I didn't clap

[Colacube77]

I had no idea about it! Heard the noisecat 8pm looked out the window and saw people outside clapping but couldn't see why. I'm not on social media and I didn't hear about it. Saw on the news later but I missed it. I do give a care about the NHS but now all my neighbors will think I'm terrible and don't care!

I didn’t clap as I was putting my son to bed and he was emotional. If I started to clap at that point it would have pushed him over the edge.

I show my appreciation in other ways: abiding by the current rules/laws, not wasting their time generally and not voting Tory. That ought to do it.

Showing appreciation through an organised or coordinated event isn’t virtue signalling. It is showing appreciation in an organised or coordinated event. Virtue signalling is doing something purely because you think you it will help you personally in some way.

Community is important. Community events and organisation are important. You may not want to do it (I didn’t), you may not think it is important/a good use of time or whatever, but calling it virtue signalling is seeking to demean those who do find it a valuable way of expressing feelings and/or who appreciate the importance of building community in this way.

Yeh don’t worry I totally forgot too. I think with everything so up in the air it’s totally thrown me off and I’ve been a right sieve head! Kinda sorted myself out a bit this morn and got my head around it all but yeh I’ve been crap too with everything!! Anyway I knew about it but was sorting my kids a bit of supper out at the time then when I next looked at my phone it was half 8! I usually do the silence for the WW1 and WW2 victims too and think stuff like the clapping is so heart warming and just amazing for morale but yeh I totally forgot. I posted a lil thing on my IG account just saying all NHS workers and volunteers are bloody amazing!! Don’t worry what neighbours think! If they judge you then they’re out of order. They have no idea how your mental or physical health is at the moment!

I didn’t clap either. I had no idea about it until it was all over.

I'll admit that, though I am hugely grateful to all NHS and other carers right now, I only went out so my neighbours wouldn't think I was rubbish. I thought it was virtue signalling. But actually it didn't feel like that at all, but very heartwarming and buoying. It felt like an acknowledgement that we're all at home doing our bit by following the guidelines and gave us a chance to make contact with each other (I'm in London) as well as saying we know there's hell going on in the hospitals out there and sending our thoughts to those in there. It did give me a bit more resolve too so a good experience all round.

DH is on the frontline.
When I opened the front door at 8pm, he said, "Please! Please don't go out there and draw attention to us."
So we clapped for him instead in the front room. I've hardly seen him and yesterday he was home earlier than usual, which was a good enough reason to clap for him.
Our youngest clapped for DH because he did really well on a certain level of Legend of Zelda.

@rwalker I know what you’re saying. It can be very frustrating but there’s more to it than that, particularly when it comes to alcohol and food related issues, I am a recovering alcoholic and when I started to read about the alcohol industry and the government I was so shocked and angry. Just for a quick example, even after paying for all the NHS staff, police force, mental health organisations that help people with alcohol related issues/illnesses etc the government STILL comes out with 7 billion a year from the tax on alcohol, they make SO much, and we all know how much they help to normalise it, I don’t know the figures for fast food industry and smoking but I would imagine it’s about the same, yeh the government like to pretend it’s all our fact and make people believe it’s all out fault for being greedy alcoholic pigs or whatever but the government wouldn’t want it any other way which is what they want and if you’ve got an alcohol problem for example they really do make it bloody hard work to get better! It’s not until you stop you realise how they’ve made it so acceptable to get us to carry on. Sorry for the long rant just been in this situation myself and I think the government are more than happy we are killing ourselves as long as they’re making dollars on it

Participating in a community event, even if you don’t particularly want to, is a great thing to do and often you accidentally appreciate it (a bit like not wanting to go to a party then enjoying it when you get there).

I think, as a country, we need to wake up and stop abusing ourselves and the NHS. Realisation of the consequences of our actions is now vital.

Taxation has to be spent on a huge variety of things. To be clear, the amount raised from alcohol was £10.7 billion. The NHS costs over £125 billion! The poster above is talking absolute crap!!! Coronavirus patients have not taken any actions to kill themselves. So don’t rant about taxation when you are so wide of the truth is laughable.

I do give a care about the NHS but now all my neighbours will think I'm terrible and don't care!

Hopefully now you will have gotten over worrying what your neighbours are thinking of you. They've probably forgotten, if they noticed at all, by now

Plenty of other ways to support the NHS, like donating (some hospitals have set up online wish list) or signing up to be an NHS volunteer

www.mkhcharity.org.uk/category/uncategorized/ (Look for 'how can I support the hospital over this period?')

www.nnuh.nhs.uk/get-involved/our-charity/fundraising-news-and-events/ (look for 'Amazon wish list')

www.goodsamapp.org/nhs

I didn’t clap either - I vote Labour instead.

Same.

Well you wasted your votes then because you have achieved nothing. What ever difference does the way you voted make now? Grow up.

I didn’t clap either - I vote Labour instead.
Are those things mutually exclusive?

Clapped AND vote Labour. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Sorry @ @PaleBlueMoonlight

I'm glad there are some people posting indignantly about 'bringing politics into this' or 'now is not the time'. Good, I'm glad you feel a bit uncomfortable - you shouldn't be able to have a bit of light clapping salve your consciences about the choices you've made.

If you are actually genuinely grateful then write to your local Tory MP and demand better funding and better working conditions for the NHS and carers for when this is all over.

Notthemessiah Do you seriously think that people think that clapping will solve the problems of the NHS?

I didn't clap either. It seems to already be becoming an expected activity which means I will continue not to. The most busybody neighbours who are generally pitas at the best of times and have recently got significantly worse were very keen to let everyone on our residents' Facebook page know they had done so and also wanted us all to "stand in a circle together and clap" next time. (Social distancing..?) I'd rather eat my own foot.

perfectstorm

"Oh, and fewer than 800 people have shared the link, too, which makes me want to cry. If people can't donate, but are willing to share the link to their social media, then you can be pretty sure that someone else will donate. And you will have made that happen.

Share!

www.gofundme.com/f/help-them-help-us

Going viral: not just for Coronaviruses."

I think the slower response on the fundraising is scepticism that it is official/organised/going to be spent on what it says and that it won't have unintended consequences.

I believe anyone can set up a page like this? so how do I know it goes to NHS workers and not buying "Keith" a sports car? Recent kidney thread many will be familiar with went along the lines "my sister raised money for a friends funeral and is keeping the leftover money".

How do I know the page/website is genuine? How do I know the video isn't pinched from another campaign?

I haven't heard anyone say the lack of equipment is due to lack of funding. I bought it was lack of availability/logistical e.g. using the army to transport quickly.

If the page raised serious money would it actually be competing with the NHS to purchase in demand goods and pushing the price up?

If a genuine fundraiser is created (that widespread publicity means we know is genuine) the public response will be enormous and I would definitely donate.

I believe doctors and nurses have already died and funds for their funerals/emergency payments to their families would be a start of what the public could help with.

sorry "kidney" should be mumsnet

@PaleBlueMoonlight

??? That was exactly my point

@PaleBlueMoonlight

Oops - posted too soon and didn't read your post correctly.

I didn't say that at all and no, of course most people don't think that clapping will sort out the problems with the NHS.

Some of them may be deluded enough to believe that NHS workers will think that it somehow balances out consistently voting for lower taxes and less funding for public services.

Or it may just make them feel less guilty maybe.

We clapped but a neighbour rang our doorbell [and then ran away] at 19:55 to remind us or we would have forgotten.

Our son lives 10 miles away and turned all the lights in his flat blue [Philips Hue] and said an ambulance was driving through the town with the windows wound down and waving out of them to everyone.

I just find it odd that you would think that it is a likely/common motivation. Most people can hold political views as to how to improve the nhs and clap. The clapping thing was a mark of appreciation, that’s it.

I think that if someone voted conservative and didn't at least feel a little bit sheepish about clapping last night then they have a slight lack of self-awareness.

It's fairly clear which party was looking to put more money into public services and the NHS and which one was going to carry on down the path of underfunding leading to privatisation (followed by jobs on the boards at private health companies once they leave Westminster).

That's not to say Labour hasn't made mistakes with the NHS in the past with the whole PPI thing 20 years ago, but that's a crap argument. It's like criticising current Conservative foreign policy because they created the concentration camps in South Africa in 1902 or Chamberlain signed that bit of paper in 1938.