Subjectively most British adults are frighteningly passive to surveillance and seem oblivious to losing privacy rights, I would not want British people to create the Magna Carta of the internet!
Unfortunately the same attitude is quite common everywhere. I agree though that the UK does seem to have an especially bad case of it. I'm a Brit too but I've lived almost half my almost 60 years in Norway where the state is just as keen to introduce things like data retention.
Disclaimer, I am British.