to genuinely wonder why australians call the brits poms...

[scatteredbraincells]

...since the Prisoners Of her Majesty were exiled to Australia...

When and how did this start? Anyone in the know?

(I'm now thinking that maybe the Indigenous australians were calling the exiled brits Prisoners and it kind of stuck as a reference to brits??... Just pondering really..)

Even Wikipedia don't know, so you're not alone.

I always thought it was prisoners of mother england. Which I guess, Brits still are in one way or another.

I have a very vague recollection of something to do with the french for potatoes, pomme de terre? But I have no idea why or in what context, and I may well have just completely made it up! [hconfused]

Bugger! Why didn't my smiley work?

from transportation days. New people just in from England were

Prisoners Of his Majesty

I clearly did make it up then!

this is what we were told POM meant when we went on a Duck Trip on the Thames!
Prisoner of Millbank = POM..........

I thought it was short for Pomegrante because the Brits' faces burnt in the sun and that's what they looked like

i used to work with an aussie and asked him exactly this question and he said its from when every one rode horses and aussies said the english couldnt ride a horse properly because english saddles had pommells and aussie ones didnt which got shortened to poms

Thought it was Prisoner of the Motherland, or something similar.

I am British but grew up in aus and was always told it meant prisoner of mother England

ITN has done a poll and people want RB to go!!!!

whoops sorry wrong thread!

Is it cos they think we are bears?