Pompous rich Englishmen also had a complete disregard for their own fellow English citizens. Their European counterparts were pretty much the same having travelled around parts of Mexico and South America, I experienced a palpable outrage against the Spanish in how they treated the indigenous populations and that was further back in time. Of course you can apply that to many European countries, "colonialism is us" was omnipresent in Europe for centuries.
What I object to is an assertion that's come across from time to time that here in England there is some cloud of nostalgia that wraps up a fair percentage of the population. A population that spends much of it's time ruminating for the bygone days of Empire, whilst slurping away on Brown Windsor Soup. When such sentiments are expressed, I tend to think "have you actually been down here?"
Unfortunately there are always going to be a few dinosaurs and we are shaped by had experiences, but is it fair to judge a whole nation by a minority ignorance? One of my husband's closest pals is Scottish and they have had an enduring friendship of over 50 years. Met at work and friend lived down here in England for quite a few decades. Friend invited my husband back to stay with his family in Scotland and that was the first of a few visits for him. They were all very welcoming and as were all his circle, except for one!. In a bar one evening, husband's friend was approached by someone he knew he introduced my husband with a "this is x from London" that person without even waiting for a response, just turned on his heel and went. When this came up in conversation, I asked my husband how he felt. He just said "oh there's always one, but I didn't let one bad experience taint my overall positive impression of everyone else I met whilst I was up there, friend felt much worse about it than I did he was highly embarrassed, but he shouldn't have been" Nevertheless, it would be hard to get your head around how anyone would just walk away from someone they'd never met by virtue of the fact of where they came from. Presumably in their eyes anyone English undergoes a backward metamorphosis into Oliver Cromwell/Edward 1 and any other English person/s who carried out atrocities over the centuries.
However, going back to the whole superiority English complex, I have no doubt it does exist, it was ever present with my late father in law who was an absolute shocker of man in that respect. Endless, diatribes over far too frequent Sunday lunches twice a month visits, about the French which always pissed me off have a lot of family there, spent a lot of time with French people when I was with my ex husband as he was of French extraction plus have been to France umpteen times. We went annually when our children were young. Father in law had never ever been there, just kept coming out with negative assertions about them. The fact of the matter was that he hadn't been anywhere outside England other than Scotland and Ireland. My husband told me when they were up in Scotland golfing and about to leave he, father in law, said in a loud voice in the hotel foyer when the receptionist asked them about their journey "yes going back to London and civilization" . I think my husband dragged him out to the car with a "do you have to be quite so embarrassing" Yes an appalling attitude and certainly not one I was brought up with. My last holiday with my parents as a teenager was up to Scotland, and although I was only half listening, my father, being an avid history buff took great pains to give us the Scottish experience, no stone was left unturned, spent most of the time in the car, listening to dad droaning on giving us lots of interesting facts about William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots. etc. etc. but I think what I did take from that was, this was a separate country, with a language, culture of their own. Perhaps my dad was keen to point that out because, he himself being only part English was less one dimensional than say late father in law and more aware of identity. I increasingly found myself not looking forward to visiting late parents in law simply because of f-i-law's views, I remember saying to my husband before any visit, I suppose your father will be coming out with his usual crap and bollocks nonsense, he represented no one else in the family and there was much eye rolling, tongue biting when he started, but then he'd be well over a 100 if he were still around and possibly was of his time coupled with the fact that he had had a very narrow upbringing and life! I haven't met anyone quite like him since. Thank God!