There are too many busy main roads where I live for street parties this coming weekend, so instead there will be gatherings in gardens at which glasses will be raised to Her Majesty and televisions taken outside to watch the pageantry in London.

It will be a great coming-together of neighbours and friends in a spirit of community, and that’s something well worth celebrating over the course of this week’s bank holidays and then the weekend, when all eyes will be on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s appearance.

The same spirit extends across the country. An estimated 16,000 street parties are being held according to the Local Government Association, whose members will close roads for them to take place, but informal events like the ones happening around me are bound to swell the number of celebrations many times beyond that.

This isn’t just an expression of the great British appetite for a party. Nor is it solely about admiration, and even love, for a Queen whose reign is arguably the greatest and most successful in the 1,000-year history of the British monarchy.

This weekend is about something more – the expression of a sense of identity and pride in Britain, which is too often overlooked. It is a pride that cuts across background, class and age, and it is a great unifying force.

Mine is a multicultural neighbourhood, where there is a healthy, friendly and utterly uplifting competition under way between neighbours of very diverse backgrounds and faiths over who has the most Union Jacks flying, for it is the flag of all who live in Britain, and the Jubilee is a celebration that embraces everyone, irrespective of where they hail from or how they worship.

People get sick and tired of politics, especially the grubby way our Prime Minister conducts the business of running the Government, and the Jubilee represents an opportunity to rise above all that for a few days and reflect on what’s best about our country.

In doing so, we will be expressing joyfully and without restriction the spirit that got us through the pandemic – a concern and affection for others, even though we may not know them very well.

All of us who came out every Thursday evening in the darkest days of 2020 to clap or bang pots and pans together for the NHS and care workers got to know each other a lot better.

Nodding acquaintances became friends as we ran errands and kept an eye on the elderly or vulnerable. Understanding of other lives increased.

This week on my street, people who were careful to distance themselves from neighbours by holding shouted conversations over the length of driveways will instead shake hands and offer drinks.

In the midst of that first, terrible, Covid spring, the Queen broadcast on a Sunday evening and told the nation: “We will meet again.”

Though we all knew she was right, it was hard to know when that would be.

This week is when what she said really comes true on a nationwide basis for the first time since then, as most of the country forgets about work for a few days and enjoys itself.

Friendships made in the most awful of times will be renewed and strengthened, and strangers will get to know each other.

That’s the magic of the great Royal occasions. They lift the nation’s mood and bring out the best in its people. What we’ve all been through over the past couple of years means that millions value their friends and neighbours even more than they ever did.

I wonder if, in any speech she makes over the coming days, the Queen will reflect on that.

She’s touched on it in her past two Christmas messages, and in her broadcast to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day in 2020. For a sovereign so closely attuned to the mood of her country, its ability to celebrate without worrying will surely not be lost on her.

The outpouring of affection towards her this week will, in part, be a recognition that she personifies the values of the people looking forward to extending the hand of friendship to others, at street parties, in back gardens or in pubs and clubs where events are planned.

Though the Platinum Jubilee is about her extraordinary 70 years on the throne, which even a baby born today is unlikely ever to see matched in their lifetime, it’s about us as well.

There’s something uplifting about seeing all those Union Jacks and all that bunting going up, and sensing the enthusiasm of those doing it. We’re about to stage an unashamed and joyful celebration of our country, as well as of our Queen, which really is something to raise a glass to.

Queen's Platinum Jubilee sure to reflect Britain at its best - Andrew Vine