Olympic Gold

Did anyone catch the Olympics Opening Ceremony by any chance? Wiping out three hours of the BBC's evening schedule, it would be pretty hard to miss. Personally, I'm glad I made a point of watching; it was a fantastic celebration of our nation and I felt very proud to be British.

So often I think that as a nation we suffer from a lack of national identity. It's a fluid concept as national interests and tastes change, but most nations are known for something very specific, either in the character of the people or the character of the geography: Germany is famous for engineering and efficiency, Italy is known for flamboyancy, France is known for being insular (sometimes even xenophobic) but also for gourmet cooking, America is the nation of excess, etc., so what makes us British?

I think our lack of identity sometimes stems from the fact that we aren't one single nation. Scotland, Ireland and Wales have their own sense of identity and it's something which can drive a wedge between the people of those nations and their identity as a British National. (Scottish Independence, anyone?) In addition, I think that we are also sometimes guilty of holding on to our historical identity so steadfastly that we forget to embrace our present. Then again, our present isn't always something we would want to embrace when there's rioting in the streets, petty crime is rife and the media is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. However there are somethings that are completely unique to Britain and this is what Danny Boyle so successfully exploited.

We are an old nation with a history spanning millenia, not centuries. Britain was the seat of the industrial revolution and continues to be a breeding ground for some great technological wonders, celebrated in the opening ceremony by the inclusion of Tim Berners-Lee. We are recognised around the world for our British humour (so many of my overseas friends love the likes of Monty Python and Mr Bean), the British music scene is one of the most diverse and vibrant in the world and British literature is celebrated around the globe. And of course, we should celebrate the great British institutions, like the BBC and the NHS, which are both completely unique. Politically, we are both liberal and socialist, defending the rights of the individual and fiercely protecting the welfare state and institutions like the NHS, but also celebrating our monarchy. We are diverse and we are inclusive.

Danny Boyle reminded us of these facts by doing nothing more than putting on a terribly British show. For that alone, at least in my eyes, he is both a genius and a national hero.

Swine Flu

As I sit here watching I Am Legend, the story of a lone survivor of an infection that decimates the human population, it is, perhaps fitting that I should blog about Swine Flu.

Swine Flu, even at the worst projected mortality rate, is not going to kill to the extremes of the aforementioned movie. However, it seems that some people seem to think this is an end-of-life-as-we-know-it scenario. On Friday morning I was driving to work with the radio on (taking a well deserved break from singing practice) and heard someone being interviewed on the morning news criticising what was being done. Although I can't remember it verbatim, the person said something along the lines of "If one person has it on a plane, 100 people have it". This assertion gave me a right chuckle since that kind of infection rate would already mean many hundreds of cases in the UK. The "Catch It, Bin It, Kill It" leaflet that I found had been circulated at work on email. I particularly liked the advice about setting up a network of 'Flu-Friends': Not, as you might imagine a group of friends and relatives that you can infect, but instead, a group of minions that you can train to do your bidding should you fall ill (the leaflet suggests that you can ask them to run errands for shopping and medication for you but surely there's more fun to be had than this?)

This is a serious situation, but I really think some people need to get a bit of perspective. Firstly, you're extremely unlikely to catch it passing someone in the street - even sitting next to an infected person on a plane or train is no guarantee of contracting the illness. Furthermore, the UK is fortunate that we have a good stock of antiviral drugs available and with sensible precautions the virus can be contained so that they should not be needed.

I'm not sure that 'Flu-Friends' classes as a precaution, sensible or otherwise.