DON’T LET ‘CLAP’ NAZIS TAKE OVER

DEANO ON SUNDAY

A COUPLE of weeks ago in Sunday Sport we published a tongue- in- cheek opinion piece calling for those who do not join the weekly Clap for Carers to be locked up.

We wrote in our leading article: “Those who do not come into the street to applaud clearly do NOT support the NHS and must be a danger to the national will. Those displaying such disturbing anti-social behaviour must be rooted out and shamed into compliance.”

It was, of course, a JOKE.

But it’s becoming increasingly clear in modern Britain that a joke one week becomes a terrifying reality the next.

So it has been with the Clap for Carers.

A mum says she’s has been left “really upset” after she was named and shamed on Facebook for not joining in with Clap for Carers.

The woman was accused of “showing the street up”.

Writing on parenting site Mumsnet, she said: “I clapped originally and it was lovely and everyone turned out for it here.

“Last week, after a rough night with DS ( dear son) I fell asleep after he went down and missed the clapping.

“A post went on our community Facebook group actually naming and shaming me. I was mortified.

“The post said everyone else turned out and I showed the street up and if I can’t spend a minute showing my appreciation I don’t deserve to use the NHS if I or my family get ill.

“I ignored it at the time but I can’t get it out of my head – it’s really upset me.”

Let’s get this straight, a woman was named and shamed on – there it is again – social f** king media because she fell asleep and missed the applause.

It’s not like she was a soldier on sentry duty who had fallen asleep at their post.

Look, I know the Thursday night ritual of standing in the street and applauding the NHS workers is a wonderful thing that brings the country together and shows gratitude to those working hardest to protect us from the virus.

Loads of people join in – even the Royal Family.

But unless it’s voluntary, it means nothing. If it’s “something you have to do” it carries no more emotional significance than, say, paying your car tax.

The hatchet- faced harpies who shamed that poor woman on social media are the sort of busybodies who delighted in denouncing their neighbours in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia.

I can imagine that, for all their talk of being “grateful to the NHS”, they’re the sort who put huge and unnecessary strain on the health service by stuffing their fat, stupid faces with pies and ending up the size of small supertankers.

I’d rather the virus takes me than live in a country where folk are forced to go into the street and applaud a state institution.