Should street fundraisers be on our streets during a pandemic?

[DianaT1969]

Eight street fundraisers from the same team on my narrow and congested high street. Stopping people and blocking passage for everyone. Adding to a chaotic situation with lots of queues nearby. Making 0.50 metre distance impossible never mind 2 metres. I don't see how this is compatible with the country trying to reduce the R number.
Charities have other fundraising channels that would make sense during a pandemic - digital, retail stores etc.
Yet the elderly and vulnerable are being targeted by strangers to chat in the street. It's the same local pool of residents they are targeting from before the crisis. If we didn't sign up pre-pandemic, why would we stop for a chat and pull out a debit card now?
I checked the Fundraising Regulator website and they've said it's fine to go ahead. Hmmm. Other countries would be right to think the UK are idiots when it comes to public welfare.

Were they wearing masks?

They should never be on our streets. Hate them.

No, they weren't wearing masks. They were all young. There was a heated argument going on between 2 members of the public and 2 of them, but the area was so congested I just wanted to get through.

The companies who employ the fundraisers and make a lot of money out of this simply don't care about the public. We know that.
How the establishment can listen to Chris Whitty on the risk of more devastating waves and sanction this has left me flummoxed.

They don't play by the roolz that the rest of us have to follow? Time to muzzle them like dogs. And not just with a mask.

This short thread is amazing in that we haven't had the "ch - - - - - -" word yet.

I do agree with what you’re saying, especially if it’s larger charities employing ‘ch***s’, however on the flip side, many smaller organisations who rely on volunteers and provide vital services to vulnerable people are unlikely to survive the financial effects of this pandemic, so I can kind of understand why they’d be desperate to try anything. The fundraising regulator does have a code of conduct here though, and harassing/arguing with people while fundraising is not on.

With your example, it doesn’t seem like it’s a tiny team of volunteers though, so YANBU (I know this isn’t AIBU but you know what I mean). Just feel like I need to defend the narrative that charities are always just making money to spend on high salaries. I know this isn’t what you’re saying but it is a view that smaller charities have to often defend themselves against.

If the regulator thinks it's for me and 7 friends to stand on a pavement and try to stop several hundred strangers a day and get them to speak to me for 10 minutes, why am I in a tiny social bubble and why do I have to wear a mask on the bus. We're encouraging lots of social interaction with strangers, or we are limiting it. Which one is it?

*If the Regulator thinks it's fine