Final 'Clap For Carers' Will Be Tonight, Says Founder. Here's Why
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The woman behind the nationwide ‘Clap For Our Carers’ movement has called for tonight’s round of applause for key workers to be the last.
Annemarie Plas, the Dutch Londoner who spearheaded the event in the UK after seeing it happen in other countries, kickstarted it with a view for it to continue until the end of lockdown.
The first clap happened on 26 March. Since then, millions of people have stood at windows, balconies and on doorsteps to clap – or bang pots and pans, beep horns and blow trumpets – for those who’ve worked hard to keep us safe during the pandemic.
But Plas says it’s time to call it quits. “I will stop with our support after tonight,” she tells HuffPost UK.
Her choice seems to reflect growing sentiment among the public that the weekly clap increasingly feels like a hollow gesture. Some say the event has become politicised, while others are calling for more tangible support for key workers – like better pay.
Related...
Not that anyone asked, but I’m not going to be clapping for the NHS this week. Instead I’ll continue to march for it, protest for it, advocate for it, stay at home for it, & most importantly, vote for those who actually support it. Not judging those who want to clap, but I’m out.
— Ralf Little (@RalfLittle) May 27, 2020
You say #clapforNHS
I say pay them more.— Luke, Nightmare Bastard (@MrLParker) May 28, 2020
Plas decided the 10th clap for carers will be the last, as she now wants to focus on building a charity to keep the momentum going in a constructive way.
“I still believe in what we have been doing here,” she told The Evening Standard. “But I thought, if you want to do something in the long-term with it,...
