[netsharc]

I've been wondering how much they "exploited" the recently-turned-100 Captain who was walking up and down his garden 100 times to raise money for the NHS. He or his family probably came up with the idea themselves, but I wonder if some individuals working in the government helped it "go viral". The same government that's been slowly stripping the NHS, when suddenly, a free 100 million pounds (and counting) to spend! And a nice old man that the nation can cheer on. Feel good story, distraction, etc, etc.

Another cynical look about the hero worship of the NHS is that heroes often die, if I were running a government that failed to supply PPE to doctors and nurses, I'd cheer on the idea of making them heroes because then their deaths would become something honourable and somewhat acceptable...

[erk__]

You do know that the yearly budget of the NHS is around £140 billion. So the captain would only have collected enough for a few hours. But that does not matter as the money he gathers does not go to the state, but goes to a large number of charities which are connected to the NHS. https://www.nhscharitiestogether.co.uk/meet-our-members/

Though I do agree that the NHS should be better funded.

[simonh]

>I wonder if some individuals working in the government helped it "go viral"

He did the walk in support of NHS Charities Together, an umbrella organisation of independent charities that support the NHS, and their publicity team contacted the media.

[RobertKerans]

The money goes to charities associated with the NHS, not the NHS itself. This isn't a subtle difference, it completely torpedoes everything in your comment.

[netsharc]

"completely torpedoes everything". From a man talking about subtleties.

I had to look up if the charities came because of Tory austerity, they aren't. But well, please read this article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/22/giving...

This is like saying donating to teachers so they can buy school supplies doesn't mean it's helping fund the school...

[RobertKerans]

Sorry, that was hyperbole. But I am fully aware of what the NHS associated charities are, I don't need to look them up or read about them. Yes, in some cases they have been abused. In some cases I'm sure some percentages of the money raised here will each cause small financial abuses by an administrator of a trust which has been one of the beneficiaries. And I live in the north of England, you don't have to explain what the Tories are like, what they've done. But not everything is a conspiracy. It's a common thing to donate money to NHS charities. This went viral for really obvious reasons. There's a bad all over the government response to the crisis, but hey, let's make up a conspiracy theory and focus on that instead -- people are idiots aren't they, look at the idiots buying into this whereas you're so smart for realising that it's a conspiracy.