I find pom offensive principally because Australians always use it in such a smug way However I can accept that Most people from England find it harmless and amusing in the article is potentially true the problem is that no evidence seems to be given in support of this claim It s also extremely unlikely that when originally used it was reserved only for English people rather than everyone from the U K If Australians mainly use it for English people now then that will be for sociocultural reasons such as lazily targeting all anti British feeling at the English