Wossat, then? Not heard of it before
The basic (and age old) problem is that, in general, Brits simply aren't discerning enough about the quality of food that they eat, bread in particular, which is a *massive* part of European culture and where some form of crusty bread (commonly homemade) would accompany almost every meal. However, things here have improved massively from 20-30 years ago, where it truly *was* dreadful!
Quite simply, if people were more discerning, it would drive up standards and force manufacturers to cater for the demand, by creating better products, but as long as the majority of folk are happy with a 'Hovis special', or affronts to genuine baguettes (as shown), standards won't improve. We could make our own bread of course, but as we (or rather mostly Del) already cooks everything else from scratch, it's just a 'job too far'.
We just want to be able to nick into a shop that sells nice bread, buy it and be done with it, but which is becoming an increasingly difficult task!
Marco.