Jubilee Weekend

If you’re a glass half full person I’m assuming you had a great jubilee weekend soaking up all the positive vibes rocketing around the country, reminding us that wherever we live, we are one big island team and there’s nothing like a bit of flag-waving to bring that out in us. The moaners, huddled around their cauldrons on Twitter tend to be of a type, everything is someone else’s fault, they find enjoying other people’s success and foreign emotion, and if they ever let go of their cynical stance, they’d have to face their demons and that’s just a bridge too far. Thankfully there are more of us than there are of them.

Over the years I’ve met and interviewed many retired team sports stars. In fact this weekend I was with Rugby legend Martin Offiah and he admitted, when asked about what he and other sports stars miss about their competitive past, its never kicking, throwing or catching a ball it’s the team, the camaraderie, the shared experiences and you probably relate to this in your own life. If I think of jobs I’ve done (and there’ve been many) when I look back, with the exception of Blue Peter, it’s not the job itself, I miss or has made an impression on my life it’s the people, the team. I’m still in a Facebook group formed by the staff of a radio station we all helped launch back in 1983 it was a unique shared experience which will bond us all together forever.

I talk to people in the Police, NHS, Fire Service, and Armed Forces and learnt during my time on SAS Who Dares Wins that a tight-knit team is not only integral to the success of the job but also their mental stability and when they leave it’s the fellowship they miss. Humans are not loners, by nature we are team players it’s how our species has survived.

But are we in danger of losing our shared team spirit? Due to highrise living arrangements and technology bringing lifestyle services to our front door we are slowly cutting ourselves off and under the title ‘prudence’ we are seeing Banks, Police stations, Churches, Pubs, Post offices, and village shops all closing and further isolating us.

So I believe we need events like the Queens Diamond Jubilee, The Eurovision Song Contest and international sporting events more than ever before because they to bond us together like nothing else and give us the excuse we so desperately need for a bit of high spirited flag-waving to remind us we are a team and all connected.