So after reading this article (don't worry, I haven't taken to reading the Telegraph, I was linked to it), I decided to test the waters, throw myself to the dogs, and various other risk-taking metaphors. It may surprise some of you to know I was accepted. There are a few possible conclusions that can be drawn from both my inclusion, which will be at least in part defined by your estimation of how attractive I am, and about the phenomenon generally. Bear in mind these are only possible conclusions, I'm not saying these are all necessarily true (or false)...

• Not many British people had applied, meaning there was a high chance the sample was skewed. This depends on what you consider a statistically viable sample - it does say that out of 295,000 UK residents who applied, only 35,000 were successful. The UK population is roughly 61,360,000, so that's 1 in every 208 Brits applied, and 1 in every 1753 who was accepted.
  

• The sort of British people who apply to 'dating sites' in general, or ones that are beauty specfic in particular, are not attractive or instead conform to some idea of beauty which is very British and not internationally recognised. See, for example, the predilection for heavy make-up, tracksuits, our spiralling obesity problem and 'bad teeth' reputation etc.
  

• The majority of British people are simply generally not very attractive by world standards. It's a possibility, even if it might seem ludicrous - I don't know about you, but my opinion of someone's physical attractiveness is frequently affected by other things. For example, I used to think J-Lo was fit, but since hearing about what an unmitigated bitch she is, I don't find her attractive any more. It could be that a poor world view of the UK consciously or subconsciously makes Brits seem less attractive.

N.B. Of course, this would mean, or at least heavily imply, that I am significantly more attractive than the average Brit, in the upper 0.057 percentile. So think about the consequences of that before you accept that conclusion, although this was sort of backed up by my spell on Hot or Not (top 1 percentile)...

• Some particular trend or idea of beauty became commonplace on the site early on and is self-propogating. I have to say, this seems quite likely to me, and is definitely backed up by my browsing and experience of the site, and some of the comments on the original Telegraph article - I have seen a lot of Scandinavians and South Americans and precious little in the way of ethnic diversity.
  

Anyway, the data is obviously now a few weeks out of date, and it might be that a lot of other Brits have done the same as me. Still, some interesting food for thought/my narcissism/your ammunition...