I watched I, Daniel Blake recently, a continually relevant film that celebrates the value of communities.

Yes, Loach pulls no punches in highlighting massive issues: systemic failures, austerity, food shortages and unemployment. Truly awful things that are responsible for killing good people. It’s murder a few steps removed.

What really struck me where some subtler points. A white man from Newcastle’s friendship with his younger black neighbour, and the relationship that develops between him and a single mother from London who he meets at the Job Centre.

Fear, suspicion and disunity are powerful forces, and if we fear the person who lives at number 7 or number 9 because we are told to, then we are likely to retreat into our shells, our televisions, our newspapers and the Internet which often drive further division.

But if we are friends with the person or family at number 7 then we can help them. And in turn they are more likely to help us. And if the person at number 7 is friends with the person at number 8 the same thing can happen.

Imagine if the people at number 7, 8, 9 and 10 all become friends. They might have a chat in the street on a Saturday morning, and the lady at number 8 invites them all to dinner on Wednesday evening. She cooks a giant Masala, which the man who lives on his own at number 10 absolutely loves. So she offers to show him how to make one himself using ingredients that cost less than half the price of the takeaways that he’s become used to buying because he fell out of love with cooking after his wife died last year.

And he hears that the lock is broken on the back door of the family who live at number 7 which they can’t afford to get fixed, and offers to help because he’s quite good at that sort of thing. And the single Mum at number 9, who has been quiet up until now starts to talk about how worried she is about her son who has become increasingly withdrawn over the last few months.

At the end of the evening they all agree to do the same thing again next week, because they’ve all really enjoyed it.The man at number 10 surprises himself by offering to host if the lady at number 8 will help him do the cooking. And the couple who live at number 9 ask if they can invite the elderly lady who lives alone at number 11.

And so it goes.

And so it grows.

A few months later, 20 neighbours decide to have a barbecue — but not in a back garden, in the street. 20 quickly grows to 30 as some other neighbours come over to see what is going on and are invited to stay.

A bit later on someone mentions that the local library is at risk of being shut down, and they start to wonder what they could do about it. The lady at number 22 has been involved in a campaign like this when she lived in Leeds and has some ideas. Her girlfriend is a designer so maybe she could make some posters once they all decide what they should put on them. As they’re talking, some of the neighbours smile as they notice that the girl at number 14 is holding hands with boy at number 9.

We won’t stop being a transient society, but a transient society does not need to be an insular one.

I’m not sure about conspiracies. I’m not sure if governments develop strategies that promote hate and fear because it fits their aims. That is a question for another time. And perhaps not something that I can do very much about.

I’m not sure about the pros and cons of globalisation, and perhaps it’s not something I can do much about at the moment either. But if I spend all of my time worrying and talking about that, I might forget to think about the things that I can do something about.

What I do know is that with unity comes strength. And if people unite, they can achieve great things. They may not be able to stop an unnecessary war, or prevent climate change. But they could get the street light’s fixed, or apply for a small bit of funding to buy some trees to plant, or save their local library.

And that’s a good start.