The September events in the US highlighted the friendship between the US and the UK. Bush thanked Tony Blair on international television and there were stories of New Yorkers shaking hands with strangers with British accents. Playing the US National Anthem in London was an affecting and well-judged gesture, in a culture where radical changes are not usually acceptable. The circumstances were exceptional, and so was the sympathetic response. We were shocked, appalled and upset, like the rest of the world. But there is something about the UK-US relationship that is distinctive, beyond the political rhetoric. The US came to our aid in the Second World War and it is quite likely Hitler would have won, had they not done so. There are historical reasons for our common understanding, like two friends who have learned to trust each other over a period of time. Yet it is not only based on history.

US mythology is based on freedom, initiative and opportunity, leaving the past behind. It is forward-looking and essentially egalitarian. The UK is steeped in heritage and traditions. It gives us a national identity that we sometimes forget, partly because it has been eroded by recent societal changes. Yet we can still invoke Churchill and the spirit of the Blitz, when necessary. It is hard to believe, looking at dissolute British life in its various forms - but I think it is true. A sense of justice and fair play underlies the British psyche. The atrocities contradicted that so offensively, that we have to protest. It's just not cricket - and you don't want to mess with this kind of English outrage.

I look towards the US admiringly, as a place where enterprise and success are supported. The US psyche looks forwards; unconsciously, the British psyche looks backward. I find television programmes like Antiques Road Show quite boring. Yet the US enjoy that kind of thing a little enviously; a US chat buddy told me recently that she really liked it. Her idea was that this country is full of interesting, old buildings. Well it is - Bill Bryson wrote that there was more heritage in his local vicinity than the entire US. Old is not always attractive, but I can understand the appeal here. The US has no old buildings like Westminster, or even Manchester. This does, I suppose, endow the British psyche with an identity. Yet how beautiful those two towers in New York were: shining glass and steel constructions, testifying to the power of aspiration and enterprise.