I guess the easy answer is that Britons are generally discouraged from emoting, i.e., the whole "stiff upper lip" business. When the inner beast is released, it's that much crazier.
Here's another example from the WaPo describing the current incarnations of a venerable tradition: the Office Christmas Party. Sample quote:
...partygoers seem to find great amusement in photocopying intimate body parts. Stagg recalled one incident in which a man at his Christmas party sat on the copy machine, broke the glass and ended up in the emergency room with shards of glass in his bottom.
OK, so the Brits are out-of-control. Big deal. But I noticed something shocking on this topic.
I draw your attention to the Top 15 countries where British nationals required the most consular assistance from 1 April 2006 - 31 March 2007 chart in the official British Behavior Abroad report as published by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
The U.K. suffered 1,591 deaths among vacationers to Spain!? In a one year period!? Does this seem high to anyone else? By comparison, the U.K. suffered 258 deaths during the Falklands War.
Now granted, the same report shows that there were 17 million British visitors to Spain during the same period. But France had 14.8 million British visitors and only 385 deaths. So... that's 87% the number of visits and 24% the number of deaths.
Another comparision. The 9/11 attacks resulted in 2,974 deaths which equated to 10.43 deaths per million citizens (estimated 2001 U.S. population of 285,112,030). With an estimated U.K. population of 60,975,000, traveling to Spain recently resulted in 26.09 deaths per million citizens.
I can't figure out what's so dangerous in Spain although this picture of a group from Leeds on a walking tour may provide a clue.
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