A lot of British people, of all classes, ages, sexes and incomes are simply uncouth people of larger or more reigned in degrees. Regardless of how it is covered up, it is still there.
The British are often tetchy, inwardly festering, boring, given to awkwardly overt displays of aggression, posturing, pseudo-intellectualism, pseudo-sophistication, faux displays of 'down to earthedness', desperate and half baked humour... the list goes on. They are the reason that bands like Radiohead exist- some young, clever, good, people are suffocated and disappointed by the blinkered, cliche-dependent (cream teas/ London buses etc) British. Because the British over a certain age associate fun and drink as being synonomous, the less drink-obsessed USA is attacked on a different front instead- for liking its food slightly more. Overlooking the healthy people of such places as California, the British sit on a self appointed pedestal of sef loathing masqerading as superiority. Having no empire, the British naturally decide to hate those countries who still do have a sizeable land mass. The British complain about jobs moving abroad and yet they rarely buy clothes that are made in Britain.
Americans, do not waste a second thinking that the British are necessarily more gentlemanly, cultured etc than you. I suggest that anyone who doubts me studies the work of American lyricist Van Dyke Parks as one example, who, in his 20s, worked with Brian Wilson on the Smile album.