Are you singing Sweet Caroline.....
Last night, as we awaited tonight’s football final, in typical English fashion BBC1 was showing Churchill’s Darkest Hour! One of my favourite films. The thing that struck me the most, in both film and the tournament, is the unity right across England. It isn’t just that we’re so fed up with long term enforced isolation. It’s more than that. In the semi-final, when I looked at the Wembley crowds, English fans from every ethnicity were linking arms with one another and singing in ONE voice. Rich/poor/young/old/Churchill/Halifax, it didn’t matter. United against a common ‘enemy’. On Wednesday it was Denmark; tonight Italy. Of course, once the football’s over, we’ll need to find another reason to come together. In my novel The Meleke Stone, a Jewish man and an Egyptian Muslim become friends, recognising what they have in common: their individual sufferings. That’s what everyone in England needs to do.
....So, whatever the result tonight may be, we should join with Neil Diamond and sing: “...reaching out, touching me touching you.....good times never seemed so good..”. Come on England!
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