Originally Posted by toandfro

well put , but you will not get an ounce of understanding as you have again committed the cardinal sin of disagreement .

Originally Posted by LouiseD

I agree - we are certainly encouraged to come here. We are given an image of the perfect land where work and pay is plentiful. When you have spent years collecting evidence of your trade, filling in forms, going for medicals etc. not to mention to cost of it all, then you give up your home, job and security and set off across the world only to find it isn't exactly like that at all..... it's no wonder really that people do sometimes get frustrated and look for someone to blame.

I personally blame only ourselves for getting sucked in. But I do get annoyed that so much of the truth is disguised about Australia. You only have to watch the news channels here to see how they manipulate everything to look like Australia is the best at everything.

And please don't anyone call the Brits who want to go home for blaming Australia - I've never known a country like it for blaming other cultures for their problems: A magazine I was reading the other day blamed the Irish for their gambling problems, a guy on TV yesterday blamed David Beckham for the craze here for lavish kids birthday parties. The media here try to sell us the idea that all Australians are perfect, law abiding, upstanding citizens but if they do happen to do anything wrong, it's the influence of non-Aussies that made them do it.

Rosie I totally agree with you, if we can't come onto a moving back to the UK forum and get things off our chests, then where can we?

Originally Posted by Rosie Cheeks

Perfectly written, LouiseD.

Does the Uk government hold fairs in Australia about moving to the UK?

Originally Posted by chels

NB - well done on achieving the perfect life in Australia. And I'm not beingsarcastic! I think people can try so very hard to achieve the perfect life here, but for some reason it's falling short of their hopes and aspirations. After the effort people make to move here, and the financial commitment in involves, very few would probably not make an effort to enjoy life and get the most out of living here.

Originally Posted by Dreamaway 10

Here Here Could not agree more.Some very valid ponts I reckon!.Rosie Cheeks

Originally Posted by LouiseD

I agree - we are certainly encouraged to come here. We are given an image of the perfect land where work and pay is plentiful. When you have spent years collecting evidence of your trade, filling in forms, going for medicals etc. not to mention to cost of it all, then you give up your home, job and security and set off across the world only to find it isn't exactly like that at all..... it's no wonder really that people do sometimes get frustrated and look for someone to blame.

I personally blame only ourselves for getting sucked in. But I do get annoyed that so much of the truth is disguised about Australia. You only have to watch the news channels here to see how they manipulate everything to look like Australia is the best at everything.

And please don't anyone call the Brits who want to go home for blaming Australia - I've never known a country like it for blaming other cultures for their problems: A magazine I was reading the other day blamed the Irish for their gambling problems, a guy on TV yesterday blamed David Beckham for the craze here for lavish kids birthday parties. The media here try to sell us the idea that all Australians are perfect, law abiding, upstanding citizens but if they do happen to do anything wrong, it's the influence of non-Aussies that made them do it.

Rosie I totally agree with you, if we can't come onto a moving back to the UK forum and get things off our chests, then where can we?

Originally Posted by northernbird

My life is far from perfect but I am happy here. Life is full of compromise, nowhere and nobody is perfect.

Originally Posted by chels

For some reason I thought you had said something about it being perfect - looking back I see that you used the slightly more prosaic 'good'. I think I quite liked the idea of someone admitting to have a perfect life, if someone has one of those there's hope for me yet

Originally Posted by northernbird

perfection doesn't exist.

Originally Posted by ShozInOz

A lot of truth in this post. Culturally, the British are and have long been very self critical. This is best displayed in British humour. Australia is culturally quite the reverse. Comedy is developing to buck this trend, e.g. Kath and Kim, Australian of the Year award. But for Average Joe, the insularity and parochialism remains in epic proportions. There are two types of pride, and for me, too often, Australia's pride dips into the deadly sin variety, i.e. utterly self-centred. This leads to the huge blind spot and attribution error to which you refer, which prevents Australians from seeing Australia as it really is, and attributing its problems to "non-Australian" sources.

The exposition of Australia in the media is simply a joke. I remember an article on BBC website that would have been utterly hillarious if it were any more ludicrous. Before you set off to work in your $400 glass bottomed boat via the great barrier reef and under the harbour bridge, oh and via Uluru somehow, drinking a 25cent bottle of wine and a 50cent lobster for breakfast, have a laugh at this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4160570.stm. The Australian Tourism Protection Board must have caughed up a pretty penny, I mean cent, for this one.

Originally Posted by chels

I had to check the date and make sure it hadn't been written on 1 April.

Does the BBC not do its own research / check the 'facts' a PR person has given them (actually, as a former PR I know the answer already to this one)?