The more I hear Conservative MPs applaud and fawn over NHS staff, the more I think back to the footage from 2017 of those same MPs in the Commons cheering as they voted down a proper pay rise for nurses. Ellwood was among them, alongside Rishi Sunak, Dominic Raab, Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson.
The true measure of how much others esteem you resides fundamentally in their actions, not words. All this rousing talk of heroes, medals, memorials and flypasts increasingly feels like a clever and calculated distraction. The worth of nurses is so self-evident to this government, for instance, that they are routinely compelled to use foodbanks. And Hancock may have offered Britain’s 1.5 million carers a badge recently, yet two-thirds of them are paid the minimum wage, with many on punitive zero-hours contracts. How convenient that now, with the spotlight on their vital work, their poverty wages are being augmented by lavish ministerial clapping.
Most iniquitous of all, of course, is the government’s willingness to laud us as heroes even while watching us die without proper personal protective equipment. How dare they? Testimony from staff forced to wear bin bags, Marigolds and even sanitary towels as facial protection should shame every member of the cabinet. The irony surely isn’t lost on Johnson that the one thing Hollywood scriptwriters reliably award their superheroes is, at least, a mask and cape?
Yes, I saw it on FB too, and agree totally with the writer- the NHS is in grave danger, and the vultures are circling. If something changes as a result of covid19, I hope it is the realisation of what is about to be lost for ever, and the rot is stopped, somehow.
For those who have shown an interest, I am happy to tell you that my stepdaughter got her injection.
They delivered the stuff to her house so she could inject herself. Probably the safest option in the present circumstances.
In the NHS, it seems that Number One Heroes come as standard.
Going against all protocol BJ has announced Captain Tom Moore’s knighthood a month ahead of the Birthday Honour’s List. Call me cynical but this smacks of a diversion from his handling of the CV crisis.
It is nice for that particular person but it is also an appallingly cynical exploitation of all that ghastly sentimentality and excess of emotion at the expense of rationality.
Sir Captain Tom has certainly gone up in my estimation.
I dont think I would allow a woman of advanced years to wave a sword around in the region of my neck!
am so disappointed to read this thread. I’ve stopped being angered by how innocuous topics like this turn into slanging matches. I’m just sad now and this thread is a final straw for me.
Once again there are posters making inappropriate comments @Peter_Goble (I’m sorry Pete it had to be said), using disgusting language @Graham_Lees (and not just here but regularly on this site) and the trolling and abuse of members who disagree. The old man version of a pile-on. None of you would say these things or gang up as you do if you were sitting around a dinner table.
I am also truly disgusted by the treatment of a frontline NHS worker who works long shifts in a hospital potentially exposing herself to a deadly virus with inadequate PPE.
I have been here for 7 years and have seen so many of my SFN friends goaded and provoked to the point where they no longer feel comfortable posting or write something that gets them banned. I’ll mention just a few… Anna Watson, Ann Coe, Simon Armstrong, Bill & Babeth Morgan etc etc.
All the while there are people here who get away with this kind of shit (my turn for the bad language) time and time again and it’s inexplicable.
Well done! You’ve all won. Another pissed off member is leaving. Soon this site will be just bitter old men and women with nothing better to do than abuse those who dare to have a different point of view. I imagine that provided they contribute financially Cat and James won’t much care.
I apologise to Stella for this post who has been nothing but kindness and loveliness and keeps this site running.
I expect this will get me banned anyway but if not then would one of the admin please delete my account. Pls delete my account too
