People have absolutely no trouble forming and expressing opinions on all of "America", in spite of the fact that the US spans a continent and then some. For instance, anyone, apparently, is entitled to have an opinion of American gun ownership, a domestic issue, whether or not he lives here.

Understanding of the sheer geographic breadth of the US, its complicated patchwork of governments and wildly diverse regional variations on the themes of ethnicity and culture, are not requirements for citizens of other places to comment upon even our domestic issues. My first French teacher, herself a war bride, remarked that her family and friends in France frequently commented upon the US as if we were a combination of New York City and Hollywood, with a little of "Oklahoma" (the musical) thrown in. She had trouble getting them to understand that New York State and New York City were not the same location.

Btw, were you aware that, in New York State, "upstate" refers to the part north of the New York City metro area? Absolutely no one except the late Tim Russert (proud son of Buffalo NY) thinks of that part of the country, with its dairy farms, orchards, forests, fisheries, and salt deposits, as a center of culture and influence. Especially the citizens of New York City, which might as well be a different country from upstate. I grew up in upstate, so I am allowed to comment.

If we are only to be allowed to comment on things that occur in or news that comes from the places where we have lived, we might as well simply post links to our local newspapers and shut up. The amount each of us doesn't know about other people's homes is vast, which is why sometimes the remarks we make are only half-vast. Should we then not have a conversation?

You and Doug react with prickly sensitivity about criticism of the domestic UK. You can, I think, appreciate how I feel when people who don't live in the US criticize our domestic situations... again and again and again. Still, it seems counterproductive to require residency before someone is allowed to speak about another country's domestic life. After all, I don't have to live in Saudi Arabia to know that I'm forbidden to drive there, and I certainly have an opinion about that.