Is the UK second-tier to the US?

Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential contender, told an audience in the US this week that he didn't want America to become a second tier nation like the UK.

I think we can assume from this that he believes that the US is first tier and the UK second rate. He singled out our National Health Service. At least the UK has a health service that cares for everyone, rich and poor and doesn't expect its citizens to pay through the nose for Medicare.

So where is the UK second tier to the US?

Is it second tier in geography?

Is it second tier in good manners and politeness?

Is it second tier in history, tradition, rugby, motor sport, government, language,the military, empire building?

Just what is it that's second tier about the UK Mr Romney? We're not as fat as Americans, that's true. We haven't been to the moon and we don't have anything quite like Hollywood. But we do have class, a kind of class that you can't buy with dollars. And that means we shall never be able to match our American cousins in this sort of thing. Well you can't have everything.

The problem with Americans is that they simply do not understand us. As the American poet, Randall Jarrell, once wrote: "To Americans English Manners are far more frightening than none at all."