Alfie Evans 7

[StayingAtTamaras]

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Balloon releases should at least get the same penalties as littering.

The visitor posts on the Alder Hay FB page are just vitriol spewed on vitriol right now - spam of murderers, satan and all sorts of other stuff.

Ignorant people releasing balloons...releasing not just in Liverpool but all over the country.

So £100 per ballon sounds ok.

If they threw it on the ground - which is where it will end up eventually- it would be littering. Just because it isn’t directly dropped on the ground shouldn’t make a difference.

Lemn Sissay the poet has just written this lovely short poem, based on Tom Evans' statement this morning:
"The war is over
The day begins
Lay down your shield
Gain your wings "

Omg that poem has brought me out in goosebumps

I would let the balloon thing slide. Honestly. A baby is now dead. I don’t think this is the time to be making an environmental point however valid.

I do hope the parents find peace. She is about to have a baby and I hope it goes well. One of my oldest friends had a similar situation. Where her healthy baby regressed and was left permanently disabled with a life limiting condition. There had been a moment when she was told she might have to make a decision about his life but he recovered sufficiently to come off the ventilator. After a decade of genetic testing she had a second baby who was healthy. By the time baby 2 was six months old she was doing more than her DS1 aged 10 had ever done. She says it is then how profoundly disabled he was and how many milestones she had missed. Because it was her first and she was plunged into that life it is all she had ever known. She felt new waves of grief and said it was only then that she began to think about her DS1’s quality of life. She has been dismayed by some of the stuff surrounding this case and the general medical ignorance.

*then that she realised.

I would let the balloon thing slide. Honestly. A baby is now dead. I don’t think this is the time to be making an environmental point however valid

That’s it though. Because these balloon releases are often used as displays of grief no one ever says anything. Which i understand. If you do say anything, the trump card “they’re grieving and should be able to do anything that helps”.

So we’re back to bad behaviour being excused.

It’s never the right time. So it will continue.

reallyanotherone, I total agree. People need to learn the damage that balloons can cause.

A couple of people posted on the AA page that it wasn't a good idea but they just got shouted down

While I agree that balloon releases are bad for the environment (I'm not keen on the use of balloons at all - helium is a finite resource), posts about wanting to fine a dead baby's family members are in very poor taste at the moment. It's been mere hours since Alfie's death.

I agree. There’s no effective legislation on balloon releases yet so they aren’t doing anything smaller groups of people aren’t doing as part of grieving.
I wish it was illegal, I’d love it to be, but it’s not.

It's not just his family releasing balloons though is it? In the video there are probably a good few hundred people and most of them have more than 1 balloon. Also people across the country are letting them go!

Awful - more death to pay sympathy to a death

At least a few hundred ended up in the trees. Who's going to clean that up?!

I hope Alfie is at peace now and his parents have plenty of support.

While i don't like balloon releases, i don't feel this is the right time. Work on educating people when they are not grieving.

I hate the effect of balloon releases on the environment and the waste of helium, but there was something very moving watching all those balloons take to the sky for one little boy

Most of the AA can't be educated. They are saying they don't care about any animals being hurt!

I have to agree with others, I don't like balloon releases for obvious reasons but now is not the time.

Rhodiolia, have to disagree. I did not find it moving to see those balloons. It would have been far better to light candles. Balloons are horrible things

They didn't care about the other children, the parents, or the staff at AH, of course they are not going to care about an animal that they've never even see a picture of.

Although I agree that the balloons are bad for the environment, at least it means they will go away.

It may have been nice if, after the gathering, they shared the balloons amongst the other sick children instead (if the wards allowed it).
Save the environment but also bring some joy to other children in Alfie's memory.

Balloons kill.

But it does seem callous to fine someone releasing them in this situation.

Can we campaign for tougher laws and an education campaign about the harm they do?

Surely when people realise the harm they won’t do it again.

I will write to my MP.

We have a ban on plastic straws and other plastic. It can be done.

The whole things is gaudy. The sooner the AA piss off the better. Alder Hey is full of other kids who don't need to be seeing all this.