Like I said it isn't one or the other. I've always supported politicians that support the NHS - indeed campaigned very actively for the last government that genuinely did support the NHS, in my opinion.
But that doesn't mean I won't clap for the NHS workers and other front line workers - they deserve our recognition through the symbolism of the clapping (there is very little else we can do at this immediate point) and they also deserve the support of a government that genuinely believes in the NHS and it prepared to put in the resources to back the NHS - that we don't have at the moment and, sadly, we are unlikely to be able to change that for a while.
Anyhow it seems that next Thursday's clap will be the last one and I think that is probably right.
My wife and I have clapped every Thursday. Our reasons are quite simple. In this extraordinary situation we feel we needed to come together to support all the frontline workers and especially the NHS workers in our small way. We also felt that these weekly claps were a unifying influence for people of all ages and hopefully strengthened the resolve of the whole community to be continually aware and observe the lockdown as much as possible. We do however accept that it is entirely appropriate that this response is starting to outlive its usefulness and probably needs to finish sometime soon.
My wife worked all her working life as a nurse in the NHS, one of our sons is a firefighter and one of our grandaughters works as a carer, but we all feel that at such an extraordinary time as this any criticisms we may have of the NHS(e.g. the Mid Staffordhire debacle, the NHS's almost indiscriminate wastage, the way Bevan bought the consultants' backing by 'stuffing their mouths with gold', the graduate entry only policy of the RCN or the horrendously expensive and failed National IT system, and many more) are not forgotten but put on the back burner because the human values of the selflessness, heroic dedication and bloody hard work of the key workers are the things that are uppermost in our minds at the moment.
Constructive criticism of the present government and how they are handling this crisis is certainly ok by us. We have plenty of criticisms ourselves, just as we had of all sorts of Health Ministers and Prime Ministers from both parties, especially from Thatcher onwards, and not just Tory ones. However when I read these articles by John Crace(as suggested by Gordon), with their criticism cocooned in a veneer of sneering personal insults, it just turns me off completely. In my opinion such journalism is generally counterproductive although, no doubt, personally satisfying to some.
I didn't vote Tory at the last election by the way. In fact I've never voted Tory in my life.
