The wonderful Annemarie Plas who initiated the Thursday 8.00pm ‘Clap for Carers’ has announced that the idea is to be resurrected. She tweeted: ‘We are bringing back the 8pm applause, in our 3rd lockdown I hope it can lift the spirit, of all of us. Carers teacher (sic), homeschooling parents, those who shield and ALL who is pushing through this difficult time! Please join & share!’ #clapforheroes Fair play to our friend from Amsterdam.
And it’s true. We have had loads of heroes. I’d add to the list supermarket and shop-workers, government workers who have delivered incredible support for workers and employers, the emergency services and a myriad of others whom I doubtless have insulted by not mentioning their occupations. Apologies and thanks to one and all. And they deserve our thanks and gratitude. But this time, clapping people is not enough. I won’t be joining in.
It’s not that I have changed my mind about our heroes. If anything, I admire them even more. But joining Boris Johnson, the architect of the government’s catastrophic handling of COVID-19, in clapping them never felt right. Our NHS staff, but not other carers, got a modest pay rise and our other heroes were rewarded with pay freezes, in effect pay cuts. Walking the extra mile and working themselves to a standstill meant nothing to Johnson. Instead, both he and his gurning chancellor Rishi Sunak handed our heroes nothing but contempt.
A round of applause will not pay the bills of our heroes. It will not restore the full health of those heroes damaged by long COVID. It will not bring back to life those who died from COVID when serving others.
Ms Plas means well and I offer her not a word of criticism. If both she and others wish to stand on their doorsteps to clap for heroes, then good luck to them.
I believe we need more than gestures, however kindly they may be intended. Under the Conservatives, the NHS was cut to the bone. They did nothing to support minimum wage carers. They have treated teachers with contempt. They inflicted austerity upon the very poorest people in the land. In a civilised country, this is not acceptable.
I’ll start clapping when our heroes are properly rewarded for their heroism. But not before. Clapping might make us feel better, but it changed nothing last time. Nor will it this.
