Kissing and displays of affection. Hmm. Best not to French-kiss excessively in public, or grind bodies in a Royal Park - kissing, holding hands and all the rest are fine. It's not that the British are especially squeamish, or coy about kissing. It all comes back to the fact that they can't abide showing off. Get a room.

40 years ago the sight of people air-kissing-hello, well... people didn't do it (generally two is the requisite number in the UK - for balance - like). What am I saying? They didn't know how to do it. Sometime during the 1980s it entered the national psyche and stuck. Along with ready-meals, foreign holidays and 100 channel satellite TV.

Places where kissing passionately will be greeted as warmly as a turd in a swimming pool: public transport (it's difficult enough already), in the theatre (cinema generally ok) or in museums and art galleries.

It's popularly regarded as a form of repression, but I think that's a fleeting opinion - the kind that's cooked up on sight. Britain is one of the most densely populated countries on earth (they've obviously been very busy, for some time) and pre-Victorian era, was a very 'sexy' place to be. So sexy they had to pass legislation to keep the population in check.

It comes back to "showing off". Plucky loser, yep, they like that (think "Rocky"). Showing off - they hate (think "Rocky 2", Rocky 3", "Rocky 4", "Rocky 5", stop me someone).