Don't clap for us. You have stabbed us in the back

Maybe after this ends we need to have a conversation about how the NHS is stretched because of life-style choices, alcohol, drugs, failed cosmetic surgery. Each town needs a drink tank. all the drunks are thrown in there to sober up rather than clogging up A and E, it would save millions.

jaylucy - could the afternoon tea have been to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day?
Which was on May 8th.

My street had an afternoon tea, which I thought meant that we'd all sit in our front gardens with our own sandwiches and cake.
On the morning, I was surprised to see one of the residents of the close not only putting up bunting on her house but also between the trees on the road.
Later, garden chairs were moved from houses along the road in each family group. I didn't go - one of the houses regularly has family members going into their house and the family next door decided that it was okay to sell a chest of drawers - not only had a van back up to the house with 3 strangers in it, but the neighbour also helped them load it onto the van.
Considering I have been shielding as supposedly another neighbour, I am glad I didn't join in the party - when everyone was there, social distancing wasn't happening and the kids were running between groups!
Since then, if I go out to clap on a Thursday evening (missed one week because my nephew from Aus face timed me) , no one speaks to me!

If by "no going back" it is meant it might be nice if people were, in future, more mindful of the things that really matter in life, truly value those who often go unnoticed and poorly rewarded, take better care of the environment, realise that spending time with children is often more important that spending money on them, etc,etc, then I think there is nothing wrong with that. I don't see it as "virtue signalling" - at least not if they try to make some changes in their own lives.

Well as my neighbours one of who is a nurse has not followed any lockdown rules and has other families coming and going and staying overnight I don’t think everyone is an angel just because they work for the NHS?
I think the clapping is more to say Hooray we are still here and surviving during this awful time.
Yes there may be some virtue signaling if that’s how you describe an action that shows you care.
My local climate group is doing #nogoingback each Sunday and I suppose that’s also virtue signalling?

I don't go out and clap. Not out of disrespect. But when I talk my GP surgery, hospital and pharmacy I say thank you in person and ask if they are alright. When I have deliveries and I thank the person and ask if they are staying safe. While the NHS are on the front line. People forget if it wasn't for all the unsung heroes this country would grind to a halt. How many have thought of the sewerage and water treatment workers, gas, electric, HGV drivers, farmers, cleaners, phone engineers , food producers in factories plus many many more who we don't see. I am thankful the dustbins are emptied, regularly where I live including the green bin. Where my brother lives household is now only collected every 4 weeks and green and recycling hasn't been collected since lockdown. We can say thank to the people we see in person. And hope the people we
don't see know how much we appreciate them.

Absolutely AGAA4 I totally agree with you.
And what indeed would any of us have done without them? It’s their hard work and lack of selfishness that have got us through.

Maddy. It is appalling the way the medics have been treated by this government.

What would they have done without them in this present crisis?

Daftbag1. It is good to hear of people doing practical things as you are doing.

I have 3 doctors and 2 nurses in my family and all I want for them is for people to abide by the guidelines that helps to keep them safe.

We don't go out and clap, never have a never would, because though of course we support the NHS we equally support all the other care givers, paid and unpaid, and every other essential person who has supported us all throughout this period.

Meanwhile, instead of clapping, I've made hundreds of ear savers and hundreds of laundry bags for those that needed them. I've also made masks for our neighbours that seems a better thing to do .

I don’t think any of us want to stop other people from clapping, but I absolutely agree AGAA4 that people should obey the guidelines whether they clap or not. People who gather together in large numbers annoy me I’m afraid. My daughter and your daughter will both be a lot safer when the infection rate goes right down and they’re not having to deal with suspected or confirmed Covid19 cases when they go to work.
Eloethan putting a reminder through doors isn’t a good development is it? And I agree that people should care about our medics having their pay and working conditions eroded. Last year my daughter’s pay was cut by £4,000.

I am always suspicious of events that become "institutionalised". The first expression of gratitude, which I joined, was spontaneous. When there is an implication that everybody should be joining in (note the space left in TV scheduling in order for it to take place), I think it has lost that spontaneity and meaning.

On Mumsnet one poster said she had had a note put through her door "reminding" her of the day and time the clapping took place. In response, apart from many people thinking it was a rather sinister turn of events, there were several nurses and medics who were less than thrilled about the whole thing. Some expressed the view that it would have been much more useful for the general public to have made a similar amount of noise when, year after year, their pay and working conditions were being eroded.

Furret. I don't think swearing is acceptable just because you don't agree with someone else.

Maddy. I don't want to stop people clapping if they want to. Everyone must do what they feel is right for them.

The original post was about medical staff feeling let down by some of the people who clap for them who then ignore lockdown guidelines and cause more admissions to hospital.

Where I live people are using the Thursday clap to chat but in a very close group. Some are out all day even though we are in lockdown here.

I know many will be sincere but others are letting them down.

I just think, as I said yesterday, that if we all wrote to, or emailed our MPs about the possible public sector pay freeze, and said that it most certainly shouldn’t apply to the NHS, then we would all be doing something more useful than clapping. I know some of you have done that and I thank you very much, and I know others of you are making scrubs and other equipment for the NHS, and I thank you for that as well. My daughter and her husband now have enough PPE and hopefully yours too AGAA4. I wouldn’t want to stop people clapping but I know many medics don’t like it, but of course some appreciate it.
The link you provided was interesting janeainsworth, thank you, it shows that some medics don’t like the clapping.

The women who instigated the weekly Clap for the NHS, Annemarie Plas, has today said it's time to end it now and that it's now up to the government to show it's appreciation to NHS staff. It's been 9 weeks now and, by the 10th, it should end. Personally, I agree.

I apologise Furret if your clapping is heartfelt and emotional every Thursday.

I am just thinking of my daughter who is a nurse. She doesn't want people applauding her. You don't have to clap to feel.

Who are you AGA to tell people how they must feel? Bloody cheek ?

smokeless I agree and it's even worse to disparage those who choose to do so.

pantglas well spotted. I realised as soon as I posted but thought 'well let's see if anyone actually reads posts'. ?

Jane. That is an interesting article. How long is this clapping going to go on for.

It seems for some it has become a social occasion, with people in competition as to how much noise they can make.

The original clapping was heartfelt and emotional but that has been lost now as it has become a habit.

The view of one hospital consultant.
www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/21/nhs-doctor-enough-people-clapping?CMP=share_btn_fb

I agree Yogadatti that it's wrong to "expect people to clap" but it's also wrong to disparage those that do.

As a 'clapper', I don't for one moment think that *NHS workers
are contented with the applause*. There are some who appreciate this gesture from the public and some who don't.

The Thursday clap originally intended to demonstrate our gratitude for NHS workers now encapsulates all workers who have been going to work since the lock down began, and without whom the country would have come to a stand still.

Introducing the lockdown in a week or two earlier would have made "quite a big difference" to the UK's death rate, according to one of the Government's scientific advisers.

Sir Ian Boyd, a member of the Sage scientific advisory group, said: "I would have loved to have seen us acting a week or two weeks earlier and it would have made quite a big difference to the steepness of the curve of infection and therefore the death rate."

www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-testing-antibody-uk-lockdown-deaths-track-trace/

Furret wrote:

"This is a symbol of solidarity when we feel helpless. Nurses and doctors and paramedics on our street all come out to clap."

Solidarity is fine but it's not enough. The danger is clappers and Conservative MPs get to think NHS workers are contented with applause.

I am not an NHS worker and I am deeply discontented that applause is all the reward they are getting .