In general Poles are well liked and respected by The British.
They are now - that wasn't the case 10+ years ago. Poles were regarded by many brits as backwards and cheap labor especially as they flooded the construction trade. Then as Poles started realizing how easy it is to scam the benefits system and commit fraud in the UK they got a bad rep for that.
All the time I still see UK publications talking about the 'Polish crime wave' and the huge amount of 'Polish criminals' which yes is based on fact. Nonetheless, it shows that people in the UK like to stoke fears and depict Poles as criminals.
Take this article from 2012 for example - dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102895/Immigrant-crimewave-warning-Foreign-nationals-accused-QUARTER-crimes-London.html
Personally, I applaud these Poles. I look at it as karma, as reparations.
In general Poles are well liked and respected by The British. Mainly because of their hard work ethic
That's because British people got a taste of more and more Muslims coming in. So now, naturally, a Polish guy working in construction or factory and Polish girl working as a cleaning lady or home care and even the Poles who do commit fraud are tolerated much more than the thousands of Pakistanis that are raping and trafficking small children, not to mention those who march with signs saying UK Go To Hell, Sharia4UK, etc. Poles don't do that kind of stuff. We're not beheading soldiers, we're not blowing people up, we're not driving vans into crowds so naturally the more xenophobic Brits' focus has changed from hating Eastern Europeans to hating Muslims. We just want to be left alone to work, make our money one way or another, and retire - even if it's on UK taxpayers' dime. Many Poles even joke that their retirement plan is UK's benefits system.
And atually you'd be surprised how few British people - especially the youth - are aware of Polish contribution in WW2. That stuff simply isn't taught in schools, and even if it is it may be a sentence or two. Most British youth are retarded anyway - I remember watching BBC and a reporter was asking a remainer what the best part of the EU is and she answered 'the NHS'..... smdh.... and you think a person like this is going to be aware of the Kosciuszko squadron's contribution and how we basically saved London from the Luftwaffe? The British pilots were awful compared to the Polish mainly because of their tactics - Polish pilots were taught to fly extremely close to their target and then fire as opposed to firing from afar. That's what made the Poles so deadly. I honestly believe that if it wasn't for the Polish pilots the battle of Britain would've turned out way different - at the very least I doubt they would've repelled the Luftwaffe.
Simple, antagonism is deep within British society, in culture, in language, politics.
Like my cousin, a UK citizen was recently reminded 'You may be British, but you'll never be an Englishmen.'