Here's the fourth part of Declan's New York Diary

No sleep for this City.

It's three in the morning here. There's a crane hook going up and down past the office window, though it doesn't seem to be lifting anything. Across the street, one of those diggers with a bucket at the end is putting gravel into a truck.

Click here to watch Declan's report on the NASDAQ

There is - unbelievably - a knot of bystanders on the corner watching this; equally implausibly, it's causing a traffic jam, and there's a noisy flotilla of canary yellow cabs, all honking furiously, in their rush to get to goodness-knows-where.

Just to the left, people are milling around Times Square itself, in clusters of varying size. Some are lost souls on their own, peering into the shop windows.

Others are obviously on their way back from some sort of night-time entertainment, and are just as likely making their way to another den of fun.

The US fascination with the UK goes much deeper than buying our goods. There's a whole image thing going on.

Declan Curry

And there are those who are striding purposefully, as if on their way to work in the middle of the rush hour.

It is, by the way, as bright as day out there, thanks to the lights from the diggers, the neon stars-and-stripes flag that takes over a whole wall of the US Army recruiting station, the 20 foot high TV screen above ABC's breakfast studios, and the eye-blinding multi-storey display above the NASDAQ, shouting visual encouragement to global capitalism.

If I keep going up Broadway, I'll pass restaurants that have yet to shut, cinemas with the screens still on, supermarkets with welcoming check-outs, and the deli where the nice old lady from Eastern Europe will fry up a bit of chicken or make a bagel that's about half a foot high.

If that's not enough, the doughnut store is still open next door.

If I go right instead of left out of the office, I'm on 42nd Street, where the newspaper vendor is already pushing tomorrow's Times and Post, and the New York equivalent of Boots is so busy, it has two all-night chemist superstores open on opposite sides of the street.

Add on to that all the bars, clubs (and worse) still doing a roaring trade across this island, and you see Sinatra's old cliche is true - this city doesn't sleep. It's no wonder the rest of America thinks New York is weird and neurotic.

The walk from the office to my hotel takes all of about three minutes (a blessing during the day when the heat is oppressive - the temperature has been nudging the high 90's every day this week).

At least two of those minutes are needed to walk past a huge advertising hoarding for our very own BP - British Petroleum. The ad pushes the company's environmental credentials; it apparently has some sort of solar-powered petrol station up in the Bronx.

Well, it's likely to be more successful over here than in somewhere like Grimsby or Dundee.

But isn't it nice to have a reminder that - for all our moaning - the UK is still good at something? Our oil companies are world-beaters; so too are our drugs companies, food manufacturers, telecoms firms and banks (well, some of them anyway).

And British companies crop up in the most unexpected places. There's a HMV around the corner from here. Tower Records has a big store in the other direction, further up Broadway.

The mayonnaise on the burger I had a few hours ago is from Hellman's. It's part of the Anglo-Dutch detergents and food giant Unilever - which also churns out Ben and Jerrys ice cream and America's most popular washing powders, shampoos and soaps.

The can of 'New York' soda water I've just taken out of the fridge is made by Schweppes - part of the British snacks and sweets giant Cadbury.

The local Burger King is owned by the UK food giant Diageo. It also makes much of the hard liquor that Americans drink in bars or at home (goodness knows how they do it - off-licences here are as rare as hen's teeth).

Thousands of Americans get their mobile phone service from Vodafone. Glaxo makes countless drugs and medicines through its SmithKline operations. British American Tobacco does exactly what it says on the tin.

'A Special Relationship'

The US fascination with the UK goes much deeper than buying our goods. There's a whole image thing going on.

Fashionable society in New York just loves Burberry. Jaguar cars are sold with TV adverts featuring red phone boxes, London bobbies and pubs.

And please don't get them started about the Royal Family. Even the many that criticise the monarchy as a system of government clamour for news about the Queen, Prince Charles and - if this week's papers are anything to go by - Camilla Parker-Bowles.

What's the phrase for it? Oh yes - a special relationship. The second cliche of the night that also happens to be true.