Nathan Motton

THE HARD WORD | Blurring Assange’s possible extradition to the US with facing the same legal processes as the rest of us is unhelpful and the ensuing scaremongering has been completely overblown.

THE HARD WORD | So Melbourne was again voted the world’s most livable city beating Vienna, Adelaide, Sydney and Perth to the post.

THE HARD WORD | What have the performances, the reaction and the euphoria revealed about our fiercest rivals, and what has Australia’s stinging response to our campaign shown about these two, great nations? Plenty.

THE HARD WORD | Some of them painful, some joyous and some I’m more than happy to admit. With the first week down of the 2012 Olympics, these are the five things we at The Hard Word have learnt about this year’s Games.

THE HARD WORD | A recent study found travellers who go on camping holidays in the UK will find their break less stressful than those who head abroad. So why such vehement opposition to the whole thing? Why do some deplore the idea of finding the camper within us all?

THE HARD WORD | Must Australia’s summer of sporting misery continue? Must we continue to be the laughing stock of those cheeky Brits, who have all manner of things to sing about? Bring on London 2012 and come on the Aussies!

THE HARD WORD | Having lived in the UK for some time now, I’m constantly amazed at how rude people are here. It’s quite an anomaly though, because the Brits are actually incredibly nice people. So Britons, why the sad face?

THE HARD WORD | Australian MP Craig Emerson’s rendition of the Sky Hooks classic ‘Horror Movie’ went viral. But why the ridiculous, pre-meditated nonsense? Is it cheap PR? Or a desperate, far-fetched attempt to gain traction with a message, in an ever-demanding 24 hour news cycle?

THE HARD WORD | Australia’s media industry has been handed some massive shake-ups in the last fortnight – what with the Fairfax cuts and the News Corp split – but how will this affect our media landscape?

THE HARD WORD | Please can we give up on the misguided attempts to pigeon hole incredible animals like Black Caviar and Frankel, and refrain making unfair comparisons. Can’t we simply just celebrate their striking beauty and phenomenal achievements and leave them be.

THE HARD WORD | Are we expats really surprised by the fact that three Australian cities are now rated as more expensive than London? Surely not. But if and when we choose to return to the motherland, we can head home with the knowledge that $1 is actually worth a lot more than we once appreciated.

THE HARD WORD | The Monarchy just gave a great big two-fingered salute to the doubters, the haters and the critics… and I loved it!

It has suddenly dawned on me; the Leveson Inquiry won’t go on forever. But my cravings are only getting worse.

THE HARD WORD | Australians are being short-changed during summer months by over-zealous Local and State Governments and us Antipodeans know all about it when the UK turns the heat on. Why is it OK to drink alcohol in public places here, and not in our fair shores?

THE HARD WORD | Ricky Nixon is not a celebrity. Far from it. He’s just an average man who has made all kinds of serious errors of judgement. He’s what some would refer to as a D-grade celebrity, a man clearly possessing an over-inflated sense of self-importance. So why turn his life into public viewing?

THE HARD WORD | Why our obsession with our leader’s partners? Is it terribly vain to be so interested in those who are in relationships with our elected politicians? Or is this knowledge a crucial piece of the puzzle in swaying our vote?

THE HARD WORD | In the space of a few short months, Australian athletes can walk into London’s Olympic Stadium with pride, knowing that for the first time in a long time, their uniform is pitch perfect. It’s not over-the-top sporty, nor is it too formal.

Soccer is supposed to be the ‘beautiful game’ but in Australia at the moment, it is nothing but ugly and chaotic.

Australian consumers now realise it is far cheaper to order their own goods from overseas online, than to pay for the excessive mark-ups in the nation’s stores. Soon enough those intelligent buyers will become the majority of the country’s shoppers, so long as exorbitantly priced goods remain on shop floors.