The headmistress of my old prep school was an anglophile, so we had a succession of English women teaching there. One of them told a joke in class about how stupid the Irish were. Several of my classmates had Irish surnames. But she saw no harm in offending them.

When St. Patrick's day came, someboyd found a greeting card that declared the recipient an Honorary Irishman. It wasn't insulting. Quite the opposite. The card was bought for the teacher. But several of my classmates tried to keep it from her. They were afraid she might be offended.

That's the thing about the British, if you aren't one of them, and the right kind of one of them, they make no secret of their dislike of you.