The mass clapping event (Millions of Britons clap for carers on coronavirus frontline, 26 March) was bittersweet and loaded with irony. It was an unprecedented show of collective gratitude, inspired by a Dutch woman living in the UK, by a nation whose Brexit vote caused a shortage of medical staff as it sent EU citizens away. A clapping nation whose government created a “hostile environment” to banish the Windrush generation, who made vital contributions to the NHS.
I also thought of supermarket workers on low wages now risking life and limb, generally with no gloves or masks. There is little consideration for their safety. If it weren’t for them we would not be eating.
The clap was a show of appreciation by a public that elected a government that has been rapidly privatising the very service we were applauding. But it also showed the nation’s longstanding and deepening love for the NHS, and acknowledged our dependency on it. The clap strangely transcended the bitter rows of the last few years. It expressed a rare but precious sense of community.
Corinne Fowler
Birmingham
