NKSK version 2

The types of topics which are discussed on these boards can't be subjected to the rigour of the Enlightenment. Most of the topics are anecdotal and opinionated.

The British are renowned for being downbeat or at best nonchalant about their country - we can't even get enthused about a national day or the flying of the flag - and in this case the numbers trying to leave the UK each year possibly support the anecdote.

There aren't many other pairs of Anglo-Saxon countries which are as contrasting as the UK and Australia in their pysche - (US and UK possibly).

Aussies may well criticise their own country, but this is different from allowing others to criticise it.
And I have to say that rarely hear people in the UK - talkback radio, in the street, family and friends - singing the praises of the UK.

MartinLuther

I would agree that some Aussies do not take criticism of their country well but the same can be said for the English (as well as the Yanks and the French and to varying degrees all other countries).

I don't find the Aussie and English psyche that different. I'd put it on the same scale as the difference between the English and the Scots or the English and the Welsh and certainly less than that found between the English and the Irish.

Just my opinion

Wol

Ignoring the second sentence, I think the reason that Australians - and this, of course, is a generalisation - don't accept anything which isn't wholly positive lies in the way they've been told since birth that everything here is so much better than anywhere else.

I remember watching the government ads in the eighties (IIRC) plugging continuously the "Australian Community" and thinking how naff they were: how much like a amateurish attempt at brainwashing. But they must have been effective.

It's not so much that anything negative is taken as a slight on Australia - I think it just baffles them. If one complains about something substandard that has been ordered, the instinctive reaction so often is to deny it, then to infer that the customer is somehow at fault and only very reluctantly to accept it.

NKSK version 2

tictac

Tin Pot is the term I'd use and I'd not limit it to politics either

And while I'm venting, comparing English psyches with Aussie psyches is like comparing chalk with cheese

In my observations, many of the Aussies I'm currently working with are so far up-themselves that they squeak when they walk.

You could not wish to meet a shallower, lifeless, more miserable bunch of people, in need of a serious personality and humour transplant, if you tried.

This, unfortunately, is common with many Australians I meet outside of the work environment too.

jond

I think it just baffles them.



This is very true.

I remember having a beer in a pub over here with some friends and we got onto the subject of houses in the UK. When I said that from the bedroom of my old house you could not see another house just fields, one of the blokes just said that that was impossible as all the houses were joined together and backed onto each. I laughed because I thought he was joking, but he wasn't, it wasn't until my BIL joined in that he sort of believed me.

He had been brought up to believe this and not matter what was said it was ingrained in him to believe it. Same as the weather etc

MartinLuther

Maybe I'm just more diplomatic about this stuff but I don't have any problems discussing, with Aussie colleagues, what works and what doesn't or what's been done better in my previous experience abroad.

I think it helps that I've had, in England, 17 years of experience of treating the locals with kid gloves.

I can see that some English people may have a problem here as I can see some Aussies (but not all) have a historical enmity to the poms and their ideas. On the other side of the coin I can see that it upsets some poms (but not all) that the Aussies don't always follow the English way of doing things. It seems to particularly incense some poms that the Aussies readily adopt things from America.

Personally I find the Aussies a lot easier to live with than the English. But. we're all different, so vive la difference, as they say in another country that thinks highly of itself.

jond

In my observations, many of the Aussies I'm currently working with are so far up-themselves that they squeak when they walk.

You could not wish to meet a shallower, lifeless, more miserable bunch of people, in need of a serious personality and humour transplant, if you tried.

This, unfortunately, is common with many Australians I meet outside of the work environment too.




Don't hold back, say what you think

IvanM

I wonder if Kevin Rudd will re-open the AWB enquiry and extend the remit to cover who knew what in government. Pretty crafty of Howard to restrict the enquiry to exclude government. Giving $300 million to Saddam Hussein in return for wheat sales maked most other corrupt activity here seem insignificant.

BadgeIsBack

But unfortunately, alot of migrants are not the brightest. Especially the ones who knock the UK in the most grieving terms. My view has been to an extent, of coure they complain, it's to politicise their guilt at wanting to slope off to the sun. They don't really care about asylum seekers. They want a bigger house.

And many migrants stuff up and or work in the sort of jobs where stupidity abounds. I once had a job like that in the UK fortunately only for 6 weeks and it was a real eye opener.

My view is that Australians don't shout about how good they are all the time, and if they do, it's it a bit of well-earnt exuberance which infact many countries do including the Brits and the French. "Elite Brit Marines and Paras take the Falklands" etc. The fact is for many years, Australians had a standard of living in some respects quite high compared or well sought after and many realise which side of their bread is buttered. In fact outsiders and tourists tell them this - can you blame them for being bemused? For many years it has been, 'Wow you guys have great weather, larger houses, you all seem so laid back''. It is not just what they get told by their own.

This IS changing on some levels, but the quality of living is still high compared to many places in the world.

I think it is preposterous to tar all Australians with the same brush, that's all.
And like Martin says, I think the pschye, humour etc of the Brits and Australians is more similar than people admit. It's one of the reasons I like it here in a way I might not fare quite so well in say the US.

BadgeIsBack

Diplomacy and tact goes along way, even I've been known to employ it when it is needed.

I actually think a lot of ''whinging Poms'' are no way as diplomatic, or as flexible or as resourceful as they should be. I have observed problematic Poms with personality transplants from a distance (I've made sure I'm hidden with head down so as not to be implicated), and often they really being it on themselves - and in my experience, I sense they were not much cop in the UK either. You feel: 'Christ I hope this is not the standard of migrant'.

There are migrants who complain about Australians and the way they get treated but ultimately I sense that they probably started it or continued to fuel it as I've met no Australian who really continues to feel the English for example, are the root of all their problems after a 5 min joke.

jond

But unfortunately, alot of migrants are not the brightest.

And many migrants stuff up and or work in the sort of jobs where stupidity abounds. I once had a job like that in the UK fortunately only for 6 weeks and it was a real eye opener.




That's a bit harsh, most of the one's I know are far from thick. apart from my mate who is an accountant who I saw counting his golf score using his fingers

John

NKSK version 2

I think that I listen to talkback radio too much. The people that I work with are fantastic - generally very cosmopolitan, and pretty self-effacing. But they are smart people. (And I'm in danger if getting into social Darwinism again...)
But the "Australia-is-amazing" comes from popular media - and I have to say that I find it way over the top.

paddyo

Getting back on topic, I think this sums up the issue. Its nothing to do with the nationality but the complete lethargy and 'thats the way it is' thats accepted by the populace. I have no doubt it p'sses them all off but its become so commonplace it is assumed that nothing can be done about it.

I know, lets start a public uprising against corruption and misuse of public funds against the state and then the federal governments!! Oh, hold on, maybe not, I think I am straying into the realms of incitement to riot here!!

Author's note to the judiciary; This thread is intended as a light hearted discussion to exchange viewpoints between British expats only, not aussies, as the website name implies quite accurately!

BadgeIsBack

Which is why I never use it..

cheers