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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
Smartiepants79 · 02/02/2021 22:21

Grieve not grief!

cantmakealifeofit · 02/02/2021 22:21

@Ilovemypantry

I think you are forgetting that Barbados doesn’t purely exist to be a holiday destination for rich privileged Brits. People live and work there. I’m sure the people of Barbados would rather people didn’t go there on there jollies, ruining their low case rate and bringing god knows what variants with them when the country is already poor with an ailing healthcare system.

BlowDryRat · 02/02/2021 22:21

[quote cantmakealifeofit]@Port1aCastis Precisely. The ones who died alone and terrified in hospital having not seen a loved one in literal months.

Captain Tom lived a long life and was allowed a dignified death surrounded by his most loved ones. He was 100 years and recently enjoyed a holiday with his family as well. Again, nothing against him but it isn’t a tragedy and the idea that the nation should all be collectively bawling over him is borderline offensive.[/quote]
This so many times. He was 100. It's sad for his family but hardly a national tragedy. The stream of memorials on FB is as tacky as.

BoredBeforelEvenBegan · 02/02/2021 22:22

*I feel flattered that you took the time to look up all my other posts 😂.

My thoughts about him going to Barbados are that it was something he had always wanted to do. As a war veteran who laid his life on the line for his country, who raised an incredible amount of money for the NHS, who was 100 yrs old and most probably wouldn’t have another chance, you’d have to be a pretty mean and nasty person to deny him that*

So it's ok if people get infected and die if the person doing the infecting has raised money for the NHS, I doing something they always wanted to do and is a war veteran? Um, okay.

And I didn't look up your posts - you've been horribly rude and ableist toward me (and others) on mask threads in the past.

@Ilovemypantry

Ilovemypantry · 02/02/2021 22:22

@Smartiepants79

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. They’ve requested privacy and for the family to be allowed to grief in peace.
That is exactly what I would expect from his family and I think we should all respect their wishes.
Thewiseoneincognito · 02/02/2021 22:23

He served the country well, He was decorated and honoured whilst he was alive which is what matters. Clapping for him is just printing off virtues to signal post to everyone who’ll see.

timegoesbysoslowly · 02/02/2021 22:23

No more public grief please. Why when someone dies there's this outcry and people who didn't know that person have to pipe up, look at me I'm grieving.

The shrines outside from people who never met them. The florist are the only one happy when a celeb or a tragedy happens.

Yes it's sad Major Tom has died but so many others have and way before their time, are there deaths are not less important.

Stop putting pressure on to public appreciation, people following the rules would be a better way I remember the 100,000+ who have died

Ilovemypantry · 02/02/2021 22:25

@BoredBeforelEvenBegan

*I feel flattered that you took the time to look up all my other posts 😂.

My thoughts about him going to Barbados are that it was something he had always wanted to do. As a war veteran who laid his life on the line for his country, who raised an incredible amount of money for the NHS, who was 100 yrs old and most probably wouldn’t have another chance, you’d have to be a pretty mean and nasty person to deny him that*

So it's ok if people get infected and die if the person doing the infecting has raised money for the NHS, I doing something they always wanted to do and is a war veteran? Um, okay.

And I didn't look up your posts - you've been horribly rude and ableist toward me (and others) on mask threads in the past.

@Ilovemypantry

Oh, and no one is EVER horribly rude and ableist on MN are they.
Doomsdayiscoming · 02/02/2021 22:25

@timegoesbysoslowly

No more public grief please. Why when someone dies there's this outcry and people who didn't know that person have to pipe up, look at me I'm grieving.

The shrines outside from people who never met them. The florist are the only one happy when a celeb or a tragedy happens.

Yes it's sad Major Tom has died but so many others have and way before their time, are there deaths are not less important.

Stop putting pressure on to public appreciation, people following the rules would be a better way I remember the 100,000+ who have died

This is Major Tom to Ground Control I'm stepping through the door And I'm floating in a most peculiar way And the stars look very different today
namethatrandomlychanges · 02/02/2021 22:28

please all be careful when you light all those candles

Arobase · 02/02/2021 22:28

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.

Let's hope that puts an end to this whole idea.

Ilovemypantry · 02/02/2021 22:29

[quote cantmakealifeofit]@Ilovemypantry

I think you are forgetting that Barbados doesn’t purely exist to be a holiday destination for rich privileged Brits. People live and work there. I’m sure the people of Barbados would rather people didn’t go there on there jollies, ruining their low case rate and bringing god knows what variants with them when the country is already poor with an ailing healthcare system.[/quote]
Have they stopped people going there then? Stopped all flights landing? Closed all hotels?

Goldieloxx · 02/02/2021 22:29

He died and that's sad but I hate this mawkish hysteria that we have in the UK. This man was used as a distraction technique by the government someone the nation could jingoisticly "get behind", while their incompetence led to thousands of avoidable deaths, and now Capt Tom is one of them.

PurpleDaisies · 02/02/2021 22:30

@namethatrandomlychanges

please all be careful when you light all those candles
This is a very odd comment. Confused
Becca19962014 · 02/02/2021 22:32

From the rare interviews I saw with him he was a very humble man who would NOT want any of this.

boon · 02/02/2021 22:32

Every single part of my facebook feed is covered in photos and poems etc. Yes its sad hes died but he was 100. And there are many others who have died, and also others who have raised money for the NHS, and scientists and nurses and drs and paramedics etc etc I just don't get it. The countrys gone mad!!

cantmakealifeofit · 02/02/2021 22:33

@Ilovemypantry.

No, but Captain Tom’s family had a huge publicity outlet and absolutely should have declined on principle. And encouraged people to enjoy a low-key Christmas at home with their household.

Can’t have it both ways. Going on the holiday undermined Tom’s work in itself.

MrsMcGarry · 02/02/2021 22:34

My SMIL is Bajan. She’s in her 80’s with pre existing health conditions. She’s well off, and has a house in London and one in Barbados. But since FIL died she doesn’t have a great number of people she knows here.
She has spent the last year alone in her house, getting food delivered by her cleaner, thousands of miles from her son and granddaughter and friends and her hoo of use and garden that she loves.
For much of the year Barbados was locked down- when people were allowed in again she decided not to go because she didn’t want to risk taking covid from London to Barbados, or to put pressure on their healthcare system by getting ill there (there are only 2 hospitals on the island)

So hell yes, I begrudge even a wonderful old man fulfilling his lifetime dream when doing so puts so many people at risk and has caused deaths.

XenoBitch · 02/02/2021 22:35

@boon

Every single part of my facebook feed is covered in photos and poems etc. Yes its sad hes died but he was 100. And there are many others who have died, and also others who have raised money for the NHS, and scientists and nurses and drs and paramedics etc etc I just don't get it. The countrys gone mad!!
Same. Have seen a few people change their profile pic to him to. Is just too much!
Potaytocrisps · 02/02/2021 22:35

@Coasterfan sorry for your loss 💐

BoredBeforelEvenBegan · 02/02/2021 22:37

@boon

Every single part of my facebook feed is covered in photos and poems etc. Yes its sad hes died but he was 100. And there are many others who have died, and also others who have raised money for the NHS, and scientists and nurses and drs and paramedics etc etc I just don't get it. The countrys gone mad!!
One of my FB friends has said she's 'heartbroken' and her 'face is wet with tears'. Another called it a tragedy. And that's before we even start on the drawing of him walking on top of a rainbow.

Cringing so hard I'm about to turn inside out.

HyggaeHugger · 02/02/2021 22:38

@Smartiepants79

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. They’ve requested privacy and for the family to be allowed to grief in peace.
Them we must respect their wishes
augustusglupe · 02/02/2021 22:39

Tom had a great long life and that's fantastic!
No need for clapping.

Disclosure · 02/02/2021 22:39

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daisyjgrey · 02/02/2021 22:40

Oh god I hope the thing that comes out of this pandemic isn't normalising clapping en masse for things. The horror of it all.

Also, as brilliant as he was at what he did, he was 100, I'm baffled why I've seen so many people genuinely shocked by the news.