Ignorance and boozing: The things that make people ashamed to be British revealed

Ignorance, excessive drinking and too much complaining are the top three things which make people ashamed to be British, a new survey has revealed.

Brits mostly dislike a lack of worldly knowledge among fellow citizens, ranking ignorance of other cultures at the top of the worst characteristics list with 41%.

The next highest ranking negative trait is people who drink too much with 35%, followed by those who moan a lot with 29%.

Rounding up the top five worst characteristics in fellow Brits is being intolerant of other sections of society (24%) and laziness (22%).

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As part of the Ipsos Pride in Britain survey, people were asked to select which two or three traits they hated among compatriots as a whole.

Other choices included bad eating habits (17%), rudeness (16%), too nationalistic (16%), too pessimistic (14%), bad teeth (8%) and unfriendly (7%).

Being too nationalistic and ignorance of others rose the highest by five and four points respectively since the last survey in July 2016

It wasn’t all negative though, as the survey also asked what people loved about fellow Brits.

The British sense of humour came out on top (47%), followed by polite and good manners (38%) and friendliness (33%)

When asked what made them proud to be British they answered the NHS (55%) our history (33%) and the Royal Family (28%) as the top three reasons.

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Gideon Skinner, head of political research at Ipsos in the UK, said: “These trends show that the NHS remains top of the lists of reasons to be proud to be British and many remain proud of our history, despite a recent focus on our colonial past and the re-evaluation of how we portray our history.

“When we look at ourselves in the mirror, it is the British sense of humour that holds its place as our most treasured characteristic, but we are more embarrassed by our lack of knowledge of other cultures.

“Meanwhile although our reputation for drinking too much may still be seen as one of our worst characteristics, it has fallen over the last six years – maybe partly a reflection of our changing culture and drinking habits among younger generations.

The poll questioned 1,661 adults aged 18-75 who were British citizens between 3 and 4 August.