>>>
>>>The world was very small in those days! :) Why if you were not French or British, you were not civilized! :)
>>>
>>>Tom
>>
>>Tom
>>
>>Err, that still the case! (well, minus the French part) :-)
>
>I've heard once that the proper British expression is not "there's a dense fog on The Channel",

Don't you mean "a dense FROG over the Channel" :-) (Je m'excuse, mes voisins francais - ne qu'une blague)

>but "the Continent is cut off". Is that really the prevalent spirit on the isles, or it just was once upon a time?

Never heard anyone say those. I live on the Channel and there's rarely a fog anyway. We don't tend to think of ourselves as being part of Europe. We refer to it as "the Continent" (but then again I've heard Americans refer to it as that, even though THEY live on one). There are people who say "France would be a great place, if it weren't for the French", but that's just the old "Entente Cordiale" {g}, a prejudice, and usually from those who've never been there or net a Frenchman. (Lots of capitalization for you there, D :-)