Do Europeans hate the Brits?

[Floofydawg]

We're in Spain at the minute and have encountered some pretty hostile behaviour. Not so much from the Spanish, as we speak the language, but from other Europeans. We've been coming here many years and I've never before encountered such hostility. It got me thinking, do many Europeans dislike the Brits?

The whole Continent I'm sure admires Britain

😂😂

Could it be because you get a lot of English on holiday, buying up the properties, having a dominant presence, going overseas for football, sporting events, throwing a ton of money around on stags/hens/40th birthdays (yeah yeah I know it's what some of us do!) etc so when they realise you are Irish or Welsh or Scottish, it's them being nicely surprised as in awww we don't get to talk to many Welsh/Scots/Irish, how nice amongst this sea of English!

I’m English but have many Irish and Scottish friends.
It was always slightly embarrassing that they got treated better in terms of warmth and hospitality by Europeans when on group holidays together. I don’t think this poster is trying to be nasty.

I have Scottish friends and no-one in Europe has ever professed a preference, all treated equally.

Bear in mind that the idiot Trump and the idiot Johnson were constantly on European TV screens during their ‘reign’.

We Brits were repetitively shown to be haters of Europe. (ignore the reality)

European media were delighted to show the two elected clowns performing. Again and again…

To my recollection the ratio of leave voters to stay voters was never stressed, just the latest madness of the two idiots.

What view would you have from that?

As older people passed on, European respect for Brits eroded gradually since the end of WW2. Parading our elected posh boys pushed it off a cliff.

There’s no going back.

'Bear in mind that the idiot Trump and the idiot Johnson were constantly on European TV screens during their ‘reign’'

Hasn't Starmer just requested the return of the sausages rather than hostages and didn't Biden introduce Zelenksy as Putin? Just saying if we're talking about idiots there are others at it.

Yep we got asked ‘English?’ We said ‘Nooo, Scottish!’ and the Spanish shop keeper was like ‘Ah Scotland the brave!’ And putting us in the banks he also gave me a discount I picked up something for €7 and he said ‘for you my Scottish friend €6’ revert of the week I never saw anyone else get a discount whereas I got at keadt a euro off every time. At which point was I meant to tell him off for being rude to the English?

Haha. We had this in Italy!!

But then when I say London - we often get "ah lovely bubbly. Allroit mate?" And super friendly response. Do I think it's because people think Londoners are special or better than other people from Britain? Nope. I think it's because people are being friendly. And maybe they want a good tip

Maybe it was just me then, but the rudeness in Athens especially was brazen to the point of absurdity; the worst was the woman on a checkout who was smiley and chatty to everyone in the queue - including to me, until I had to open my mouth. At which point her entire face contorted into a terrifying mask of hate, and she literally threw my change at me!

Also found the service ridiculously bad, though I have no idea whether that was standard or because we were British; on one occasion in Delphi we went to five different restaurants because at each one they told us to sit down and then completely ignored us for 20+ minutes whilst they stood chatting and laughing with other customers. So we walked out and went to another... where the exact same thing happened. In the end we ended up eating at the hotel every night because it's the only way we could guarantee getting served - which is better than the Athens hotel where we had to order room service as they too ignored us when we were seated! Didn't have any issues up in Meteora, absolutely loved it there.

But the main reason I would say it's my least favourite country is the stray dogs - both the quantity and the treatment of them. And that's saying something considering we'd come straight from Egypt...

Because British can encompass Welsh, Scottish, English, and Northern Irish, and those nationalities are all perceived as different.

They all speak English but each one has several distinctive accents. Speaking English is the hint that someone might be British. Irish people on the whole speak English too, but are not British.

What the poster is saying is that it's English people, as opposed to other speakers of English, who get singled out for hostile reactions.

@rumblegrumble sorry you had such a bad time in Athens. Have to say I've never experienced ANYTHING like that in Athens or anywhere in Greece. I actually think the Greeks are some of the friendliest people about. My grandparents used to live in Athens so we went every year, sometimes more than once. I can speak a bit though so that probably helps.

Maybe we were just unlucky - I've travelled quite a lot and was pretty taken aback! I think it was around 2018, so maybe they were angry at us for Brexit!

I agree. There's a novelty factor involved

I agree with this. I am English but have family who are from a Scandinavian country, I speak English and southern standard English so probably the most hated stereotype but in Spain this year and Italy the year before I always get asked if Danish, Swedish etc the waiters on these scenarios are very friendly despite me speaking in English, they assume I am doing that as it is so commonly used across the world. I'm all these cases I have said, "No, English" and I have experienced no hostility. In Denmark I was always spoken to in Danish but again, I point out that I am English and everyone was perfectly pleasant.

When I say Liverpool, I get "the beatles" and football banter.

It's just a hook that people are able to connect to.

They don't like me more than someone from another town !

You have that backwards @ginasevern.
It was the Allies who were supported by the Irish government under the guise of neutrality.

We lived in Germany for a while. I was talking to my doctor and the subject of football came up. She told me if there was an English team in town a lot of people avoided going out. If there was a Scottish team, more people went out to the bars because they knew they’d have a fun night.

What town does she live in when English and Scottish football teams would be regularly visiting? I'm genuinely curious.

Presumably none of those visiting Scottish teams was Glasgow Rangers, whose fans are as thuggish as any in England.

Can't believe you fell for such obvious sales banter!

If you'd told him you were from England there would have been a special discount just for his English friend too. Same if you'd told him you came from Sierra Leone.

How about everyone just tries their best not to be an idiot in foreign lands? (Also try to learn the language of the country you visit). I'm sure English hatred would die down if the footie hooligans/stag & hen parties would behave while in other countries...

I live in a notorious party city in the UK (quite famous for stag & hen parties in the NE) and you would think grown adults rolling around the streets, pissed up would be less common now, but it's sadly not. Chuck in cheap flights, cheap booze and sun, you have a winning combo and a glowing reputation abroad.

As far as I know it's the other way around regarding passports in NI. They have British citizenship by birth (even if they don't want it!) but can claim Irish citizenship.

It doesn't seem quite to fit with the sentiments of the Good Friday Aggrement imho but that's the way it is.
It did affect immigration of spouses or similar - can't remember details - and was the subject of court cases until the UK government changed the immigration rules to make the problem go away.

I work with many international colleagues.Yes, they are frustrated by Brexit and the thinking behind it by those who wanted it.
But... there are many qualities they love about British people and life here, too.
We are all just people.

Did you hear they've taken the word gullible out of the dictionary? 😁

Yep, you’ve got it the correct way round.