Anti-British sentiment

Anti-British sentiment is prejudice, fear or hatred against the British Government, the culture or the people of the United Kingdom, or its Overseas territories.

Results of 2014 BBC World Service poll.
Views of the United Kingdom's influence by country^[1]
Sorted by Pos-Neg

Country polled	Positive	Negative	Neutral	Pos-Neg
Pakistan	39	35	26	4
Spain	41	36	23	5
Turkey	39	30	31	9
China	39	26	35	13
Mexico	40	25	35	15
India	43	27	30	16
Germany	51	34	15	17
Peru	41	21	38	20
Brazil	45	25	30	20
Russia	44	16	40	28
Chile	45	15	40	30
Indonesia	59	26	15	33
Israel	50	6	44	44
Japan	47	2	51	45
Nigeria	67	22	11	45
United Kingdom	72	23	5	49
France	72	20	8	52
Australia	73	18	9	54
South Korea	74	14	12	60
Kenya	74	10	16	64
Ghana	78	9	13	69
Canada	80	9	11	71
United States	81	10	9	71

A view of shops with anti-British and pro-Independence signs, Valletta, Malta, c. 1960

Argentina

Anti-British feeling in Argentina stems mainly from the Falkland Islands dispute and the Falklands War in 1982 with the United Kingdom. Due to this, anti-British protests and acts of vandalism do erupt.^[2][3]

Guatemala

Guatemala has a strong anti-British sentiment due to the Belizean-Guatemalan territorial dispute. Guatemala claims that United Kingdom has not honoured several treaties.

India

In the Indian independence movement, this sentiment was common.^[4]

Iran

Anti-British sentiment, sometimes described as Anglophobia, has been described as "deeply entrenched in Iranian culture",^[5] and reported to be increasingly prevalent in Iran. In July 2009, an adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Britain "worse than America" for its alleged interference in Iran's post-election affairs. In the first half of the 20th century, the British Empire exerted political influence over Iran (Persia) in order to control the profits from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. As a result, British influence was widely known to have been behind the overthrow of the Qajar Dynasty in the 1920s, the subsequent rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi, and the successful coup d'état overthrowing prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953.^[6][7][8]

On Monday 9 August 2010, the senior Iranian minister and Iran's first vice president Mohammad Reza Rahimi declared that the British people were "stupid" and "not human". His remarks drew criticism from Simon Gass, the British ambassador in Iran, and also from the media in Britain.

In November 2011 the Iranian parliament voted to downgrade relations with the UK after British sanctions were imposed on Iran due to its nuclear programme. Politicians reportedly shouted "Death to Britain". On 29 November 2011, Iranian students in Tehran stormed the British embassy, ransacked offices, smashed windows, shouted "Death to England" and burned the British flag.^[9]

Ireland

There is a long tradition of Anglophobia within Irish nationalism. Much of this was grounded in the hostility felt by the largely Catholic poor for the Anglo-Irish gentry, which was mainly Anglican. In post-famine Ireland, anti-English hostility was adopted into the philosophy and foundation of the Irish nationalist movement. At the turn of the 20th century, the Celtic Revival movement associated the search for a cultural and national identity with an increasing anti-colonial and anti-English sentiment.

A feeling of anti-English sentiment intensified within Irish nationalism during the Boer War leading to xenophobia underlined by Anglophobia. In 2011, tensions and anti-English or anti-British feelings flared in relation to the proposed visit of Elizabeth II, the first British monarch to visit Ireland in 101 years. An anti-Queen demonstration was held at the GPO Dublin by a group of Irish Republicans on 26 February 2011, and a mock trial and decapitation of an effigy of Queen Elizabeth II were carried out by socialist republican group Éirígí. Other protests included one Dublin publican (the father of Celtic player Anthony Stokes) hanging a banner declaring "the Queen will never be welcome in this country".^[10]

Israel

The relationship between Israel and the UK is generally regarded as close and warm,^[11] and as a strategic partnership of the two nations.^[12] According to the a BBC World Service poll in 2014, five in ten Israelis (50%) have favourable attitudes to the UK. Only 6% of Israelis hold negative views towards the UK, the second lowest percentage after Japan.

Occasional criticism is also found. In Israel, anti-British sentiment may historically stem from British rule and policies in the mandate era, and in modern times from the perceived anti-Israel stance of the British media.^{[13][14][15][16]}

Reacting to 609 anti-Semitic incidents across the U.K. in the first half of 2009,^[17] and to the announcement of numerous UK organizations to impose a boycott on Israel,^[18] some Israelis claimed that the UK is anti-Israeli and Haaretz, that the United Kingdom has raised and armed Israel's enemies in Jordan and the Arab Legion and described the British media as anti-Israeli.^[21]

Reacting to the UK government's decision to expel an Israeli diplomat due to Mossad's cloning of 12 British passports for an assassination operation in 2010, former National Union members of the Israeli parliament Michael Ben-Ari and Aryeh Eldad accused British government of being "anti-semitic" and referred to them as "dogs".^{[22] [23]}

Spain

Anti-British sentiments evolved in Spain following the invasion and capture of

References

Roland Emmerich's 2000 movie The Patriot drew controversy for depicting the British forces engaging in savagery in the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution, though the British Army did violate some of the rules of war.^[29]

In the 21st century, the Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom has come under attack by advertising executive Steven A. Grasse who published The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World.,^[28] although this work is partly tongue in cheek and forms part of a larger media project launched by the author.

The LaRouche movement has a strongly anti-British stance, viewing the British monarchy and ruling class as an essentially criminal financial conspiracy.

During the period of alliance between Britain and the George Giffard. Slim noted that Stilwell had a public persona that differed from his private relations.

The anti-Tom novel Tit for Tat (written anonymously in 1856 by "A Lady of New Orleans") encouraged anti-British sentiment in reaction to Britain's positive reception of the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.^[26]

President Thomas Jefferson complained of an unreasonable hostility towards the British state by the people in the United States during the Napoleonic Wars, brought about by the American Revolutionary War.^[25]

American protester stands on a Union Jack, presumably associating BP with Great Britain

United States

[24]