BIG APPLE'S A REAL WINNER.

Byline: Stuart Maconie

I'LL be honest. Marathons leave me cold generally. All those people dressed as chickens doing something unfeasibly healthy. No thanks. But last weekend my stepdaughter ran the New York Marathon so, naturally, I took an interest. Her experiences tell you something about our two countries today.

They were given a rousing send-off by a brass band playing New York, New York on Staten Island and, in each borough they ran through, were roared on by strangers who encouraged them by name.

The New Yorkers themselves came from every ethnic group under the sun. And what they were really cheering about was New York itself. Go, girl, they said, and welcome to a great, vibrant city in a proud, free country.

This kind of US patriotism gets a bad press among British smart-alecs. But compare it to our current British brand...

Reptilian creeps in cheap suits on Question Time. Thick-necked troglodytes chanting hate in our cities under the banner of the English Defence League or some such nonsense. Nasty, dim, unwelcoming - the worst this country has to offer.

Give me the cheesiness of the New York yankees any day - a bighearted people who know their strength is in diversity, energy and hard work.

If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

The BNP wouldn't last five minutes.