Eric Weiner, a former New York Times journalist is unhappy with some of our national traits

First they said they didn’t understand it. Now they say we don’t have it any more. The British sense of humour, supposedly one of our defining national characteristics, is once again lost on the Americans.
However dear readers, whilst I might bellyache on a daily basis about the decline of once Great Britain, I remain resolutely firm in the belief that we still have so much to be grateful for. As Bill Bailey pointed out

for one, unlike so much of the World, we have no natural predators … although admittedly a badger might give you a nasty nip or indeed hedgehogs hiding up in the trees could slip & fall into your eyes. But in the absence of a falling Erinaceus europaeus you remain reasonably safe. Indeed I would even go as far to say that we have so much to be grateful for.

We have Nectar points, they are useful. We have understatement. We are tough on slogans & tough on the causes of slogans. Although today we are being buffeted by Atlantic storms, normally we are saved from the excesses of continental weather by the Gulf Stream & prevailing warm south westerly winds. Ok, so some might think that it started raining in the late middle ages & not stopped since, statistics show that 6 out of 10 days are in fact overcast. This imbues us with a wistful melancholy – yet we remain a resolutely chipper people, prone to mild eccentricity, binge drinking & casual violence. & what the somewhat amusingly named Mr Weiner completely misses is that whilst Blightly might be going to hell in a handcart … at least we don’t have Hillary Clinton