Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a country bumpkin, an unsophisticated peasant.

1937		J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 42: We could get married and open a little business down in the country, somewhere among the swede-bashers.
1943		Hunt & Pringle Service Sl.
1943		N. Devon Jrnl 22 July 4/4: He encloses ‘The Swede Basher’s Lament,’ which he has written and dedicated to the Boys of Barnstaple serving overseas. ‘Swede Basher’ [...] is the designation applied to all fellows from Devon and Cornwall.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 18: I don’t like these Lancashire blokes [...] Bloody lot of swede-bashers.
1966		New Statesman 18 Mar. 363/1: Sir Gerald Nabarro is said to have remarked on TV that the fate of the nation depended on a few swede-bashers.
1976		J. Grenfell Joyce Grenfell Requests Pleasure (1977) 190: I tried to sing a song appropriate for the swede-bashers from Lincolnshire, the Cockneys, Scots [...] , and so on [OED].
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 38: I was becoming a right swede-basher!