Dear Hasbeen,

Our PM is Welsh not Irish. And Wales is a country
of poets, singers, actors. Dylan Thomas,
Tom Jones, Richard Burton, Catherine Zeta-Jones,
come to mind. She's in good company.

"""
Wales is a country
of poets, singers, actors.
"""

None of which fill my belly, cure my ills or build my house. Are you describing a country of parasites perhaps?

Can you imagine if all in the world were of such standing, the mess we would be in? Hmm hang on, we are in a mess hmmmm!

< Callithumpian >

Good way to avoid the hard questions with diversionary quotes. Learn that from the welsh parasite did you?

Dear Yabby,

Qantas may not longer be a solely government-owned
airline bit it is bigger than the fickleness of
shareholders and overpaid CEOs.

Whatever led Mr Joyce to ground the whole fleet
without notice, stranding somewhere in the order of
100,000 passengers, he handed foreign airlines a
free pass in the Australian market.

As one author wrote:

"He justifies the export to Singapore of OUR airline
on the grounds that Qantas International operations
are losing money. If he can't make money on international
sectors, whatever makes him think he will do better in a
vastly more competitive market in Singapore?

Anyone who travels from Europe knows that it is relatively
easy enough to travel from a European hub to Singapore and
that it is rather more difficult to get a seat at short
notice from Singapore to Australian destinations, which
suggests a capacity problem for Qantas. And whatever
happened to cross-subsidisation to ensure that the image
of this once great airline - and still one of the few over
the years of the global financial crisis, which has each
year turned a profit - continues to prosper as Australia's
flag carrier?"

As the same author, points out:

"Joyce appears to have not learned the lessons of people
like Frank Lorenzo who killed Eastern Airlines in the
1980s. That case provided another lesson: the unions
were fiercely protective of their airline and resisted
Texas Air Corporation's stripping of Eastern Assets. The
fierce loyalty to the company is not inconsistent with
union members taking protected action to prevent the
dismantlement of Qantas, the loss of Australian's jobs,
and the loss of our air carrier. It is only ideology,
which would prevent Mr Joyce from understanding that."

Qantas has spent millions on hotel accomodation for
stranded travellers and now is going to spend $20 million
to attract past travellers with free flights to boost
the airlines diminishing popularity.

If Joyce would have spent some of those millions to
satisfy the moderate union requests there would have
been no drama with the airline. As I said before -
a typical Irish joke.

Lexi, your new author is as badly informed as the last one.
Joyce is in fact making money in Singapore, Jetstar is based
there and its profits have kept Qantas afloat.

Joyce is not going to shut Qantas Autralia down. He is simply
going to reduce loss making routes and increase those where
profits can be made. All very logical and sensible. If that
means a few less Qantas International flights and a few more
Jetstar flights, so be it.

50 million $ would not have solved anything in terms of this
dispute. Unions want iron clad 3 year guarantees for every
job, something which no CEO can do, in a competitive market.

Its time you found better sources of information.

Ah Welsh, thanks Lexi, is there much difference?

Bet the Welsh are well pleased that we've got her, & they don't have.

The unbridled greed of the few has resulted in great damage to global economies and society.

They say no good deed goes unpunished, and the reverse seems to have happened here. Their bad deeds have been rewarded with bailouts, blame shifting and bonuses.

It makes me sick.

I wonder about the psychology of Australian bulls and property investors in this environment. Do they really think this is a new paradigm where housing bubbles never burst. Reading the spruikers comments below, you'd have to say so.....

http://australianpropertyforum.com/topic/9135957

If these people are still living in such a world of delusion, what hope is there for society. Can the 'Occupy' protests ever change the minds of people who are that sure the bubble is a myth?

Let's hope we can change their outlook. For if we can't, Australia is doomed.