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I think it's class-related. Many upper-class (mostly countryside) people I know are appalled by what's going on, but they will under no circumstances go into territory that is not what 'people like us' think. Nigel Farage is 'a horrid little man' and any negative talk about immigrants puts you risk of being 'one of those awful people' who wave flags and don't like foreigners. They are willing to get very upset about anti-semitism and Free Palestine marches, but they don't like discussing the causes of those phenomena if at all possible and any suggestions for solving it are absolutely verboten.
I should also note that there is a long-standing pride in Britain about never having a serious Fascist movement and people are very, very unwilling to go anywhere near the space of anti-immigrant sentiment. It's associated with skinheads, 'Go Home Paki' slogans, and English Defence League marchers spitting at innocent people who 'come over here and work jolly hard'. The only time it got remotely close to mainstream politics was Enoch Powell, who was a political outsider and (I'm told from someone sympathetic to his ideals who met him by chance) incredibly arrogant and unpleasant.
In short, it's true that Brits are legalistic but we're usually at least somewhat pragmatic. The main obstacle is deep, visceral, reflexive cringe to nationalist sentiment among the ruling classes.
EDIT: There is also strong suspicion of the native working classes among upper-class people of a certain age. English socialists did their level best to wipe out the upper and upper-middle classes in the 60s and 70s and at their height came quite close to succeeding. One of my relatives was spat on in the street for having the wrong (posh) accent.
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