The only word to describe this clapping ritual is Orwellian; it's like an inverted Two Minute Hate, as described in Nineteen Eighty-Four, where everyone makes as much noise as they can to all be part of "The Party", so that they all have the same emotions at the same time, and woe betide anyone who does not take part. I have not clapped once, because I don't like the sinister undertone, which makes its presence felt on social media, including Mumsnet.
As far as I'm concerned, this ritual is there to disguise the danger that we are sleepwalking into an oppressive regime, supposedly in the name of health. The public willingly handed over their freedom, and in many cases their jobs and livelihoods, and accepted this massive interference by the state with almost no resistance at all. 
Tens of millions of people have sacrificed a huge amount, to save a relative few, to suffer this state-sponsored message of "we have to swaddle you in cotton wool for your own good, children". And even when Her Majesty's clowns tell us or more likely, kind of whisper it without actually saying the words that that lockdown is over (while the legislation will still be very much there, ready to be thrown at us on Boris's whim), many people will either be financially destitute, or be too scared to live their normal lives, because they've been brainwashed that we're all going to die if someone coughs, or if they fail to wear a mask.
The oppression is still going on, in subtle ways. Boris proudly told us we could go out and exercise as much as we like, which sounds fantastic; until we realise that public toilets are still closed, so we can't actually go very far. He also proudly told us that we can go back to work; but many of us can't, because our workplaces are not allowed to operate.
Wake up, people! This is no way to live. We have a right to enjoy our lives, not merely exist, or to be hoodwinked by a clappy ritual.