This clap for Captain Tom idea

[User133847]

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.

He was a determined, brave and sound chap. He deserves more dignity than a clap on a doorstep.

Yeah, no

Clapping for dead people isn't my jam

Silly idea. He won't know.

@Londonisburningg

So will everyone be clapping for the other 100,000+ who have died of covid, or other illnesses throughout the pandemic? Seriously sick of this hero worshipping shit

Agreed.

We will light a candle tomorrow evening. And remember him and all those - from all nations - who have died because of Covid. No showy exhibitionism for the neighbours. Just a quiet moment or two to reflect on how fortunate we are.

The poetry floating around on Facebook is absolutely nauseating.

How about the nation mourns the other 100,000 who have died and their grieving families.

Every celebrity on Instagram seems to have posted a picture of Captain Tom Complete with gushing, some of them.

Or how about the government donates a tidy amount to the NHS in honour of all those people who have died.

@Misandrylovescompany

In a country which refuses to fund its public services adequately I find this fetishisation of individual charitable fundraising grotesque. It is edging towards the US, where people do charity appeals to pay off medical debt which they should never have incurred in the first place.

I’m sure he was a lovely old man but please.

This.

@Misandrylovescompany

In a country which refuses to fund its public services adequately I find this fetishisation of individual charitable fundraising grotesque. It is edging towards the US, where people do charity appeals to pay off medical debt which they should never have incurred in the first place.

I’m sure he was a lovely old man but please.

Absolutely.

Plus, Boris is getting the NHS 350m a week now. He’s raised over a billion in a month? Where is he clap? Where is his thanks?

@Toddlerteaplease

The poetry floating around on Facebook is absolutely nauseating.

They're all on my wall. There's a play on the Kipling If poem that's got a ton of likes.

Nope

Enough with the pointless bloody clapping.

I think donating to a health charity in his memory would be a better tribute than clapping.

Nope, don’t like.

Nothing against Captain Tom personally, but it seems culty as fuck and hero worshipping.

You don’t get 100 year old men doing laps in their garden to raise money for health services in other countries and becoming the subject of god-like worship for it. The U.K. has gone collectively mad. In no other country is the health service viewed as some kind of martyr charity like it is in the UK. You aren’t benefiting NHS workers by treating it like a charity, you really aren’t. They don’t want to be seen as charity heroes, they want better pay FFS.

Why on earth is anyone in mourning except his friends and family?? It’s bizarre?

Nope won’t be doing it.

No. I absolutely respect him for everything he did and achieved, but I hate the way it all became a media bandwagon whilst people who were doing the same and more were largely ignored. I think this is all part of that bandwagon and he deserves more than a cheap media stunt which Johnson will milk for all its worth for political gain.

Now, if Johnson's cronies who have all made fortunes out of coronavirus would each donate back sums equivalent to what Captain Tom raised, maybe I could raise more enthusiasm. I'm not holding my breath, though.

This probably sounds horrible but I lost my granda who was like a dad to me on Friday. I am utterly broken and I have no room to grieve or clap for someone I didn’t know. I feel very sad for his family as they are going through the same as me and my family are but at the same time I feel angry/upset/odd emotions that no one but us cares my wonderful granda is gone and I ll never see him again.

In a country which refuses to fund its public services adequately I find this fetishisation of individual charitable fundraising grotesque. It is edging towards the US, where people do charity appeals to pay off medical debt which they should never have incurred in the first place.

I’m sure he was a lovely old man but please

Also this. Captain Tom came across as a lovely man, and he undeniably brought a bit of cheer to many during a dark time, but I find the public deification of a few individuals who fit the ‘hero’ narrative, while simultaneously ignoring the massive underlying systemic issues our country faces hugely depressing. In the end most of this stuff is just performative.

@Wilsonwilson

No. I didn't clap, I will never clap. Tom was 100 years old ffs. What the fuck good does anyone clapping do.

Yes this

Also, whenever another celeb dies the family always put out a statement asking for privacy to grieve. Why should this be any different?

I think it’s in pretty bad taste if the family try and get a clap going.

More appropriate would be perhaps a livestream of the funeral service that people can access if they wish.

@Quit4me

Why on earth is anyone in mourning except his friends and family?? It’s bizarre?

People on other posts saying they can't stop crying it's all very bizarre