Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Did the captain Tom foundation charity really use the money to build their own spa pool??

309 replies

Terryer · 05/07/2023 07:25

Just reading the paper this morning and see the family of Captain Tom have been ordered to pull down a building in their garden with a spa pool. I think it's a planning issue but the inference is that they used the money raised to build it. Did they really?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
9
9637S · 05/07/2023 09:33

Supersimkin2 · 05/07/2023 08:45

Like many charities, most of the money goes on the ‘staff’ not the cause. Legal.

Charity law lets you fundraise millions and only give away £1 if you show that you’re spending the bulk of the donations on ‘running the charity’.

That includes buying buildings and/or homes for the staff, private pensions, private medical care, years of paid sick leave, entertainment, hotel bills, flights abroad, you name it.

Now Big Charities have got used to this life, they argue indignantly that it should continue.

Anyone who asks why it costs £92 to give £8 away (irl example) gets shouted down coz charidee. Oh and ‘charity provides jobs’. Doing what? Asking for more money, you don’t say.

You do realise that charities publish their accounts on the charity commission right? So it's very easy to check that what you're saying isn't true.

Avatartar · 05/07/2023 09:33

It’s so depressing- everything is tainted - from Boris’s Government partying away while the rest of us were parted from loved ones, peers filling their boots with contracts for unfit PPE & CT’s family using his name to their financial advantage. Was reading a MN thread on teenagers running amok on their DOEdinburgh trips and it’s not surprising really- the adults in the media are setting a terrible example. I really worry about society

readbooksdrinktea · 05/07/2023 09:33

JenniferBarkley · 05/07/2023 09:29

No, for many of us that's not how it was at all. But as others have said, it would have taken a brave person to say that out loud at the time.

Show quote history

The.PR stunt was successful, and anyone who didn't buy into it all were made out to be heartless. It was surreal to watch.

Bloodysoapoperas · 05/07/2023 09:34

@GeorgeMichaelsCat don't they deserve bashing though ? It's not as if they are doing a good job are they ?
Or are you one of those folk who stick by their 'team' unquestioningly ?

Tidsleytiddy · 05/07/2023 09:35

Anyone who said at the time they weren’t interested in Captain Tom would’ve been tarred and feathered. Well I thought he was a soppy old duffer who should have butted out of the NHS problem

SD1978 · 05/07/2023 09:37

He was rich- you only have to look at the garden her was walking around. I make the assumption the family is wealthy too.

Bewildered111 · 05/07/2023 09:37

Tidsleytiddy · 05/07/2023 08:40

And me. I thought my husband and me were the only people not interested in Captain Tom

Show quote history

Me too-I thought it was insane when they named a local hospital after him. Even if you look on it kindly, an old man wheeling a walker around his garden to recover from an operation isn’t news or anything special-is it?

Tidsleytiddy · 05/07/2023 09:38

Raising funds for the NHS is a dangerous path to take. It needs to be properly funded by Central Government.

DeliciouslyDecadent · 05/07/2023 09:39

AllIwantforChristmas22 · 05/07/2023 08:59

Historically, they have had a lot of money. The link you provided is very recent and note it says he has owned/director of 52 companies (so that goes back many years.)

Felford · 05/07/2023 09:39

Did he actually do all the laps of his garden? I wouldn't bet on it if the daughter was counting..

Blackcatisabitofapsycho · 05/07/2023 09:41

Bloodysoapoperas · 05/07/2023 09:34

@GeorgeMichaelsCat don't they deserve bashing though ? It's not as if they are doing a good job are they ?
Or are you one of those folk who stick by their 'team' unquestioningly ?

Yes. Not on threads where it isn’t relevant, though. Endless whataboutery doesn’t get any of us anywhere, it just is a way of deflection.

User106487665 · 05/07/2023 09:42

I don't think he was doing laps as he had that walker, he was going up and down that large drive/pathway.

Seeingadistance · 05/07/2023 09:43

Flickersy · 05/07/2023 07:46

While the original bit of raising money for the NHS was lovely, the whole circus that followed was a festival of exploitation masterminded by the daughter in PR and was hyped up on mawkisk jingoistic sentiment. It was obvious what was happening. But at the time if you said that on here you would be well and truly rounded on by the ignorant.

Yep!

Lastusernamecantthinkofanotherone · 05/07/2023 09:44

What many people didn’t understand at the time is NHS core funding is ring fenced.

you cannot donate money to provide core services. That is provided from the NHS budget.

so none of the money could ever have gone to “the nhs”.

what you can do is donate for non-core provisions. Donations can fund research projects, set up iPad lending schemes, pay for play specialists, therapists etc.

the money was never going to go where the public though it was.

User106487665 · 05/07/2023 09:44

I think that she liked being on the news and in the forefront, it was a bit all about her

DeliciouslyDecadent · 05/07/2023 09:45

My understanding was that the money was being used for 'goody bags' for nurses, or things like refreshments for them. All very well but I don't think this is what people donated for. They assumed it might be for more staff, scanners, etc.

UsernameNotAvailableArghh · 05/07/2023 09:47

Flickersy · 05/07/2023 07:47

There was Captain Tom gin, Captain Tom baseball caps, that god awful cringe song with Michael Ball... Anything that could be monetised.

It appears that gin company owner is married to the Carillion bloke who pocketed millions.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/captain-tom-moore-charity-gin-law-b2075691.html

Captain Tom gin pulled from sale after ‘breach of charity law’

Exclusive: Bottles of £100 gin removed from distillery’s website after questions raised by The Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/captain-tom-moore-charity-gin-law-b2075691.html

Mrsjayy · 05/07/2023 09:48

Tbf it was documented that they were raising money for the NHS together charities not the actual NHS there was reports on breakfast tv and what not what the charities do/provide, it might have got lost in translation though.it 🤔

Tidsleytiddy · 05/07/2023 09:48

All bent. The lot of it

VegetablesFightingToReclaimTheAubergieneEmoji · 05/07/2023 09:49

I didn’t think it was sketchy until Barbados. I thought it was just an old man who was trying to keep busy in lockdown and raise a few quid.
then every opportunity he got wheeled out for more and more. It would be too much for most.

user1492757084 · 05/07/2023 09:49

It sounds legit! Old people need spas and water exercise venues. Captain Tom was a hero and a doer. He offered hope to the locked up. If a spa building is built on his walking track all the better for his elderly friends, family and neighbours.

Calloffruity · 05/07/2023 09:50

BoredandFifty · 05/07/2023 09:25

Captain Tom cheered us all up and distracted us at a very stressful time. If a very old chap could make the massive effort to walk round his garden and have a stiff upper lip through it all, then we could all muddle through it.

Unfortunately his offspring do not seem to have inherited his selflessness.

Speak for yourself, he didn't cheer me up. I just thought how utterly depressing it was that the public would cheer on fundraising for the NHS. It's not a fucking charity.

As for a stiff upper lip, he was wealthy man who'd lived a lovely privileged life walking around his lovely garden enjoying the side of lockdown many less privileged people couldn't.

And selfless? He travelled to Barbados unvaccinated in the height of the pandemic. Not very selfless.

Tidsleytiddy · 05/07/2023 09:51

Calloffruity · 05/07/2023 09:50

Speak for yourself, he didn't cheer me up. I just thought how utterly depressing it was that the public would cheer on fundraising for the NHS. It's not a fucking charity.

As for a stiff upper lip, he was wealthy man who'd lived a lovely privileged life walking around his lovely garden enjoying the side of lockdown many less privileged people couldn't.

And selfless? He travelled to Barbados unvaccinated in the height of the pandemic. Not very selfless.

Show quote history

Love this. No, he didn’t cheer me up either. Was sick of the hype

toomuchlaundry · 05/07/2023 09:51

I remember it being clearly stated that the money was going to NHS charities and not the NHS itself.

If people want more money for healthcare then either we all need to pay more taxes or have some insurance type scheme to help cover some of the costs, the NHS can’t carry on as it is

Skinnermarink · 05/07/2023 09:51

user1492757084 · 05/07/2023 09:49

It sounds legit! Old people need spas and water exercise venues. Captain Tom was a hero and a doer. He offered hope to the locked up. If a spa building is built on his walking track all the better for his elderly friends, family and neighbours.

Oh sure, dear old Doreen from number 15 is having a lovely little jacuzzi sesh as we speak.

Swipe left for the next trending thread