To think many fell for the Captain Tom scam

[Binjob118]

I never understood all the fuss about Captain Tom. A rich old man walked around his garden and was lauded as a hero. Family then go on freebie holiday to Barbados whilst rest of us were locked down for Christmas. Then it turns out he was part of family scam to pay the family from book proceeds. No wonder so many people in this country are targeted by scammers, we are a gullible lot.

I can't put into words how much I detest them. And those stupid STUPID fecking songs they make. Christmas No. 1 five years in a row is it so far?! I used to get annoyed by X Factor songs grabbing No 1 position every year, but I'd give anything to have them back now! At least they were decent songs.

His daughter should be in jail.

@Forsakenalmosthuman

I thought all of it.. clap for the NHS, Captain Tom, handsfacespace, report lockdown breakers, sanitiser, stockpile bogroll and refuse to touch shopping... all of it... was unmitigated cock and I still do.

I agree. And I (and DH) fell for it at the time too The whole kit and caboodle. Stockpiled stuff, (didn't panic buy just stockpiled over the weeks,) wore a mask everywhere, sanitized our hands on entry into every public place, stood 2 metres away from everyone, stayed in our 'tier,' and behaved like dutiful citizens. Also clapped every week for several months (for the NHS.) Proper good little children we were. (Never reported any lockdown breaking though!)

Didn't help that everywhere we went, we were scolded if we weren't at LEAST 2 metres away from everyone else, got yelled at in Aldi and Morrisons for going in together (me and DH) to do our shopping when only one should have gone in, and were forced to sanitize our hands and put a mask on, before we went into anywhere. Without the hand sanitizer and the mask, we weren't allowed anywhere. I even had a woman - not shop worker, just a customer, shouting in my face because I had 5 cans of baked beans, and were only allowed 4 at the time. It was horrible. Some people turned into absolute bastards.

Looking back now it makes me angry and upset. I think the lockdowns were pointless and ridiculous, and achieved nothing good. It's the single most destructive thing we've done to our society. It affected peoples mental health, it ruined the education for millions of children and university students, it wrecked businesses, it wrecked marriages, it ruined the experience of a new mum with her new baby for several years, and it killed way more people than it saved because of millions of people not getting the treatment they needed for other illnesses and conditions. Also, no-one could get to see a GP face to face - and even now some people still can't!

My friend has a chronic illness, and they won't give her her meds if she doesn't have a blood test every 6 weeks to monitor her bloods. Yet during the lockdowns they refused to let her near the surgery - let alone have a blood test, and she didn't have any blood tests for 5 months. And now they're back to refusing meds if she doesn't have a blood test every 6 weeks. Such bullshit. They have us by the short and curlies, and they know it. How are we meant to not comply with anything - and do things our own way - when it's forced on us?

When I think about it all now, I feel so angry and upset. How we were all bullied by the government, shouted at it we did not comply, made to feel like shit if we didn't clap for the NHS, and reported and fined for stepping more than 20 yards out of our 'tier.' Whilst at Westminster they were partying like it was 2099!

Covid was a weird time in history

The clapping-our neighbour actually rang the police (who came round!) because the first Thursday,we didn't go and stand on our doorstep to bang our pans

What the silly cow didn't know is 20 minutes before,we got the phone call to say my darling fil had been rushed to hospital-theyd found he had cancer and didn't have long left

We where in shock and it didn't cross our minds to stand there,smiles on our faces while cheering and banging

It was around that time I heard about captain Tom on the news

I said to dp 'it's a good thing he's doing,but what about other people who are doing similar?bet they don't make the news'

Time rolled on and the story got bigger,fil got more sick and the total got bigger

I remember saying to my mil that the daughter was loving this and that something just wasn't right about the whole thing-she commented that it would blow up in their faces

Say that at the time and you'd have been ripped to bits

Both capt Tom and my fil died about the same time-we where more bothered about fils funeral and supporting mil through it so didn't really follow it too closely-we where like zombies

Then everything blew up in the news

I don't think capt Tom was in it as such-he certainly knew what his dd was like,but as a parent to an adult dc,you can't control them only advise-I don't think he saw past raising money for nhs charities

She had ££££ signs in her eyes from the moment someone said they'd sponsor him £1 a lap and then got in touch with the media

It got bigger and bigger-they couldn't believe their luck and knew how to cash in on it-so they did

I do think the media have ripped them to bits over minor things,like her wearing her work uniform in pictures (I think they claimed she was trying to advertise her company-she claims she didn't have time to get changed,but Wimbledon was a joke-she loved the attention)

Hopefully the spa get ripped down,the foundation will close and they'll disappear

Cashing in on your dead dad and creaming off the profits is just greedy

But some people are the type to do just that and not see that they did anything wrong

@SweetBirdsong it's one reason I'm glad we lived in Copenhagen for much of the lockdowns-(apart from the first few months in March and April and May 2020) - we had restrictions yes, but we had none of this other authoritarian bullshit that went with it. Nor the endless daily broadcasts etc

The whole thing was ridiculous.
Everyone was caught up in covid hysteria.
I work in the NHS in a non acute community position and during covid my neighbours would gather round my doorstep and clap for me. It was awful and absolutely cringeworthy, I was just doing a job of work for money so I could pay my mortgage, I am no hero. I wanted to shout bugger off out of my window but I'm too polite so I just put noise blocking headphones on.
Companies kept sending food to my place of work - pizzas and cake mostly, now we all have around 2 stone to lose. Salad and fruit next time please.
That nurse crying in her damned car about starving to death because there is no food left on the shelves.
I had no problem buying food. I'd just go to the supermarket really late.
The toilet roll crisis - plenty of loo roll at my local corner shop albeit a bit more expensive. I just brought three industrial size loo rolls that were meant for a machine and stuck them on my bathroom trolley - they lasted around three years they were so big. I might switch to them permanently.
I had a great time working in the community, I could go out for a drive whenever I wanted as long as I had my uniform on. I wasn't housebound like everyone else and was visiting patients all over the countryside it was great. Lots of fresh air and nobody else around.
Neighbours reporting neighbours.
Bleaching your shopping, I can assure you I never bleached mine and I've never had covid.
It was a pain in the ass generally.
Then along comes Captain Tom, who doesn't love a war hero raising cash for the NHS by walking round his garden.
It all went insane including the knighthood.
It was Princess Di's funeral all over again. Massive hysteria to a ridiculous degree.

My parents are still washing their shopping. I didn't see them for 5 years because they were convinced they would die if I went home and they still think covid is lingering about my person.
Its ruined our relationship to be honest. I realised they would rather never see me again than risk getting covid even long after the event.
Yet there they were out there every week clapping for the NHS yet never once picking up the phone to ask how I was during the event.
I'm afraid covid has made me feel very badly about some people.
Don't even mention that ghastly Captain Tom single with Michael Ball.
I wish I'd written a diary about the whole thing but to be honest I don't think I'd ever be able read it because it was so mad.

@Sharontheodopolodous @SweetBirdsong

With you totally and absolutely.

i know I’m digressing slightly from the main purpose of this thread, but I happened to read this article yesterday - written in 2015, so well before the pandemic. I would love all the Covid fanatics who thought they had the right to police everyone to just take 10 minutes just to look at it.

https://academyofideas.com/2015/11/fear-and-social-control/

“When one is gripped by fear of a threat, real or imagined, their rational and higher cognitive capacities shut down, making them easily manipulable by anyone that promises safety from the threat.”

Tick.

“governments often maintain their grip on a nation by continually invoking fear, and then proceeding to claim that only they, the ruling powers, have the means and ability to protect the population from such a threat”

Tick

“By repeating specific phrases and warnings, and displaying particular symbols and images over and over through various mediums, those in power are able to paralyze entire populations with a fear psychosis”

Hands, face, space.
Social distancing.
Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives.

“The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.”

This is EXACTLY what happened. So many people seemed to lose their heads and became unable to make rational, sensible decisions and looked totally to the government to tell them what to do. Moreover, those same people then started to fear those that were capable of making rational, sensible decision and started to attack them!

Crazy, crazy times and disturbing that there are many that live amongst us who are incapable of independent thought.

How are we meant to not comply with anything - and do things our own way - when it's forced on us?

Absolutely this. I know people whose teenager daughter died during lockdown (of cancer, not Covid). She was not allowed to see her friends or wider family in person, had to say her goodbyes over zoom. Friends were not able to come to her funeral.

Its easy for people to be a bit dismissive now of those who followed the rules, but the fact is that for those for whom it mattered most (like my friends’ daughter) there was no choice- the rules were enforced by others.

The fact that decisions about this sort of thing were being made in a cavalier manner by people who didn’t obey the rules themselves makes me so angry that I have to not think about it. It’s unbearable.

@JohnPrescottsPyjamas The flak I got from friends and neighbours was ridiculous. I kept being told:

Boris says ......
They're the rules
Do as you're told
You're part of the problem
You'll be a super spreader

I didn't believe the Bill Gates/you will have nothing and be happy/microchip brigade, I thought they were bonkers, but those telling me to obey the rules were my normal logical friends.

A neighbour gave me a right old rollicking outside for not coming out and clapping.

Especially when it stated in the book that the money would go to the charity.

And all that guff about the whirly pool was meant for local people to use....yeah yeah..

Hoist by thier own petard me thinks,,,

Yanbu. It seemed weird to me at the time that he go SO much media coverage. I remember reading about an elderly Muslim gentleman who independently did the same thing and got nothing like the same coverage or applause.
Very fishy.

@Gettingbysomehow I think many older people in particular carried on like this because the gvt put the fear of god into older people that they would all die -with these daily broadcasts and fines etc.yes some people didnt make it- but you were equally likely not to make it if you couldn't see a doctor about general health issues etc. my FIL who was 81 at the time told us he would rather the world had carried on as normal and that those who felt more vulnerable just used their common sense and skipped crowded events, did online shopping etc .

A lot of restrictions though it wasn't so much people not using their common sense, it was having no choice- unless you did purely online shopping you had to queue etc , you couldn't go to 'social' events- because any public ones were cancelled etc

When people imply we turned into sheep following rules, a lot of that was because the choices were taken away anyway.

Very much Agree. I know someone also who was diagnosed with a chronic illness just before lockdown but wasn't seen and didn't get the much needed medication till almost 3 years later.

So her illness will definitely have progressed further than it needed to. Told her to complain but she didn't want to.

I also worried that my parents would be permanently affected by the lockdown brainwashing but thankfully they haven't been.

Exactly the same here.

I joined in the very first NHS clapping because it seemed a nice thing to do, but then it became almost compulsory in our close and non attendees were duly noticed and commented upon.

To be honest, once Cummings, Ferguson et al were caught out, I used my own judgement about who it was safe to visit as long as they were agreeable and within those groups, we carried on meeting pretty much as normal. Partygate and all that has been revealed afterwards was absolutely no surprise - I suspected they were all at it at the time.

It seemed as though if you used your common sense, you were immediately labelled a granny killer, selfish and clearly a conspiracy theorist. I certainly wasn’t, I didn’t doubt there was a serious illness and got just as fed up with the nutters who were on about chips being inserted via the vaccine and The New World Order, but the hysteria was unbelievable. There was all this pseudo concern about the sacrifices we should make to protect the vulnerable, but did anyone care pre covid about those who were immuno suppressed and the serious effect even a cold could have in them? What it was really about was people were scared for themselves.

I’ve also often wondered why no one quoted the Mental Capacity Act 2005 with respect to all the older people in care homes who were unable to see their loved ones. No one seemed to ask them what their preferences were. Their rights were removed ‘for their benefit’ and decisions were made completely over their heads. They were effectively locked away from society and assumptions made about their well-being.

One of the most bonkers experiences I had was answering the door to my neighbour as he wanted to ask me for details about an electrician I had used. At the time, I had tested positive for covid, felt 100%, apart from a runny nose and just mentioned it in passing. I told him I would need to look up the number for the guy, but would get back to him. 10 minutes later, his wife turned up to get the info dressed in some sort of plastic overall, masked and for some very strange reason - wearing a pair of rubber gloves! 😳🤣

My darling mil lives not too far from them

I wonder what they'd do if we rocked up,cozzie in one hand,towel in the other and ask (politely) if she could use it

After all,she's in her 70's,lives close enough to be called 'local',is old and it would help with her painful arthritis (she's very clean so wouldn't dirty it up)

I can guess the answer...

I thought it was interesting that they claimed the pool was for the benefit of elderly neighbours - and then proceeded, with no compunction, to block the light and view of their immediate elderly neighbour (91!) with their super-sized (illegal) building. Maybe that was their plan - wind 'em up and then invite (charge?) them to float the stress away....

I’m not going to say I always knew it was a scam - I didn’t. But I never felt right about it. I didn’t understand why people went SO mad for him. I’ve never loved veteran-worship. I thought it was weird when he went to Barbados in deepest darkest lockdown. I never felt comfortable about raising money for the NHS - it’s a vital public service that we pay billions for, not a charitable enterprise. The whole thing was very strange.

Omg neighbours gathering round to clap for you! Sounds so cringe and sinister.

I am just pleased that daughter has to
demolish that building she erected without the correct planing permission. I expect she will appeal though.

I think people were just bored during Covid, heathcare was on everyone's mind, and it seemed you could donate to this and make the situation a bit better. It all seemed above board at first, but it quickly became clear his daughter was a wong'un, especially with the Barbados nonsense and the tickets to Wimbledon, where she posed like she was the Queen. I hope they are thoroughly investigated and every penny accounted for.

I think his daughter is an absolute scammer. However, he gave me very bad vibes, and what he said about his first wife in his book was beyond trashy.

I think you are right. She took advantage and saw a chance to claim an extortionate salary for doing the paperwork, so high that the Charity Commission reduced it to about £63,000 per year and on top of that she claimed rent for use of a room in her house.

I agree with you. Unless he left it in writing we will never know.

You are right about everything. I feel the same