The Last Time To Clap

Wednesday 8th  JULY 2020

So here I am on Day One Hundred. I am going to be a little bit controversial today but I make no apology for that.  IT IS TIME TO STOP CLAPPING.

When people clapped weekly for our NHS I clapped not just for this area of heroes helping us through the pandemic but also for ALL of our emergency services.  I clapped for our postmen and I clapped for our bin men, I clapped for our supermarket workers and I clapped for lorry and bus drivers.

Somebody. somewhere decided it was not a food idea to keep clapping and so this weekly celebration came to an end. I can not help but feel the decision to stop clapping was to ease the public's mind ahead of reducing lock down and changing social distancing to three quarters of an inch !

I have been a strong supporter of our National Health Service for almost forty years, I have always been known to shout my mouth off at every opportunity but I am sad to say that I have changed my mind.

NHS Blood & Transplant seriously messed up a donor location resulting in donors not being able to give blood. I complained to the service but have been completely ignored. There is an urgent need for blood at all times so this failure is alarming. How can I clap to applaud the failure.

My wife has been denied access to her GP for hearing loss, every day she is denied the simple medical support she needs the danger of permanent loss becomes more real.  How can I clap to applaud this ?

A vulnerable adult I mentor and support urgently needs support for a mental health condition. Again he is being denied proper access. My hands are in my pockets !  Clapping, no way !

The media picked up on captain Tom and used the lovely gesture he was making to exploit a situation way beyond his intentions. I want to say WELL DONE Captain Tom and I am applauding you. However, when I tried to put forward my story and what I was doing for our NHS I was ignored at every turn, specifically our local hospital and GP Surgery. I am left feeling hurt and sad.

The NHS was protected, the pop up hospitals were not needed. Front line staff, as they always to, went the extra mile but administrators were and still are failing big time.

You can riot on the streets, you can fire a rocket into The Liver Building and set it alight, you can attack the police, you can drink yourself silly in a pub, you can have your hair cut but you can not properly access your local doctor !

I began writing all those weeks ago saying we had lived in a  society where failure was the norm and that we should emerge from this pandemic with a change of mind saying failure is not an option.  Failure is the norm and I guess it always will be.

I went to Morrissons Supermarket yesterday. The company has backed off from the lovely way it managed customers in the early days of lock down. Today only two check out tills were open !  As my shopping was checked I engaged with the lady on the till. As I always do when shopping at Morrissons I made a special point of thanking her big time before leaving. She was so pleased that I had said what I had and thanked me so much.

Leaving the store the sad little driving schools who use supermarket car parks as their own playground were back. Nobody in the cars I saw wearing a mask and social distancing of about twelve inches.

Yes, this is my final blog for the time being. However, I know there will be another spike. If not another man-generated disease. There are rumours of Swine Flue and Bubonic Plague in China, there are supposed former  MI5 sources saying this pandemic was man made. Was it ?  Will we ever know ? Can you trust anyone to give you an honest answer ?  Certainly not the UK government under Boris Johnson, no clapping there.

One hundred and fifty-five more people died yesterday and the government would have us believe the virus is under control. One of those deaths was in Milton Keynes where I live. 286,349 cases in total and the government claims to have the situation under control.

Yes, this is my last page but somehow I think I will be back but for now it is time to stop applauding.