Nicely Put

"the British tendency to only wake up to a problem at the 11th hour"

I can think of no other words which so precisely underline what it means to be British. WW1 or WW2 are perfect examples of this. Whilst he Commons are utterly wrecked and so is the UK under the EU we will get back most likely. Really what is says about the UK is that it is a perfect example of the law of nature which states that 'every action has an equal and opposite reaction' - works for Physicists and will you know it, normal people as well.