Photo credits: Alothnal, Deviantart Website
'The average English male may be highly sexed, but he is not, it must be said, an accomplished flirt. He is not at his best when confronted with what one of my male informants called 'a female person of the opposite species'. He is usually either reticent, tongue-tied and awkward, or, at worst, boorish, crass and clumsy. In the belief that it will help him to shed his inhibitions, he tends to consume large quantities of alcohol: this merely results in a shift from awkward, tongue-tied to crass, clumsy boorishness. From the perspective of the unfortunate English female, this is not much of an improvement - unless her own judgement is severely impaired, as it often is, by a similar quantity of alcohol, in which case chat-up lines such as 'Er, fancy a shag?' may seem like the height of wit and eloquence.'
Watching the English - The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour, Kate Fox