Should we feel ashame of our English accent?

After living for a while ( 3 years Marta-5 years Joan) in the UK we seem to have improved slightly our English, step by step. It is relatively easy to reach a point that you make your self understood, but to go step forward is a different story, far more ambitious and not always succesfull at the end. Achiving a level of foreign language profiency can become an obesssion until one recognises that will never get rid of the original accent, and that it is not that bad, every one has an indentity and ours is not English. The best we can do is to improve some proninciation by smoothing some fonetics but after 5 minutes or before, our origin is discovered. Happily some think we are Dutch, other Italian and a some few regard us as Spanish ( here is what pisses Joan off). One can reduce the number of mistakes and learn more vocabulary and that's about it really. Yet, recently, we have heard that apparently regional accents are much worse for business that "overseas" accent see the news that came out yesterday in the BBC:

"Among the English accents tainted with business failure are Scouse, Brummie, Cockney, Geordie and the West Country. The Aziz Corporation found that Home Counties, American, Scots, European, Indian or Asian were prized accents. "If you sound like Vera Duckworth you will face prejudice in business," said Khalid Aziz, its chairman. Mr Aziz added: "Although it may not be politically correct to believe that accents matter nowadays, it is very apparent from our research that popular prejudices still exist"

"If you want to get ahead in business and don't speak the Queen's English, it is better to sound as if you are from America, Europe, India or indeed Scotland than from any English region
Khalid Aziz, The Aziz Corporation. The survey found 77% of business people thought a Home Counties accent was a sign of success in business followed by 73% favouring an American accent, 63% a Scottish accent, 52% continental European and 25% believing Indian or Asian accents were successful. However 64% of business people regarded those with a Liverpudlian accent unsuccessful, closely followed by a Birmingham or West Midlands accent, 63%, Cockney, 52% and Geordie or West Country 48%. It also found that businessmen who speak with an Indian or Asian accent were considered to be hardworking and reliable by 69% of their peers, a higher rating than any other accent. Those with US accents were considered to be diligent by 66% of their peers, followed by 61% favouring a Scottish accent and 50% preferring a Home Counties accent. However, only 24% of executives consider those with a Scouse accent to be hardworking.
"Albert Einstein Said Mr Aziz: "If you want to get ahead in business and don't speak the Queen's English, it is better to sound as if you are from America, Europe, India or indeed Scotland than from any English region. "Accents can speak louder than words. Even if you think like Albert Einstein, the reality is that if you sound like Vera Duckworth you will face prejudices in the business world. "In the light of these results we would advise individuals to consider softening rather than changing broad accents. He added: "Experience shows that the key is to avoid using localised vocabulary, which others may not recognise." But Mick Ord who coordinated the BBC's Voices Project said: "I would have thought what is more important is how intelligent or how efficient you are." He said surveys about accents tended to be very subjective and superficial.
"It's a bit like saying who is your favourite band?"