Captain Tom's daughter

[Sneezeless]

Who would have thought it?

Very nicely put!

@TheHangingGardensOfBasildon I’m at two minds about celebrities participating in game shows and other fundraising events for charity. On one hand, it can feel a tad icky knowing they often have the means to quietly donate without making a spectacle of it. On the other hand, these events do shine a spotlight on lesser-known charities and organizations that might otherwise struggle to gain attention and recognition. There’s only so much that they can do to raise awareness on their own, and this kind of exposure that the celebrities’ participation can give, can make a significant difference.

Seeing Captain Tom's sweet face on the news tonight I feel glad he has passed on, thank heavens he knows nothing about it.

So when's the prosecution going to be announced? £1m taken from a charity without the necessary evidence ref its use etc.

Sounds like a case of F to me...

I have to admit when they took him overseas on holiday I knew he'd get covid. That made me question her.

I think it would be disingenuous to think that Hannah really had the optics of this in mind from a early stage when she set about promoting her father. In a sense she did her job well as a PR professional; maybe too well.

the success and national attention may to her have been a reward for self cloned marketing genius and as the 'marketing professional' behind Tom thought she deserves appropriate remuneration somehow. I suppose it's like the blokes who came up with the prime drink during that craze.

the money for her PR coup obviously was misdirected from his charity and maybe in her mind she was just using a method to acquire the money she felt she deserve d and it's all went south big time for her.

Disingenuous not to have had

100% agree. She had a FB page going for him before the adoption even went through - cannot believe social services never challenged this. I have mutual friends so he showed up on my feed a lot and it made me so uncomfortable. It’s his story to tell, not hers.

A lot of people did weird things during covid lockdowns

I still think of him walking his garden. I believe he was innocent of the later duplicity.

Took him away and he caught covid and died. Odd family. They fancied a holiday and didn't consider him catching covid on holiday problematic? Odd.

It depends on whether what she did was illegal or unwise. I'm not sure it was illegal.

Getting yourself paid a big salary - unwise. Charging for a public appearance - unwise. Implying a book deal will result in money going to charity - grey area.

I've not read the full story so I'm not sure exactly what she's accused of.

Who knows? He might have been in on the plan from the start. He could be as bad as his daughter. She’s ruined his reputation as well as her own for a lot of people.

This, it's absolutely pathetic. Read what you like. I read the paper version (different editor) and there's often excellent articles, often from the left as well.

It's morally corrupt but it's not fraud according to the legal test set out in the fraud act. For it to be fraud one of the parties entering the contract/agreement must have been lied to and then lost out as a result. Neither the charity or the public were party to that contract. No one has lost - they just haven't gained.

It's a bit crap but I'm sure the charity commission would have gone down this route if they could for the publicity and glory if nothing else.

Pudsey, total cringe. One third of children in the UK now in poverty. I'm not making this up.

Not being snarky but why? he was a salesman. Of course he might be innocent but we really dont know. He raised his money grabbing daughter and in his book he was apparently vile about his ex wife. I dont see why he's automatically innocent just because he is old.

People keep talking about how he was "taken" on holiday, it was on his bucket list to go to there, he wanted to go, noone dragged him there against his will.

I'm not a fan of the family, but if it really was something he'd long wanted to do - or even just a more recent wish to do one last big special thing with his family - I'm not convinced that it was completely foolhardy.

At 100, he was obviously not long for this world, however cautiously he lived; so maybe they - including him - made the calculated decision that, if this was his last hurrah and he went out with a bang as a direct result, it wasn't that terrible a thing at all?

From my experience of being around 99 year olds they don't tend to want to travel further than their living room. Maybe he was exceptional but I really don't think so.

I think he might have been. My dad would have been well up for it, he was quietly pissed off with me because I didn’t have the stamina to take them on holiday for the last couple of years before he died at 99.

i find the actions of his mum appalling. that poor lad has no privacy. she has been doing it for years. makes me so angry. after all he has been through he deserves privacy.

@Samcro I feel deeply uncomfortable about that case too. Tony's adoptive mother seems to have done a fantastic job in some ways but the relentless publicity doesn't sit right. He's just a child, still primary school age and deserves to have a life that isn't splashed all over the media.

But then it's become so normalised for some parents to post about their children online, even if it's 'just' on fb or insta to anyone in their friends group.... it's awful really. I have a good friend who's so sensible in some ways, a loving caring mum, she's also a teacher so god only knows should be aware of the issues around consent and the risks of posting online, yet she regularly posts photos, and 'witty' stories about things her kids do. No child should be exposed like this. They need to be old enough to give informed consent.

its one thing sharing photos or fund raising for something a disabled child might need.
but his past is used all the time. he will never be free of what is birth parents did.
I do personally think his mum like the publicity.

I agree. He is an inspiring little boy but I also feel uncomfortable, because I think his privacy needs protecting more than the average child (because of the appalling abuse he endured) not less.

It isn't equivalent in my mind to eg little Bradley Lowery who I'm sure got a lot of happiness from his involvement with Sunderland and friendship with Jermaine Defoe, but tragically his time was always likely to be very limited and the only factor in play was his illness, not a traumatic start with abusive (and identifiable) birth parents.

@socialdilemmawhattodo I’m local too and agree with you that you absolutely can’t say anything negative about Tony’s parents at all. Only adoration and fawning is acceptable. Tony has no privacy at all.

There’s currently two different Just Giving pages running for the family. Some of those costs are something that the family should be just fund themselves and not to expect the public to stump up.

I completely agree.

I think one day in maybe 15-20 years time there will be an epidemic of lawsuits against social media orgs and parents for the invasion of privacy that I just really think will have a massive impact on children later in life. LadBaby kids and both Sam and Billie Faiers kids spring to mind. Using your child as a cash cow and compromising their safety, putting them in uncomfortable situations, risking their friendships, allowing the public at to invade their privacy, everything, because you’re not talented or interesting enough to make money on your own is shit parenting.