veneer

Hello, I'm translating John Fowles's The Journals: Volume 2, but I haven't thoroughly understood the clause bolded below. Could you paraphrase it in simpler language for me please?

" The civilizedness of Air France is a pleasant surprise, or a memory. The English no longer behave like this; a kind of veneer that this is a fascist state, and you are the master-class. This goes with the other side of the French character, from the Revolution, that all men are equal, even if some are richer than others."

Thank you in advance.

The civilizedness of Air France represents a kind of superficial behavior in which people act as though this is a fascist state and you are a member of the ruling class.

A veneer is (literally taken) a very thin piece of fancy-grain wood glued to a piece of more ordinary wood, sometime plywood, in order to convey the impression that more expensive wood has been used to construct whatever item this is.
However, Fowles is using this figuratively. He means a thin film of polite manners that masks a more sinister reality.

The passage quoted in the OP is very carelessly written - it's not clear what the clause "a kind of veneer. . .master-class" refers to, French or English behaviour, though I am sure owlman 5 and S1m0n have got it right.
I have said in previous threads about this diary, (including the comments by Fowles's wife), that the writing is a kind of private shorthand and thus unreliable as any kind of model of acceptable English.

I expect that Suhaser is reading this because it gives an insight into the life and times of John Fowles, not because it is an example of impeccable English!