What`s up mate?

[skinbath]

We`ve seen on T.V.here in the U.K. that the Aussies are in a bit of a pickle concerning the use of the word "mate".Apparently the P.C.brigade have now taken to insisting that addressing somebody as mate is not fair dinkum and is not to be tolerated.Gggrrrrr

I always believed the Aussies were wild but this but this puts another slant on the word "wild".

[PhantomWolf]

Well not quite true. The word was banned from use in their parliment because it was deemed to be "inappropriate and un-Australian."

I think the fact that 50% of the Aussie vocab is "mate" means that their polly's calling the word "un-Australian" got them a little hot under the collar.

[Obviousman]

It just goes to show that the pollies have no concept of reality.

[golfhobo]

As I heard it, they were banning the use of it by whatever you call your policemen when addressing tourists. Then, I heard they backed off because of the uproar. To quote a line from a favorite movie of mine, "Well, I guess you'd sooner tame the mountains...." than to stop an Aussie from saying MATE!

[margamatix]

Have you heard the one about the Scotsman, the Welshman and the £750 fine for racism?


By Alan Hamilton



RACISM is alive and well on the Celtic fringes of Britain. A Jock was fined £750 yesterday for insulting a Taffy.
Danny Meikle, 57, a Labour councillor in Lanarkshire, was convicted by Lanark Sheriff Court of acting in a racially aggravated manner by repeatedly addressing Tecwyn Thomas, a recent immigrant to southern Scotland, as “Boyo”.

Source tinyurl.com/bxrxg (The Times newspaper(UK))


Just how thin-skinned would you have to be, to be offended by being called "boyo", which is a completely inoffensive term used among the Welsh themselves, and which approximates to the Australian "mate".?


Jeez, just think how much you could get someone fined for calling you a mad, delusional, trolling drunkard! ;D ;D ;D

[Al Johnston]

margamatix said:

Jeez, just think how much you could get someone fined for calling you a mad, delusional, trolling drunkard! ;D ;D ;D

The thing with bringing suit against that sort of claim is that the plaintiff would need to demonstrate that he wasn't a mad delusional trolling drunkard, otherwise the "fair comment" defence would carry the day ;D

[LunarOrbit]

I'm sure if I called someone from Newfoundland a "newfie" I would be picking my teeth up off the floor (after I regained conciousness of course). I don't think he would have me charged with racism though.

[margamatix]

alasdhair said:

margamatix said:

Jeez, just think how much you could get someone fined for calling you a mad, delusional, trolling drunkard! ;D ;D ;D

The thing with bringing suit against that sort of claim is that the plaintiff would need to demonstrate that he wasn't a mad delusional trolling drunkard, otherwise the "fair comment" defence would carry the day ;D

No problem, I'd just show the Judge that footage of Charlie Duke being pulled up on a wire!

[frenat]

And he'd review the better footage available on the DVD, the explanation for the maneuver in the ALSJ, and their dialogue at the time and conclude you were full of it.

[echnaton]

admin said:

I'm sure if I called someone from Newfoundland a "newfie" I would be picking my teeth up off the floor (after I regained conciousness of course). I don't think he would have me charged with racism though.

I have a friend from Louisiana who goes by the nickname of “Tex.” When I asked him why, he said that he was tired of getting into a fight whenever anyone called him Louise. ;D

[PhantomWolf]

There was an Western Aussie cricketer who was fined for Racism on the field about a year back. He called an opponent a "Pommie Git". The really stupid thing? The fined player was a British immigrant, the player he was "racist" towards, Irish.

[Al Johnston]

That'll teach him to "sledge" properly