Australian woman living in London tells Brits to 'toughen up' as she slams heatwave reaction

Australian woman living in London tells Brits to 'toughen up' as she slams heatwave reaction 'Can you imagine in Australia if we got sent home, or couldn’t get to and from work because of the heat? My God, the whole economy would shut down' she said in a video posted online An Australian woman living in London has caused widespread outrage after she labelled the British public as "soft" for the UK's reaction the recent June heatwave. Britain, along with the rest of Europe, has struggled under record-breaking temperatures which saw the mercury skyrocket thanks to a “heat dome” effect that came across from the Sahara Desert and into Europe and the UK. Essentially, the dome effect causes air to sink down through the Earth's atmosphere, which compresses and heats up as it hits the ground. As per the World Health Organisation, around 1,300 people have died across Europe since June 21 due to the adverse weather conditions, indicating that a "heat dome" is not to be trifled with. Taila Batiste is an Australian woman currently living in Battersea in London's south-west. She took to social media to share what has since become a rather unpopular opinion about the heatwave. Specifically, she shared her thoughts on the British reaction to the warm weather. In the TikTok clip, Batiste said it was absurd that the major international city was grinding to a halt due to the warm weather, with such temperatures not even to cop a second thought Down Under. "Brits are a bit soft, I think," the video's caption reads, with Batiste delving deeper into her controversial hot take in her 32-second video. “I’m just on the train in London because of the heatwave, and they have reduced services,” she says at the start of the clip. “So the next few days there are less trains, and they are advising you not to travel unless it’s completely necessary. Also, schools are closing early because of the heat. Can you imagine in Australia if we got sent home, or couldn’t get to and from work because of the heat? My God, the whole economy would shut down”. The video has since gone viral after it struck a chord with Britons for all the wrong reasons. Many instantly fired up at her, seemingly taking umbrage to being described as needing to "toughen up". One person commented: “Girl, my classroom today was 37 degrees. I had no aircon, 30 kids and old infrastructure that’s designed to retain heat. Please, sit this one out." A second added: “If you’re in London, you should know then that the buildings and trains aren’t equipped to deal with the heat", while a third said: “It’s called being acclimatised; we are not used to these kinds of temperatures in the UK." A fourth chimed in with: "Hey, guess what, we don’t have this kind of weather often. You DO have it often in Australia and are equipped for it." In an Interview with Australian media back home, Batiste described the British backlash as “up there with the most hate" she had ever received. “I’m being called uneducated because I’m simply saying that in Australia, life would go on as normal,” she told Australian news website news.com.au. “Meanwhile, schools and public transport are shut down, and the city is on red alert in London if it hits 30 degrees. They were getting so defensive and angry — probably because they’re hot.” She added: “I have rage-baited the whole of England.” But it wasn't just the British that waded into her comments section. Even Batiste's fellow Aussies pushed back on her comments that they didn't think were fair dinkum. One TikTok user said: "“Think about it as if Australia had snow and freezing temperatures for a week. You wouldn’t cope; it would be the same thing." A second added: "As an Australian also living in the UK… you clearly haven’t lived here long enough if you think the heat is the same over here. UK buildings are built to trap all heat in. 35° outside means min 30° inside!" A third chipped in with: "Okay, but as Australians it’s something we are used to? We’ve got fans, aircons, cooler building designs. They aren’t used to heat like that, they don’t have aircons like we do, their buildings are designed for the colder weather." That social media user had a point - Australian homes are built differently than those in the UK, with homes in the colder Northern Hemisphere climates built to trap heat in.... which usually isn't a problem. Batiste told news.com.au that while she didn’t expect to become such a target when she shared her thoughts on TikTok, she still thought Brits needed to “toughen up”. “It was around 32 degrees on the day I filmed, but the coming days were slated to hit 35 and 36,” Ms Batiste told Australian news website news.com.au. “I’ve been in England during summer four times now, and every time there has been a ‘heatwave’,” she said. "Why are they not realising this is their climate changing, and maybe their infrastructure and attitudes need to change too? “A heatwave in summer is not new for them, but they are acting like it’s an apocalypse.”