It’s one of the (lesser) reasons I left the place.
Any mention of Europe and too many people’s conversations turn from something interesting into mythical tales about mighty heroes that come across as a lot of the way towards a proto–religion. Worse, criticise them for it, and they come out in boils of resentment.
It’s everywhere. If I buy a contemporary British novel, there’s a pretty good chance a key point of the plot will turn on an event that supposédly happened in WW2.
Yes, the country went through a difficult time, and, yes, it survived, but that was eighty years ago and the world has changed dramatically. Yes, respect the past, but for God’s sake don’t worship it. There are so many Brits who seem to presume their proto–religious mythical adulation of the past is an accurate representation of the present.