Why do we trust the British to be our tastemakers?

Turn on the TV and you find Brits telling Americans how to raise our kids, cook in our restaurants and sing our pop songs. These are the people who gave us repressive boarding schools, bangers and mash, and the Spice Girls.

What gives?

- The most powerful Brit on TV, Simon Cowell, is the nastiest judge on Fox's "American Idol" - and, not coincidentally, the only one anyone listens to.

- Cowell picked Piers Morgan to fill a similar role - the snobby Brit judge whose opinions are booed by the audience - on NBC's "America's Got Talent."

- On ABC's "Supernanny," no-nonsense British nanny Jo Frost arrives in a London taxicab and gets right to work telling harried parents what they are doing wrong.

- Duplicating his success on the BBC, chef Gordon Ramsay takes apart struggling American restaurants and puts them back together on "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares." (The format is being stolen for Bravo's new hair-cutting reality show, "Tabatha's Salon Takeover," though host Tabatha Coffey isn't British - she's Australian.)

Why do the Brits have such power over us?

The accent plays a big part. Give an American and a Brit the same dialogue, and it automatically sounds classier when the Brit says it.

My wife blames Mary Poppins. That Disney-minted goody-goody, "practically perfect in every way," set up a generation to accept any advice as long as it comes with that prim and proper tone that Julie Andrews conveyed so well.

Marketing is a major factor. PBS made its name in the '70s with "Masterpiece Theatre," which showcased British TV programs for American audiences. Some of these shows - like "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Poldark" - were nothing more than televised romance novels, with plot twists that would feel right at home on "Dallas" and "Dynasty." But because they were introduced by Alistair Cooke, the quintessential Brit in America, we thought they were classy.

Or it may just be "daddy issues" that go back 232 years. Great Britain is, after all, the country from which the United States declared its independence in 1776. Centuries later, we still feel the apron strings of our former birth country.

For all the good things British culture has given to America - from David Lean to Monty Python, from Andrew Lloyd Webber (the early stuff) to "Absolutely Fabulous" - not everything that comes from the Sceptered Isle is golden. If anyone ever suggests that all British culture is superior to American culture, give them two words: Benny Hill.

Sean P. Means also writes the Culture Vulture in daily blog form at blogs.sltrib. com/vulture. Send tips, contributions and comments to vulture@ sltrib.com.