A lot of this disdain for things American in Britain is replicated in the rest of Europe. Other than Poland, I must wonder if there is any European nation where anti-Americanism is not a major problem. The substance of their disdain is ridiculous: no one forces Englishmen, Germans, Spaniards, etc., to eat at American fast food restaurants or to watch American entertainment. I am not necessarily a fan of either, but the hypocrisy of Europeans regarding American culture is astounding.
You hit th nail on the head and may I add that are extremely jealous of the United States.
They know that they barely half our standards of living and it just kill them to see it. However it is all because of their own doing. They elect governments that impose more taxes on them and they are satisfied with a non competitive socialist systems where people do not get rewarded for working harder. Also no one force them to make the vast majority of purchasing goods much more epxensive than in the United States. They get paid less than us, they get taxed more than us, and almost everyhting they buy is more expensive than what we have here, of course they will have a lower if not much lower standards of living.
I always find the anti-Americanism from Britain a little hilarious when compared . After all, you were their former colonies (the original 13 states were individual colonies), and I have never heard of British anti-New Zealandism or anti-Canadianism - anti-Australianism is another matter since the Aussies regularly beat Poms in sports. A majority of American food, at least up until the Hispanic/Mexican influence over the last 15 years, is based on British diets like apple pies, roast beef. In fact, it was the British who invented the modern concept of fast food business via fish and chips shops and milk bars.
Speaking of America vs Britain, note that in Britain the collegiate University of London still has one constitutent college called the Imperial College, that people denounce "American imperialism" like Harold Pinter still receive honour titles like OBE (Order of the British Empire), some British people still treat the ex-colonies as if they were still run from London. And these same British poeple who now decry Gitmo or Abu Garib conveniently ignore what happened during the Malayan Emergency which onlyt occured half a century ago.
The British claim "you quest for world leadership, now you have to know you need to take all insults from all over the world" and they then dish out their own.