My sister is on the frontline. She's just finished a bunch of night shifts in an ITU as a HCA so I'll text her later, and if it's anything like recent weeks she will be exhausted, scared and frustrated.
She will be exhausted because there aren't enough staff.
She will be scared because she is working with Covid-19 +ive patients and is a single parent - she notes on ITU that PPE supply is actually OK, it's when she gets shifts on general wards it becomes more of a lottery.
She is frustrated because politics, economics and healthcare have collided in horrible ways in the last 25 years or so in the UK that has left us very much on the back foot in our ability to deal with a sudden emergency.
She won't be alone in those feelings. There isn't a nurse or doctor in the country who doesn't experience those things in some measure at least some - if not most - of the time.
The first time the clapping happened, she cried. It was recognition of thanks for the tiredness, fear and frustration that she and her colleagues go through.
It's OK to be pissed off at the Tories AND clap. It's not mutually exclusive.
The problem is when we are asked to be pissed off OR clap, and we choose to clap, and then trot down to the polling station and ask for "more of the same please!"
We need to remember this at the ballot box. If you clap and you then vote for this shower of pillocks, well, you'll go to the grave aware of your hypocrisy, and let's just hope the NHS is still there to make it as painless as possible.
This Thursday go out and clap. If you have kids, get them to paint a rainbow.
And then vote when you get the chance.
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