[Bones McCoy]

And a brain drain to Blighty from noted intellectuals like Clive James, Germaine Greer and Nick Knowles.

A pity about Rolf Harris.

[Youngian]

A lot of muppets playing slots appears to fuel Australia’s runaway top billing. Pleasantly surprised to see Britain low down, perhaps we don’t need Rishi’s maths lessons.

[Spoonman]

There's been an issue for some years now concerning the proliferation of "Pokies" aka poker machines in Australia towards crippling gambling addictions. However tackling this hasn't been simple, as an awful lot of the Pokies are found in local RSL clubs and are a significant source of money for a them (outside of NSW branches). It's a bit like the Royal British Legion having a commercial arm that gets a large income through gambling.

Anecdotally I remember growing up in the 80's through to the 00's with every local pub here having at least one poker machine on premises, often several, but they've mostly disappeared these days with maybe one machine in a larger pub or having to visit the nearest bingo hall. Looking at the figure for Ireland in that graph, the amounts lost to online gambling is concerning and would tally with it's popularity on both sides of the border in my experience.

Finally, I note Singapore there between Oz & Ireland. I remember John Oliver a few years ago reporting on an anti-gambling campaign the Singapore government ran in 2014 that kind of backfired. It featured an ad of schoolboys talking about who they think will win the World Cup with one boy saying that he hopes Germany win it if only because his dad has bet all his money on them. Well, guess who won?

Edit: Found the clip...

[MisterMuncher]

I was remarking earlier elsewhere that it's shockingly easy to set up online gambling, even relative to the most innocuous of things. I actually found it more of a game of arseholes to set up an account on the children's Nintendo Switch for parental controls than to sign up with any bookie.

It wouldn't take much to insert a mandatory "pain in the fucking hoop" step into online bookie registration, and I think it would go a surprisingly long way to curtail it's use. Possibly a page of KS3/4 level probability problems. Insert that "Shit, I fucking hate going into this miserable pit" factor from a real bookies into cyberspace.

(Also, the Australian slang of "Plumber's Laptop" for said pokies is nasty, horrible, fucking hilarious turn of phrase)

[Youngian]

Looking at how low betting makes up the gambling total is quite a wake up call. I’ve only ever gambled in a casino or at the races as they are fun social activities. Not only that but there are opportunities for skilled input in card games, knowing about horses and turf or spread betting on odds. Even if you’re crap you’ve had a good day.

[Spoonman]

The Voice: Australians vote No in historic referendum

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-67110193

[Tubby Isaacs]

Seems very bad. The No side told a ton of racist lies, then when called out on them, said people were calling the voters "racist". Nice trick that.

[Tubby Isaacs]

High quality stuff here. Senator Price is in the actual Shadow Cabinet. She's an inigenous Australian who spouts pure Trump.

Q: Senator Price, could I clarify something. Prime minister Albanese said earlier tonight that Lockhart River, Mornington Island, Palm Island, those communities, which are majority Indigenous booths had overwhelmingly voted yes. Contrarily you made the point that the majority of Indigenous Australians had voted no. Could I just clarify, what is your expectation on the remote booths in the Northern Territory, the territory you represent, will they be a majority of yes or no vote?

Price: It will be interesting to see. One thing we do know is the way in which Indigenous people in remote communities are exploited for the purpose of somebody else’s agenda. I think we probably need to look at the way the AEC, the NTEC, conduct themselves when it comes to remote polling at elections, at referendums. I think we should take away those who come in with their how to votes, unions that come in and overpower vulnerable Aboriginal communities. There is a lot that goes on in remote communities that the rest of Australia doesn’t get to see. If we had cameras in those remote communities, at those polling booths, Australia would see what goes on in within those communities. There’s a lot of manipulation.

[Youngian]

Seems very bad. The No side told a ton of racist lies, then when called out on them, said people were calling the voters "racist". Nice trick that.

Were they ‘legitimate concerns?’

[Tubby Isaacs]

Dividing people by race is bad, said people who do that all the time.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The No voters in here are not an impressive bunch.

https://amp.smh.com.au/politics/federal ... 5eb5x.html

Best one is “who next? the Chinese?”

Followed by “corporations supported it so must be about making money”

And the obligatory leftist who voted No because they want something that goes further.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Didn't know this.

Patriotic Australian Sky News has been after Pat Cummins. Big Pat spends so much time on woke leftism that he's a terrible failure in his day job (captained Australia to the Ashes and World Cup, and current world number 3 test bowler).

Brains Trust BTL are great. One says another cricketer (Adam Zampa) who has spoken about sustainability is a hypocrite because he uses a cricket bat.

[Bones McCoy]

Cricket bats are carved from sustainably farmed willow.

The clue lies in still having cricket bats, when India has more of them than America has firearms.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

You try stopping willow from growing...

[Bones McCoy]

You try stopping willow from growing...

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

But you try telling that to the eucalyptus munchers.

[The Weeping Angel]

Some good news from down under

[Tubby Isaacs]

Up to 83.

Strikes me though that the Starmer performance is even worse than it looked. Dutton and Pierre Pumpy Pants were merely Trump like, as far as I know. Farage is putting himself forward as a mate of Trump’s, who’s done the full on Putin apologism. He really ought not to have wiped out Labour in Durham or won in Runcorn.

[Youngian]

Aussie Tories (Liberals) already did the hard yards on refugee boat arrivals and sorted the problem whereas the British Tory legacy handed onto Labour is near economic stagnation.

[The Weeping Angel]

Up to 83.

Strikes me though that the Starmer performance is even worse than it looked. Dutton and Pierre Pumpy Pants were merely Trump like, as far as I know. Farage is putting himself forward as a mate of Trump’s, who’s done the full on Putin apologism. He really ought not to have wiped out Labour in Durham or won in Runcorn.

The argument is that Starmer should have told people this and gone in more forcefully on this issue.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I see that the Australian Government turns back boats. I assume that's via some sort of deal where they pay Papua New Guinea or whoever to let them going into their waters and do it. By contrast, a refugee advocate, Daniel Sohege, on Bluesky was saying that Yvette Cooper agreeing a deal with the French to intercept people as they were setting out was unthinkably dangerous. Probably less dangerous than crossing the channel though, to which he'd safe "safe routes", I suppose.