This cruise ship, carrying 2,500 passengers and crew, is currently in the middle of swine flu hysteria. No surprises here in a country so paranoid about what—and who—it lets in, that I had to have a chest x-ray to get my second visa, just in case I had tuberculosis, riddled as the UK is with that particular disease...This is also the country whose Customs quarantined the mulled wine spice a friend sent me at Christmas on the basis that that highly dangerous substance allspice was banned under quarantine law. (Although further investigation by myself on the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service website has in fact confirmed this to be wrong, but whatever). And let's not even get started on the fact that, as a Pom in Australia, I can't give blood, just in case I have mad cow disease. Fine, I'll keep my blood!
Whingeing aside, there is actually a serious point to this particular blog on Anglo-Oz comparisons. Easy as it is to mock Australia's paranoia, it's something fellow island the UK could probably learn a thing or two from. It's nothing new that immigration in the Motherland is through the roof and that it has a reputation as a pretty easy place to just turn up and start claiming welfare. Better still, have a couple of kids and get a heavily subsidised flat thrown in for good measure. I'm happy to have to prove I'm a useful, skilled, working, tax-paying addition to Australia. Just saying...
Nice post. I'm not allowed to give blood for the same reason, having eaten bovine flesh a couple of times in South London in the '90's. I understand that though.
ReplyDeleteWhat I tend to struggle with is the draconian laws around bringing house pets into this country. In my experience it's little more than a money-making exercise. Domestic short-hair cats are a far smaller risk than a plane full of international travellers, yet the standard quarantine time is vastly different...and I don't see cats spreading swine flu...