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For what it's worth, I agree with the other posters about the way flag-waving is perceived in the UK, and why. The only people who normally go in for waving the Union Jack in a big way are vicious neo-Nazi soccer thugs and two closely associated political parties the BNP and National Front.

The way British people tend to look at it is that they know they're British, don't need to wave a flag to prove it and tend to think that anyone who does, except on some particular occasions like royal processions, major international sports victories and so on, is either some sort of nutter or maybe even a sinister ultra-nationalist psychopath of some kind, like the neo-Nazi who was planting nail-bombs in gay pubs and asian markets a few years ago and whose rooms were decorated with Union Jacks and Nazi memorabilia.

I'm sure this plays at least some part in the negative perceptions of US style patriotism among my countrymen, athough most seem to understand that it's just another of the odd ways in which Americans differ from British people.