Pronunciation Differences in British and American English

Total nonsense, Andrew. I'm American, and most British accents sound pretty closely related to me. You may hear worlds of difference; I just hear minor variations on a basic overall sound. That is why we can lump them together as a group. There are similar variations throughout North America, but I think you can easily lump them together as a group as well. It's not an invention, it's a description of how these accent groups are related by their distinctive sounds. We could care less that our accent is a regional variant; whose isn't? And what's wrong with acknowledging the region in question? Don't give it a pseudo-psychological dimension that doesn't really exist.