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Jerry? Is that you?

He does know that he has British citizenship by inheritance; if asked, he would have to answer truthfully. So a trip for my son to the UK would involve him, in your opinion applying for an ETA and if that is refused then he would have to start the onerous process of applying for a UK passport, which in his case would involve all sorts of documents including my and my wife's birth certificates and more. Yes Aussie who do not hold British citizenship. I would need a British Passport to travel to England and my son would require a UK passport an NZ passport, and if he were to spend a few days in Aus would require an Aus passport as well, a total of about $700 worth. You seem to imply my gripe is a little petty or a "storm in a teacup" simply because he may be able to travel in the UK without giving away the fact that he is also a UK citizen. Whilst many people may be doing this real people are being affected. UK passport changes leave Australians with dual citizenship scrambling before border rules kick in Teenage Girl Spends 6 Weeks Stuck Abroad Due to New Passport Rule, Her Dad Says More than a million Brits risk being caught out by new passport rule launched this year – with kids stranded abroad The common theme Most of these people were already British citizens. Their mistake wasn't failing to obtain citizenship—it was assuming they could continue travelling on their other passport as they had done previously. The February 2026 changes caught many people because: they had never applied for a British passport, they didn't realise their children automatically held British citizenship, or they had travelled for years using only their Australian, American or European passport. The UK Home Office has stated that from 25 February 2026, British dual nationals generally must travel with a valid British passport (or, in limited cases, a passport containing a Certificate of Entitlement), otherwise they risk being refused boarding. Given your earlier questions about travelling on an Australian passport, these examples illustrate that the airlines are enforcing the rule before passengers even reach the UK border. Yes, I am aware of that. My gripe is not about the UK but the need for 3 passports . There simply must a better way. Sorry if you think I am it is in your words "It's mountain out of molehill stuff.." but it came as news to me and going by newspaper reports IT IS catching people out

Just teach them to swim first. The ones with guns will sink.

While Little donold is usung the US military to manipulate the oil futures market, the media has forgotten the Israel/Palestine battles. Palestine, which only existed for 28 years, was carved out of the Ottoman Empire by the Brits in 1920. The Ottomans had been there for 500 years but backed the wrong side in WW1. Nobody wants to see Israel returned to the Ottomans, and the Ottomans probably don’t want it back. Before that the Romans merged Judea into Syria-Palestine and as such it was owned by countless empires without a separate identity until the British mandate of Palestine. The first Arabs arrived in about the 7th century. The Jewish tribes of Israel had lived there since the Bronze Age , so about 2,700-3,500 years before them. Even if the dates are off, the Jews of Canaan and Judea were in Israel then Palestine before the Arabs. Who came first and where they came from needn’t matter. What matters is what exists now and how to fix it. Kicking the 7 million Israelis out of Israel and calling it Palestine is not a viable or moral option. Nor is driving the Palestinians into the sea.

Takes me back to my holiday in Scotland.

What is happening in the ME will give a real Impetus to EV sales. People don't want to be hung out to dry every time someone does silly things with supply.. Nev

This one's for @red750. Just watching an episode of "Around the world in 80 days" (latest series, with David Tennant). Anyway, for some context, this is PG rated and very mild. The scene is Phileas Fogg and his companions rolling up to Government House in Hong Kong in a carriage. Miss Abigail Fix exclaims "Look at the security! It's like fucking a palace!" Well that's what the subtitles said, anyway. She actually said "Buckingham palace". 😂 Made me laugh!

Yeah - arguing facts v intuition is difficult. I presented the stats in a previous thread in which, from Victorian government sources, the deaths and serious injuries at railway crossings occurred, by a long way, in rural locations.. and the number of deaths and serious injuries in Melbourne was tiny - I can't remember, but low 10s over a god awful long period of time. But, you can argue if you want, but the facts are the facts. So, if justifying the prioritisation of spending public on road safety, then, I don't think it was a good decision because it will achieve jack shit on road safety by the statistics compared to, oh, I dunno poor road conditions, potholes, and poor road design, where in one year death along far outweighed all level crossing deaths and serious injuries in Victoria since records began: So, if your justifying the prioritising of spending public money on road safety, the appropriation of it to the level crossing replacement is an out and out lie. Dan Andrews is a smart politician. He knows that the best way to get elected you should make people happy. Has the removal of the level crossings improved driver convenience? Yep, by a long way. How many lives has it saved and will continue to save? I would argue very few, if any. I may not liver there at the moment, but if you want to get into a pissing contest rather than discuss fact, how long have you lived IN Melbourne. And how long have you lived anywhere near Bell Street both as a kid and an adult.

OME was just showing solderarity

There seems to be a largely diminished coverage in the Russia Ukraine war as well..

The corollary of that implies I've made a sytload of stuff. No wonder I need a nap.

In our Brave New World, anything that can be corrupted, will be. Count on it. Nev

I figure if I keep cutting they'll I think Jerry put a curse, not a cursor, on my keyboard.

I was thinking more applying for new credit - such as a store card or another credit card. I have to admit, I don't know how the Aussie retail credit market works, but it wouldn't take a too bright criminal to work out the rest needed to impersonate you on an online of phone application in the UK. I find it astounding that today there are organisations that don't appear to use multi-layered encryption to avoid this sort of stuff.

The EV sales here are well up.

Good idea. They pay for what will ultimately benefit them and you keep your pension money.

Yep. Glad we've got ours. Nice to drive too, although sometimes tries to be a bit smart for its own good.

You have had the benefit of the cover and that's NOT nothing. It would not be reasonable to expect a refund of payments. That's how insurance works. Nev

Things keep moving faster and faster. I got a call this afternoon saying the tentative date for my cochlear implant surgery is Sept 19.

Manufacturing accounts for around 20% of electricity consumption. It's drop in electricity consumption, according to AI, is due to structural issues and reduction in production outputs; not efficiency gains, so that needs to be addressed - but that is outside the scope of this thread, unless you are somehow asserting the transition to renewables is inhibiting manufacturing output. Of course, one can argue that the cost of the transition has to be borne and this flows into higher input costs for manufacturers, which makes them less competitive. But, that would be an argument more that the longer term planning of our manufacturers and government was deficient as the world's largest manufacturing country, China, is going hell for leather into renewables and surely they would be having similar transition costs. Be that as it may, if we stay with relatively high fossil fuel costs or move to expensive nuclear costs, we will, by the next generation or so, have much higher input energy costs. Not to mention the increasing cost of geopolitical and civil unrest by staying with fossil fuels and further accelerating the earth heating up, drying out, and food and other resources (such as wood) becoming more and more scarce. The one saving grace on resource demand is in the western world, the birth rates are declining and in some cases, dramatically, but the rest of the world will fill that hole. Also, other environmental impacts such as ocean warming, jetstream and gulfstream disruption will have a profound impact and cost far in excess of economic costs. Algal blooms; microrganisms dying which are causing starvation up the food chain are very worrying because of the impact they will have on the ecology and life on earth - ironically which sustains human life. It looks like there will be an "I told you so" moment able to be delivered by Greta. But I digress.. The cost of not doing it is far bigger than the cost of doing it.

Here is a bit of red tape that is hard to understand the reasoning for. This came to my attention in a conversation with my son when we were visiting him in NZ. There are some either new rules or old rules now being enforced regarding passports that seem absolutely crazy to me. So my wife and I are Australian citizens, but by virtue of the fact we were both born in the UK we retain British citizenship. This now means that if we were to travel to the UK the UK government now requires that we have British passports. UK passport changes leave Australians with dual citizenship scrambling before border rules kick in That is inconvenient enough, but it gets worse for my son. My son was born in Australia, but by virtue of the fact that both his parents are British citizens, he also is considered to be a British citizen. My son moved permanently to NZ and is a citizen of NZ. The rules that apply to travelling into the UK also apply to travelling into Australia. This means that if my son were to travel to the UK via a stopover in Australia, he would need an Australian passport (because he retains Aus citizenship), a British passport because he retains British citizenship, and to get back home to NZ he needs an NZ passport. Here is an AI summary of the situation: "Because you and his other parent were Australian citizens at the time of his birth, your son is automatically an Australian citizen by birth. Since he also holds British citizenship (from you) and New Zealand citizenship (by naturalisation), he is a triple citizen. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] This status changes the passport requirements for his travels: Document Requirements by Destination Traveling to Australia: He must enter on an Australian passport. The Australian Government requires all citizens to enter and leave the country using an Australian passport. He cannot use his New Zealand passport to get a Special Category Visa anymore, as visas cannot be granted to people who already hold Australian citizenship. [] Traveling to Britain: He must enter on a British passport. As a British citizen, he cannot use an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) or a foreign passport alone to clear UK border control. [1, 2, 3, 4] Traveling back to New Zealand: He must use his New Zealand passport to seamlessly re-enter his home country."