Why are English people so cold and unfriendly?

I am English and have lived here all of 64 years, and I still cannot make a friend with another English person. As it happens the friendliest people gave been foreigners. I have always found the Irish and Welsh to be approachable as well. Englishmen are useless at getting to know. They will never speak to a strange woman. They are terrified of us.

What's funny is your all slagging us English down, yet your all more than happy to move here? If we're all so bad why not move to another country? We didn't ask for you all to move here? You may not be accepted here because your not English. Same as when Brits go to other countries were not all accepted in other countries and we would be the foreigners. The Brits may be more hostile given the fact our resources are tight, yet our government continues to give constant hand outs, housing and free schooling, NHS etc to people who have never put into the system or done anything for for our country.. I don't think it's fair to say we're all so cold and cruel. When if it wasn't for us you would still be in your own countries fearing for your life or whatever your reasons. I don't see your own countries bending over backwards for its own people? Yet taking everything from the British and slandering us because we're cold?? Is acceptable? Maybe this is why Alot of Brits don't like you?

The English are very cold people am sorry to say, from an Irishman

I think post Brexit this coldness has increased. I am English and find the levels of ignorancy with so many people astonishing. Brexit has also encouraged racism to resurface.

Well, I was married to an English guy I had not friends I was told I have to be accepted it took 4 years to be accepted. Being accepted meant for people to recognised me as one of them and period not invitations for tea of coffee. I think they are afraid, fear is what stop them I know that for a fact, is easy to identify in a cruise who are British or English, they will always form tiny groups looking around wondering a bit scared LOL ... they are just afraid to be out of their comfort zone, so when they come to America they stay pretty much the same and they become lonely and live a sad life. I have friends in UK and they hardly socialise with English people in I think guys are much more friendly to foreigners than woman. I moved to America a different kind of fish for good, return to England people look sad, miserable, unsociable living in their tiny little houses uncapable to smile correctly.
Not wonder when English people reach old age they tend to be lonely painfully lonely well is the price to pay for being so so unfriendly.

I actually pity the English. Their mentality is hard-wired and ingrained to the max. Many of them live extremely unhappy and isolated lives even if in theory they have lots of friends. So their coldness rebounds on them to an absolutely pitiless degree.
I have witnessed this.
They're hard to read. A good English person is solid gold. They are honest . will help you and look after you because they are tough and resourceful. But they are still English and I refer to what I said before - hard wired in their mentality.

I'm 55, English (Scots ancestry) and I now feel like an alien here as I believe in good manners decency and fairness. England has become a cruel , truly hideous , hateful place. I understand that many resent how multicultural it has become but I do not buy that as an excuse. Many English do not particularly hate foreigners they hate everyone including their own neighbours and families in many instances. I don't know what the answer is but I think people should think very carefully before having children especially if they are not comfortably off.
The world itself has become pretty awful for many so I don't think it's just an "English thing" but if you find England unfriendly it's not just you.

British born here (Welsh), and I'm inclined to agree with many of the native comments here. I moved to Sweden in 2012 to be with a partner I met online. That relationship ended miserably, but I stayed in Sweden as I managed to secure a job and develop my IT career infrastructure forward to 2022, I have a new girlfriend (also Swedish) and am at the top of my game work-wise.

We've since moved to England (Reading) in Oct 2022, asnmt girlfriend always wanted to live in Britain as she had some pleasant holidays here, loves the humour, and on rellflection had some misguided idea that she would find it easier to make friends here and have more parties compared to back home...nothing could have been further from the truth.

Since being here, we've been ripped off by a moving company who couldn't do their job properly and extorted £1300 out of us for their mistake before they would deliver our belongings. We've had UK government advice lines willfully mislead us on how to apply for a visa for my girlfriend, which cost us £1800 in non-refundable visa application fees. Neither of us have been able to use the NHS since we've been here, and to cap it off, I lost my ability to drive because the DVLA couldn't be bothered to check my records when I asked if I would be allowed to drive on my Swedish license (turns out of you have a previous UK license this overrules any foreign license).

All this and far more headaches within less than a year. I've since decided to move back to Sweden as I honestly don't believe people here can be trusted, especially within business or government. I truly believe that this country has managed to construct such an overwhelmingly complex legal system here,never gone feels strangled by it and unable to do anything about it. I think people here have been screwed over so many times by broken, non-sensical laws that they are left with nothing but bitterness, and a need to take out that bitterness on the easiest target they can find (usually nice, honest, soft spoken people).

I'm so relieved that I came across this post. I thought it was just me feeling totally alone and ignored in England. I'm a warm friendly Aussie who after 5 years of living in a hermitage, can't wait to go back to warm, friendly caring people in Australia. I wouldn't recommend anyone move to England unless they are immigrating from third world countries.

I've lived half my life in the U.K. and half abroad, mostly in the U.S.. I have dual citizenship. I am extroverted, educated, polyglot and idealistic. And for this reason and not despite it, no matter how much I bend over backwards to be attractive, kind, generous, witty, and worldly, I cannot make friends here.

People will chat briefly--I have many acquaintances-- but they are genuinely terrified of friendship. It's a lack of confidence, I think. And the way English parents raise their children to fear strangers, which includes most people outside a very tight circle of family and people they've known since childhood.

I understand caution, but the English take it to paranoid extremes. I might get into a friendly conversation with strangers on a local sea walk or in a park, where we talk about shared interests. I might run into this person on several occasions and each time we have a pleasant chat--at the end of which I'll say, "I'm Ani by the way." I can't tell you how many times the other person (or people) just stare at me in shocked silence at my invitation for them to introduce themselves. It reminds me that despite appearances, they are just chatting "to be polite," not because I am worthwhile.

The term that gets touted a lot is "tolerant." "Britain is a tolerant society." That means, in practice, the opposite of what it thinks it's saying. It means the English tolerate you, as someone holds their nose and allows you to exist (lucky you!). Heaven forbid actual appreciation for what outsiders contribute to this often insular society. It's not inclusion.

At this point, I comfort myself with knowing I'll be snubbed no matter what I do. It's freeing, actually!

Let's face it. The Uk is now a cess pit of conflict, hatred, aggression and turmoil. The pot is almost at boiling over point. And here's the real kicker, so is the rest of then world.

The problem is not because you're foreign, but rather you are not mentally ill. People have been poisoned by bullshit like feminism and have been taught to be ashamed of their history, race etc. For years.

I'm miserable here. I am tired of being bullied just because I'm nice, and they perceive me as weak.

I am not a foreigner but certainly feel like it. I can't fit into the dumb as fuck working class society.

Their gripe is at the government and their own poor lifestyle choices. Just look at the sour, unfeminine slags that pass for "women".

Don't like football, not interested in Brexit, and the royal family should be sent back to their ancestral homeland in Germany.

Additionally, there's a horrible psychic noise, bad energy here. Not a calm place. Don't feel sane here.

I've lived in four different countries across three continents. Travelled fairly widely, have many friends from around the world. I've met people from countries where they're not the most polite, may be quite blunt and direct to the point of rudeness but they're sincere. You know where you stand with them. And by and large they're pretty decent and reliable.

I have lived in the UK for awhile now and it used to be British people were polite but insincere. You never knew when you were going to get stabbed in the back. Now they're just rude, even more xenophobic, selfish and still insincere.

I have children here - I think about leaving everyday but my husband is English and he doesn't want to leave for financial reasons. So I'm stuck here commiserating with my expat friends. And I feel sorry for my children having to be raised here. Thankfully they're dual citizens so when they turn 18, I'm going to convince them to get the hell out of here.

I also notice a lot of comments here and elsewhere by some Brits who are in massive denial about the state of their country and the decimation of communities and of the lack of humanity here. Your problems won't be solved by sticking your heads in the sand "ostrich" style. Stop defending your fellow countrymen when they're displaying antisocial behaviours here and abroad. There's a reason certain EU countries are limiting tourists from the UK, there's a reason that the UK does so poorly in the Eurovision Song Contest (yes I know you placed second last year but that was due to exceptional circumstances). A lot of you are NOT liked. For those warm, welcoming Brits this message is not directed at you. I've met some. I just feel tremendously sorry for you and wish I could take you back to my country so you know what a fully functioning society with real communities and warmth and kindness are like.

Because we are being e.t.h.n.i.c.a.l.l.y cleansed from our homeland of 1000s of years and being gaslit, told that d!versity built the country. Lied to, shamed, abused and put down. We are tired of the constant lies and abuse hurled at us and now have millions of illegals who are just here to suck the benefits system dry, litter and destroy what's left of us....and post about their expoits on TikTok laughing at all the passports they've been given.

It's your attitude. UK is a tolerant society, you've just wrote an article peppered with generalisations so no wonder you're being ignored.