The Diamond Jubilee - a catalyst for good - 08/06/2012
I loved the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations; I paid attention, got involved and genuinely felt proud to be British. A phenomenal amount of effort was put in by so many to mark an amazing event and complete respect is due to the Queen for her stamina and involvement.
The British monarchy is a fundamental aspect of our national identity, it helps differentiate this country and I for one am completely supportive of it. Even though I am a regular Guardian reader, it annoyed me to see Polly Toynbee on the Andrew Marr show over the weekend representing the republican movement; she is of course entitled to her opinion but I switched the television off so as not to listen to her.
In the run up to the service at St. Pauls, a republican protest was completely crushed under a vocal barrage of “God save the Queen”from those
there to celebrate. I thought it was good that the protest was allowed, it was great that the royalists were prepared to stand up for their rights to celebrate and it was excellent that the whole thing could pass without any trouble or violence.
Away from the television and from London, my street in Daventry had a party – it was going to be held on the Sunday but the weather was so atrocious that the sensible decision was made to do it on the Monday instead.
A marquee and gazebo were erected on the green that fronts the close, Union Jacks and bunting were strung between the trees, chairs were put out and the barbeques were fired up. The majority of the residents in the close pitched in to help, supplied food and drink, stayed to celebrate and then helped pack the whole thing up. I manned the barbeques and cooked all the meat for everyone.
From 1pm to 7:30pm the atmosphere in the close felt very different from normal.
The thing that impressed me the most about our little street party was the sense of camaraderie and community it created. I have lived in my street for nearly ten years and there were some elderly residents that I had never really talked to before – that has now been corrected and I am pleased about it.
The street party was the kind of thing that we should all try to do more often. The jubilee was the catalyst but I hope that we’ll collectively find more excuses to get together – the goodwill generated was so valuable.
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The British monarchy is a fundamental aspect of our national identity, it helps differentiate this country and I for one am completely supportive of it. Even though I am a regular Guardian reader, it annoyed me to see Polly Toynbee on the Andrew Marr show over the weekend representing the republican movement; she is of course entitled to her opinion but I switched the television off so as not to listen to her.
In the run up to the service at St. Pauls, a republican protest was completely crushed under a vocal barrage of “God save the Queen”from those
there to celebrate. I thought it was good that the protest was allowed, it was great that the royalists were prepared to stand up for their rights to celebrate and it was excellent that the whole thing could pass without any trouble or violence.
Away from the television and from London, my street in Daventry had a party – it was going to be held on the Sunday but the weather was so atrocious that the sensible decision was made to do it on the Monday instead.
A marquee and gazebo were erected on the green that fronts the close, Union Jacks and bunting were strung between the trees, chairs were put out and the barbeques were fired up. The majority of the residents in the close pitched in to help, supplied food and drink, stayed to celebrate and then helped pack the whole thing up. I manned the barbeques and cooked all the meat for everyone.
From 1pm to 7:30pm the atmosphere in the close felt very different from normal.
The thing that impressed me the most about our little street party was the sense of camaraderie and community it created. I have lived in my street for nearly ten years and there were some elderly residents that I had never really talked to before – that has now been corrected and I am pleased about it.
The street party was the kind of thing that we should all try to do more often. The jubilee was the catalyst but I hope that we’ll collectively find more excuses to get together – the goodwill generated was so valuable.
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