Watching The English by Kate Fox. Great bit of pop anthropology on the characteristics of "Englishness". I'm not English myslef, but I do suffer from many of the identifed traits.
I am a particular fan of the "denial rule" of public transport - denial that anyone else exists, and sometimes that even you exist. This rule may only be broken on 3 counts:
1. The politeness rule - to say sorry, excuse me or "is anyone sitting there"
2. The information rule - to ask a direct information question, "is this the Paddington train?"
3. The collective moan - something goes wrong, delay is announced, and everyone is permitted to have a whinge, provided that the denial rule is only temporarily suspended and immediately the problem is resolved, everyone goes back to ignoring one another.
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