THE CLAP. Let's settle this. If you work for the NHS, what do you think of it?

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

YABU = I'd rather it stopped now.

YANBU = I still like it.

Yes it's yet another Clap thread, sorry. But all the other threads seem to be populated mostly by people (me included) second-guessing what NHS workers actually want.

Non-NHS workers: if you can, please sit on your hands for this thread. No sneaky voting just because you have strong views on the matter.

I work for the NHS. At first it was nice in those initial weeks when everything was up in the air at work and there was a lot of fear for what was ahead. Now it's become our new normal in terms of what we do at work, the clapping feels meaningless.

The clap needs to stop.
I'm frontline NHS as is Husband.
Yes the first couple of weeks were amazing, emotive and quite uplifting at a time when we were physically and emotionally battered.

Now, those that clap need to save all that hand action up and use it wisely for the next GE.
If you truly want to thank the NHS.

Agree with a lot of the posts above. Lovely and very emotional to begin with but it can end now.

I usually work on a Thursday and it is absolutely lovely coming out of the hospital to cheers and clapping - I feel like a rockstar there's a huge green in front of our hospital and people from the surrounding houses come out to clap. Any ambulances not on a call will come and flash their sirens and so will the local police cars.

It is absolutely lovely to experience that kind of huge clapping and I'm very grateful to have got to do so...

...but I think it's done its job now.

Dislike it.

I’m a registered Nurse.
Week 1, such a lovely feeling seeing people standing out and applauding at such a difficult and unknown time. It really was a lovely feeling.
We did clap at week 2 & 3 as by then my 5 year old had heard about it and wanted to clap for me and my work colleagues (some of which she knows) otherwise we probably wouldn’t have joined in.

We’ve not taken part since as it all seems a bit much now. It can’t go on forever and sone posters on here report their neighbours calling them out for not joining in, that’s not on.

A few weeks ago I’d have suggested a clap for the end of lockdown but by now I’d rather not bother.

The rage I feel when I see the very politicians who stood up and clapped when nurses pay increase was rejected clapping for the NHS...

The first week was nice though I was a cynical ragtag at the time.

If you want to thank nhs staff follow the lockdown rules and dont take unnecessary risks. Also when all this is over dont abuse a and e or insist on getting a prescription for things that can be bought over the counter cheaply.

Rat bag not ragtag

Absolutely nuts. We now have a weekly car cavalcade around the A and E bit of the hospital where I am, it's nuts and blocks emergency access (with all of last week's 7 vehicles).

Dreading this week as word has got out.

I cried the first week. Things were so terrible and it felt amazing to know the public supported us.

Now it just causes bad feeling as lots of people moaning why do the Nhs deserve it.
Also people on my street who come out and clap but have various visitors in their house and drunken street parties.
I’d rather they didn’t clap and supported our NHS by following social distancing.

I also get the rage seeing the politicians who have under funded hospitals and services not had adequate PPE supplies and shafted Nhs staff with pay clapping.

I’d rather the public used their vote wisely next GE.

I also feel the government used the clapping etc to promote us as hero’s, to make the staff deaths more “acceptable” as they died in the line of duty

It’s not acceptable

Yes I like it!
There’s another NHS worker next door and she practically makes a drum kit from pans on a Thursday night!

I think NHS workers would prefer people to continue to with social Distancing. There’s no need for clapping but definitely no need to debate endless convoluted rationales to meet up with family and friends.

Nurse of 14 years here. I live in an area full of Tory voters and everybody claps like mad. I think it’s hypocritical

I thought the first clap, or even the second were quite emotional and meant something. Now I don’t. Just stop now please.

Everyone commenting on the Tories and how people should vote next time...all my colleagues at the local hospital are staunch Tory supporters!

I think it's naff but my kids really love it. They can see other kids accrues the street and stay up a bit late and try and see the pointless fireworks.

I wish it could be rebranded tho - more about community than NHS. I say that as frontline NHS.

It's not for the NHS though, it's for all frontline workers and it's been made into a mocking parody now, and attention-seeking fest for many.

I'm also not convinced of people being who they say they are either. The scales dropped from my eyes very early on; this site is full of fantasists.

I absolutely agree with @PinkiOcelot - lovely at first, but time to stop it now

Can someone tell us what the vote says? You can’t see the result unless you vote yourself!

... and wasn't this started in Italy? It's par for the course that some would try to claim it here.

I have every respect for NHS and ALL frontline workers. i'm absolutely sick of the hypocrisy of the people who fail to make the connection between clapping as loudly as they can every week and the rest of it, ignoring lockdown, ignoring social distances and just doing whatever they like regardless of other people.

I don't doubt that some of the clappers are also NHS-abusers, shouting, fighting, drunken rages. Urgh.

I never liked it. I was busy all day on the first clapping day reacting to a hundred changes to practice as they came up. Too exhausted to join in even though i wfh and am not frontline. Now it's just like poppies. It needed to stop after the first one.

It’s pretty clear from the OP that the clap was never really for NHS and key workers, just for the NHS.

People want to be able to treat other key workers as disposable, hence abuse by customers doubling under the pandemic.

Don't like it. Nhs 20 years.

What really infuriates me round here is the many mant tory and brexut voters out clapping every Thursday. Like they support the NHS. Bollocks.

Sick of it. Time it stops. It was a nice gesture for a one off