A startling 73% of British voters felt that the US exercised too much influence around the globe.

Why "startling" ?

Most patriots don't want to think of some other nation as ruling the world, especially the citizens of the previous world-spanning empire.

Hey, it's not our fault we took their birthright away.

Don't want it, either.

But it's always been there.

Of course it has.

I'm surprised its only 51% that think US culture "threatens their own culture."

As one of our best eccentric singers put it:

"There are fewer more distressing sights than that,
Of an Englishman in a baseball cap..."

Ah, the angst as one noble traditional culture after another falls to the wiles of the rapacious Yankee trader flaunting his greenbacks. I remember well the day our famously healthy and delicious, but tariff-protected, beer suddenly had to do battle in the domestic market with the vile swills known as Coors and Budweiser. So sad. So wrenching. Especially as we couldn't square the knowledge that our brews were under mortal threat with the certainty that they were so much better.

Sorry to repeat, but this calls to mind again George Grant's remarking on the irony of most of the masses of European youth marching against Reagan's missile deployment in the '80s while sporting US university sweatshirts.

And speaking of irony, the Brits could do with a little historical pondering here. There was no Pew in the late 1890's, but I would venture the States is wildly popular today compared with the Britain of that era. Most of Europe (and much of the States) resented the swagger of British hyperpower mightily, even to the extent of lining up behind those freedom-loving Boers. They, too, thought that the world would be a better place if someone rose to "balance" British power. Many of them looked to Germany to step up to the plate. Inspired choice.

But this is really old news. Five decades old, or more.

In fact, the 'news' is surely that as many as 49% don't resent US imported culture. That's an astonishingly high figure.

Every time you're attacked you discover a sudden regard for us.

No, I think there's been a pretty steady level of contempt, with the occasional mild trough (the first Star Wars trilogy), and peak (the second one).

Let the Hun fire a shot and you come running for help.

How crass. (Although it's exactly what we say to the French, I suppose.)

Anyway, we've more than paid you back.

Funny, Brit, funny.

I will allow that Wallace and Grommit are a significant payment on whatever cultural debt that exists.

oj:

Wait a second.

I thought that your position was that Britain had the Huns licked well before we showed up ?

If that's the case, then what do they owe us ?

I remember well the day our famously healthy and delicious, but tariff-protected, beer suddenly had to do battle in the domestic market with the vile swills known as Coors and Budweiser. So sad. So wrenching. Especially as we couldn't square the knowledge that our brews were under mortal threat with the certainty that they were so much better.

I spent some time at the University of Edinburgh in the late 80's, and I just couldn't figure out why on earth people were drinking stuff like American Budweiser, Coors, even Rolling Rock (which tastes like creamed corn to me). Ecch!! I was very dissappointed.

Twn:

I am thankful for for Canadian, Dutch, German and English beers. Most domestic(American) brews are of lamentable quality.

Twn/Dave W

Don't be so hard on yourselves. I've certainly heartily enjoyed American beer, which is best drunk when a)it's very, very hot out and the beer is very cold; and b) there is nothing else available.

Michael:

The Hun couldn't cross the Channel, so Britain was home free. But Churchill entangled FDR because he wanted the colonies back.

Dislike of American beer is a mere affectation.

I wonder how that number stacks up with the percent of English who have a favorable opinion of England. They probably like us more than they like themselves.

OJ, it isn't dislike of American beers, it's liking foreign beers more. After all, we're talking about beer.

Besides, we now have Sam Adams.

Does anyone on the east coast remember Ballantine Ale? Now that was a beer!

American beer used to be more like good european beer. Prohibition messed it up. The breweries that survived it bought up bunches of the regional breweries & basically produced the same beer but in differently labeled cans (people got the good old familiar regional brand label, but everybody got the same beer). Over the years the beer got slowly blandified via a combo of streamlining efficiency, lowering cost, and figuring out how to get people to drink beer like it was soda pop.

When I lived in Brooklyn, I lived across the street from one of they guys who founded the Brooklyn Brewery. He had acquired the brewing logs of a long-dea master brewer from somewhere in New Jersey. They guy's father and grandfather were brewers, too, the grandfather having immigratied from Germany. Brewers periodically checked their own beers against the competition, & one of the beers these brewers checked their brew against was American Budweiser. He said that back in the day, Bud was a lot closer to something like today's Sam Adams (or the excellent Brooklyn Lager) than what it is today.

As far as today's major American Brews goes, I really hate Bud, but I won't turn my nose up at most of 'em. I like Miller High Life.

High Life has just enough taste to remind you of how your dad's Budweiser used to taste back in the 60s. This is why people are going back to cheap nasty funky beer like PBR and Old Style. Where there's funk there's hope of flavor.

Hey, don't forget the Left Coast brews which hold their own around the beer drinking world - Sierra Nevada, Stone Ale, Anchorsteam, Alaskan Amber... I could go on, but I'm getting thirsty and I'll fit to raise the US' GDP soon enough!

joe:

back?

oj: some of us had a wandering eye.

trend-sucking dilettante

What's wrong with creamed corn?

I did drank a lot of American beer during college. Something about the atmosphere at fraternity and soroity parties that can make any beer taste great (and less filling).

Genecis: there's nothing wrong w/creamed corn IMO.

American beer is so good that the keg is the single serving size.

I will now enlighten you all:

Sam Adams, Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, Sam Adams Black Lager.

You're welcome.

Indeed, Sam Adams is the one import worth paying a bit extra for.

I will now play the straight man, asking OJ the question he wanted me to ask so he can deliver his punchline:

OJ, since Sam Adams is made in Boston MA, why do you call it an import?

Tom:

There's no sport in fish in a barrel, but, Thanks.

Aw, c'mon, don't leave us hanging.