Hi Foxy,

I don't think owning a 'Royal Dalton' dinner set qualifies one as a royalist, however one never knows, for some it might be enough to tip them over the edge.

Must thank ttbn for this most interesting and riveting discussion, what will he think up next? If it wasn't for you and me, us pair he classes as "persona non grata", no one else gave a toss. ttbn pick up your weekly copy of 'No Idea' magazine, its packed full of royaly stuff for you.

Good Morning Paul,

Dad bought our Royal Dalton dinner set for mum.
She was a staunch admirer of the British. She
wanted to live to be 100 so she could get a
letter from the Queen. Mum made it to 96.
Dad on the other hand did not share mum's
feelings about the royals.

Don't joke about the Women's mags. I buy the
Australian Women's Weekly regularly. Mum got me
hooked years ago. Woman's Day as well - I enjoy
the crossword puzzles, and the gossip. - silly, I know.
But there you go.

Hi Foxy,

My wife will buy those women mags, catch up on the royal gossip etc. My Old Man, was strange in that he was a socialists, "Pig Iron' Bob was the enemy of the working class, yet he was pro royalty. Mum was a Catholic, she didn't go that much on the Queen and that sort of thing, must have been a hang over from the days of Henry VIII.

Personally I'm a Republican (not the Donald Trump verity), but I don't knock myself out over the issue. There are many issues far granter and more important that this, although one day Australia will be a republic...maybe.

Hi Paul,

I guess whether we become a Republic or not will
be decided by future generationsa. I think it won't
happen while the Queen is still alive. Australians
are a "weird mob," as Nino Cullota put it. We're a
nation that may be able to distinguish between an
Italian and an Englishman, but many still assume
that people with "foreign names" need an interpreter
to understand English.

We have the Pauline Hanson rant about the imaginary
spectre of foreigners taking over Australia while
she ignores the real problems in our communities -
the unemployment, binge-drinking, gambling, drugs,
homelessness, poverty, domestic violence.
And the spin continues.

Yet she doesn't talk about the little Sudanese child's
distress when asked by an old person, "Why did you come to
Australia and when are you going back?"

It transpires that the half-witted Phd student who tabled the motion to dump the Queen's portrait is an American. Just the sort of foreign student Oxford needs to be more careful about.

Oxford's Chancellor has labelled him and the other ratbags as 'offensive and obnoxiously ignorant'. Rather different from lot who mismanage our universities, who generally keep mum or side with the students.

I'm not an expert on this but it seems that the Unions objections to Japanese imports of iron were not because of the Sino-Japanese War but because the Japanese were fighting Communists. The union objections to Communist Chinese killings were perhaps more muted. "We shall overcome"- indeed.

But the unions seem to have diverged from their traditions.

"The sun will shine without interruption!"