And it has little to do, as lefties would have us believe, with the ravages of the empire.

It's got to do with the persistent desire of that nation to blow its own trumpet, even when — as with the victory of young Laura Robson (below) at Wimbledon — the trumpet is so small a comb-and-paper ensemble would make more noise.

Anyone who bought a Sunday paper could have been forgiven for thinking that the youngster had just won the ladies' final, rather than the Juniors.

Fair enough, she's the first 'British' winner of a Wimbledon singles title in 24 years but that hardly warrants her pushing the actual ladies' champion, Venus Williams, right off the front pages in a festival of cheesy celebration.

It had begun during the week, of course, once Andy Murray had wilted under the attentions of eventual men's champion Rafael Nadal.

By Saturday, the same BBC which had 'hoped' that 'the media' wouldn't put too much pressure on the girl, was busy ignoring the Men's Doubles final, no less, in favour of what was really a glorified knock-about between 14-year-old Robson and 16-year-old Thai Noppawan Lertcheewakarn.

Yes, the Beeb abandoned a Centre Court men's final to broadcast the junior final instead.

And as the match progressed, there was more of the horrible rowdyism which had accompanied the Murray match against Gasquet, with Noppawan's errors cheered to the rafters. Many cutaway shots of Laura's Australian mum; while poor Noppawam must be an orphan, as no one 'on her side' was shown cheering her on.

Now, I'm sure young Laura is a nice girl. She certainly seems so from her first outings in interviews.

But did the Wimbledon authorites really have to make a second presentation to her, immediately after the Williams sisters had won the Ladies Doubles title?

It was all fairly obnoxious stuff.

The BBC coverage as a whole this year was truly appalling. Sue Barker bumbled her way through the fortnight simply asking everyone she met how special they thought Wimbledon was — and looking horrified when Martina Navratilova and other greats uncomfortably failed to completely share her enthusiasm about that 'first British title', pointing out that it was actually only a Junior one and that young Laura still had some way to go ...

The commentary, too, was embarrassing, with a succession of British no-hopers graduating to the furry microphones within seconds, it seems, of retiring from the game themselves.

The quality of comment was low. Not surprising, since the closest either Andrew Castle or Tim has been to a Centre Court on final day was in that very commentary box.

Meanwhile, the Beeb teased us with shots of other broadcasters' courtside hideyholes, stocked with John McEnroe, for example.

It must have been an editorial decision not to include the likes of Connors, Borg, Cash or Becker — who were all at the tournament — in this year's line-up in the box, and instead treat us to the witterings of two people who were, genuinely, afraid to say a bad word about anybody because they simply hadn't been there or got the T-shirt. I suppose you couldn't really expect Castle to dissect the psychological impact of losing Championship points ... Still, they chose, rather, to say nothing at all.

The result? The Men's Singles final was played out in almost total silence, as two idiots with microphones could find nothing to say about the epic struggle between Nadal and Federer, one set of which probably lasted longer than any of Castle's entire Wimbledon runs.

Maybe it's a symptom of a nation resigning itself to losing all the time, that the tournament itself becomes the jewel in the crown rather than a national winner — a bit like the Open.

But we can all look forward now to years of more hype and fantasy even after Andy Murray leaves the game for the seat in the commentary box now occupied by the incredibly uncomfortable Tim Henman.

Don't worry, Laura. There's a career waiting even more glorious than the last winner of Junior Wimbledon, Annabel Croft. Remember her?