Having just returned from New York I realise just how amazing our country is! We all moan and complain about it sometimes but when I see how most New Yorkers live, I realise just how lucky we are. True, there was not so much scaffolding on the streets as in previous years but the pavements were still dirty and littered with rubbish and the potholes in the roads in and around the city were a joke. The subway system was filthy and archaic and makes our underground system look like the state of the art. As for the cinemas and broadway theatres, it seems to me they haven’t been updated or painted since the fifties. We think many in this country are poor but the poverty in which vast numbers of New York citizens live makes me realise how fortunate even the poorest in our society are to live in the UK. We complain about our National Health but in the States if you are in an accident or seriously ill, you will be asked for your health insurance details and if you have none, your life expectancy is very much at risk!