The 'other' Team GB

Nothing irritates and frustrates me more, than being unable to write due to pressure of work. On the positive side though, endless fermentation of ideas keeps on bubbling away, whilst I carry out my conventional workload. Team GB and their stunning performance at the Olympics, has set a whole new train of thoughts in motion as regards how to present SNM in the best possible light. Our sportspeople have shown what can be achieved when sufficient hard work and a positive mindset get applied to a job in hand, and theirs is a mentality that needs to be applied to all walks of national life.

Taking in the bigger picture, our sportspeople represent just one constituent element of the real and full scale 'Team GB'. Other elements include Politics, Law, Commerce, Public Services, Bureaucracy and Community Cohesion amongst the other 'players' and those elements all represent failure.

Picture Team GB as it ought to be viewed. One element has proved itself to be worthy whilst all of the other elements around it represent the worst of Britain. That is the starting point and the new direction of attack Sheep No More will come from. The current website is too 'wordy' and concentrates on 'the problem' whilst only touching on solutions and what ought to be achievable. Chapter 12 of SNM is packed full of material designed to begin righting so much that has been left to go wrong, and that is where the emphasis of the project must go. So expect new content to the website just as soon as I can knock it into shape, that will take its lead from our Olympians and will concentrate on solutions and the performance 'we the people' are entitled to expect from 'The Team'.

The weekend just gone, witnessed the first outing of SNM at the Garlic Festival on the Isle of Wight. A handful of copies of the paper and ink book went home with new owners and an encouraging amount of interest in the eBook version was generated. It was very rewarding to meet new people and have some pretty intense conversations, some of which were quite challenging. All-in-all, a very good experience and one to build on.

Two widely shared opinions came across forcefully. The first is that Brits are sickened at the trashing of their country and have no faith whatsoever in any of our politicians, an opinion I share and that is common to people like me who are not defeatist by nature. The other opinion 'that it's all too late and nothing can be done' comes from people who've all but given up, and who I cannot agree with despite understanding the pessimism.

Summer 2012 has been quite a time for me and lots of lessons have been learnt. The Queens Diamond Jubilee and accompanying appearance of the Union Flag, almost to saturation point, tells me that the British have a powerful desire to be united and be able to feel pride in their nation once more. Then followed the success of Team GB at the Olympics and we witnessed what hard work and a positive mindset can achieve. At the Garlic Festival this weekend and as a result of all those conversations partaken of, it struck me that the 'Team GB' concept needs to be expanded and the much talked of matter of 'legacy' be tackled from an 'every walk of life' perspective, so taking in politics, the law, commerce, the whole kit and caboodle. Doing so will be the subject of my next posting.

Garlic Festival on the Isle of Wight today and tomorrow. Will be taking three dozen books and some flyer's to see what interest can be drummed up, so a bit of a nail biting weekend lays ahead for yours truly. Still; just so long as they don't all come back with me, I shall regard it as a success!

Britain has just been through an amazing couple of weeks, that could, if we've the sense to build on the mentality demonstrated by our Olympians, begin the task of putting the country back to rights.
 All those medals were won, not just because our athletes were at the peak of physical fitness, but their mental fitness was finely honed as well. They're team players who won the respect, support, and love of their countrymen and weren't in the least bit ashamed to show patriotism (for so long a dirty word in this country)

I don't expect the politicians and business leaders that run Britain and who control all of our lives to be all that physically fit, but we ought to be confident that they are mentally. Ours aren't, they are not team players but are self serving in the extreme, and they certainly don't command any respect. The likes of David Cameron and Bob Diamond occupy the same positions in politics and banking as does Bradley Wiggins in sport, but they are not fit to tie his laces. Politicians and businessmen need seriously to get their heads straight and up their game, and I cannot see any reason or excuse not to do so.       

Never before in my adult lifetime, has the Union Flag been more in evidence than it has in the spring and summer of 2012. Putting aside the European Cup (bit of a let down, but we were after all, pinning our hopes on a bunch of overpaid, prima-donna chavs) the spirit of the country has since then improved enormously. Queenie's Diamond Jubilee went down a storm, and then the Olympics got underway, and our hard working girls and boys have restored to Britain a great deal of pride. Well done to all of them I say, and not just the medal winners, but those whose success may well come at future tournaments, also those working behind the scenes. Soon it will all be over and this amazing summer (events wise) will draw to a close. Then it'll be back to normal (austerity and all that crap) which will be a very good time to capitalise upon the positive spirit at large now, and see about what can be done to revive British Politics and make it worthy once more.