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Original poster

This clap for Captain Tom idea

776 replies

User133847 · 02/02/2021 20:44

I've just seen a lot on social media about this clap for Tom on Thursday at 8, similar to the clap for the NHS.

I'm a bit ambivalent about this. The one organised the other week was a damp squib and nobody got involved. The weather is still dark and cold (it wasn't in the summer when the pots and pans were out for the NHS). However, for a nation in mourning at Tom's passing, perhaps this could help really bring the country together on Thursday.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
15
storminabuttercup · 03/02/2021 14:14

I wonder if his family were consulted before Johnson announced the clap?

It's so bizarre to clap when someone's died because they were a good person. Can you imagine a loved one dying and all the neighbours coming out to cheer? What the fuck is going on

TheChip · 03/02/2021 14:15

Light a candle, stand on one leg, clap but do not let your hands meet, remain silent and give a nod to every single neighbour.

Any less than that and shame shall fall upon you.

Don't forget the mask as well!

TheChip · 03/02/2021 14:22

Posted that on the wrong thread. It was meant for a similar thread in aibu

Bluesheep8 · 03/02/2021 14:22

I'll be lighting a candle as I do every night for a precious loved one who I couldn't see for 5 months or be with when he died.

QueenPawPaws · 03/02/2021 14:24

Oh my cat will be in his element again. He timed his evening stroll with the first clap and believed everyone was clapping for him. He took to going out and prancing around outside when it was happening Hmm
I'll send him out at 6

Snowdropsanddaffs · 03/02/2021 14:29

@QueenPawPaws

Oh my cat will be in his element again. He timed his evening stroll with the first clap and believed everyone was clapping for him. He took to going out and prancing around outside when it was happening Hmm I'll send him out at 6
Brilliant!!! Cats are ace!!!
QueenPawPaws · 03/02/2021 14:30

@Snowdropsanddaffs I got a video of him practically dislocating his neck to see everyone clapping with him sat on the windowsill idiot

BoredBeforelEvenBegan · 03/02/2021 14:30

I mean, you don't have to take part

You'd think, wouldn't you.

Unfortunately if you decide not to and dare voice your misgivings about the whole thing, you're labelled a troll.

Ditto if you point out that Covid was almost non existent in Barbados until holidaymakers descended in December, and now infections are rocketing. You're begrudging a hero his dying wish, apparently (according to Twitter and Facebook).

BoredBeforelEvenBegan · 03/02/2021 14:31

I've also been called unpatriotic for not clapping 😂

Bluesername · 03/02/2021 14:34

I think it's a shame some people assume people clapped to virtue-signal. When I clapped for the NHS it was in genuine appreciation and solidarity. It was also good to be able to wave to various neighbours during the lockdown.

ShemShem · 03/02/2021 14:40

@Bluesername

I think it's a shame some people assume people clapped to virtue-signal. When I clapped for the NHS it was in genuine appreciation and solidarity. It was also good to be able to wave to various neighbours during the lockdown.
It's because clapping does fuck all

The only purpose is to virtue signal. As there is no other purpose which sits in the realms of reality

Ilovemypantry · 03/02/2021 14:40

@MintyMabel

He raised £30m for the NHS He walked his garden. It was good PR and viral social media that raised the money - for NHS charities (those providing things like tea bags for parent accommodation, not ventilators for Covid patients) We know it was simply good PR because plenty of people have done exactly the same kind of as he did and raised much less.

I live very locally. The village Facebook has a message on it from a family friend that says that family has essentially asked for people not to do this

With all the access they have to national media, you’d think they’d do more than have a friend of a friend post on a small local FB group.

The exceptions afforded to his family really are a slap in the face to the thousands of people who have had to say goodbye to their loved ones over face time, or not at all.

Why are you trying to devalue what he did? I’d like to see you walking the length of your garden for charity when you’re 100 yrs old (after serving your country during a world war). Some people on here really do have a nasty streak.
lollipoprainbow · 03/02/2021 14:45

I didn't notice a minutes silence last week for the 100k plus people that have died. It really has got way out of hand, I see flowers are now piling up outside the hospital where he died and his hometown. What next a state funeral ??

longtompot · 03/02/2021 14:46

I thought it was 6pm tonight?

But, no, we won't be clapping. I'll light a candle though.

Bluesheep8 · 03/02/2021 14:50

It was also good to be able to wave to various neighbours during the lockdown.

I wave to my neighbours without clapping

Movinghouseatlast · 03/02/2021 14:50

That cunt Johnson makes me want to be violent. He has totally taken over this " he brought the country together" shit. It is all for political capital.

I am sorry an old man died. I am sorry our NHS needed so much money to be raised because it isn't funded well enough.

But unravel why this happened. Why did the press decide that we should know about him, above anyone else who was trying to raise money? Because it is the press who decide these things for us.

Original poster
User133847 · 03/02/2021 14:52

Some of the masses on Facebook are adamant they're still keeping their 8pm Thursday clap, so the title needs to be updated to add the plural.

Two claps for Tom.

OP posts:
Wherearemyminions · 03/02/2021 14:54

There's a mural in my town of him and locals are descending to pay their respects and the flowers are piling up. I find it distasteful, it's just something for people to say they did/post a pic on FB etc. A trip to buy flowers and then a trip to the mural also kind of makes a mockery of staying at home unless essential.

I respect what he did and feel sad for his family, as I would for anyone in that situation but I don't feel the need to publicly grieve, it feels like the whole Princess Diana thing again, be public or be shamed!

Ilovemypantry · 03/02/2021 14:54

@Abraxan

Do people genuinely begrudge this? I mean, you don't have to take part.

Sadly three members of my family died during 2020. Another person I knew also lost her life last year. Four people in a year. Yes, there's no nationwide clap for them, but as a family/friends all their deaths were marked.

Their names were not known across the country, so a nationwide clap, silence or memorial wouldn't have been appropriate, nor desired by the families.

Do I begrudge people remembering Captain Tom this evening? no, of course not.

I also don't begrudge the deaths of celebrities, famous people, royalty, etc having their deaths reach the headlines in the media or memorial sites set up,for them.

Yes, there are many people who have posted on here that absolutely do begrudge this. At the very least they are mean spirited and sour. As you say, they don’t have to take part so it won’t affect them anyway. They can stay indoors, turn up the TV and tap away on their keyboard moaning about how Captain Tom doesn’t deserve the recognition.
RozHuntleysStump · 03/02/2021 15:00

Just seen this on my fb. 😂😂

This clap for Captain Tom idea
Hoppinggreen · 03/02/2021 15:03

@Wherearemyminions

There's a mural in my town of him and locals are descending to pay their respects and the flowers are piling up. I find it distasteful, it's just something for people to say they did/post a pic on FB etc. A trip to buy flowers and then a trip to the mural also kind of makes a mockery of staying at home unless essential. I respect what he did and feel sad for his family, as I would for anyone in that situation but I don't feel the need to publicly grieve, it feels like the whole Princess Diana thing again, be public or be shamed!
I agree A trip to buy flowers and then another to pay them somewhere isn’t exactly staying at home is it? I don’t begrudge the man anything, he did a fantastic thing and shouid he remembered for it but people do love to jump on bandwagons don’t they? It’s all very “look at meeeeeeeeeeee”
Hoppinggreen · 03/02/2021 15:05

@BoredBeforelEvenBegan

I mean, you don't have to take part

You'd think, wouldn't you.

Unfortunately if you decide not to and dare voice your misgivings about the whole thing, you're labelled a troll.

Ditto if you point out that Covid was almost non existent in Barbados until holidaymakers descended in December, and now infections are rocketing. You're begrudging a hero his dying wish, apparently (according to Twitter and Facebook).

Yeah, you clearly hated him and wanted him to die In fact you probably killed him yourself
TableFlowerss · 03/02/2021 15:07

@Sparklingbrook

I though the outpouring of grief when Diana died was bizarre.

I don't really understand public displays of grief for famous people. I get that it was sad but that's about it.

That was tragic through because she had young children and was only 36 when she was killed in a horrific crash

I can totally understand the public grief about that.

PurpleDaisies · 03/02/2021 15:09

I can totally understand the public grief about that.

Grief over someone you didn’t know and would never meet? It’s bizarre. Sad, yes but floods of tears? I don’t understand that at all.

YogaLite · 03/02/2021 15:13

@Stovetopespresso
If Capt Tom had had the vax, I am sure it would have made national news.