My experience with those types of people is that they're far more like us than they are like the British Press.
Once I took a trip to London, which was hopelessly botched, and the inter-city tours scheduled ended up being scrapped as we missed the contacts. Not once but twice, (ex-military) Brits, upon hearing that I was on leave, took it upon themselves to show me around for a few hours at a time, at various historical locations.
These aren't the type of people the papers will usually end up quoting...