Forget stiff upper lip, Britain has become a nation of whingers

LONDON - A new survey has shown that Britons are losing their stiff upper lip attitude, and are fast becoming a nation of whiners.

The wide-ranging ‘Alternative Census’ was carried out on 10,000 people by the Post Office.

It revealed that when asked what qualities British residents associated with their own nation, one in three questioned (35 percent) cited a tendency to moan.

Only one in ten found the stiff upper lip attitude to be a defining character trait, and just 3 percent said formality was a defining characteristic.

The survey also found that more than one in five said Britons were sarcastic, while others said Britain has become a nation, which likes to lodge complaints.

It also showed that rudeness and anti-social behaviour topped the list of things that irritate, with just 7 percent believing they should be proud of their modern-day manners.

“We’ve inherited a lot of these traits from America over the past few years as we have become a consumer-orientated society,” the Daily Mail quoted Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at the University of Lancaster, as saying.

“In a more prosperous society we expect it all to be done for us and complain when it isn’t. In years gone by we’d just get on with it and do those things ourselves,” Cooper added. (ANI)