When I first heard about the Hong Kong government’s plans to allow the importation of specially qualified carers to look after the elderly, my mind turned to some colloquial English expressions. The first was “set the cat among the pigeons”, which basically means to say or do something that causes a good deal of trouble, alarm, anger or controversy in a peaceful situation. The immediate trigger for this thinking was a brief reference in Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s policy address to the...