Re: Just out of curiousity, what shortcomings...

Oh, I don't know. Too many to mention. Most of what makes our society different to English society in 1976, though some things, such as the tabloid press, a perennial source of poison in the body politic, predate this. The whole tendency towards puritan interference ever since the Society for the Reformation of Manners, a tendency which saw the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 under which Oscar Wilde was convicted. This tendency seemed to have been in retreat for a period from about the mid 60s to the mid 70s, a retreat that was opposed by Mary Whitehouse, Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher, ultimately successfully. The passing of the 1978 Protection of Children Act, which criminalised all the boy skin mags that had hitherto flourished in Britain, marked the end of an era. As a general rule, everything that makes Britain distinct from America is something that makes Britain more civilised than America. I say this deliberately, knowing that it will annoy patriotic Yanks who believe their country represents a model society.