition from the coalition, especially not when their core constituency are the petit bourgeois; small shop keepers, small business types who have to work their arse off just to stay afloat and who hate the idea that anybody may be getting what they regard as free money.
      Just because they are the salt of the earth doesn’t mean that they are aware, open minded, compassionate and intelligent.

      • smoke says:

        KFC need 457’s tho..

      • BASSMAN says:

        jobsongrowthjobsongrowthjobsongrowthjobsongrownjobsongreenrobsongreenwire inthe bloodjobsongrowthgooddebtbaddebtbaddebtgooddebtbadcopgoodcopgoodcopbadcop

      • JackSprat says:

        UQ – I think there might be a damn side more than 750,000 job seekers.

        • BASSMAN says:

          There is 1. the UNDER EMPLOYED. 2.There are those who have given up looking
          Economists say the real unemployment rate is 13%

          • JackSprat says:

            Saw figures the other day showing underemployed is running at 9% and unemployed at 5.8%.
            These figures do not take into account those who have been shoved on some pension or other because they are cannot be retrained.
            By guess it is more like 20%

      • John O'Hagan says:

        Spot on, UQ. Another fact the bashers ignore is that unemployment and sickness benefits combined account for about 7% of the welfare bill. An easy target rather than a rational one.

    • Milton says:

      Geez you must have been livid, or equally florid, when you read about Rudd trying to cut the carers allowance. Fortunately you are a reader of The Australian because you would have had a hard time finding it in the SMH. You’re a one eyed, 1/2 brained, self serving hypocrite. Move along, precious.

    • The Bow-Legged Swantoon says:

      There are long-standing technical issues at The Australian that see comments often culled or dropped out for no apparent reason. As an established “right wing fruitcake” it happens to me often and I have drawn the attention of their techies to it. I had to post a comment six or seven times today before it would “stick”. I’ve seen a thousand comments complaining about the issue from both sides of the fence. Short of a comment being outright defamatory (and sometimes not even then) or obscene I’ve never seen a comment too extreme to get an airing at The Oz.

      Believe me, comrade, you are neither influential nor important enough for the moderators at The Australian to waste their time censoring you.

      • G Wizz says:

        Thanks for that post. I thought the moderators just didn’t like me. I’ve had so many comments vaporize I gave up trying to post, Good to know it’s not just me. There are several G’s Wizz of the same and different spellings posting on the Oz, and I guessed one must be on a ‘do not publish’ list and I was being hit with the backwash. Just another technical a glitch in a world prone to technical glitches. Thank heavens for the twist top stubby bottle.

      • Dismayed says:

        Sigh. comrade is the western and hollywood construct of Tovarich. As usual you are wrong on just about everything. the comments section in the Australian is awhite right wing echo chamber and very few dissenting comments are published when one is many abusive replies are then published. Must be hard going through life with myopia such as yours.

        • The Bow-Legged Swantoon says:

          Honestly, if you think you’re that important, go ahead.

          • Dismayed says:

            Are you “that” important because you post here and over there? Or is it just me daring to post a comment somehow makes me self important? Man seriously your hypocrisy is so ridiculous it would knock you over if you were able to get up off your arse to let your head out for a breath.

          • The Bow-Legged Swantoon says:

            I’ve told you about the technical issues which are real and demonstrable. I have told you that I – and every other regular poster – suffers the same difficulties, no matter their political inclinations. If you think you are a big enough fish for anyone to waste their time trying to censor you, as I said, go for it. I can’t be bothered argung with your delusions of grandeur.

          • Dismayed says:

            When the comments sit there with the “pending” amber light over a period of time then have just disappeared later on it is clear they have been deleted by the moderator. Or when you change the wording slightly it is miraculously posted immediately. What makes you think you are the “oracle” of all things comments section at Newscorp? or do you have an undisclosed interest? All you did was come in here looking to take a cheap shot at me as usual and you have proven it is nothing to do with the comment but all about a pathetic attempt to have ago at me. You do not know all there is to know about comments or what happens to peoples comments. Oh and some of the articles like those from CK are continually censored. Open your eyes man your sheep like devotion is ridiculous.

        • jack says:

          i suppose there could be someone paid by News to weed out our your comments, worried that your arguments will be so persuasive that you will undo all the efforts of the Evil Murdoch Empire.

          i note that an old mate Brian Sanaghan of West Preston seems to get his letters in print with astonishing regularity, in the Australian no less, and i doubt anyone thinks Brian is a Murdoch stooge.

          but then, he has worked out the brevity thing.

          • Jack The Insider says:

            This is true and I know Brian, too.

          • Dismayed says:

            The same half a dozen people get printed in the Adelaide Advertiser every day week in week out and have done for years. Likewise a group of fruitcakes comment on just about every article in the online “the Australian” daily also, there are 2 or 3 regular dissenter’s that get posted and then attacked and abused for daring to hold a different world view to the rabid right wingers. Thus the “echo chamber” the moderators obviously want a certain direction and that is to agree with the articles which more and more are opinion pieces not news pieces with information to inform and for consideration. The “Evil Murdoch Empire” as you put are a political organisation that own media. Always have been always will be.

          • John O'Hagan says:

            Or sometimes brevity is selectively imposed, with interesting effects:

            http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3960480.htm

          • jack says:

            perhaps you need to work out what they do differently to you that gets them published, i am pretty sure that’s what Brian did.

            he always seems to get his point across.

      • BASSMAN says:

        Some of my comments don’t deserve to get up!

        • Dismayed says:

          Here’s to JTI continuing the blog for another couple of decades to allow all sorts of views.

          • BASSMAN says:

            Yes I dnt do other blogs so if I get sacked that’s it for me. Diverse views make up this blog.It is very educational as well. Many lawyers, chemists, professional people for dumb people like me to suck their brains!!

      • Mack the Knife says:

        Happens to me too Swantoonie, I placed a very witty comment to this very article over the wall, bemoaning the death of rhyming slang, written in rhyming slang, with research and it disappeared as soon as I hit the submit button. Very frustrating.

    • Milton says:

      Oh, and if you want to get your dissenting comments published I would recommend you at least come up with some; rather than cut and paste, or post a variation on the same theme as those from your usual group think sources. Most, if not all, of your posts are best described as distending comments, or inflated balls! Other than that you could try basic and coherent English that makes a point through argument.
      And hello, is that the chivalrous Aunty Jean coming to your defence again. Tres embarrassment!

    • Boadicea says:

      “The eternally outraged” the description you give to most here.
      Have you ever considered that it may be an most appropriate label for yourself, Dismayed. ?
      Cheer up. Life could be worse you old misery.

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      Hot diggetty Dismayed. Them good ‘ol boys have gotten themselves up a posse!
      A more gnarly snarly rabble of side saddle ridin’ old cons I never done seen before in my born days.

      Whop it up ’em cowboy. Make ’em take it!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iifoq3VKYW8

      • Dismayed says:

        JB note none of the eternally outraged commenting actually address the point about their constant need to attack those doing it the toughest? Or simply just need to have an enemy to attack? Facts and data are too much for them consider. Give em heaps. HAHAHA.

        • Jean Baptiste says:

          Waal, Dismayed old pal, I happen to have made a study of the whinging tight fisted well off and not so well off conservative demographic. I can happily report that most of them at some level realise they are failures in spite of the happy circumstances and geography of their birth.
          They were born in a time of almost limitless opportunity and if they’d had half the neurons or gogettum of the dazzlingly successful they wouldn’t now be projecting their underachieving bile onto the less fortunate and those who refuse to be or cannot be conformists to their tragic ideology.
          The conservatives posting here excepted of course. HAHAHA.

          But cut some slack for the wannabes and couldabeens Dismayed. For them it is a sad row to hoe.

    • Bill Grieve says:

      Yes, I have to agree with you on this one Dismayed , it’s bash the unemployed time and time again , year after year, and every plan they come up with to recoup their imaginary losers that they believe is going on at Centrelink has been a total failure. Remember , work for the dole program, the unemployed having to apply for so many jobs a month , all the cross checking between the ATO / Centrelink and a Part Time Employer. Well they have hit the pensioners and now it’s back to the unemployed with a new updated plan… You know , I could be that because of staff levels at Centrelink , this might be where the problems lie.

      • Dismayed says:

        Hey Bill “Work for the dole” is still in place costing $600 million a year. For NO benefit in fact it inhibits chances of preparing oneself to become job ready. But as reported last week it is kept in place because it is like political red meat to the rabid right wingers. Imagine how much real training could be provided for that $600 million a year. As I said in the earlier post the government know less than 1% of Newstart recipients are a problem and know most of them have health and addiction problems but blaming and shaming them may drag back a few votes from phony. It is never about the National interest but always about the cons ideology.

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    Possibly a horror Budget on its way, Mr Insider, however Treasurer Scott Morrison is optimistic Australia will keep its coveted AAA credit rating after he hands down his second budget next week. The Welfare Budget a giant that must be looked at carefully. Recently 91,000 well to do retirees taken off the Age Pension and its calls like that that should be applauded imho. Australia’s taxpayers carrying far too many.
    http://tinyurl.com/m9wja2y

    • Bella says:

      Any budget under this cruel government is only ever going to flog the less fortunate and the elderly. If they can snare a welfare recipient or a pensioner who may or may not be getting an extra dollar each week they will lay the boot in & enjoy it, but hey, at least the focus comes off taking a knife to their beloved Negative Gearing. The losers are only going to be first home buyers & the elites put on a show pretending to give a damn whilst their own property portfolios grow & prosper.

      With Morrison now saying the budget is not a “centrepiece” you just know they’re about to spin the shit out of it next week.
      Does anyone anywhere think this lot have even ONE decent idea between their vacuous heads?

  • Rhys Needham says:

    Sorry to read about your diagnosis, Jack. Surely being one of the rare baritone eunuchs might have its benefits, too, but that’s your decision (I don’t know if they’re in as great a demand in the halls of power as they used to be, though, sadly).

    Hope the rest of your quality of life isn’t taking too much of a beating otherwise, and the trouble and strife and bricks and mortars are taking it all as well as can be expected.

    Maybe canards like ‘fighting’ or ‘battling against Cancer’ should be reserved for someone getting stuck out in the wilds of the Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean and having a fight against those crabs there.

    As for me, I’m the kind of idiot who manages to get so tubby, and also so nervous before giving blood I sent my blood pressure almost through the roof to the point where I had to bite the bullet and actually pay to see a doctor. It, at least, dropped 20 points in the space of 24 hours so only one of the figures is a bit iffy (so at least I’m not on tablets at my age).

    As for Australian values, I sort of like how we can seem to muddle through with, often, something like mediocrity to the point where, somehow at the end, we get a half-decent result at the end of it all. Other countries might do one, two, or three things better than us – and we could even learn from them – but probably not in the aggregate.

    Congratulations to Bassman and the missus.

    P.S. Torres Strait Islanders are different ethnically to the Aboriginal population on the mainland (Melanesian like PNG, Fiji, the Solomons, or Vanuatu), so I don’t mind making more work for vexillologists and flagpole makers. Maybe being up here in the Smart State, we see it a lot more often than down in Mexico.

    • Jack The Insider says:

      Onya, Rhys. My BP is always in the fit as a fiddle range, so there is no accounting for it.

    • The Bow-Legged Swantoon says:

      You’ve no excuse to be on pills at your age, Rhys. At a guess I’d say I’m around twenty years older than you and despite frequent and persistent bouts of being over-weight I’ve managed to stay (prescription) drug-free.

      Diet and exercise, son; diet and exercise.

      • Rhys Needham says:

        It’s only the diastolic that’s actually problematic, so I’m pleased about that (it does run in the family, too, however, so I did get myself worried about that).

  • Boadicea says:

    Goodness me, Jack. Did you really tip the Swans over your boys?? Or was it a misguided finger on the mobile keyboard? 🙂

    • Jack The Insider says:

      I must confess I did not back the Blues, Boa. Shameful disloyalty from me. I tipped the Bombers, too and look where that got me.

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