I think Peter responded with out an ounce of nastiness intended. Peters response was using the words and phrases of his generation, with no intent of causing upset. I am a gay man but take no offence or upset by Peter and his responses. You regard it as inappropriate because you see it as nastiness, I don’t.
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I am having a go at people that are sat in France complaining about the UK
@MaryB If that is your sole reason for being here, may I politely suggest you may find another place sympathetic to your viewpoint much more to your taste and less stressful.
A French site for people living in France by choice is not good sport.
It’s amongst the reasons I left the UK to avoid people who have a petty jealously about France, it’s people and culture to name but a few.
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Just to lay this old chestnut. Just Giving do not take anything from the money donated ( unlike the banks who still take their cut to process the payments) JG ask you if you wish to make a donation - over and above what you give the charity/ fundraisers - to help with the cost of running the site BUT you don’t have to if you don’t want to. JG USED to take a percentage but changed their rules in the last few years.
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So they do still charge a fee… and ask for “donations”
Can I politely request that the chief protagonists on this post now step away from their keyboards and go and do some mediation or clean the bathroom or something…
Thank you.
Catharine and James
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I dearly wish our paths had crossed earlier in my puny, craven life Graham. I needed a role model of your doughty métier to strengthen my sinews, and show me how to catch flying ficks in mid-flight and fluck them back to where the sun don’t shine.
If ever you need to raise a left fist to slug somebody while you’re running in your pacemaker, I’ll come running with mine 
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I’ve got my pinny on… 
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No they don’t charge a fee - which implies you have no choice. They ask you for a Donation which you choose to give or not- it’s a choice. Have you ever given any money via JG ? You can choose to give - you can choose NOT to give. How is that CHARGING a fee ?
OK, point accepted @anon22869222. I read his statement to mean the two were in attendance at the same time throughout the 48 hours.
Presumably many interventions were two-handers, so there would have been more than two to give personal care. In which case it was invidious to name just two.
In fact I think it was wrong to name-call any individuals, and not a little self-serving and “in character” for him.
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Same meat, different gravy. I think the majority of pledges are made by CC?
So you donate £10 and a fee is either charged on top or deducted from the amount pledged and if you make a donation to their effort, you are charged more fee 
Not wishing to be obtuse Sue, but that is about the strength of it.
And for the record, no, I don’t/haven’t given any money via JG as if that has any bearing on matters or the price of pain.
The fed is charged by the CC company and not by JG - exactly the same as if you pay for anything with a CC . Complain to the CC companies. Every business is charged for their customers using a CC.
I’ve enjoyed reading this thread & find myself agreeing with both sides!
Mike makes perfect sense -
but so does Peter’s -
Bob’s reply also has merit.
My respect for the front line NHS staff has always been there & I would hope that my interactions with them in the past would have made that obvious. They have always worked hard & provided outstanding care but it seems that only now are the public encouraged to show their appreciation although standing on a doorstep clapping for a minute or two seems an odd way to do it.
We should not forget that there are many other people whose jobs put them at risk too but because they are not “on the front line” are not shown appreciation. The list is long & this includes shop staff who do not know who represents a risk & who doesn’t.
None of the above takes away the achievement of Captain Tom but I wonder what made him do it. Was it to show his admiration for their work or was it that he thought the NHS needed funds?
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You misread my post Peter. I didn’t refer to Peter’s post as “nastiness” I said that “to respond on here can lead to all sorts of nastiness”. Also, I was referring to the wider use of language not to the specific use of words like “queer”. Are you suggesting my offense is somehow inappropriate because, as a gay man, you are not offended?
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Apologies for my mis read of your nastiness comment. I fail to see what else in Peters post can be deemed offensive except for the PC brigade who ride into town the minute the words queer, lesbian or butch are used. You are entitled to be offended by whatever and whoever you want to be, I just have a lighter view on peoples words and phrases and accept that different generations use them with no ill intent.
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It’s a very interesting question, and very unlikely to give rise to any realistic examination. Perhaps the answer would be intrusive on Captain Tom’s private life, cause unnecessary raking-over of inter-related interests and affiliations that the old fellow might want to protect.
I don’t presume to know why he set out to walk, and I don’t think he sought the celebrity he has attracted. That celebrity has IMO been manufactured by the media, it’s what they do out of pecuniary interests. With what level of freedom to comply on Tom’s part is unknown, but I tend to think that he may feel that it falls short of the dignified celebration fitting a man of his stature and calling, and appropriate to his family circle. He has become a media plaything, and his eventual mourners will have walk-on parts in his gun-carriage funeral arranged by the Star or the Express.
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I 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 (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.
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I appreciate your thoughtful intervention, Peter, and your sense of historicity. The words I used to describe my experience in the 1950s are indeed garlanded with rich and proud meaning by those of my generation, of whatever category or non-category of sexual proclivity or orientation of their choosing. They are not hostile or demeaning in intent. In me they give rise to nostalgia, to reflectiveness on the tides of history, including my own, and joyful gratitude for old friendships and departed friends.
How can you say that without knowing me?
I am a straight talking Mancunian by birth and was always taught to speak my mind truthfully and stand up for myself and my beliefs. What you see is what you get 
If that displeases then our moral structure and being are in a different space.
And I do, so dinner table protocols are meaningless when matters need to be said and I suffer no embarrassment and offer no apology for my directness.
I wish you no ill so please enjoy your life only hearing what you want to hear, disregarding the rest
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