Quora had a question about whether it is illegal to burn a Union Flag. A soldier answered about a time he has witnessed it. I wont copy out his response but he said they feigned being angry because it was what the protesters seemed to want. A resppnse to his comment was this:

You could well copy and paste this answer under one of the “most British thing ever” questions: faking an angry look in front of people who are trying to offend you for the sake of their feelings is one of the most surreally gentlemanly actions I’ve heard of in a long while. I salute you for possessing such a metaphysical sense of chivalry.