I have been wondering about this. I am not a britbong, nor do I live there. But I have a very good friend who lives in London. She is an incredibly well educated, kind, smart person. Her job involves critical thinking about problems she works on. In many ways I look up to her. I asked her what's going on in UK (partly to suss out if she is based, but in great part because I am curious about her perspective on things, as she is the only person I know who lives out there) and she said it's a bunch of people being racist toward immigrants because of a tragedy that happened recently, and how it is all very sad.
I have been following the situation here in this thread and it is an interesting difference in views and reports from Kiwis and from a friend who I know and trust, who lives in London. You guys here say you hear people discuss this openly with a critical eye. She reports none of that. The thing is, she is only one person. But people posting here are also just representation of a particular segment of people. I would love to know what an average Joe thinks of all of this, and whether they are even aware of what's going on.