Ranked against every country we've compared United Kingdom to, highest compatibility first.
“Two nations united by a shared genius for building systems that require you to already be inside the system before they will let you in.”
Neither country's bureaucracy suggests a culture that believes your time is particularly valuable, though Chile at least makes you suffer in person rather than via a two-to-six-week postal queue.
Chile's insistence on physical stamped paperwork and Britain's reverence for the official letter suggest two societies that trust documents more than people, which is at least a compatible form of institutional mistrust.
Chile will tell you to your face that you've brought the wrong documents; Britain will simply never call you back, leaving you to deduce the same conclusion over six weeks.
Both countries will make you wait an indeterminate and poorly communicated amount of time — Chile in a physical queue, Britain in a state of epistolary suspense.
Shared suffering is a universal bonding mechanism, and expats in both countries have independently discovered that complaining about bureaucracy on internet forums is the fastest route to community.
“Two nations united by a love of shopping and divided by everything that happens inside the shop.”
Japan treats even the checkout ceremony as sacred ritual; Britain treats the entire high street as a cautionary tale about what happens when work stops.
Japan stations staff to bow at escalators; Britain stations a self-checkout machine to accuse you of unexpected items in the bagging area.
Japanese retail service is warm, scripted, and ceremonially precise; British retail service is contactless, automated, and increasingly optional.
Japan's seasonal sale calendar runs with near-religious precision; Britain's equivalent contribution is Boxing Day, which does, at least, reliably occur on the 26th.
Both cultures bond over a good bargain — one over a jewellery-priced melon wrapped in reverent silence, the other over a 50p paperback in a hospice fundraiser.