Was having a discussion about health care here in Britain compared with Australia because recently I have experienced both... I was talking about the different attitudes to health in general and cholestrol, and that here a much higher level of cholersterol is considered acceptable "because the average is so much higher". I was v shocked when my doctor said this - basically he was telling me that they move the goalposts, have the 'pass rate' at a much higher level, rather than urge more people to lower their cholesterol... anyway...
W said the reason for the higher cholesterol here was "all the immigrants" and I swiftly moved her onto another topic. I assumed she was talking about the fact that if you're black or asian you have a higher risk of high cholesterol/heart disease, but it was such a negative way of putting it, as usual - blame the immigrant, blame someone else... all of Britian is much worse off because of them...
And I know this phenomenon has nothing to do with non-white British people. I know white British people with cholesterol readings of 8 who have doctors who haven't talked about diet. They won't even mention that there might be an issue unless you're over 6... but if we can blame someone else, then that's how we'll choose to look at it.