Absolutely !, thanks 3410. In fact probably Derek and Clive Live.

"Get out the Cab !, get out of the bleedin Cab !".

"I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr Hastings".

Ooooweeee ! That sounds very much like the title I've been trying to remember for years and years. Wayyyyy back in the early 80s, when in't 7th Form, I had a 'free period' (as we called it in those days, no double…

The Dagenham Dialogues
by Peter Cook & Dudley Moore

Someone in my family is a big collector of anything Pete & Dud. Would appreciate a warning, if possible, and I'll try to bid for it.

Ahh, the shorty nightie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR2o2YYqEck&feature=related

speaking of middle class...
whatever happened to The Las?

Didn't the split after the mixing of this bloody fantastic debut album pissed them off... I thought they all joined other britpop bands.

Thanks for this though, it's been years...

Someone will be screwing on top of the coats in the spare bedroom

You'll always find me hiding under the coats at parties.
;-$

Thanks ALAC, if you think my parties are boring I won't ask you to the next one.

Indeed — anyway, if you're running a good party, you don't need to plan activities. Someone will be screwing on top of the coats in the spare bedroom as a fist fight breaks…

Not only ... but also.

one of my treasured possessions
(sadly, soon to go on TradeMe)
is/was an autographed copy of
The Dagenham Dialogues
by Peter Cook & Dudley Moore

Keep an eye…

Not only ... but also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQAwj5fzj58

I really do love the middle class.

speaking of middle class...
whatever happened to The Las?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX9TDQcCyVE

I've put the middle of classes behind me, though...

Let me assure you I really do love the middle class. Of all the classes, it's one of my very favourites.
In fact, some of your best friends are middle class? :)

Well they were when we meet in high school.
Now tho'.....they seem upper middle class, but are always…

Let me assure you I really do love the middle class. Of all the classes, it's one of my very favourites.

In fact, some of your best friends are middle class? :)

Let me assure you I really do love the middle class. Of all the classes, it's one of my very favourites.

Are they the ones with the tattoos, or do only the ruling classes tend to not have those these days?

Let me assure you I really do love the middle class. Of all the classes, it's one of my very favourites.

Andrew Leigh: "Factions and Fractions: A Case Study of Power Politics in the Australian Labor Party" Australian Journal of Political Science: 35:3: November 2000: 427-448

...and here's my take on the Land of Confusion itself...

http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/31/printer_9255.php

Craig Y

Where have you gone, Nicholas Cave?
A nation – with a hung parliament – turns
its lonely eyes to you.

Racism in Australia, both low level and covert, and high level and overt, has a strong class dimension. Australia was founded on a prisoner colony which rested on the backs of lower class English, and Irish. Throughout the 19th Century this remained true, with elite aristocracy…

Speaking of elections, am I the only one confused by our own TLA election? I see hoardings approximately everywhere, and assume they're roughly geo-specific. But nobody (Electoral Commission?) has told me exactly what the new entities are that I'll be voting for, or exactly what…

And…

__Much of the social conservatism and public racism in Australia is simply evidence of a vigorous and thriving working class, who don't give a flying fuck for middle class sensibilities. It only seems weird to New Zealanders because in this country the working class have been destroyed as a…

. . . the flint hard and honed politicians and union leaders of Australia.

Heh! Whatever rocks your boat, but waxing homoerotic over the likes of Richo is rather pushing the envelope on kinkiness.

I love the way your stupidity is multiplying –

you very obviously do not understand what is understood by 'working class' here & now – in Aotearoa-NZ.

I'll reply in due course, but I'll just add for the moment that you have a fairly flawed understanding of race and class in Australia, Tom.

We are all painting with pretty broad brushes, but my comment is in relation to the idea Australia is more textured, with alternate centres…

To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, that's like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

Because that's what you are saying: working class = too fucking dumb to know what's good for 'em. Eh?

the politics seemed weirdly backwards and conservative, whilst at the same time far more socialist than NZ.

and

It's far more acceptable to be openly racist, for example, and gender roles are more narrowly defined than in NZ.

Much of the social conservatism and public racism in Australia is simply…

Do not forget, unlike New Zealand, Australia has no Bill of Rights, nothing more than an administrative framework 'constitution', a miserable indigenous rights record, stronger conservative Catholic presence, a federal same-sex marriage ban and partial welfare privatisation occurred under Howard.

There's a much greater religious influence, which comes from identifiable…

Granted, Australia is more progressive than New Zealand on issues like abortion rights.

Provided you aren't in Queensland!

I've been over here for a few months (come over and go camping for about 4 months each year) and was careful to be in the bush and away from any radio,…

However, that reversed during the last decade. There was clearly a…

They're still a few notches on the sleazometer below the late unlamented Robert Askin's State Liberal government, and that blatantly corrupt old horror left office adorned with accolades.

Quite possibly, but I'd like to think there's much in the world where 1965-75 is not seen as a desirable baseline to…

I often ask myself how sleazy, incompetent and incestuously feral the NSW Labour Party has to get before it's kicked out of office?

They're still a few notches on the sleazometer below the late unlamented Robert Askin's State Liberal government, and that blatantly corrupt old horror left office adorned with…

I also hear Australians speaking with pride about their Electoral Commission. But there are a lot of things they should be reluctant to crow about.

Sure – but blaming the AEC is like stabbing the waiter with a steak knife because your meal tastes suspiciously like lukewarm medical waste. Having…

Craig Y

. . . it just felt wrong.

Something's definitely wrong with a system that delivers the NSW State Government. Actively loathed and mocked by pretty much anyone who isn't a party member, and an equally hopeless opposition. Whoever made the comment about Tony Abbott being the first federally elected State…

I also hear Australians speaking with pride about their Electoral Commission. But there are a lot of things they…

gender roles are more narrowly defined than in NZ

Last time I was in Sydney (2005), we looked through the Yellow Pages for Car Hire and found an ad that shouted "No Bloody Women...You Don't know how to Bloody drive!!!". Must be the…

The impression I get of Australia, which is certainly not direct, is similar: more conservative parlamentarians in many respect, a more conservative public discourse than NZ, but a more textured society that makes it harder to enact pure free-market measures

By god you're an eloquent chap Giovanni. There's something in…

I think you need to move on dude, it was a long time ago.

Purely hypothetical, Kyle. But you do illustrate the point :)

it's like saying you can just re-build that 1:25 scale replica of the Cutty Sark that you constructed lovingly from matchsticks over the last 20 years, after dear great-aunt Harriet, who's at least 70kg overweight, tripped over and sat on it.

I think you need to move on dude, it…

Are these 'centres of resistance' similar to the upper houses and state legislatures in Australia? They've certainly provided an effective check there on the kind of crash-through 'reforms' we've experienced in NZ.

Quite. When the only check on the power of the Legislature is civil uprising or the triennial electoral…

At present, there is no statutory basis which establishes the office of Attorney-General

You didn't finish the quote about the Office being referenced in statute, however. The office of Attorney-General is referred to widely in statute law.

Are these 'centres of resistance' similar to the upper houses and state legislatures in Australia? They've certainly provided an effective check there on the kind of crash-through 'reforms' we've experienced in NZ.

My personal favourite is "five hundred thousand people will hit the streets within two hours". But yes, that…

. . . Italy is in fact full of centres of resistance (not all of them good, it must be said). The impression I get of Australia, which is certainly not direct, is similar . . .

Are these 'centres of resistance' similar to the upper houses and state legislatures…

But mostly I couldn't really get their sentiments, the politics seemed weirdly backwards and conservative, whilst at the same time far more socialist than NZ.

That's where Bruce Jesson's comment about New Zealand being a hollow society, without centres of resistance, rings true to me. In the whole history of…

I'm surprised no-one else has brought up the issue of why the anti-MMP lobby is keeping so quiet about the Australian election result and the fact that the barely proportional Alternative Vote electoral system has delivered such a dogs breakfast of an election result.

If Australia had a pure proportional…

Er, didn't National and Labour go through exactly those processes during the Rogernomics, Mad Mike and Ruthenasia eras?

Yeah, I get what you mean. A very small clique effectively ruled the nation.

What I mean is the pure nakedness of power within political party membership, with warring factions whose aims…

Craig Y

But mostly I couldn't really get their sentiments, the politics seemed weirdly backwards and conservative, whilst at the same time far more socialist than NZ. This might have changed.

No, it's much the same. It's far more acceptable to be openly racist, for example, and gender roles are more narrowly…

But nobody (Electoral Commission?) has told me exactly what the new entities are that I'll be voting for, or exactly what their jurisdiction or territory is.

Not the Electoral Commission. Local Government New Zealand has a bit to do with it, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I think. And…

For those interested, Ben Wilson and others who've lived here before particularly, you might want to read this analysis on the future of Australian federalism.

Heh, their politics bemuses me mightily. I had several disconnects in my first years there. One girl got real bitter on me when I said…

Not so much owned as kicked them in the shins, and then while they were lying on the ground kicked them again between the legs. Some of their best work:

While their pants were down, too.

Advertising the process yet another consideration of the public not deemed worthy.

Not so…

I've also got to wonder how much of the (IMO) blatantly deceptive election ads run in Australia would get past the Broadcasting and Advertising Standards Authorities here

Unfortunately our organisations policing advertising laws are actually very weak in my experience and love to water down their decisions if at all…

. . . couldn't get himself laid at a sex addicts convention . . .

I believe that the Australian version of that is 'couldn't get a pork if he paid for it.'
Then again, it may be 'couldn't get a soapy stick up a dog's bum.'

Couldn't they have simply run the line "Staved off recession better than any other OECD country, and Abbott opposed our success at every step" ? Or something.

It would have been much easier if they hadn't dumped the leader who "staved off recession etc." because he was supposedly an out…

Couldn't they have simply run the line "Staved off recession better than any other OECD country, and Abbott opposed our success at every step" ? Or something.

Apparently it wasn't that sort of election.

To be fair, the Libs also ran a stupid South Park knock-off aimed at Gillard last…

Couldn't they have simply run the line "Staved off recession better than any other OECD country, and Abbott opposed our success at every…

Not so successful, according to the commentariat, Labor's "Time Warp" cartoon ad aimed at Tony Abbott:

That would be because it's embarrassing.