Most people think in stereotypes. Travellers to Britain from all over the world noticed different characteristics about the British character

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"For centuries the British have been known as snobbish, aloof, hypocritical and unsociable".

"The British are said to be a polite and well-mannered people. Englishmen tend to be rather conservative, they love familiar things".

"The English are practical and realistic, prudent and careful about almost everything. Everything is orderly: the lawns and the trees are neatly trimmed".

"The British people are considered to be the world's greatest tea drinkers. They drink it at meals and between meals".

"Every Englishman is said to be a countryman at heart. The English countryside is many things to many people. It stands for freshness, for leisure, fun and games".

"The English are reputed to have a good sense of humour".

"The Scots are said to be serious people, rather inventive and somewhat mystical".

"The Irish are known for their charm as well as for beauty of the Irish girls".

"The Welsh are emotional people but sometimes reticent".

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The British Character

The national character of the English has been very differently described but most commentators agree over one quality, which they describe as fatuous self-satisfaction, serene sense of superiority or insular pride. English patriotism is based on a deep sense of security. Englishmen as individuals may have been insecure, threatened by the boss of a job, unsure of themselves, or unhappy in many ways but as a nation they have been for centuries secure and serene in their national successes. They have not lived in a state of hatred of their neighbours as Frenchmen or Germans have often lived. This national sense of security hardly threatened by the Armada, or by Napoleon, ог by the First World War has been greatly weakened by the Second World War and by the invention of the atomic bomb.

The typical Englishman is too polite and too inarticulate to say so. But he can't avoid a slightly patronishing attitude to foreigners, which foreigners sometimes find hard to accept. He's not aware of it himself. He's not aware that he looks down on his immediate neighbours. He likes the Scots and the Welsh — they're the sort of people he would like to be if he couldn't be English. He even pays them the compliment of calling them English, and is puzzled to find they resent it.

First time visitors meet a number of British stereotypes — tonguetied Englishmen, unreliable Welshmen, bad-tempered Scots. After a while these cartoon characters disappear and the truth emerged that people all over the world are pretty much alike when you get to know them.

Britons working abroad long for the day when they can retire home and Britons at home rarely consider retirement abroad. Yet you meet many foreign residents in Britain who are determined to extend their tours of duty or settle down for good somewhere in Bri-tain. If the natives are not all that sociable, if since early seventies the economic prospects have been getting steadily worse, and if some deprived inner-city areas have become subject to a kind of violence unknown in Britain before..., what's the attraction?

The attraction has something to do with Britain's stable society, her insular position and freedom from foreign invasions down the ages. "You're so relaxed, you're really civilized", is the comment of foreign residents in Britain; to which they add something about the "quality of life" and "wonderful policemen". These days the police are coming in for criticism, but the foreign visitor still finds them wonderful, helpful and courteous.

The laws and customs are respected by the vast majority of people. On the whole, the typical Briton is patient and docile and polite to strangers. He hates to make a fuss and would rather live with his problem and grumble about it than look for a dramatic solution to it.

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