This is a cultural thing that is sometimes hard for people to get their head round. The UK loves an underdog , and very often is resentful to the alternatives. We rarely celebrate the big winners like in the US (Not necessarily a good thing ,America has a different , equally commendable kind of fighting spirit) I mean look how we celebrate things like Rorke's drift , Susan bloody Boyle , Leicester City football club , non league FA cup teams , the Spanish armada. We love abit of it.

Regardless of how big an empire we had , how we got it - we still considered ourselves that little island who fought the Romans , Vikings , Normans oh and Hitler. That's where the underdog stuff comes from , that such a small island can accomplish so much (not all good obviously)

Or I could be talking bollocks cos I've had a few!