Well, regulars won't be surprised to hear that I agree with our Irish friend about the unnecessary use of ring circuits in Britain. There's certainly room for a bad connection to open a ring and result in the overloading of part of the cable. They are also subject to being completely botched with DIY attempts (if we are to include DIY and "normal use" factors rather than just fully code-compliant installations).
The cable angle is also a big safety issue. Far too many times here cables are just loosely draped across attics, unsecured and unprotected. I've seen too many cases where a cable has been damaged by being crushed, caught and pulled etc.
Certainly the whole issue of device boxes here needs to be addressed. As DJK mentioned, they are generally far too shallow, which often results in pinched and damaged wires (the prevalance of masonry walls doesn't encourage the fitting of deeper boxes, of course!). American practice is far superior in this regard. The U.S. also uses those nice Romex connectors to securely clamp the cable where it enters the box. British boxes have no such facility, and a sharp pull on a cable can easily result in strained/broken connections.
The range (cooker) issue raises the question of what the highest available voltage should be in a residential system. I think North America probably has the best compromise here with using 240V to keep the cable sizes reasonable for heavy loads while still having only 120V to ground.
It's nice to see the NEC changed to require 4-wire range/dryer hookups though. This is the one aspect of U.S. practice that I've never felt comfortable with.
