Still Clapping?

I have clapped every week without fail, there is a lot of 'noise' in our small village

Maddyone. I have just written to our (Conservative) MP expressing my .....outrage? ....disbelief? That a public sector pay freeze may be on the cards.

Yes, I go out. Apart from showing that I admire the work of the NHS (that isn't hypocrisy, BTW, it is appreciation) I see my neighbours, and listen to one of them giving us a solo concert. Over the weeks we have had some beautiful music. "It's a wonderful world" was my favourite.

Haven’t some people got short memories?
There are still doctors, nurses, care workers, porters, key staff in the transport industry and many others, some working 12 hour shifts and many putting their lives on the line.
It’s far from over and if NHS workers deserved our admiration 8 weeks ago why not now?
So the “novelty” has worn off? Are people bored?
I keep thinking back to what our parents and grandparents faced in World Wars I and II - they’d have given their right arm to be “bored” after 8 weeks.
Disgusted, frankly.

A pay freeze will sound like a luxury to the thousands who will have no jobs at all . Here in the North East will be particularly hard hit . There are many people in the private sector who have put their lives on the line as well as and in some case more than, many nurses and doctors . Thinking of bus drivers, the food sector, delivery drivers, factory workers and many other key workers working on or around minimum wage .

Yes, most of our estate do every Thursday, all obeying the correct guidelines to self distance, not having anyone round only at windows,

I was wondering when it will end, I guess at the end of quarantine?

I think these things are nice when they're spontaneous, but nothing seems to stay that way now..

Thank you Lucca so much.
I hope you will all email or write to your MP. I know there will be suffering when/if this all ends. Many in the private sector will very sadly lose their jobs, people in the public sector may well have a pay freeze inflicted upon them, it will undoubtedly be a difficult time, with a deep recession. However it is not the time to tell NHS staff, from doctors to porters, that they deserve a pay freeze, after everything they have done for the people of this country. It is quite simply not the right time.

I will certainly write to my MP maddyone, and have to agree my NHS family members also do not like the clapping. I have been out once or twice ( shamed into it by neighbours' comments, coward that I am!) but am doing my bit by sewing laundry bags and ear savers for my local hospital, which have been very much appreciated. I feel practical appreciation is more worthwhile.

I went out the first week or two, but my neighbours in the flats where I live congregate in a group, inches away from one another. I think they would show more respect for NHS workers by observing social distance and yes, I have told them so.

I don’t do participation so never have.
My dog barks hysterically all the time neighbours are clapping and carries on for 10 minutes afterwards. I hope the NHS appreciates her, my midwife daughter says it’s bollocks.

I don’t clap , not because I’m bored, but because I think it’s not enough. I’m showing I care by sewing scrubs, raising money for charity and campaigning for better pay for the NHS and care workers.

You are absolutely right maddyone. I have been thinking for some time that the clapping, although a sign of our appreciation, is worthless if we are not prepared to see that nhs and care workers get a decent rise when this is over. If they don't morale will be terrible if this happens again and once again the nhs and care workers are called upon to risk their lives to care for us.

I will continue to clap but I will also email my MP as this is the most sensible way to make my feelings on this issue known to the powers that be.

I have felt for some time before this crisis that. as a country, we quite rightly want a Rolls Royce NHS but on a Ford Fiesta budget. I for one wouldn't mind a small rise in taxation if the revenue from this was directly earmarked for the NHS.

I did it the first twice, but not since.

The first time I think it had some value, although I had mixed feelings even then. The second time I could see people looking up and down the street to see who was there (and more importantly, who wasn't), and had read the comments on social media about who had and hadn't clapped, whether or not they were deemed to have observed the 'rules', and how far the Lockdown Police felt that they had a 'right' to be seen clapping. That put the lid on it for me, as did knowing that many of the people clapping would have voted Conservative, which was basically a vote to dismantle the NHS (this is a very Tory town).

As others have said, if there is an announced 'final time', I will think about it, although a lot depends on who has hijacked it and why. It is not at all because I don't support the NHS and other key workers, and not because I can't be bothered, or am bored, or any of the motives that get attributed to non-clappers by others. I stopped doing it because I find it hypocritical.

I'm not saying that everyone who does do it is a hypocrite, but I dislike virtue-signalling, social pressure and emotional blackmail, and will not knowingly participate in anything that can be used for any of those things.

No, never have done. There's an article written by a doctor in the Guardian today who thought that it was enough.

Doodledog
I think many people clap because they think it’s the only way to show their appreciation for the NHS, but it’s not the only way, they can email their MP and voice their opposition to a pay freeze for NHS workers. However some people are unfortunately hypocritical because they clap but don’t follow social distancing or other guidelines. Actually I think Gransnetters are a pretty rule following group of people, maybe it’s our generation, but nonetheless I know my two NHS medics don’t like it, and others have said on here that they’re NHS relatives don’t like it.
Thank you janipat for agreeing to email your MP and everyone who has said they will email their MPs.
I didn’t start this thread, but lots of you have spoken to me directly and I thank you for that. Yes, I have a vested interest, because of my daughter and her husband, and I also have a nephew who’s a doctor, but I know first hand how difficult this time has been for my daughter and family. With two key worker parents and very young children in the family, and all their usual support structures having been removed (that’s us and the other grandparents, but as Gransnetters yourselves, you’ll know all about that) and with the extra hours worked, sometimes twelve hour shifts, the worry about their health, inadequate PPE, contact with Covid19 patients etc etc. Then they juggle getting children to different childcare settings, and the usual running of the home. That’s why we do much of their laundry for them. You will appreciate why I feel so strongly, but so do many of you.
Let’s hope the government listen to us.

To me it now has a kind of contrived feel to it, so we have stopped.

Rightly or wrongly I couldn’t help feeling right from the start that there was a strong virtue signalling aspect going on.

We have a medic in the family and she knows how much we worry about her and appreciate what she is doing.

I'm at work in a supermarket on Thursday evenings, we clapped in store for three weeks, with a customer announcement a few minutes beforehand, but didn't clap last week or this evening. I think if it had any value at the beginning, it's a bit silly now.

Maddyone, as I said, I do (of course!) support and am grateful for the NHS staff who are risking their lives to care for the rest of us.

If people think that clapping helps doctors and nurses, there’s nothing stopping them from doing so, but I don’t think that it helps at all, and neither do I think that clapping entitles the clappers to any moral high ground.

What would help is pushing for decent pay for nurses and care workers, and for better funding and resources all round. I don’t think that we are disagreeing at all.

We stopped tonight. It's become politicised and seems as though it's an endorsement of this governments response to this crisis, rather than a "thank you" to all those who have made our lockdown more bearable.
I'm thinking of:
postmen/women
bin men
those who keep utilities up and running
supermarket workers
sewage workers
lorry drivers who supply the supermarkets
and many more that we take for granted.
We don't see all of them - BUT - we would soon notice if they decided to down tools and walk out.
I feel sure that we would never miss:
Stock brokers
City bankers
Hedge Fund Managers
Etc.
Why do they matter/get paid so much?
The important people, who make our lives better and who make it all "work" need to be appreciated!!
WE NEED CHANGE!!

We have clapped every Thursday and although slightly trite, it shows an expression of thanks to the NHS. Our road turns out in high numbers and actually brought a tear to my eye - people do care.

Maddyone, we are in a similar situation to you and know the strain under which our daughter has been working (for a time, complete with virus but still triaging patients from home, despite her raging temperature). If it was not for her amazing husband she could not have undertaken the long hours.

Itsonlyme, I absolutely agree, all the people mentioned are important - you forgot undertakers/gravediggers! We would be in trouble without them.

NHS staff have had their pay frozen for many years and the NHS is actually running on goodwill at the moment but it is almost at breaking point. The politicians will soon have to decide if they really want to keep the NHS going or, as it seems to be happening, slowly break it up and sell to the private sector. This is what many medics fear is happening.

If you like using the NHS, please do write to your MP and suggest unfreezing pay and demand that we keep our wonderful NHS.

I do, and so do lots of other people. After we have stopped people stand at a safe distance and chat. There is a collection for a local food bank every week at three different houses on this rather long road.

I didn't last night and I felt so guilty about it.My wee GD phoned at 5 to eight crying and I couldn't put the phone down on her.She had tripped on the trampoline and given herself a black eye and she "really really needed a granny hug" who could refuse to listen to her ,her mum and dad had both given hugs but she NEEDED one from me.So a virtual hug and some cheering up was done and she felt much better after 25 minutes telling me how they must stay home to save lives and her first thing will be a big party with all her GP's and GGP's and the people she misses.Wee sweetheart

It is not so politicised here (Edinburgh) at least not in our road. Perhaps there isn't as much political feeling against how our FM is handling things?

Fewer people appear than did at the start, but that is normal for all regular things like this.

I do it partly because I appreciate how key workers have kept the infrastructure as a whole going, right through the lockdown, even when they are worse than bored, and partly to have eye-to eye contact with my neighbours. When you are not going out to shop etc, it does sometimes seem that you are the only human being left in a world emptied of people!