Well, I would question a UKTV survey. One UKTV channel was recently rebranded simply as ‘Dave TV’. The watching demographic will hardly be representative of the UK population.
As for ‘Whingeing Poms’: Isn’t it a bit hypocritical (and ironic) that Aussies are always whingeing about them? Just a thought. Also, why is Australia trying to attract more and more whingeing Poms to its shores if they are so much trouble? Recent cricket scandals seem to suggest that Aussies are the last to talk about whinging. :-)
And you gave the world ‘Neighbours!’ Hang your head in shame man! ;-)
No, it's not hypocritical at all. It's an historical matter. Australia was settled by convicts from Britain and people who worked very hard to establish a life in this country. Their spirit was still very much alive a few generations later when we arrived as migrants in 1949. In the fifties when the english migrants began to arrive, being 'on the dole' was out of the question for an able-bodied Australian. The population was just on 7 million at the time.
The europeans were housed in migrant camps and shortly after arrival, more often than not within a matter of weeks, fanned out across the country to take up their two year work contracts for the government. They assimilated quickly.
I am not sure why so many Brits remained in the camps for several years, but they did. Perhaps being British they were not required to sign a government contract. It was from these camps the early complaints originated. The culture of 'the government should provide' showed itself in complaints about the living conditions, the amount of welfare received, and of course, the complete lack of government housing.
Government Housing? There never was any. Whatever gave the Brits that idea? The europeans, in the small town where we ended up, built themselves shacks out of scrap timber and waterproof packaging. Our family were lucky enough to find a small house to rent without plumbing that cost half of our weekly income...my father, a professional, dug irrigation ditches for eight years!
The 'whinging poms' earned their name because their expectations were not met. Perhaps they simply came because they were sick of english weather? I've often thought they 'whinged' because they did have something to go back to. Most european migrants didn't.