[JetSetWilly]

I suppose the UK industrialised early. It industrialised first, with workers often in appalling conditions, and unions formed in response to awful conditions and in opposition to the businesses trying to keep them down. And this was absolutely necessary, but it set the culture for a long time.

Other countries didn't necessarily have that history, and other factors - like the need to rebuild the country after a devastating war with everybody starting from nothing - might have fostered cooperation in ways not possible in the UK.