Disgusted at VE celebrations

[runrunrunrunt]

I absolutely cannot believe what went on last night in this country.

The government should never have encouraged this nonsense and instead should have firmly nipped the idea of celebration completely in the bud.

Absent Boris should have never implied lockdown will be eased on Monday a couple of days before a fucking sunny VE Day bank holiday when we still have 5,000 plus new cases every day.

It isn't rocket science.

I am absolutely appalled.

How can anyone be happy right now with so many deaths and grieving families , it beggars belief . Most people just wanted to get pissed never mind about VE day. It made me sick , when I cross the road to avoid someone out of respect for them , and safety for myself, and yet people were partying . And you cannot socially isolate when you are drunk. Makes me wonder what's in these peoples heads.

Sadly, people become very quickly de-sensitised to the situation. 2 months ago, if 200 people died in an accident, it would be deemed horrific. Now, many think 'ooh, that's not too bad'. Within 8 weeks we're no longer shocked by it (or many aren't).
For the many folks the deaths have (yet) hit them personally, and I think they still see it as 'sad, but someone else's sadness' and their own discomfort in lockdown is disproportionally deemed 'critical'.

It won't truly hit home until they lose a loved on themselves, and by then, it's too late.

Wait until 6 weeks time, there will be a rise in covid-19 deaths due to the VE day celebrations.

I think you might be right Chocolate 50 😢

It looked like an excuse for a flag waving party with too much alchohol, and some really dreadful dancing. Veterans who have been ignored for years wheeled out as feel good exhibits. It looked like another version of the " clap for carers", virtue signalling self indulgence. Get a grip Britain, this virus can afect and kill anyone, and the sodding "conga", is no cure!!

Why? Did you think we were in Lockdown?
BoJo's strategy is survival of the fittest - but in stages so that the NHS and Morgues can cope - its the quickest and esiest way for him to deal with it.

BoJo's strategy is survival of the fittest - but in stages so that the NHS and Morgues can cope - its the quickest and esiest way for him to deal with it.

Seriously, regardless of people''s politics, this is just utterly contemptuous.

Had a bit of a disagreement about the huge amount of deaths in care homes with some people on a local fb page. They were dismissing the care home deaths. "mistakes are natural" apparently.

They got the hump (especially one who now wont leave me alone) when i pointed out that only on Friday they were celebrating VE Day, and that if these deaths were happening in childcare settings they would be screaming for heads to roll. Yet on Friday they were waving Union Jack flags , stuffing their faces with cake and singing We"ll Meet Again. Hypocritical cunts who are too thick to know what cognitive dissonance is. They probably think its a fucking pop group!

The clown that started this post calling VE day "nonsense".
VE day is an important event and the British and other allied lives lost in WW2 need to be remembered. Like many others I am glad VE day was celebrated.

Mistakes do happen, and not every governmental or managerial or personal decision will be the wisest one...
but that cannot be used to mitigate the carelessness and in some cases disregard for safety.

I don't want to spoil VE celebrations, and I don't think nurses or care home workers should be singled out, but you would think most conscientious workers who know they work with vulnerable people would be extra mindful of their actions.

I agree that this has been a most dishonest way of dealing with the virus - one that has tried to push the responsibility for people's lives onto anyone but the government.

First of all, it was the scientists who were in the firing line because every policy announcement was prefaced by the comment that it was on "scientific advice". So, if the whole thing blew up in this government's face they could blame the scientists.

Then, it was the general public being told that if they stepped foot outside the front door they would, in effect, be responsible for the deaths of other people.

The government waited too long to lock down, it ignored several previous dire warnings about insufficient PPE stock and existing stock being years out of date, it took no account of the very high risk of contagion in homes for elderly or disabled people, it lacked a cohesive strategy for testing, contact tracing and quarantining - especially for people entering the country- etc, etc, etc. As for the PM's personal contribution to all this, that is already well documented.

Now, despite the fact that even in the open air we have been instructed to keep 2 metres away from other people (which, conveniently, they now say is probably not so vital), the government is telling those who can't work from home to return to work. And that social distancing should be maintained "where possible". Surely including that "where possible" comment leaves the door wide open for employers to just say it isn't possible. And who is supposed to monitor working conditions at this time?

So far as I am aware, no special arrangements have been drawn up to control the flow and distribution of people onto public transport. The PM suggests people might drive, walk or cycle to work rather than use public transport. I live in one of the outer boroughs of London and used to work in central London - about 8 miles away. Many of the people who work in Central London (and other large cities) have to commute to get there. Is it really feasible that large numbers of people would be fit enough or confident enough to cycle some distance through heavy traffic and in all sorts of weather? If they drive, will they be liable for the congestion charge and where will they park?

As for VE Day, it was fairly obvious that, following some very heavy hints that restrictions were likely to be lifted, people would be encouraged to throw caution to the wind and become less careful about social distancing. All the breathless accounts on the TV and in the press, of anticipated celebrations - fly pasts, Vera Lynn, Katherine Jenkins, community singing, etc, etc. - definitely encouraged an atmosphere of excitement and celebration, which was hardly appropriate while in the middle of a serious pandemic that has already claimed thousands of lives..

We decorated our front garden and had a picnic well within our boundaries but nobody else in our street seemed to be doing much except maybe a karaoke or just loud music further up the road. We were certainly socially distanced. A

Not disgusted at the celebrations as drove past some roads where people were being civilised in their own drives....my road however was carnage. But then so are most days when there's a bit of sunshine. And I know all of them will be griping about sending the kids back to school even though they've had them clambering all over each other for the past 5 weeks.

It's too easy to say it doesn't effect anybody else. People breaking the rules put everybody at risk. I'm disgusted at the police response.

I do not think we should have bothered either, but for different reasons. The few of us remaining can see nothing to celebrate now. I would have done, but knowing how many deaths there have been in care homes and the community, being denied NHS treatment and not even being counted in the statistics until they were shamed into it, I could not celebrate. We now know that care homes are just concentration camps with a bit of luxury. They are just holding pens for people waiting to die. There has been research by CAB and other charities that show care home owners have to pay for the health of their residents and pass it on. There are charges for GP surgeries. Residents are treated as private patients. They do not have hospital care. There may be a Registered Nurse in care homes to satisfy the drug administration, but there are no qualified nurses to care for the sick. The care workers are the lowest paid. They have experience which is to wash, dress, feed etc., and they have to do their best with little training in nursing the sick, and the NHS hospitals do not want them. All have DNR on their notes, so what point is there? The terrible findings since the lockdown have shown that the staff have been given no PPE. The shortage is due also to the fact that manufacturers of PPE did not realise that even though we left the EU we are still bound by the rules until at least 2021. In March the Government sent out one of their daily updates saying that it was illegal to make and sell PPE which was not certified with the CE logo certification of quality. You could only make and sell PPE which had that safety logo. I have masks with the CE logo on the box which are absolute rubbish, just thin 2 ply you would not wipe your btms on, yet because they have the logo they pass. Face masks from China and sold by Chinese sellers on ebay are very good indeed. They have vents in them, and replaceable charcoal filters. They do not have the logo on them. When I asked if they do, I was told each time that we left the EU and did not need it. Hospital managers, local government emergency planning committees, all who earn top whack of public money, just did not prepare for an emergency. If they were ever given a budget for PPE they possibly spent it on something else.
When the Government woke up to the fact that it was illegal to make and sell PPE without the CE they told manufacturers. They invited firms like Barbour to make gowns, etc., only Barbour could not certify them CE because they did not have the ability. It takes weeks - months even - to have the garments and PPE tested to certify it, so they could not be used. It wasn't that they were not up to standard: they just did not qualify to use. The same applied to the Turkish PPE which the RAF went out to collect. It did not have the CE logo. The Government could not break the law until we finally left. It was the same in France. A shipment of PPE from China destined for France was intercepted and sent instead to the US because it did not have the CE on and it is illegal to distribute it in the EU.
Rather than break the law, the government said we did not need masks, and anyway the hospitals would be short of them if the public used them. We do need to use masks. You only have to go back in time to when they were first used in surgery to see that more people lived. The Government know there are not enough CE masks and it is illegal to make and sell them, so we make our own or buy on ebay. Better buy on ebay. My carer is well provided with PPE for any eventuality, thank God. Residents in care homes have no protection because their carers are not provided with protection, because there is not enough legal ones. Most PPE is made in Germany (different countries making different things), but they do not have enough for themselves as they want to keep the deaths down there, so other EU countries - including us at present - go without. The EU apologised to Italy for not helping them enough, but that is not just.

So that is why I would not get involved in celebrations. Too many survivors are among the at least 85% dead in the past few months.

Brilliant post llizzie. Agree with you 100%.

Our street didn't celebrate because we lost 3 elderly people to covid last month. The street next to us did generate with fireworks, bbq, songs and zero social distancing. What an absolute fucking joke.

@llizzie @Babbas I totally agree.

Ive seen people dismissing the deaths in care homes after cheering on Captain Tom Moore and calling him a national treasure.

Makes me think that (to earn their respect in their eyes ) they expect every elderly person to walk up and down their garden or the grounds of the care home to raise money for the NHS (which btw is Not A Fucking Charity so i wish news outlets would stop saying it is) There are charities which are affiliated to the NHS so they should be saying "NHS Charities" Its obviously delliberate that the latter word is being omitted from these feel good news stories.

I like the post Llizzie and agree with a lot of it, but some of the PPE issues are a bit more complex...

There are many types of PPE with various capabilities and purposes.
You can buy utterly crap stuff in the EU and great stuff outside of it, but the reverse is also true.
The CE mark gives some level of trust that standards have been met (rightly or wrongly), whilst stuff without it could be safe, it could also be dangerous and lead people to believe they were safe when they weren't - resulting in more deaths. It's can't be an easy decision.

Stockpiling PPE also sounds a great idea, but when we do that, we have to take a guess at what type of PPE we're going to need. Some of it expires, some of it is suited for one type of pandemic, some of it for another - so there are still choices to be made and 'wrong type of PPE!' accusations to be made further down the line. Some PPE needs to be personally 'facefitted' for an individual, making it harder to stockpile in advance.

There's also the situation where we might have 10 million pounds worth of PPE in a warehouse slowly expiring when the same 10 million pounds could be spent on treatment we KNOW we need here and now...

It's a trade off, it's always a trade off, and sometimes, we just have to go with the odds... accepting the gamble could be wrong.

Everything else, I totally agree with... and let's not forget, care homes are businesses. Owner may claim the health of their residents comes first and foremost, but we all know that compromises are made every single day. Corners get cut. Demotivated staff with limited training. Limited equipment and facilities, and a constant drive to maintain a profitable capacity... which can (and probably has) compromise decision making on dealing with Covid-19.

I know of at least 1 care home that insisted on workmen continuing to work inside the building after the government had issued the recommendation to stay at home. I will not say what the work was, but there was a reasonable argument to say the work needed to be carried out - however, PPE was limited and there was still a bit of a blase attitude to how dangerous the virus could be.

I am sure there are many many more cases up and down the land.

Nothing to do with VE celebrations, but your post was a brilliant read and inspired me to respond!

People have had enough! It's been 2 months.

World War 2 lasted 6 years. I wonder how you would have coped?

The informal breaking of rules has been going on for weeks! Anyone who says it hasn't has been asleep since Lockdown began. It shows just how right the PM was not to have invoked Lockdown any sooner, in fact later might have been better - a lot of our people simply find the disciplines far too much to tolerate and began nibbling away at the rules from day one. And, despite much publicity over a relatively few incidents of the police arresting some transgressors (or fining them) in truth they did not and do not have enough officers to enforce a strict Lockdown. VE day was just an excuse for some unruly souls who were just being a bit noisier than they have been for weeks already. In fact despite them we appear to be getting over the worst of Covid-19 in the community setting, but within Care Homes etc it is raging - it will be interesting to see how the deaths there can be, a) explained if strict rules have been followed and, b) how the politically minded left-wing can find reasons to blame the government for them.

Unfortunately these selfish people have nothing to loose otherwise they would not of behaved this way, they probably don't have family members shielding or medically compromised or working tirelessly on the front line either. They are just plain selfish and don't give a dam about anyone other than their selves. I am totally sickened by those who have done this and the total disregard they have for others who are more vulnerable.

@igr61
The clown that started this post calling VE day "nonsense".
VE day is an important event and the British and other allied lives lost in WW2 need to be remembered. Like many others I am glad VE day was celebrated.

I’d say you were the clown - why would anyone celebrate lives lost in WW2 in a way that would put lives at risk today. Only imbeciles would do that.

I wonder how many of the same imbeciles will be out clapping their “support” for the NHS at 8pm come Thursday. They would be hypocritical imbeciles.

This whole pandemic really has separated the decent from the “me,me,me” of society, it has brought out the trend following hypocrites, clapping at 8pm to support their NHS yet the same people seen mixing households, breaking rules constantly, partying NOT supporting their NHS practically hence why I no longer partake in this shit show.

You could say that a lot of people would be screwed in a war situation these days - they’d risk going out and getting shot because they are “bored” and “fed up” and “had enough of it now” going off their attitude in this pandemic. But then people are too stupid to not understand that just because you can’t see it it doesn’t mean it’s not as fatal if you get it - and probably would stay in if they could physically see it.

I don’t blame the media at all - everyone KNEW we were still in lock down on Friday and the rules hadn’t changed, everyone has a brain and they should have used them to celebrate in accordance with the rules I.E in their own garden with no other family members or households present, not on the street quoting 2m apart as social distancing because that’s a load of bull to make them feel better about being so irresponsible and impatient.

Agree the Government policy has to be culling the elderly, vulnerable and economically poor by the back door- there is no other logical reason for this strategy...
The VE Day celebrations should have been more muted as social distancing would have been difficult to maintain as evidenced by the police call outs... maybe deferred to VJ Day?

People have had enough! It's been 2 months

How do you make that out? It started on 23rd March. Strangely enough, it's not 23rd May.

Hi! I'm the clown that started the post. Yes it was nonsense. Sharon from across the road absolutely pratted on gin singing 'sex is on fire' at midnight while thrusting provocatively in the direction of other neighbours is a lot of nonsense and fuck all to do with VE Day.

Hope that clears it up for you

@Olsi109, I feel the day to commemorate our relatives that died in WW2, is the 11th November, not really VE Day, apart from that I agree with everything you say. This flag waving mania is a recent and very worrying thing , and as for Vera Lynn!. " Wartime spirit", because they are banged up with the internet and Netflix, forced to make meals from scratch, and to look after their own children. I've seen some appalling comments on MN, from people who don't give a flying fluck about others being vulnerable, as long as they can get back to " normal", well said normal is long gone , and they need to get with the programme.
@llizzie a very interesting post, that makes sense of the PPE fiasco.