Gareth Myles comments

The simplistic "Australia is racist" and "White/Nonwhite" comments are entirely misplaced. Australia is one of the most ethnically mixed countries there is. There is a very large Asian population, and growing Middle Eastern and Indian populations. Over recent years the largest numbers of immigrants were from China and then from India. It makes no sense to apply generic and inappropriate labels to this incredibly diverse population. Only someone trying desperately to avoid accepting they were wrong would ever do so. As for the Republic referendum, I suspect many Australians have no interest in the issue and would resent being subjected to another pointlessly divisive campaign.

That was a particularly poor article due to the fact it failed entirely to clarify the what it meant by "spicy food". A typical spicy food - such as an Indian curry - will include a range of spices such as chilli, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, and turmeric. Some of these are believed to convey health benefits and are promoted in herbal medicine. So the generic term "spicy food" clearly does not describe the object of study.

The current lead in the polls for the Labour Party is due entirely to dissatisfaction with the Conservatives, and not because of any positive support for what Labour are proposing. The Conservatives are seen as failing to deliver for all of their voters. They have raised the tax burden, failed to deliver for the "Red Wall" voters who switched sides in the last election, failed to complete adequate separation from the EU to appease the Brexit wing, had no impact on illegal immigration, and, generally, have seemed more focused on internal conflict than running a country. In the face of all of this, Labour are simply benefitting form being not the Conservatives.

Peter14 is typical of many Australians who are very conservative in food choices. Chicken feet are widely available so must be eaten by a good number of people. On one trip to the interior I enjoyed an "outback mixed grill": kangaroo, camel, and emu. The camel (an invasive species) was in the form of a sausage so it is difficult to know if the taste truly represents the meat. It was all good. And I can back up other comments that kangaroo is available in all supermarkets.

A very good start to the season for City with five league wins, one European Super Cup, and now a good start in the Champions League. All this without, apparently, really hitting top form and with key players injured.

Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have strengthened their teams for this season. Manchester City have also bought well. I expect at least one of those three to play in the final in May.

A win this week for Arsenal will give a top 5 of City, Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Brighton. Brighton may be able to hang on, but I am fairly certain the other 4 will fill the top four places. All that is left to be decided is in which order. United are already 9 points behind City. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that City will not drop 9 points over the entire season, so after 5 games United are effectively out of contention.

The practical alternative is what is steadily happening: small, but real, gains for the indigenous peoples as opposed to the empty political gesture of the Voice. Look at the ban on tourists climbing Uluru, the enhanced protection of historic indigenous sites from mining giants, the steady progress in recognition of indigenous land rights ... The accumulation of these small steps are what will secure a better place for the indigenous within Australia. The Voice is at worst a treaty that forces acceptance of conquest on the indigenous and at best political froth that will provide pork for a few political hacks.

The lack of progress with self-driving cars emphasises something very important: the human being is truly amazing. Car manufacturers have thrown all the technology in the world at the problem, but yet they cannot achieve what most adults do effortlessly on a daily basis.

@Moonraker "The biggest lies won in Brexit." You have conveniently forgotten Project Fear of the Remain campaign. House prices will collapse, the pound will collapse, interest rates will go through the roof, there will be mass unemployment, and on, and on. Which of those "truths" proved to be true? Precisely none. You have forgotten the comical interview with David Cameron where he was confronted with this litany of madness. In truth, the biggest lies lost in Brexit because they were just too far-fetched - and Joe Public could see through the attempt at manipulation. There are echoes of Brexit in the Voice campaign. The smearing of anyone who disagrees. The failure to build the positive case. The establishment dismissing the individual. And the overwhelming pursuit of self-interest in pushing something onto the public.

I cannot imagine that any of the $380 million will go to athletes. So where does it go? Somebody, somewhere, will be happily enriched by the taxpayers of Victoria. It is very sad that there is no mechanism that allows those footing the bill to see how the money will be disbursed.

74 and 68, and both still working. Such a shame that neither was able to enjoy a leisurely retirement.

I speculate ... if you close the windows the car will retain enough air to be buoyant and, if the flood rises further, may float off and cause additional damage to property. With open windows it will flood and remain precisely where it is.

According to World Bank data the UK spends 12% of its gdp on health care. This is behind the US (18%), about the same as France and Germany, and more than Australia (10%) and other European countries. The problem is clearlly not the amount of resources put into health care (unless the UK is a fundamentally unhealthily place than othe countries) but how the system uses those resources. I know from experience that I could see a gp in Australia within an hour of calling the practice and that I could get a complete health scan without charge. I also know that in the UK I could join at queue at 8am to try and get an appointment for a gp and, if my need was not urgent enough, be rejected by the receptionist. A health scan in the UK? Not a chance since preventative medicine does not go beyond breast and bowel scans. The NHS is in fundamental difficulties as it fails to deliver accessible quality care. The doctors are led by the most extreme left-wing union in the UK who want to hold the population to ransom. The time has arrived for fundamental reform.

The never-ending delay in the availability of self-driving cars reveals an important truth: the human being is an amazing thing. Despite all the computing power, radar, GPS, and cameras thrown at the problem, technology still cannot achieve what all of us do effortlessly every day. Rather than mocking Elon Musk, we should be celebrating the wonder of humanity.

@Wallace. We were talking about climate change in the 60s. The big news then was the J. Murray Mitchell publication of 1963 demonstrating multidecadal cooling since 1940. This was followed by other authors predicting a new ice age.

"Flying car" seems a misleading description. It looks to me more like a helicopter with multiple rotors which is a much less radical concept. The flying car is a concept that has been on the verge of happening for a very long time but is always plagued by the basic incompatibility of the two vehicle forms. A similar incompatibility of ideal form ensured amphibious cars could never be both a good car and a usable boat.

The central social observation of the original movie was the reversal of the gender roles. The collapse of heavy, male-dominated industries had resulted in the unemployed men becoming dependents of the employed women who were working in the rising female-dominated industries. This reversal reached its culmination when the only role men could find was to demean themselves as sex objects for the dominant females. It was not a movie about success but one about subjugation and acceptance of worthlessness. It will be interesting to see what theme - if any - the series develops.

Australia needs to look more carefully at where it has gone wrong. The "Australian dream" of the last century was notable for ensuring the typical Aussie lived in a detached house on decent-sized plot and garden. And, because of the level of equality, the typical Aussie was most of the population. Compare that to now. So many sub-divisions with one comfortable old house replaced by 2, 3, or even more (I saw one subdivision that fitted 7 houses on one 1/4 acre plot) smaller, cramped houses with a yard that might just fit 4 people round a table. New estates with houses as close as possible and only a small patio for a yard. Plus crazy prices and the borrowing of many multiples of income to buy even the most dilapidated place in the major cities. Australian has gone very wrong with its housing policies and condemned the typical Aussie to a lifetime of debt to buy a house their grandparents would have refused to live in.

Not the glorious demolition of the opposition that I hoped to see, but a hard-fought victory. As commentators have pointed out the core of the team is still very young. Haaland, Forden, Alvarez, Rodriguez, Stones, and Grealish have long careers still ahead. The team will be serious contenders for several more years. To me the most astounding statistic is that Foden has 5 Premier League medals (and now a Champions League medal) at the age of 22. The club has spent a lot of money to get here but other clubs have spent much more to get nowhere. The club appears to have got every major decision correct with the off-field strategy rivalling the on-field for excellence.

@Alfie Noakes

You have made two observations that need to be commented upon.

Jeremy Corbyn was suspended by his own political party because of anti-semitism. You claim he is an anti-racist so cannot be anti-semitic. Don't forget that Diane Abbott - his close colleague and ex-lover - was subsequently suspended for publishing a letter in a leading newspaper arguing that Jews could not be the subject of racism. Under this abhorrent perspective it is possible to claim to be anti-racist whilst actively being anti-semitic.

Why has the US State Department got involved? As the article states: Roger Waters is a resident of New York so therefore must hold a US visa and hence falls under their jurisdiction.

@Ricky The indigenous Australians had a society that functioned in harmony with a harsh land for 50,000 years until it was abruptly destroyed. Clearly, it is impossible to revert to pre-colonisation status. In my view a real solution would start with an investigation of how the indigenous would want to live given no constraints upon choice. This would involve consulting all indigenous especially the most alienated from modern Australian society. Taking the opinion of a few political climbers is in no way adequate. Then has to come the recognition from modern Australia that it may have to make some serious concessions. If the indigenous want land to roam they should be given it. If they want a semi-nomadic lifestyle that follows the seasons it should be made possible. If they want river banks cleared so they can camp then they should be. If a university has a Welcome to Country statement that admits it is built on indigenous land, then it should remove the buildings and give the land back. These statements may seem like madness but they illustrate what may be required if the indigenous issues are ever truly going to be addressed. I suspect that, if asked, many indigenous dream of a country without "Europeans". And that, for me, is why the problem will never be resolved.

The plight of the indigenous in Australia is heartbreaking to witness. Since the colonisation of Australia they have lost their land, their social structure, and their freedom. Early actions amounted almost to attempted extermination and the "stolen baby" era was an appalling policy to destroy indigenous traditions by converting the next generation to "good Australians". Most attempts to help the indigenous now are subtler versions of the stolen-baby policy: offer young indigenous educational scholarships that take them away from their families, break their links with the land, and turn them into middle-class Australians. In addition, there is the recent tradition of the appalling "welcome to country" messages that are supposed to recognise the indigenous but, in fact, only provide a reminder of how they have suffered. To paraphrase "We acknowledge this was your land. We built on it. Tough luck." With this historical context, The Voice is just another cynical attempt to appear to do something while still avoiding the fundamental issue. An entire continent of people had its society destroyed and its land stolen in what is still only the recent, documented, past. Ever since, they have been abused and forced to live on the fringes of the alien society created on their land. They have rightly refused to disappear and their situation shames Australia. Rather than offering another opportunity for political hacks, Australia needs to seek real solutions for the indigenous and truly redress a century and a half of damage. Sadly, I cannot see this ever happening.

The match was more of a contest than I expected. Hopefully, that reflects a team holding something back for the season finale in Istanbul.

The government should be encouraged to apply such forward-thinking and advanced planning to other parts of the economy. It is always good to give people time to adapt before a policy change is implemented.

The reduction in the birth rate is now an established fact for Japan, and many other developed countries, that is going to be very difficult to reverse through cost-effective financial incentives. Instead, the focus of the government should be on what changes are necessary to adapt to a declining and ageing population. Focusing on fertility may be justifiable in the short run, but if it fails to deliver then it leaves the real problem of too few workers supporting too many elderly unaddressed.

Most movies fail to deliver because scripts are so predictable. We all know the hero will ultimately prevail after a succession of setbacks. We know there will be a final confrontation between the good hero and the bad villain. We know which pair will be a couple by the end no matter how mismatched they seem at the beginning. Perhaps some AI will have generate the imagination to break away from this decades-old predictability. Human screenwriters seem wed to these tired script conventions and need shaking up.

I have always found Cathay Pacific to be one of the better airlines. In particular, they serve an Asian food option that is usually palatable. However, I was a victim of racism on one flight. When I requested congee for breakfast I was told "Westerners have egg." I had to refuse the proffered egg and insist on my right to have congee. Only a trivial matter, but a strange mindset for a staff member on an international airline.

The design of a successful economic incentive scheme requires an understanding of the decision process at work. In this case, why are the Japanese choosing to have fewer children? (I say choosing on the assumption that there is not a widespread infertility issue.) Many people claim it is the cost of children but is there any evidence that the cost explains the entire reduction in the birth rate? The counter argument is the observation that country birth rates generally fall as gdp per capita rises, and the birth rate is higher for lower-income groups in many societies. A government plan to increase spending will only work if cost is the explanation and it makes potential parents better off. The latter cannot be taken for granted: for example, an increase in the consumption tax to finance childcare could actually make people feel worse off on balance - and reduce the birth rate further. If, as I suspect but without evidence to back up the claim, the falling birth rate is explained by a complex interaction of economic, psychological, and social factors, then simple financial incentives will have little or no impact.

@rcch How can a club founded in 1880 have "no history"? Manchester City have a long and fascinating history. What the "no history" statement really means is that City were not successful when the author started following football and they have no knowledge of earlier times. The Bert Trautman story is one of the most interesting in football. And Colin Bell's on of the most tragic (and, strangely for a club with no history, I recall being on the Kippax that night in November 1975). Football really did exist before the Premier League was founded in 1992.