Do I look like an idiot?!

I just have to get this off my chest.  So, obviously, I have met a LOT of people and, of course, quite a few of them are Brits.  So you do the usual, 'Hi, where are you from?' and they say, 'Britain, you?' and then you say, 'Oh, yeah, British also,' (apparently my accent does not give this away?!) and then you ask them whereabouts in Britain they are from.

WHY is it that they seem to feel a need to assume that you don't know where something is?  Except this awesome couple I met from Manchester, who said they were from Manchester and felt that this needed no qualification, I have had someone say to me they were from near Bristol (It turns out this place near Bristol was Bath), then I had somebody say they were from Lincolnshire and then he asked if I KNEW where Lincolnshire was?!  Today the gem was from this guy who said he was from Cheltenham, in the Cotswolds.

Now, I don't know if I have this over the top aversion to being patronised or something, but if I've got an English accent and I come from Britain, it's a pretty safe bet that I know where places in teeny tiny little Britain are.  Especially England.  Why do people assume that nobody knows anything?  I'm thinking I must either look like an idiot or most Brits don't have even a fundamental knowledge of the geography of their own country, which is then ironic because Brits love to mock American ignorance.

I find it really frustrating.  And, I think, rightly so.  Seriously, why not assume some degree of intelligence, say the city and then explain when ASKED?!  Grrrrrrrrrr, nanny state, grrrrrrrrrrrr inability of people to think for themselves.

Also I got annoyed earlier that there were these white guys going around preaching to people about Maori culture/history.  That's so hypocritical, not to mention idiotic.