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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

NO to a state funeral for Captain Sir Tom Moore AIBU?

422 replies

Muncher75 · 03/02/2021 18:37

Just that really. I’ve just been sent an email from change.org asking me to sign a petition to push for a state funeral for him.
Now don’t get me wrong he was a remarkable man and an inspiration... but a state funeral? That will cost us, the taxpayer money we definitely cannot afford in the currant climate. Also I’m sure he’d rather the money go where it’s needed.

OP posts:
GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 04/02/2021 14:10

Margaret Thatcher decided that a state funeral would be inappropriate for herself mainly due to the expense. She was the first woman PM (remarkable in itself) and a force of nature and even she didn’t think she merited one. It would be in inappropriate for Captain Tom to get one.

dontdisturbmenow · 04/02/2021 14:13

My best friend has worked in PR, in London for over 20 years and has a lot of connections Captain Tom's daughter has totally orchestrated the entire thing, from start to finish. It was never a sweet little story that somehow caught the attention of the media. If you believe that than you're very naive
Finally someone said it! The scale that this has taken is purely do to the PR skills of the daughter.

Captain Tom was a great guy, did a great did by starting the fundraising, like many have done during this time, children launching amazingly thoughtful and generous schemes. The reason why these didn't raise the amount of money he did is because they didn't have parents working in PR.

Great respect for him as an old man who fought the war and went through a challenge that must have been tough for him, but the amount he raised is my view totally irrelevant to what he did.

VinylDetective · 04/02/2021 14:15

I'd even argue that HE didn't raise £33m. All those people who donated, between them, raised £33m

None of that money would have been raised without him.

FlyingFaster · 04/02/2021 14:32

@VinylDetective

I'd even argue that HE didn't raise £33m. All those people who donated, between them, raised £33m

None of that money would have been raised without him.

Agee. Thats like saying "Cancer research doesn't raise money, people donate it" It's kind of true, but the big charity is what people donate to. And the captains cause was what people donated to. The NHS charity wouldn't have raised it alone.
EmmanuelleMakro · 04/02/2021 14:43

Oh, god this gets more ridiculous by the day! How about Nobel Peace prize, sainthood and renaming London after him?

The guy walked around hos farden, had a media savvy daughter and flew to Barbados on holiday in a pandemic.

State Funeral ?
No

katedan · 04/02/2021 14:47

Absolutely not, I am sure he was a lovely man and he raised a lot of money for the NHS but he has his knighthood and that is more than enough. Just let him rest in peace.

Snugglepiggy · 04/02/2021 15:04

Absolutely not.Greatest respect for him and the money be raised but this country has gone totally bonkers in sentimentality ever since Princess Diana died.Even the number of roadside shrines popping up everywhere drives me mad.That sounds heartless but we all grieve at some time and it is almost as if there isn't some very public display it doesn't count.I felt genuinely sad when he died .But he had an amazingly long life with a huge amount of attention in his last year.His family should have a quietly dignified funeral.

MullinerSpec · 04/02/2021 15:38

Although he deserves all the praise for raising so much for charity, a state funeral is not warranted. A statue maybe, but what about a statue for all the Indian soldiers who fought for Britain first, to this day there's not a statue to commemorate them.

GaryUnicorn · 04/02/2021 15:58

This was on a UK craft site, that some loon made. What the fuck is wrong with people? She is thinking of selling them too. Call me disrespectful, but I spat out my tea trying not to laugh.

NO to a state funeral for Captain Sir Tom Moore AIBU?
cantmakealifeofit · 04/02/2021 16:05

@GaryUnicorn.

I said people would be after the £££

Absolutely fucking disgraceful

millievanille · 04/02/2021 16:26

I'm getting so fed up of people saying 'I salute you, sir!' Makes me cringe every time.

GreenSlide · 04/02/2021 16:35

@TrickyD

The other grandsons

Looks like Captain Toms being hanging out with the Peaky Blinders down the Garrison

Muckduck · 04/02/2021 16:53

I agree, plenty of people do far more for their communities across a number of years. What he did was great and afforded him a lot of opportunities he wouldn't have had, such as meeting the queen, and good for him. Yes he fought in the war, as did many people who were more or less abandoned by the government in old age with the cuts to social support etc, he was fortunate enough to be surrounded by family which is amazing for him. He was in the right place at the right time, orchastrated by his daughter who works in that field of work. So no, it's getting ridiculous now. I did like how quick the family were to bash the NHS though, and make it publically clear that he didn't catch covid in Barbados, I hope they don't capitalise on him now he is gone. RIP

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 04/02/2021 17:41

The other grandsons have a Galician Portuguese surname.

bettbattenburg · 04/02/2021 18:02

My father did a lot of fundraising for his local village hospital after it was badly damaged and faced with closure, when he died we requested no flowers but donations in lieu of flowers to the local hospital rebuilding fund. Not a single person donated which just shows how much people don't care (they were all from the village too).

Most people just want publicity for their virtue signalling.

TheVelvetiser · 04/02/2021 18:03

Do we actually know enough about him to give him a state funeral, or erect statues or name hospital wings after him? He seemed like a nice old chap and decent bloke but let's be honest, there has been such a slick and glossy PR job made out of a sponsored walk that we can't be sure we have a real handle on who or what he was. His own description of his first marriage is interesting and possibly open to interpretation.

OnlyheretovoteonAIBU · 04/02/2021 18:08

@WagnerTheWehrWolf

Someone will suggest etching his face into the cliffs of Dover next.
🤣🤣🤣
OurChristmasMiracle · 04/02/2021 18:16

If the U.K. can afford a state funeral for him surely that money should instead be spent on the NHS? I’m sure that’s what he would have wanted.

Muckduck · 04/02/2021 18:24

own description of his first marriage is interesting and possibly open to interpretation.

I agree, moans about his mentally ill wife not having enough sex with him, what a charmer.

peaceanddove · 04/02/2021 19:30

@MullinerSpec

Although he deserves all the praise for raising so much for charity, a state funeral is not warranted. A statue maybe, but what about a statue for all the Indian soldiers who fought for Britain first, to this day there's not a statue to commemorate them.
Absolutely. My GF fought alongside Sikh soldiers in India in WWII and was in awe of how fierce and incredibly brave they were. You did not want to mess with them.
cantmakealifeofit · 04/02/2021 19:40

@TheVelvetiser.

That is a good point. Nobody is perfect.

mrbensbaker · 04/02/2021 20:04

@Muckduck

own description of his first marriage is interesting and possibly open to interpretation.

I agree, moans about his mentally ill wife not having enough sex with him, what a charmer.

What an insensitive fool.
TrickyD · 04/02/2021 20:37

@NewModelArmyMayhem18

The other grandsons have a Galician Portuguese surname.
Yes, or Brazilian where Portuguese is of course spoken. We have Brazilian family members with the same name.
SchadenfreudePersonified · 04/02/2021 21:50

@GaryUnicorn

This was on a UK craft site, that some loon made. What the fuck is wrong with people? She is thinking of selling them too. Call me disrespectful, but I spat out my tea trying not to laugh.
Blimey!

That's scarey . . . .

Babyboomtastic · 04/02/2021 22:00

I thought about perhaps after Covid is over, having a ceremony when the name of every person who it had killed in the UK is read out, a sort of national funeral.

Then I realised at a rate of 5 seconds per name, it would take nearly 6 days...

😢