'No offense intended.'
None taken and you are correct about the English working class thug culture - it was vital to the development of England. The battles of Crecy and Agincourt are great examples. The English army was largely made up of working class thugs with longbows and lead cudgels. The french knights refused to fight them as they were below them, so our thugs simply pulled the knights off their horses and and flattened their helmets with lead coshes until the frogs knights topped twitching! :D
Frogs lost 12000 men, England loses 250! ;-)
Interesting history of which I wasn't aware. Thanks. You're proving Paltrow right! You Brits are smarter than us Yanks. Haha...
I made the transition from English soccer hooligan to West Texas redneck quite smoothly.
Not many aristocrats emigrated during the settlement of America and the sycophantic middle classes of the time imitated their betters by staying put as well. American culture consequently has very deep roots in the British working class, but not so much in the upper or middle classes. I am convinced that this is also the origin of many middle and upper class British prejudices about Americans.