We 'wos 'wobbed - Australia cheated in Eurovision.

[BENNU]

This is the Princess of Denmark, Douze Points:



Another look alike. Princess Marie.

[BENNU]

Crown Princess Mary of Denmark



Princess Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

At some point these eerie lookalikes will be queens

The royal families of Denmark and Great Britain are closely connected.

Another lookalike is Princess Marie of Denmark.

[BENNU]

Princess of Denmark from France, douze points:

[Winged Isis]

Heaven knows, Australia could do with an 'identity'.....it would extend it's history and culture beyond the mere couple of centuries that it currently boasts ( having largely exterminated it earlier history and culture, along with the indigenous population)

Spoiler

Hmm, could you please remind us all just exactly where did the exterminators come from?

A teeny tiny, very wet island in the Northern Hemishere, I seem to vaguely recall? Do please correct me if I'm wrong dear newcastle.

[newcastle]

I'm not casting aspersions on the current population, and their genocidal forebears did come from Great Britain. But then, being largely a mixture of thieves , murderers and rapists.....with imported prostitutes to breed with.. it's hardly surprising they were unkind to the natives.

But with such illustrious ancestors, shared presumably by your current politicians, don't you feel it might be better to cling on to a least some semblance of normality and stability in the shape of a 1000 year old monarchy?

[Winged Isis]

Not if your politicians are anything to go by.

Especially with Her Maj and the PM having difficulties being discreet lately. I think we'll take our chances without, thanks all the same. Kind of you to offer though.

[newcastle]

Not if your politicians are anything to go by.

Especially with Her Maj and the PM having difficulties being discreet lately. I think we'll take our chances without, thanks all the same. Kind of you to offer though.

My pleasure

You may have Major Thom moving in later this year....he'll keep you on your toes. I believe he's quite a stickler for things being done properly

[Winged Isis]

Not if your politicians are anything to go by.

Especially with Her Maj and the PM having difficulties being discreet lately. I think we'll take our chances without, thanks all the same. Kind of you to offer though.

My pleasure

You may have Major Thom moving in later this year....he'll keep you on your toes. I believe he's quite a stickler for things being done properly

You cannot frighten me that easily; we convict descendants are made of stern stuff. Plus, I am a looooong way from where he'll be and it's a b****y big country.

[HEPZIBAH]

Not if your politicians are anything to go by.

Especially with Her Maj and the PM having difficulties being discreet lately. I think we'll take our chances without, thanks all the same. Kind of you to offer though.

My pleasure

You may have Major Thom moving in later this year....he'll keep you on your toes. I believe he's quite a stickler for things being done properly

You cannot frighten me that easily; we convict descendants are made of stern stuff. Plus, I am a looooong way from where he'll be and it's a b****y big country.

I really must stop drinking coffee and reading forums at the same time. My laptop will not take much more.

[Hafiz]

I’m sorry Newcastle – I couldn’t let it go through to the keeper.

The old tired convict smear. Raises one by diminishing the other whilst communicating the subtle meaning that either one should be blamed for or ashamed of ones ancestors’ mistakes or, and this is unproven science, criminal traits can be inherited (the stain).

Here are some facts:

About 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia over a 80 year period Some returned to the scene of the crime because Ancestory.com.uk says that 2 million current Britons are descended from returning transportees. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-07-25/o ... st/2512534

Murderers and rapists and those convicted of capital crimes were rarely transported (less than 2% of the total) – they were hanged in the UK. Prostitution was never a transportable offense. Overwhelmingly the transportees were petty property criminals.

Many transportees were political prisoners or those who rebelled against UK oppression: First Scottish Martyrs in 1794; British Naval Mutineers (from the Nore Mutiny) in 1797 and 1801; Irish rebels in 1798, 1803, 1848 and 1868; Scots Rebels (1820); Yorkshire Rebels (1820 and 1822); leaders of the Merthyr Tydfil rising of 1831; The Tolpuddle Martyrs (1834); Swing Rioters and Luddites (1828–1833); Upper Canada rebellion/Lower Canada Rebellion (1839) and Chartists (1842)

About 20% of the current Australian population are thought to be descended from transported convicts although this estimate is based on unproven methodology and I have yet to meet a person with this descent and at a time when this is far from shameful and is admitted freely. I have never heard of anyone else who has known of such a person.

For those interested (I doubt it) ‘The Fatal Shore’ by Robert Hughes is sound history and good art which documents the horrors of transportation and the heroism and enterprise of those who survived and prospered. And prosper they did because within 100 years of the establishment of the penal colony and 10 years after the end of transportation Australia had established the highest standard of living in the world, the widest franchise, the first 8 hour day, the first secret vote and a near absence of poverty etc. Not bad coming from a convict stain and in one of the most difficult physical environments in the world.

Current crime rates in Australia are comparable to those of the UK but maybe this is the problem because UK crime rates are much higher than in almost all of the rest of Europe so maybe we have just inherited bad UK genes and it would have been better if we had received more immigration from all of the law abiding Nordic countries or from safe Italy or Spain. Within Australia, Tasmania – with the highest proportion (by far) of current convict descendants – has the second-lowest crime rate in the nation: so the genetic theory has a way to go to prove itself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convicts_ ... _prisoners
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... #Australia

Current (Australian) politicians - what could you mean. We've never had cash for questions or expenses scandals or the yearly sale of honors for political donations in this country. We don't have hereditary dukes, non-hereditary Church of England Bishops, superannuated party hacks and dodgy donors in our upper house. Who would have thought a bishop, duke, earl or viscount would make a good legislator on road traffic laws? Soon we wont have a quaint and dysfunctional - hardly normal - German royal family and rely on ourselves for our stability.

[newcastle]

Thank you for the "Advance Australia Fair" promo Hafiz Copy forwarded to Major Thom.

I stand corrected.

What am saying???? No I don't

My earlier posts were (obviously?) a bit of joshing with WI....a puerile English habit of mine. Not to be taken to heart or in any way seriously.

Any more than I take your remarks about our incest-blighted Graeco-Danish-German royals or the heirs of cattle rustlers and royal concubines , a few of which still lurk in our Upper House of legislature

P.S Let me know when you're next in Egypt and I'll treat you to a cold pie washed down with a warm pint of bitter by way of apology

[Who2]

Eurovision ?
I first saw it down in the Provence in a cafe. It was sh*t!
We might have won, who really gives a sh*t ? 'sad people.....
Australia ? bet their song was sh*t as well, as are all of the Eurovision songs.
Stop playing their game and go back to your 'Corrie St....
Ps: I cannot, at present think of a better reason for leaving the EU.

[Winged Isis]

Don't worry newcastle, I got your humour and enjoyed the "stoush", as I'm sure did Hafiz. It's just that he's a fact junkie and cannot help himself.

Hafiz, I strongly endorse your recommendation of "The Fatal Shores" as an enjoyable read and excellent source of information, and not just because my village gets a mention! I think I've read it three times now.

[Major Thom]

I believe the song that won was about Stalin. Great, mention Napoleon, Stalin, and all the other dictators, such as Idi Amin, Pol Pot, but do not mention Hitler. Double standards if ever I saw. Sorry DJ, I mentioned Hitler, is that ok?

[newcastle]

Don't worry newcastle, I got your humour and enjoyed the "stoush", as I'm sure did Hafiz. It's just that he's a fact junkie and cannot help himself.

Hafiz, I strongly endorse your recommendation of "The Fatal Shores" as an enjoyable read and excellent source of information, and not just because my village gets a mention! I think I've read it three times now.

If "The Fatal Shores" is available on Kindle, I'll give it a look.

I read "The Floating Brothel" a few years ago. Informative and highly enjoyable read.

[Winged Isis]

Don't worry newcastle, I got your humour and enjoyed the "stoush", as I'm sure did Hafiz. It's just that he's a fact junkie and cannot help himself.

Hafiz, I strongly endorse your recommendation of "The Fatal Shores" as an enjoyable read and excellent source of information, and not just because my village gets a mention! I think I've read it three times now.

If "The Fatal Shores" is available on Kindle, I'll give it a look.

I read "The Floating Brothel" a few years ago. Informative and highly enjoyable read.

Not sure of the answer to your query, it's a big book in paper, but agree with your reading recommendation; I have that one too.

[Horus]

If "The Fatal Shores" is available on Kindle, I'll give it a look.

It is available for Kindle download @ £9.49

[newcastle]

Just spent 9.49!

Will read after I've finished my latest Evelyn Waugh : "A Handful of Dust"

[Winged Isis]

PM me when you finish it, I'll be interested to hear your opinion.

[newcastle]

PM me when you finish it, I'll be interested to hear your opinion.

Will do.

I'm already laughing over Hughes' description of the aboriginal, i.e pre-European, 'sheila' :

" a root- grubbing, shell-gathering chattel, whose social assets were wiry arms, prehensile toes and a vagina. "

Has it changed much