Yes, the 1999 referendum in Australia was one of Prime Minister John Howard's great pieces of hatchet work. The referendum was worded in a way that guaranteed to split the votes of republicans: "To alter the Constitution to establish the Commonwealth of Australia as a republic with the Queen and Governor-General being replaced by a President appointed by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Commonwealth Parliament." Many republicans who insisted that the President be elected by popular vote, rejected it. Just the same the result was fairly close: No: 54.87%. Yes 45.13%. I am pretty sure that if the referendum had been conducted in two stages Australia would have become a republic then.klr wrote:Well, I completely agree that it's an anachronistic institution in this day and age, but it's ultimately up to the British people to decide if they want to ditch the Royal family.
And not just the British, but any other country that has the British monarch as head of state. Now, about you Aussies ...
Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
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Hermit
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Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould
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Twoflower
- Queen of Slugs
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- About me: Twoflower is the optimistic-but-naive tourist. He often runs into danger, being certain that nothing bad will happen to him since he is not involved. He also believes in the fundamental goodness of human nature and that all problems can be resolved, if all parties show good will and cooperate.
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Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
I have been taught that the rangers are good and the celtics are dicks.Feck wrote:It's all to do with Rangers and Celtic or something ..I forgotAnimavore wrote:Meh. It was ages ago.Svartalf wrote:I do, it started when an ancestor of mine was forced to flee to France after the Boyne. Around the same time, another was displaced from his Scottish estates for similar reasons.Animavore wrote::hatred:
Actually, to be honest, I can't even remember why I'm supposed to hate them.
Did I ever mention to you before that I have a really difficult time caring about things that pre-date my existence?
Yes. Even World War 2. Seriously. Get over it
I'm wild just like a rock, a stone, a tree
And I'm free, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I flow, just like a brook, a stream, the rain
And I fly, just like a bird up in the sky
And I'll surely die, just like a flower plucked
And dragged away and thrown away
And then one day it turns to clay
It blows away, it finds a ray, it finds its way
And there it lays until the rain and sun
Then I breathe, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I grow, just like a baby breastfeeding
And it's beautiful, that's life
And I'm free, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I flow, just like a brook, a stream, the rain
And I fly, just like a bird up in the sky
And I'll surely die, just like a flower plucked
And dragged away and thrown away
And then one day it turns to clay
It blows away, it finds a ray, it finds its way
And there it lays until the rain and sun
Then I breathe, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I grow, just like a baby breastfeeding
And it's beautiful, that's life
Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
Speaking of huns... 
Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
Actually there is little to choose between the asshole quota of both sets of fansTwoflower wrote:I have been taught that the rangers are good and the celtics are dicks.Feck wrote:It's all to do with Rangers and Celtic or something ..I forgotAnimavore wrote:Meh. It was ages ago.Svartalf wrote:I do, it started when an ancestor of mine was forced to flee to France after the Boyne. Around the same time, another was displaced from his Scottish estates for similar reasons.Animavore wrote::hatred:
Actually, to be honest, I can't even remember why I'm supposed to hate them.
Did I ever mention to you before that I have a really difficult time caring about things that pre-date my existence?
Yes. Even World War 2. Seriously. Get over it
Give me the wine , I don't need the bread
Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
You have been thought wrong. It's the other way around.Twoflower wrote:I have been taught that the rangers are good and the celtics are dicks.Feck wrote:It's all to do with Rangers and Celtic or something ..I forgotAnimavore wrote:Meh. It was ages ago.Svartalf wrote:I do, it started when an ancestor of mine was forced to flee to France after the Boyne. Around the same time, another was displaced from his Scottish estates for similar reasons.Animavore wrote::hatred:
Actually, to be honest, I can't even remember why I'm supposed to hate them.
Did I ever mention to you before that I have a really difficult time caring about things that pre-date my existence?
Yes. Even World War 2. Seriously. Get over it
Libertarianism: The belief that out of all the terrible things governments can do, helping people is the absolute worst.
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klr
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Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
PACO!!!!!!!Twoflower wrote:I have been taught that the rangers are good and the celtics are dicks.Feck wrote: ...
It's all to do with Rangers and Celtic or something ..I forgot
Feck wrote:Actually there is little to choose between the asshole quota of both sets of fansTwoflower wrote: I have been taught that the rangers are good and the celtics are dicks.
God has no place within these walls, just like facts have no place within organized religion. - Superintendent Chalmers
It's not up to us to choose which laws we want to obey. If it were, I'd kill everyone who looked at me cock-eyed! - Rex Banner
The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression. - Gary Larson
It's not up to us to choose which laws we want to obey. If it were, I'd kill everyone who looked at me cock-eyed! - Rex Banner
The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression. - Gary Larson
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Twoflower
- Queen of Slugs
- Posts: 16611
- Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:23 pm
- About me: Twoflower is the optimistic-but-naive tourist. He often runs into danger, being certain that nothing bad will happen to him since he is not involved. He also believes in the fundamental goodness of human nature and that all problems can be resolved, if all parties show good will and cooperate.
- Location: Boston
- Contact:
Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
No not Paco, he doesn't care about football. This would be Tommy the loveable flatmate who I spent many mornings with watching T.V. who taught me this. And from what I saw when trying to walk through a large mass of people trying to leave Glasgow when a game was playing, they are both dickish but the celtic fans were a little more dickish.
I'm wild just like a rock, a stone, a tree
And I'm free, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I flow, just like a brook, a stream, the rain
And I fly, just like a bird up in the sky
And I'll surely die, just like a flower plucked
And dragged away and thrown away
And then one day it turns to clay
It blows away, it finds a ray, it finds its way
And there it lays until the rain and sun
Then I breathe, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I grow, just like a baby breastfeeding
And it's beautiful, that's life
And I'm free, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I flow, just like a brook, a stream, the rain
And I fly, just like a bird up in the sky
And I'll surely die, just like a flower plucked
And dragged away and thrown away
And then one day it turns to clay
It blows away, it finds a ray, it finds its way
And there it lays until the rain and sun
Then I breathe, just like the wind the breeze that blows
And I grow, just like a baby breastfeeding
And it's beautiful, that's life
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Svartalf
- Offensive Grail Keeper
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Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
Actually, every sports team, every member thereof, and every sopporter are arseholes.Twoflower wrote:I have been taught that the rangers are good and the celtics are dicks.
Now, if you have to graduate, you've been taught the wrong way, protestants have generally been worse dicks than catholics ever since they started having dominance in given areas.
Embrace the Darkness, it needs a hug
PC stands for "Patronizing Cocksucker" Randy Ping
PC stands for "Patronizing Cocksucker" Randy Ping
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Clinton Huxley
- 19th century monkeybitch.
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Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
Pippa Middleton's comely backside has set back the cause of Antipodean republicanism by decades, I'll warrant.
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Svartalf
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Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
Well, I fully support the arms given to the middletons, insofar as the latin for acorn is 'glans'.
Embrace the Darkness, it needs a hug
PC stands for "Patronizing Cocksucker" Randy Ping
PC stands for "Patronizing Cocksucker" Randy Ping
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Horwood Beer-Master
- "...a complete Kentish hog"
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Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
So did I, and I wasn't even trying toBella Fortuna wrote:Actually I'm not.But it was kinda neat to be able to say I saw the old creakers in person once.
Clinton Huxley wrote:Phil the Greek will probably wear the uniform of the Black and Tans.
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klr
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Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
It's not the Celtic fans who are currently sending parcels bombs and sundry deaths threats to their opponent's manager. Not that some of them are not capable of doing such things.Twoflower wrote:No not Paco, he doesn't care about football. This would be Tommy the loveable flatmate who I spent many mornings with watching T.V. who taught me this. And from what I saw when trying to walk through a large mass of people trying to leave Glasgow when a game was playing, they are both dickish but the celtic fans were a little more dickish.
God has no place within these walls, just like facts have no place within organized religion. - Superintendent Chalmers
It's not up to us to choose which laws we want to obey. If it were, I'd kill everyone who looked at me cock-eyed! - Rex Banner
The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression. - Gary Larson
It's not up to us to choose which laws we want to obey. If it were, I'd kill everyone who looked at me cock-eyed! - Rex Banner
The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression. - Gary Larson
Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
The royals and the rest of the arsoles can fuck off as far as I'm concerned. Inbred idiots the lot of them. 
“I wish no harm to any human being, but I, as one man, am going to exercise my freedom of speech. No human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do everything that is for the benefit of mankind. I am not here, then, as the accused; I am here as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot.”
John Maclean (Scottish socialist) speech from the Dock 1918.
John Maclean (Scottish socialist) speech from the Dock 1918.
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klr
- (%gibber(who=klr, what=Leprageek);)
- Posts: 32964
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- About me: The money was just resting in my account.
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Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
Shush, they are currently in the library in Trinity College Dublin apparently. They might learn something if we leave them there long enough.Pensioner wrote:The royals and the rest of the arsoles can fuck off as far as I'm concerned. Inbred idiots the lot of them.
God has no place within these walls, just like facts have no place within organized religion. - Superintendent Chalmers
It's not up to us to choose which laws we want to obey. If it were, I'd kill everyone who looked at me cock-eyed! - Rex Banner
The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression. - Gary Larson
It's not up to us to choose which laws we want to obey. If it were, I'd kill everyone who looked at me cock-eyed! - Rex Banner
The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression. - Gary Larson
Re: Betty Windsor and Philip the Hun are visiting!
You would have to keep them in that place for a couple of centuries mate, they are as dumb as a bucket of frogs, oops, sorry Jim.klr wrote:Shush, they are currently in the library in Trinity College Dublin apparently. They might learn something if we leave them there long enough.Pensioner wrote:The royals and the rest of the arsoles can fuck off as far as I'm concerned. Inbred idiots the lot of them.
“I wish no harm to any human being, but I, as one man, am going to exercise my freedom of speech. No human being on the face of the earth, no government is going to take from me my right to speak, my right to protest against wrong, my right to do everything that is for the benefit of mankind. I am not here, then, as the accused; I am here as the accuser of capitalism dripping with blood from head to foot.”
John Maclean (Scottish socialist) speech from the Dock 1918.
John Maclean (Scottish socialist) speech from the Dock 1918.
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