Australians are struggling to muster much sympathy as whingeing Poms swelter in what may prove to be the hottest temperatures ever recorded in the UK.
In fact, Britain’s heatwave hysteria is causing much amusement down under, where the record stands at 50.7C.
“It was the hottest day of the year in the UK and Brits could not cope,” declares the headline in The Sydney Morning Herald.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“Poms told not to go outside,” says Australian news site News.com.au. “Britain is melting, apparently, as it faces its hottest summer in a century. But don’t feel too sorry for our Pom mates - because it turns out their definition of ‘heatwave’ is dramatically different from ours.”
The site notes that the UK’s top hot spot, Santon Downham in Suffolk, saw the mercury soar to 33.3C, before dropping to 24.3C at 11pm - “a temperature most Aussies would probably welcome during out own scorching summers”.
The problem is that the English do not know how to cope with heat, said the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper yesterday in an article headlined, “Why British people can’t handle heat - and we can”.
The newspaper spoke to the president of Australia’s Climate and Health Alliance, Dr Elizabeth Hanna, who explained that Brits are not used to sweating so much and don’t understand the importance of staying out of the sun and drinking lots.
Abigail Malbon, a UK expat living in Australia, is also taken aback by the summer madness back home.
“I’m fully aware that everyone is laughing at the English. Look at them, with their ‘stifling’ heat, sunbaking in their gardens and complaining that it’s just too hot to bear. Can you believe they’re saying that they can’t sleep? That’s an average day here in January!” she writes on Nine.com.au.
But Malbon notes that if the tables were turned in winter and the temperatures dropped to minus degrees most days in Australia, it would be making the news.
“Aussies; give us a break,” writes Malbon. “We don’t get it very much, and when we do, we like to enjoy it the only way the Brits know how: by complaining, while simultaneously basking with a beer in hand.”
-
How the ‘British FBI’ will workThe Explainer New National Police Service to focus on fighting terrorism, fraud and organised crime, freeing up local forces to tackle everyday offences
-
The best family hotels in EuropeThe Week Recommends Top kid-friendly hotels with clubs, crèches and fun activities for children of all ages – and some downtime for the grown-ups
-
Moon dust has earthly elements thanks to a magnetic bridgeUnder the radar The substances could help supply a lunar base
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
Australia weighs new gun laws after antisemitic attackSpeed Read A father and son opened fire on Jewish families at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, killing at least 15
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
