The British are among the most mild-mannered people in the world. We apologise to the waiter when the food is not up to snuff; we say sorry when others mumble and we cannot understand what they’ve said; we even offer a mea culpa to those who career into us along the pavement, as though it were somehow our fault for getting in the way in the first place. But there is a line, for anyone foolish enough to seek it.
