Thanks, that's some interesting context.


I think democratic capitalism, for all its flaws, is the best system we can have. The main reason I favour left-of-centre politicians is because a right-of-centre government simply acts as an enabler and accelerator of the endemic flaws... whereas the left acts (or should act) as a much-needed brake.


In my country - and I believe also in the US - the two main political parties are very similar; there is a consensus between them on most things, with only minor differences. I'm not at all convinced that a 'lefty' would rise up on command to do Biden's bidding. Maybe they'd be more likely to if Bernie Sanders was running things, but then I can't imagine him advocating gun-waving lunacy.

I think the '3 year ban' thing is just media sensationalism. It's probably a rule for general immigration rejections, but this is a special case, and if he gets banned I'm sure he'd be allowed back in the following year (subject to vaccine rules, of course).





Again I don't know if this is the media playing it up a bit. It may be that he did the test on the 16th, but didn't get results back until some days later. Maybe he knew, maybe he didn't, but I'm reluctant to criticise him on this as I'm not sure of the situation.

This probably differs by country. In the UK, everything is results-driven. A teacher whose students don't score well in exams drags his/her school down the league table. This will be very visible to those running the school.

The question about students being unable to grasp what they need to know is to an extent a separate issue, and I do agree with you. The issue in my country is that students aren't educated, they're simply trained to pass exams - a very different thing.

But yes, if you pay teachers more without changing the criterion for success, it simply results in teachers who are better able to train students to pass exams, you don't improve the education level.

I'm very sceptical that you have lefty friends.



Whenever this sort of 'solution' is raised as a possibility, the person raising it is always from the anti-vaxxer / Trump fanboi set. You don't need to worry about your 'lefty friends' going on a shooting spree.




Imagine you are driving a car, and have no passengers. Two things you can do to increase your chance of death are i) not wearing a seatbelt, and ii) downing a bottle of scotch before you get behind the wheel.
Option i is perhaps an individual liberty issue, option ii is certainly not. If your action increases the chance of other people dying, then it is not about individual liberty. The purpose of vaccination is to protect everybody. If you are less likely to contract and transmit the virus, you are less likely to infect and kill other people. Take the vaccine.

I don't think he's awful at all, I think he's quite good, and certainly better than some others on the grid. But I do think he's over-rated, and the four titles flatter him, as he's not been able to replicate that form without a supremely dominant car. My use of the word 'awful' was just a way to question whether number of overtakes is necessarily a good measure of ability, a hypothetical example of a driver in a good car who is bad at qualifying.


No, Vettel is a better driver than Stroll.



Alonso had second most overtakes out of anyone, so I don't think this says much.


Overall, I think Vettel is a good driver. I don't think he's awful, but I don't think he's great. I think if he was at Mercedes or Red Bull, then Max or Lewis would outclass him quite easily in the same car.

So now Djokovic has won his appeal... a crazy situation get even more absurd!

They've been ordered to release him from detention, reinstate his visa and return his passport, so he's free to compete in the AO...

... or is he? What has actually happened is that he's been released on a technicality because the judge has said the way they cancelled his visa wasn't right. This has zero bearing on whether he should have actually been granted a visa in the first place. The Australian immigration minister can quite easily still intervene and re-cancel it, and I imagine he's under quite a lot of pressure to do just that.

It looks like the case will just rumble on for a bit, until we've heard from the Australian government.

TBH I've been laughing throughout the whole thread.

We've had discussions about Vettel before, and I still think he's over-rated. Does most overtakes mean that someone is a good driver? What if it just means that they are awful in qualifying, and they are driving a car that should always start much further up the grid, so come race time they get a load of overtakes on cars that are significantly worse, but can't really overtake anyone in a car that is the same or better?

Perez managed a lot more overtakes in 2021 than Verstappen did, driving the same car. This is not because Perez is better, but is actually because he's worse, and so starts further back.


Whenever I look for the overtakes list, it only ever shows the top few drivers. Do you have a link to a full list covering all drivers? I'm interested in checking because I have a suspicion that Bottas managed zero overtakes all season.

Djokovic clearly didn't meet the criteria to be allowed entry, and neither did Voracova.

But yes, it's certainly true that if Djokovic wasn't such a high profile figure, and if he had decided to stay at home, then Voracova and others would have been able to remain in Australia, and to play tennis.

The way I view it is that Australia allowed in some players in who shouldn't have been allowed according to the law, but no-one really noticed and so no-one made a fuss. But as soon as Djokovic got involved it all became very high profile, and the political wrangling started, everything got brought into the open, and so Voracova has now been deported, Djokovic is awaiting his legal hearing, and all other tennis players who were granted an exemption are now being investigated.

The fact is that Djokovic and other players should not be allowed in if they aren't vaccinated and don't have legitimate medical reasons for this; this is the policy, and it should have been adhered too. But it wasn't, and no-one really noticed this until Djokovic got involved, and now it's become all about political positioning. But regardless, he doesn't meet the criteria for entry.

The video is good, yes, thanks for sharing. I certainly think there is something to the argument that the PM is "doing a tough guy act" because Covid cases are rising, and there is an upcoming election. Equally Nadal is perfectly correct to say that Djokovic knew the rules months ago, and that actions have consequences, and this was all predictable.

Djokovic shouldn't expect to get into the country as he has no real medical grounds to do so, and is attempting to bypass the rules. But this should have been made clear at the outset, before he got on the plane. The situation where Australia says "yes", and then when he arrives they say "actually, no" and then put him in a quarantine hotel is just ridiculous.

Talking about ridiculous, the Serbian leader and Djokovic's parents sound like absolute lunatics. The hyperbole is absurd: "They are keeping him in jail" "Serbia will fight for justice and truth" "Tonight they can throw him in a dungeon, tomorrow they can put him in chains" "Novak is the Spartacus of the New World" "They are keeping him as a prisoner. It's not human"

The best thing that can come out of this is that a spotlight is thrown on the plight of the refugees who have apparently been holed up in that hotel for 8 years.

The ATP isn't a world government. It's not even a government. They don't get to ignore international laws. Every ATP or WTA or ITF tournament takes place in a country. And the laws of that country - whichever country the tournament happens to be in - have to be obeyed. It is absolutely immaterial whether the ATP say players should or shouldn't be vaccinated, because in every tournament the country decides. ATP saying players don't have to be vaccinated is utterly irrelevant to everything. The only way an ATP decision on this could be relevant is if they said players did have to be vaccinated, and the country said they didn't have to be, in which case players would be more protected than the people of the nation. ATP saying players don't have to be vaccinated just merits a shrug of the shoulders, great, so what.




Well, Djokovic's next attempt at a slam would be the French Open. And the French President has just said that he wants to make life difficult for unvaccinated people. I don't think this ends in Australia.




I think we'd all agree that Australia have handled this badly. Djokovic may not be completely the victim here, but neither is Australia blameless in the fiasco.




I don't know what it's like in Australia, but I know what it's like in my country. There have been strict lockdowns and strict rules, people have even been prevented from seeing loved ones as they die, in order to reduce the spread of the virus. But we have seen time and time again that ordinary people have to deal with these rules, but the rich and famous get to completely ignore them and do whatever the hell they want. I assume the antagonism towards Djokovic is based on that. He appears utterly unconcerned. Maybe he genuinely doesn't get it, and just has no empathy?




Definitely it's not just him, but he's obviously the one that makes the headlines. I believe the other exemptions are now being investigated, too.

Yes, I'm still not happy with it. I don't see how anyone can be happy with it, really. Even Verstappen, who for many people isn't really the world champion, as it was given to him instead of him winning it.
As for whether they'll do it again, I wouldn't be surprised if they did. It does cast a long shadow over the 2022 season, if everyone knows that the officials can ignore the rules whenever they feel like it generates more entertainment... when the fairness is taken away, it's when a sport stops being a sport.

I know people who've been infected recently (in the UK), and it's all the omicron variant, which is sweeping through the population very rapidly. Check the data for your country, but it's likely omicron that you have. If so, it's relatively good news in that the symptoms for this variant are on average much less severe.

Forgot about work for a while. Hope you both get better soon.

Not really. It's that some Australian officials (particularly Tennis Australia) want to make an exception and let him in, and some Australian officials (particularly the Prime Minister) don't want him to get any special treatment. It's a conflict between Australian authorities, that is playing out in public. Djokovic finds himself in the middle of it, not as an innocent victim, but because he is quite knowingly trying to force his way through a closed door, and one person is trying to open it for him, whilst another is trying to keep it closed.



Yes, certainly.



That's brilliant!



Of course it's linked. As Nadal has said, Djokovic has been well aware of the rules for entering Australia for many months, and is aware that he doesn't meet the requirements (either vaccinated or medically exempt). He's trying to get the rules bent so that he can play without being vaccinated and without having any medical reason for exemption. Djokovic is treating the entire population of Australia with utter contempt. They've been under some of the strictest lockdowns in the world for a very long time now, and he thinks because he's a top tennis player he can just ignore the rules and wander in whenever he pleases. Well, now he's finding out that he can't. And taking this to court is another phenomenal misstep, that will further damage his already tattered reputation. He's not an innocent victim here, he's not a moron who is somehow utterly unaware of the pandemic and how Australia have been managing it for the past two years. He wants to be treated like a VIP who can ignore the law.

This isn't simply someone wanting to play in a tournament. It's directly and inextricably linked to the problems that the world is facing.

Except when he doesn't. His four titles came in that ridiculously dominant Red Bull. If you give him a car that is vastly better than any other car, and a weak team-mate, then yes, he will get you that championship.
But as 2018 showed, put him in a car that is only marginally better than the competition, and he will buckle and throw away the title.

I think he's over-rated. I think if everyone was in the same car, it would be Lewis and Max out way ahead of the rest. Alonso is a bit of an unknown quantity until he gets a good car, he might be up there with them. Everyone else would be way back.

So apparently the world's new 'most hated man in sport' is now challenging the decision to revoke his visa, after his lawyers successfully prevented him being kicked out of the country.
I must say my opinion of Djokovic is dropping rapidly. What an arrogant b***ard. Can you imagine the reaction now if he actually succeeds with his challenge, and turns up to play at the tournament? He's displaying absolute contempt for the Australian people, and directly challenging the prime minister who was trying to take steps to protect the country.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/06/novak-djokovic-to-challenge-australian-visa-cancellation-in-federal-court

Coeliac disease is simply gluten intolerance. It is extremely common, and has no bearing on whether or not you can be vaccinated. He might as well say he has hayfever.

There has been a huge backlash already about this. And there is conflict between the Australian authorities. Tennis Australia have said he's got an exemption, but after they announced it, this from earlier today:


Quote from the link below. Which also features some sample Twitter comments from ordinary Australians.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/05/appalling-message-outrage-over-novak-djokovics-medical-exemption-to-play-australian-open

I think if he does play - which still isn't clear - then the crowd will be hugely against him. From a betting angle, I wouldn't bet on him to win the tournament in these circumstances.

TBH if Hamilton was driving one of those things at a night race, and Verstappen crashed into the back of him, even I might believe the excuse of "It was an accident! I didn't see him!".
Looks good, though. They really are a very different shape to the 2021 cars.