Captain Tom - What's the fuss about?

[scampichips]

Okay I am not knocking Captain Tom at all, he is a brilliant brilliant man.

Although AIBU to wonder why our country has gone bananas over him? All he did was walk laps of his garden, people fundraise everyday and do a lot more! Think of all the marathon runners!

Whenever he is interviewed I think he also seems a bit confused why everyone is making so much fuss too!

I just don't get why our country has become obsessed with him??!

Echoing what everyone else has said, he's a ray of hope and inspired others by getting off his arse to do something positive and productive in support of the NHS.
I also think he's a massive walking, talking two-fingered salute to the likes of Toby Young and Dominic Cummings who effectively said that if elderly people died of Covid-19 then it was OK as they'd had their lives, weren't really contributing to society and would be the collateral damage we had to suck up to build herd immunity. He's done more for national morale than politicians of every stripe, and raised a ton of money too. How can you not get what 'the fuss' is about?

You're brave it seems OP, but I agree with you, I'm a bit baffled by the whole thing. It's great that so much was raised, but the whole situation has got a bit out of hand, all the calls for a knighthood, the song, the media fawning over him. It's admirable what he did, and it's great people felt so generous in donating, but I'm not sure it needs to have become such a fanfare. Plenty of people raise money for good causes on a regular basis, this is just one particularly media-worthy example.

@LagunaBubbles yes it does matter! The nhs is not a charity, meanwhile a lot of real charities are really suffering throughout all this.

Away with you you haverin arse.

What is worrying is that all the sheeple don't realise that the NHS isn't a charity. Instead of lobbying government to change policy, increase NHS wages and generally make long term improvements they are clapping and donating to a 100 year old man who is probably shortening his life by all this exertion! 🙄

nd to me they represent £2 - £3 per card that could have been donated to the NHS instead. A lot of these cards would be hand made by kids I should imagine.

He probably saw it as doing his bit, like people did in the war years, even those who couldn't go to the front.

I think he's cheered people up as well in a really difficult time.

Good for him, I say. Frankly, if I were nearing 100 and still had the energy to do many laps of my garden I'd be very happy!

He's worse than that bastard Gandhi.

Another dementor thread ♟

He's worse than that bastard Gandhi.
At least this thread has some humour. The other one was fucking vile.

Fucking hell. Another one of these poxy threads?! Why? Why are people like the OP so keen to have a go at this perfectly nice, kind hearted gentleman who had such good intentions?

YANBU /sentimental patronising twaddle. I feel so sorry for those old people watching all this hype , who would love to have a big leafy garden to walk round and media savvy kids. Hardly 'heroic' to potter round a garden! Lovely for him, for others not so much.

There has been no publicity for her outside Scotland. Why? You're wrong. She's on Lorraine all the time

Heads. Wobbles. Seriously, he's 99 and doesn't exactly look in the best of health. He did a nice thing which the public got behind and raised a shed load of cash. But hey, this is mumsnet, we must have a pop.

LagunaBubbles yes it does matter! The nhs is not a charity, meanwhile a lot of real charities are really suffering throughout all this

He's not raising money for the NHS though is he, he's raising money for NHS charities. Of course lots of charities are suffering just now, that's hardly Captain Toms fault.

What is worrying is that all the sheeple don't realise that the NHS isn't a charity

Well since I work for them I'm fully aware the NHS isn't a charity. And no amount of lobbying anyone will make the slightest bit of difference to us here in Scotland, saddled with the Tories.

Definitely mixed reviews here! I think some people have taken my comments completely the wrong way. This has got nothing to do with Captain Tom, he's a legend, it's the media and everyone else who seems to have gone a bit mad. I saw on TV earlier how many birthday cards he got, that was just crazy! I doubt even the Queen gets that many?!?
Our country is full of war hero's, why are the media only just picking up on this now?!

I bet he's really embarrassed by all of this.

I bet he’s not remotely embarrassed. Why should he be? Apparently Thort has donated the profits from all the cards ordered for him from them. There’s nothing big or clever about being a miserable git.

For me personally I think he represents what can be done, the fighting spirit of Great Britain that we all love.
Someone who represented out country during the war, made sacrifices then and has again in his 99th year stepped up to do something good.
Also how many 99 year old war veterans do you know who can do 10 laps of a decent sized garden?

Aside from that how wonderful is it that the nation as a whole had got Behind a man just for walking around his garden. What's not to love?!

A lot of these cards would be hand made by kids I should imagine.

I doubt it judging by the number of times I saw the Facebook post asking people to send him cards, then the online card company who offered a donation for every 100th birthday card ordered from them.... Lots of sheeple responded to those posts.....
Don't forget the cost of the stamps.
And then there's the time spent by whoever had to organise all those cards for the photos....
He'd probably have been able to view far more himself had they been virtual cards !

What is worrying is that all the sheeple don't realise that the NHS isn't a charity.

But the money is going to the plethora of charities that run alongside the NHS to provide non medical support. Not directly to the NHS itself.

Lots of sheeple responded to those posts... That's kind people who want to be nice.

He's an elderly man who is doing something amazing with what time he left instead of giving up. Something a lot of self centred people wouldn't even think about . He's deserves all the praise he's had a million times over!

Its Colonel Tom now

Never heard the word sheeple before! Great word and sums this up completely. My Facebook feed is 90% captain Tom this morning!
There are hero's living amongst us all in all of our towns and villages, why don't we all take some time to celebrate those people too.
And standing outside our houses to sing him happy birthday is ridiculous, he can't ever hear us!
I agree this is lovely happy news at this horrible time, but surely there are other hero's we can celebrate as well!