Learn from the apprentice

Speak to your average pom and they will tell you that Australia (and Australians) are basically uncivilized, uncultured, and underdeveloped. The reasoning being that the country has only been around for 200 odd years (a sophism, in my mind). On returning recently, I thought I would highlight a couple of places Australia (or at least Melbourne) has it all over England in terms of how far along they are in the scheme of things.

1. Customer service
   
   As rule, customer service is atrocious in London (can't say for elsewhere in England yet). They just do not want to be there. The excuse the locals give me for this is that they are not paid to be polite. I always retort, 'Should they have to be?'
   
   
2. Driver's licence
   
   The UK still use paper licences. Worse still, in an effort to move across to a more modern card based approach, you are issued with both a card and the paper licence and both have to be presented when asked for. It will eventually move to a card-only basis, but the authorities are not saying when and don't seem to be in a rush.
   
   
3. PIN numbers
   
   Up until Valentines day this year, if you went into a store to do a direct debit purchase (aka EFTPOS) you signed the receipt to confirm the transaction. You weren't asked for a PIN. You couldn't use your PIN even if you wanted to. The holes-in-the-wall used them, but in-store PIN ... oh well, better late than never.
   
   Actually, banking is quite a bit behind here in comparison to Oz, but that will probably be subject to its own post one day.
   
   
4. Garbage collection
   
   Is done the old fashioned way. This is not such a silly thing as a quaint thing. The streets are often very narrow so I imagine it is near impossible to get the big automated truck down them. Still, I find it novel.
   
   
5. Shopping hours
   
   Or, rather, the lack of them. Thursday is late night shopping day when closing time is 7pm. Whoopie. On Sunday, most shops have to open late (10-11am) and close early (4pm) - including supermarkets - because that is what the law allows. Ok ... Oxford St stores close a bit late on Saturday, but all in all it can be tough to get to the store you want when you want.
   
   
6. Television licences
   
   Up until the early 70's, Australia funded the ABC by issuing television licences to homes wanting to use their television. Clearly, the powers that prevailed around that time realised how draconian and inefficient that system was and simply incorporated said funding into the tax system. It is 2006 and no such change is due to occur in the UK any time soon. In the meantime, I will pay the 100+ pound a year to run a television in our home ...
   
   
7. Pennies
   
   You can't buy anything with them, so why not get rid of them? When did Australia get rid of one and two cent pieces? Hands up who misses them?
   

Right, that will do for blight-bashing for now. One day soon I will do the opposite exercise - what the UK does much better than Oz (let's start with pay-as-you-go mobile ...)