Captain Tom’s family are mere amateurs compared to a certain Baroness of PPE, who allegedly managed to squirrel away £29M, after her husband sourced £200M of dubious quality PPE products…
I smelt a rat immediately and it made me feel insane. I thought the whole country had gone mental. It was a nice thing to do, but the media and social media was going on like he had single handedly saved the world, and then as soon as his daughter started cropping up she was so obviously a chancer.
For me it was the rapid elevation of the man. He seemed to go from ‘kindhearted old man trying his hardest to do his bit for the NHS’ to ‘this man is a icon, we should all love him, he’s a HERO’ very, very quickly. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who would seek fame to me, much like that generation. He wanted to serve, not be exalted.
Captain Tom was “The right kind” of pensioner. A blazer wearing middle class guy with a nice house… who never opened his mouth. Imagine he had been an NCO, living out his latter years in a council house and trudged up and down his garden… He’d never have been heard of.
Absolutely, he was able to trot around his extensive grounds while millions were stuck in flats and houses with tiny gardens or just a back yard. The whole thing stinks of privilege and self entitlement.
If they weren't Upper Middle Class they would have been in jail by now and made to pay the money back/all assets seized. THIS is what a 2-tier justice system is really all about 😤
@@hudson7354 that I believe. He was the one who had a goal but the daughter pushed it to the limits. But they might well have bullied him into continuing way past his own capability.
It had a whiff about it from the start old bloke walks up and down his garden past the family swimming pool and suddenly people wanted to believe. Like the hysteria following Lady Diana's death.
She did nothing wrong. Capt Tom set up a family trust which promissed to make some donation to charity and registeerd his image right as footballers do.. Thet did donate £17000. The daughter and son in law are apparently marketing expects. All the branded goods and book were for the private family company. Legally they are untouchable.
I must be very cynical, I didnt believe a word of it, as soon as social media and the msm started to broadcast this lovely old gentlemans achievement, the family interviews started and the hysteria built. It seemed everyone wanted to be on that bandwagon. The same can be said for clapping for the NHS. As a retired Registered nurse, it was very insulting to those of us who have given our service to the NHS for years with out any recognition. What about the checkout staff at the supermarkets and every one else who kept the country going ? It was a time of complete and utter madness😮
Not for the hours of unpaid overtime. It is not a job that you can just walk out on when your shift ends, the nhs has relied on the goodwill of all staff to cover shifts.
Deliveroo were making TV commercials imploring people to donate to provide “hot nutritious meals for the NHS” in full PPE on six figure salaries while care home staff with no PPE working for peanuts were ignored.
You’re right let’s make sure sunak Johnson and co get done for the bns stolen from us As much as this is tasteless its a distraction Funny the U.K. populace is incapable of being outraged for its own business
I didn't clap for carers because it seemed so facile and hypocritical. I certainly didn't give a shit about an old bloke walking up and down his garden. I didn't see what made him ny more "worthy" than anyone else going through lockdown. My thoughts on both banging pots outside and Old Tom Cobblers was really that my energy would be better placed drawing attention to the Government's pathetic covid response and historical underfunding of the NHS.
The sight of a geriatric dude being cast in some strange nostalgic, patriotic light seemed to ignite an irrational circuit that English people have seared in their brains by a lifetime of being assured the queen was on their side. It was a pretty Pavlovian reaction. Evoke monarchy and blitz and you can bend the country over the table no questions asked, the Tories do it all the time.
Was uncle Tom Cobley even real or was it one of the grifters kids in a costume & mask? The Scooby Doo mob would've had that mask off before he'd done one lap of his garden 🤔
I called this scam when I seen the picture of the son in law busting out of his blazer in barbados , they even had the old fella dressed up in a blazer with his medals on in the heat
This is what angers me on many levels. Firstly I am angry that this farce has compromised public trust in charities as a whole, but also that people have a problem with charity CEOs get paid a competitive wage with those in the private sector. Because I am a leukaemia sufferer whose wife died of cancer, I follow leukaemia and cancer charities. Does anyone think a university student on a gap year could have negotiated the Calendar Girls franchise for Leukaemia Research? Of course not, that was done at a very high level by people with a very precise skill-set. And the millions it led to vastly outweighed the salaries of the people involved. And if they didnt get a salary they'd leave the charity and get a job advertising washing up liquid and getting paid millions for it. Did a school leaver on minimum wage work with Ian Botham to raise so much money the chances of survival for leukaemia sufferers was reversed from 20% live to 80% live? Nope. But thanks to cases like this people have a downer on charity as a whole and that is one of many real tragedies of this case.
There’s never enough government money for the NHS, especially for very expensive life saving machinery. The charities are there to help pay for those type of things
This! You can say much the same of all charities whose work focusses on the vulnerable and needy. Whenever a charity exists, it's because of a failure of society and governance. Charities (legit ones) are run by heroes, but their existence shames us all and we should be embarrassed that they're needed, not proud.
I was suspicious at the time and I said it at the time that I was getting a very bad vibe from the daughter. She was sat next to him in interviews and I got vibes that she couldn’t care less about charity and was just using him as a cash cow for her own benefit
I had nothing against Captain Tom and his campaign, but even I could see what people around him were up to. His daughter and husband were completely consumed with greed when the money was rolling in for the book. They promoted it as a charity book which they knew was totally incorrect. They saw a gravy train and bought their tickets, along with all the others who were on their own trains of cash from COVID.
I thought that too. But my thoughts were also on the fact that he might have died mid-flight on account of his fraillty to travel such a distance. I felt uncomfortable with that.
When I saw the original news article, I expected it to be forgotten about within 24 hours. Then we discovered Tom was neither doing laps of his garden, it wasn't even his car parking area, it was his daughter's car parking area. He was walking 10 feet of it. The press and media chose to ignore the 99yo Indian man walking actual laps of his own garden. Who decided to make Tom a Captain and THEN a knighthood from the late Queen!!! Why? All that, plus a charity record with Michael Ball, for walking 10ft of his daughter's car parking area, every day for 100 days up to his 100th birthday. Even 'proud Yorkshireman' was a lie. He left Bingley aged 17 and NEVER returned.
I do agree. So many people sincerely raised monies. The press completely ignored the elderly Indian gentleman who was also an old soldier. This host may ask what the heck happened and say we all contributed....really it was a game the press played. The public really never got a word in .
@@bigkdog5091 It's a simple matter of language. The term "stealing" means intentionally and permanently depriving people of their property without their consent. People in this case gave the money perfectly willingly, so it's not theft. Possibly, they obtained the money fraudulently since they misled their donors/customers as to how the funds would be used, but that's not stealing.
@@naishjam Obtaining money fraudulently is obtaining money dishonestly. The problem is proving the intent at the time the money was obtained. However, the original post is spot on - They should be made to pay it back.
The biggest problem with this story is that it shows how impossible it was to question the whole thing while it was unfolding. It was seen as unpatriotic and evil to question the bizarre scheme just because it was headed by an old White veteran. Now, a lot of people are coming out to say they had doubts. Maybe next time, we need to give doubters a chance to ring the bill without fear.
But I wonder why!? Because no one ever was saying the literal man himself Cpt Tom was being dodgy, obviously not. I would expect people to take criticism of him personally badly. I don’t know why people would be upset at suggestions that people around him were milking it for their own benefit, as they obviously were. Maybe I think I’m assuming people are more nuanced than they are.
@@kevinsimpson-dw6vuyou’re saying a black or brown Cap Tom veteran would have received the same amount of adulation, money? Ok. They’d be painting him as a scammer or digging up dirt from the get go
Which misinformation? Are you referring to the initial reporting when the Captain Tom grifters first started lying to the public? Is that the misinformation that concerns you? The lies told by these morally bankrupt thieves.
Right wing mania that ended in total shame. If he had just been plain "old Tom" from Barnsley, and not "Captain Tom" the press and media wouldn't have been interested in what he was doing.
@EppingLad Because it was mainly The Sun that pushed and pushed and pushed this. It served their agenda and even when the massive con was coming to light they couldn't even come out and say so. Just shows the danger of getting swept up in the craze
At the time, when he was walking his laps, I thought it was a much-needed feel good story that we all needed, and I think a lot of the country were desperate for something positive to cling to and his family took advantage of it to line their pockets. When the family set up multiple charities and events in his name that he wasn’t even involved in and his daughter was the one doing interviews I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t have imagined the truth. I’ve always wondered what kind of person uses their elderly parent like that.
Millions of pounds that will only actually get spent on administration fees hoovering up about 98% of the donations. I'm not saying that all charities are scams - but most of them are.
I remember thinking at the time that it was shocking that the NHS needed charitable donations - shouldn't it be funded properly by the government? And I was sure that NHS workers would have preferred proper payment instead of a round of applause once a week. Even my husband fell for that one.
I'm not saying that's untrue. I certainly hope it is the case. But part of the problem that led to this is people are far too trusting to "important figures" when they're told to be. I hope the old veteran was on the up and up. That it was his family taking advantage of him. But I can't say for certain. Never trust celebrity. Power corrupts, and when given the chance, most people will end up bending towards it. Hard to even blame them too much, when the money is on the table to take. But it's a thing that does keep happening. I've never trusted a celebrity charity, and in retrospect, I feel like it was always a smart decision.
In early 2021, while we all freezing our bollocks off and being confined to barracks, the family went on a free holiday to Barbados courtesy of British Airways. The old man contracted covid on the flight and did as a result of it
As soon as a separate charity was set up, with family members involved, the alarm bells should have been rung. Another existing charity could have been selected to handle the income independently.
I am going to be cynical and contrarian by saying most people are foolish and gullible and this should be a lesson. It should never be up to one person to inspire any one to donate or to help out. You should do that by yourself without anybody like an old 100 year old man inspiring you to do the right thing. What kind of a morality is that? So when I get this news that the old man's daughter and her husband pocketed the donations, People gullible people , absolutely deserve to be hoodwinked like that. let that be a lesson. If you want to do charity just do it on your own. WHY DO you need an athlete or an actor or a celebrity to press you into doing the right thing???
Other ‘tulip mania’ candidates include Princess Diana, Susan Boyle and Jimmy Savile. People become empty symbols to feed an appetite I don’t understand.
Its much like "Clap for the NHS" neighbours near us were using it purely for Instagram posts. We decided to not bother and instead donated to nurses instead.
@@taffyterrieryou’re right, how dare they have the audacity to have a bit of fun for motivation at the front and centre of a health crisis that had half of the world panicking.
When someone (or a cause) starts to get that much attraction from the media in absolutely no time at all, then something seems off for me from the start. Charity hysteria.
I was never a fan of Captain Tom because I thought other old people had walked in their yard with their zimmer before him and they did not get any recognition. Captain Tom did not come up with this and the buzz was because he was a veteran. When I heard the family went to the Caribbean with him while it was still not safe after the lockdown, it sounded bad. It was totally unsafe for him and he got covid. Did he not die from it? He was used by his family.
I never gave a penny to their charity, as I only give any of my money to a recognised charitable organisation. That also means nothing to the BBC, Children in Need.
The lesson here is not to allow emotions to dictate your financial decisions. Investigate the recipients of your donations. Ensure you are giving to a reputable organization with a record of accomplishments.
People dressing up as him, cakes in the shape of Tom, pets dressed as Tom, £100 gin, the fella in Scotland who's neighbours banged his door and told him to turn his music off because "Capt Tom is in hospital..." We've lost our f***ing minds.
I did door to door fundraising for a charity when I was a teenager. I felt bad when I realised that the vast majority of donations go towards salaries. I imagine this is true of almost every charity.
Don't worry , they'll get Clarkson to bleat on about how the family did nothing wrong ,a tide of zimmer frames and crimson faced hooligans will riot for them ,and a snappy word or phrase will be invented for people who think that scamming is scamming ,no matter who, nor how much.
Are we saying that Sir Tom knew about this?? I find that hard to believe. He was just a very old guy - military veteran - but it was the fact that he was old, and he made such an effort to do that walk - and it was difficult for him - that was what caught the pubilc attention. I find it hard to beleive the Captain Tom knew. about this, or menat this to happen. His daughter should be thoroughly ashamed. Nothing heroic about her.
It was dodgy from the get go. But like you said, people would have been shouting outrage from the roof tops if we had have said anything. The mind set of this country is pathetic and shallow.
I remember saying to my Dad how this felt like the same thing. Had they been doing the 100 Greatest Britons vote around the same time, probably Captain Tom would have been with Diana in the top ten along with Nelson and Shakespeare. I think he was a remarkable man, from what I've read, but because of someon'es luck or skill with using social media, suddenly he becomes some kind of totemic figure for the population.
Yeap. I was really suspicious of that at the time. Why would you take a 100 year old with mobility issues on a plane when covid was raging. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep him safe in a bubble. My grandparents were nearing 90 when this happened and there was no way I was going to drag them on a holiday. We had steps in place to protect them by testing and isolating before we visited. That is what made me suspicious of that trip.
I don’t think they ruined his reputation- he raised the 30 odd million to the NHS and the NHS got that money. The issue was the promised money from merchandise and from the book that the foundation were promised and never got. Also using the money to buy a spa and cinema room for their own personal use. That was the daughter & son in laws doing and I don’t hold Sir Tom responsible for their misdeeds in regards to them fleecing the foundation out of money
I've just remembered this from the time, the NHS was not allowed to accept donations like this as it is publicly funded by the government, but the money raised would be used to buy iPads and other stuff for patients and children in hospital.
That was a strange period. A complete media bombardment about “a nation in mourning”, and news reports of people queuing up overnight to sign weird books of remembrance. All of which went entirely against my experience at the time of no-one being particularly upset or interested.
To be honest I only vaguely remember the Captain Tom story as I wasn't remotely interested in a bloke walking round his (large) back garden. It was the clappy period of either gloomy press conferences, or corny morning TV-type news items all day, like that one. That's probably how they got away with it. Sensible, critical people switched over or off to avoid the nonsense. The rest watched and clapped along.
Money corrupts... What started out as a small fundraise, quickly brought in nearly £40m for the NHS. The daughter, having seen £40m go to the NHS, then does everything to get her "cut".
I wonder who started the whole thing on social media. I mean, if I or most people put something online, it would be seen by a few people and then forgotten about. I don't imagine that Cpt. Tom was a wizard of social media, so someone was going above and beyond to make this go viral.
Days into this people on fb were talking about howuch money the family were going to be personally making from this. They saw it as a get rich quick scheme and it worked. Many people saw this for what it was. Many people got bans for discussing this topic. Obrien is the king of hindsight. He saw nothing at the time.
I've just set up a charity with friends and there's very strict rules and if you are a trustee of the charity you CANNOT make money from it. Any conflicts of interest must be declared and disqualifies you from voting on the matter. If she was a trustee, she MUST have known that it was wrong to receive any money because you're categorically not allowed to
A couple made their elderly father walk around his garden to raise money for a FULLY FUNDED HEALTH SERVICE. If you didn't see them as huxters and con men you need your eyes examined.
We had something similar in Australia about 10 years ago. Belle Gibson, a wellness blogger claimed she had cancer and was healing herself naturally and promised any donation would go to cancer charities. She received 300,000 AUD. The charities saw none of it. She did not have cancer. It is hard to have faith in humanity anymore and donate to worthy causes as there are so many scammers out there.
Captain Tom was a convenient distraction for people fed up of COVID and looking for something to cheer them up. Other old people did the same thing to raise money but they didn’t have PR to profit off it personally. It was dodgy from day 1, and all the fuss made me cringe tbh.
I had smelt a rat from day one...As for clapping for NHS workers each week during covid whilst ignoring the care workers in residential hones who had to care for covid victims discharged from hospitals to free up the beds. Those wirkers didnt matter one bit
@darrenenright1728 Nurses I knew were jumping the queues at Costco, getting free or half price MOT on their cars, meals delivered to them whilst on duty free parking with paper displayed to show they were NHS workers Don't get me wrong there were wonderful work being done on the wards but the recognition was only on nurses and NHS workers and not other essential workers sadly
"Trousering" and "Pocketing" are euphemisms applied only to people of Working or Lower Middle Class status when caught with their fingers in the till; in the case of people of Upper Middle Class or otherwise Privileged status, the same behaviour is described as "Seeing a Potential Investment Opportunity in a Rapidly Emerging and Expanding Market and, Given Public Enthusiasm for the Product, Speculating on an Almost Guaranteed Supernormalised Return." *BANG!* "It wasn't personal, it was just business."
If clapping seals sent money to the family of some old guy pictured walking around in circles in his garden, then that's their tough luck that they were conned.
Clapping seals are teachable but dumb people less so. So dumb that they blindly pay over cash to conmen and simultaneously bay for the blood of honest people having to depend on welfare benefits
No, they didn't do that. It would have taken you less time to find out what happened to their donations than it took you to write this inane comment. Try to do better.
It was an obvious con (to me, anyway; but I'm Irish, and we're well used to the vagaries of the English...). I remember laughing out loud when I first read about it on the BBC website. Why did so many people fall for it? That's easy: because it was a very British con that struck all the right chords: Brits are suckers for anything to do with the elderly, with the military, with titles like "Captain" (I'm sure Basil Fawlty would have been impressed), with WW2 nostalgia, and a hankering for a time when English people "all pulled together" and "got things done"; and with the (forelorn?) hope that some of that gutsy, self-sacrificing spirit still survived. All together now: We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when...
Said the same in another comment, but an army captain is a junior officer and most definitely not allowed to use their rank as a title after retirement. You have to be a major or higher. A navy captain is a very senior rank and very different.
They lived in the same village I’m living in. I noticed TV vans by the house. I asked my neighbour what was going on as the vans are there everyday. Then she told me it was captain Tom. They didn’t mess around when they were removing the outbuilding she had built.
The cheek of this women and husband who has been part/trustee of 51 companies. Hope they feel ashamed for a long time but by sounds of it they will just move onto another scam and dodgey money making avenue
I was amazed at the time by how many people were drawn into the hysteria of this. This pair didn't convince me and have been proven to be a shameless pair of fraudsters. I feel sorry for those who contributed. It seems you only have to fly the flag these days and sing "The White cliffs of Dover" or similar.
The thing is; they'll be a public statement, they'll apologize about the stress and deception that they've caused and every time this happens I think; you're not sorry for what you'd done - you're sorry that you got found out. Sorry is just a convenient word to these people...
The scary thing is if she wasn't quite so greedy by taking most of the money, she wouldn't have drawn so much attention to herself and maybe got away with it. 10% of millions is still alot of money but some people just cant help themselves. They have to have it all. The old chap just wanted to earn a few quid for his local hospital and she managed to sulley his reputation built up over a century for ever in some peoples eyes....Shameful.
@@taffyterrierwho said so, his daughter?. If she is the source of that little nugget, I very much doubt it. Even so, he was a hundred years old, there is no way he had any control of anything she and her husband did. Anyway he's dead now, there's no way of proving it one way or another, but going of her behaviour, her lying isn't a stretch of the imagination is it.
As despicable as this whole affair is, there are also other better placed families that are, in effect, taking a cut of charitable donations for their own personal finances and for many this is entirely acceptable!
James O'Brien is of course part of the same media machinery that unquestioningly promoted this "charity" and played a significant role in presenting it to the public as legitimate and worthy.
Most large charities have directors being paid 6 figure salaries. Probably because their have great marketing skills. The whole sector operates primarily on self-preservation.
This was right when everyone was feeling utterly awful about COVID and lock downs. People were looking for absolutely anything even vaguely positive to cling on to. Emotions superseded scepticism. We all collectively wanted to believe it so badly, because it was a ray of sunlight, it was hope! And every single person who has donated has been let down.
Well anyone who was daft enough to donate deserved to be fleeced - we all knew it was a con and a publicity stunt but some people wanted to be involved so donated like the mugs they are.
A major factor here is the unthinking apotheosis of anyone who has served in the forces. We treat all military veterans as though they were self-sacrificing demi-gods. I can't understand it. Their contribution to society is no more worthy or significant than someone who raises children, or a carer, or a teacher, or an engineer, or a civil servant, or a labourer, or a scientist, or a doctor, or a solicitor, or a receptionist, or an artist. Being in the military doesn't make you a hero, even if you saw combat.
It is generally only the media and politicians that pretend to laud veterans as heroes! Evidence the appalling numbers of ex-servicemen and women living on the street, most with undiagnosed and/or untreated PTSD. Folks on the street will put coins into a collection box, stand silent for two minutes once a year, and pay no nevermind at all other times. Most serving servicemen or veterans don't use the word. Having said all that, I think you are wrong in saying that their contribution is no more than any other person. For whatever reason, these folk volunteered to put themselves between you, the public, and the charging elephant. That in and of itself singles them out as different from the crowd. Working in conditions that the population cannot imagine, seeing and doing things that the public can't imagine, and then being thanked (if they're lucky) and abandoned is not their just reward. Arguably, if it were not for men and women like these, past present and future, it is not likely that people would be able to carry on their chosen profession in they way they currently do, and people certainly wouldn't be able to come on to a site like this and talk as they do. Whether acknowledged or not, there is a debt, which is rarely repaid.
Well said! I find the reverential attitude adopted by many when it comes to those serving or retired from the military slightly nauseating. It's much worse in the United States, where lesser mortals are duty-bound to greet a hallowed member of the military with the "thank you for your service" mantra.
I never donated to the charity, but I also missed all the signals that others on social media obviously picked up on when the alarm bells started ringing. It was only when I saw the story about the plan I got application that I realised those saying that there was something seriously wrong were correct.
That clip of her handing her father some cake where she says something along the lines of "you dont have to eat it, just look like you're happy", I think that shows the real her. She'll be on 'I'm a celebrity' next. 😂
Captain Tom’s family are mere amateurs compared to a certain Baroness of PPE, who allegedly managed to squirrel away £29M, after her husband sourced £200M of dubious quality PPE products…
29m EACH...
and i bet the taxpayer had to pay to have all that PPE disposed of as well..
@@fabioq6916 she put 29 mill into trust funds for her 3kids so it cant be touched or investigated, its off shore
💯💯👍
I mean the entire system of nobility still stands on the thought that people with titles will do nice things for the country. Do they though?
The upper middle class abusing charitable donations and the tax system for their personal benefit? Why I never...
Who are the upper middle class then?
@@MrPhantom1961many charities and businesses unfortunately.
@MrPhantom1961
No one in my family, and more than likely, no one in your own family. Unfortunately.
Never.
Plumbers, bricklayers, electricians etc. doing jobs off the books for cash. Well I never.
I smelt a rat immediately and it made me feel insane. I thought the whole country had gone mental. It was a nice thing to do, but the media and social media was going on like he had single handedly saved the world, and then as soon as his daughter started cropping up she was so obviously a chancer.
What at the time rang your alarm bells? I don't think I was paying much attention at the time
For me it was the rapid elevation of the man. He seemed to go from ‘kindhearted old man trying his hardest to do his bit for the NHS’ to ‘this man is a icon, we should all love him, he’s a HERO’ very, very quickly. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who would seek fame to me, much like that generation. He wanted to serve, not be exalted.
@@danielcraig4974how so? That's quite the claim
@@TomHart-m9n The money we are being taxed on IS SPENT ON THE NHS on inflated pay rises for doctors and consultants.
@@danielcraig4974 He was a victim , he turned into a money tree for that corupt disgusting family
Captain Tom was “The right kind” of pensioner. A blazer wearing middle class guy with a nice house… who never opened his mouth. Imagine he had been an NCO, living out his latter years in a council house and trudged up and down his garden… He’d never have been heard of.
He was in on the scam. In my opinion. Spoilt daughter.
Absolutely, he was able to trot around his extensive grounds while millions were stuck in flats and houses with tiny gardens or just a back yard. The whole thing stinks of privilege and self entitlement.
If he was in a council property he could have just gone up and down in the lift.
Nah. I hated this whole thing from the start. Nothing against the man himself, but it was as clear as day that it was all total nonsense.
Yes. Tom might have been ok, but the whole thing was one gigantic band wagon
Was the 30 odd million raised for The NHS nonsense, too?
It was a diversion by the right wing press to take pressure off the Tory party when they were getting bad mouthed during covid.
It was total nonsense? He made the NHS loads of cash
@@bestbehave exactly
If they weren't Upper Middle Class they would have been in jail by now and made to pay the money back/all assets seized. THIS is what a 2-tier justice system is really all about 😤
I remember seeing their estate photographed from above and thinking: 'They need an extension?!'
Totally 👍
Yeah a benefits cheat goes to jail. Why not this lot ? 😮
I know, they were nearly as entitled as Corbyn.
@@kevinsimpson-dw6vu Jezza never filed for non-existent "office refurbs" like one Keegan, for a cool £29m.
If you polled the country when it was happening, at least 50% of us thought this was absolutely bonkers.
Right wing hysteria.
Sounds like Brexit mania !!😀😀😀
@paulhemmings9245 Just can't get over Brexit, can you? That's the real hysteria!😅😅😅
48% to be exact, but we can't talk about that can we , It may offend some people
Thought what exactly was absolutely bonkers? And did you poll the country? No? Then how do you know at least 50% of the people would agree with you?
Those who called this out at the time were called unpatriotic
Did he actually do those laps?
@@hudson7354 that I believe. He was the one who had a goal but the daughter pushed it to the limits.
But they might well have bullied him into continuing way past his own capability.
Evidence?
@@hudson7354I think he did but had a feeling daughter was taking some that money. An spent it on her house.poor man woukd be horrified
@@angelikalindenau943 I thought it was his nursing home and then I found out it was his family mansion!
No James, we didn't all fall for it. We didn't all contribute to it.
Yup. I remember mentioning this in the office at the time and my colleagues laughed me out of town and thought I was just some grinch!!
This is the way of charity. 95% to the co and company 5% to the homeless and hungry
As always, I take no pride or joy in having not contributed to this.
Others will, no doubt.
@@PLl-jr8xi Depends on the charity.
It had a whiff about it from the start old bloke walks up and down his garden past the family swimming pool and suddenly people wanted to believe. Like the hysteria following Lady Diana's death.
Getting an old man to walk in his final days then rob his memory and goodwill,im disgusted in these people
He wanted to raise money for his family.
@@taffyterrier How do you know that?
Captain Tom was probably in on it. 🤣🤣🤣
@@OldGreyMulletTest The rich look after themselves and do not donate to charity.
@@leanatale7251 Like father, like daughter.
They are cut from the same cloth.
Why is she not behind bars?
She did nothing wrong. Capt Tom set up a family trust which promissed to make some donation to charity and registeerd his image right as footballers do.. Thet did donate £17000. The daughter and son in law are apparently marketing expects. All the branded goods and book were for the private family company. Legally they are untouchable.
But, I know people who bought the book because they believed the money would go to charity. @@bexilford2
@@bexilford2still smell a rat in this whole debarcle
I must be very cynical, I didnt believe a word of it, as soon as social media and the msm started to broadcast this lovely old gentlemans achievement, the family interviews started and the hysteria built. It seemed everyone wanted to be on that bandwagon. The same can be said for clapping for the NHS. As a retired Registered nurse, it was very insulting to those of us who have given our service to the NHS for years with out any recognition. What about the checkout staff at the supermarkets and every one else who kept the country going ? It was a time of complete and utter madness😮
Given? You got paid a wage didn't you?
Not for the hours of unpaid overtime. It is not a job that you can just walk out on when your shift ends, the nhs has relied on the goodwill of all staff to cover shifts.
@@MyTizwaz1954 It's mad how overweight so many nurses are considering they claim to work so hard, you'd think they'd be as skinny as rakes lol.
Deliveroo were making TV commercials imploring people to donate to provide “hot nutritious meals for the NHS” in full PPE on six figure salaries while care home staff with no PPE working for peanuts were ignored.
Do you think he walked around when the cameras were rolling
Is anyone going to be held criminally accountable? Sorry I forgot this is Britain.
Britain learning from the USA where Trump was robing a charity. Next election the Brits need to elect a conman and a fellon.
The world has gone mad.
You’re right let’s make sure sunak Johnson and co get done for the bns stolen from us
As much as this is tasteless its a distraction
Funny the U.K. populace is incapable of being outraged for its own business
Guess how much of the money has been recovered? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. The family are still millionaires.
They were millionaires before hand anyway
But they are social pariahs which is a whole lot worse
Marcus Rashford belittled, this guy idolised
What did Capt Tom do wrong exactly?
Marcus Rashford, is a tax dodger.
Capt Tom and Rashford are both mensches
@@michaelgriffiths5723 I don't think he backed Corbyn and the fact he was white seems to be an issue for many on here.
@@michaelgriffiths5723 con gullible Britons.
One word: GREED.
Money
Ingram…..Who Wants to be a Millionaire Ingram.
Is there something in the name maybe?
Chancer/Greeeeed, mean same thing, don't they ?
2 words. Greed and criminal.
@@mueslimuncher1950 To words for them: Prison time.
I didn't clap for carers because it seemed so facile and hypocritical. I certainly didn't give a shit about an old bloke walking up and down his garden. I didn't see what made him ny more "worthy" than anyone else going through lockdown. My thoughts on both banging pots outside and Old Tom Cobblers was really that my energy would be better placed drawing attention to the Government's pathetic covid response and historical underfunding of the NHS.
Yes , most of the people banging pots were Tory voters who were anti the NHS and pro privatisation.
Such hypocrisy!
100%
Agree totally. ( Big question of course - was Captain Tom in on the book deals that feathered the family's nest ?)
😂 the masses loved it
0@@jamesupton4996
The sight of a geriatric dude being cast in some strange nostalgic, patriotic light seemed to ignite an irrational circuit that English people have seared in their brains by a lifetime of being assured the queen was on their side. It was a pretty Pavlovian reaction. Evoke monarchy and blitz and you can bend the country over the table no questions asked, the Tories do it all the time.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Brilliant comment
Well put.
It was when the family negotiated that deal for poor old Captain Tom to fight Jake Paul that the alarm bells started ringing for me.
Are you suggesting Captain Tom is a gimmick?
Do you have a sense of humour?@@ABlokeCalledDaz
Was uncle Tom Cobley even real or was it one of the grifters kids in a costume & mask? The Scooby Doo mob would've had that mask off before he'd done one lap of his garden 🤔
@shunkadee1299 Yeah, also when Tom Moore started that fight with Mike Tyson on that plane, then I knew it was all a scam.
Jake Paul vs Captain Tom is the fight we have been robbed of 😂😂
I called this scam when I seen the picture of the son in law busting out of his blazer in barbados , they even had the old fella dressed up in a blazer with his medals on in the heat
As a nation we are celebrity worshipers, that’s why we got caught with this con.
What con was that then?
I didn't.
That's why I won't pay to charity's. When you see ceo's of charity's on 6 figure salaries.. where you think your donation is going
Agreed.
wow, my initial reaction was, surely not 6 figures .. but wiki/CEO_compensation_among_charities_in_the_United_Kingdom :(
I am the same as well. I am not paying for charities as you know that money is just going to pay for the administration pays
This is what angers me on many levels. Firstly I am angry that this farce has compromised public trust in charities as a whole, but also that people have a problem with charity CEOs get paid a competitive wage with those in the private sector.
Because I am a leukaemia sufferer whose wife died of cancer, I follow leukaemia and cancer charities. Does anyone think a university student on a gap year could have negotiated the Calendar Girls franchise for Leukaemia Research? Of course not, that was done at a very high level by people with a very precise skill-set. And the millions it led to vastly outweighed the salaries of the people involved. And if they didnt get a salary they'd leave the charity and get a job advertising washing up liquid and getting paid millions for it.
Did a school leaver on minimum wage work with Ian Botham to raise so much money the chances of survival for leukaemia sufferers was reversed from 20% live to 80% live? Nope.
But thanks to cases like this people have a downer on charity as a whole and that is one of many real tragedies of this case.
I still don’t understand why NHS charities exist and what they do that isn’t covered by government funding.
Indeed!
The problem is that Government Funding was bare bones due to 14 years of Tory Austerity.
There’s never enough government money for the NHS, especially for very expensive life saving machinery. The charities are there to help pay for those type of things
This!
You can say much the same of all charities whose work focusses on the vulnerable and needy. Whenever a charity exists, it's because of a failure of society and governance. Charities (legit ones) are run by heroes, but their existence shames us all and we should be embarrassed that they're needed, not proud.
@@jasonw2356the NHS funding is massive. It's the 3rd highest in the world as a percentage of GDP and it goes up every year.
I was struck at the time by how mercilessly this old guy was being exploited by the right, Boris Johnson in particular
If I had a party during covid 19, I would have gotten arrested, unlike Tory Boris. Yes, second tier.
And by his own family.
It was the left who promoted lockdowns, restrictions and anything to do with Covid including all the NHS worshipping.
You fool, he was exploited by his daughter....nothing to do with the right you melt!
spot on, just like the clap, it was just a smoke screen
Working class and they're in the nick.
I was suspicious at the time and I said it at the time that I was getting a very bad vibe from the daughter. She was sat next to him in interviews and I got vibes that she couldn’t care less about charity and was just using him as a cash cow for her own benefit
I never understood why everybody got so excited about a bloke walking around his garden. Baffling.
Because he was.making an.efgort though he couldn't walk well. He is blameless
Because he raised a staggering £39m, and touched people’s hearts at a very scary time.
Neither did I but people were bored out of their brains, they needed a distraction 😂
I had nothing against Captain Tom and his campaign, but even I could see what people around him were up to. His daughter and husband were completely consumed with greed when the money was rolling in for the book. They promoted it as a charity book which they knew was totally incorrect. They saw a gravy train and bought their tickets, along with all the others who were on their own trains of cash from COVID.
They got a free holiday out of it.
I had suspicions when he took that holiday to the Caribbean, I mean what 100 year old wants to take a long haul flight? his family forced him onboard
I thought that too. But my thoughts were also on the fact that he might have died mid-flight on account of his fraillty to travel such a distance. I felt uncomfortable with that.
He contracted COVID and died soon after the holiday?
He was part of the scam
@@danielcraig4974
You keep saying that. How do you know this??
@@danielcraig4974 and your evidence is?
When I saw the original news article, I expected it to be forgotten about within 24 hours. Then we discovered Tom was neither doing laps of his garden, it wasn't even his car parking area, it was his daughter's car parking area. He was walking 10 feet of it. The press and media chose to ignore the 99yo Indian man walking actual laps of his own garden. Who decided to make Tom a Captain and THEN a knighthood from the late Queen!!! Why? All that, plus a charity record with Michael Ball, for walking 10ft of his daughter's car parking area, every day for 100 days up to his 100th birthday. Even 'proud Yorkshireman' was a lie. He left Bingley aged 17 and NEVER returned.
I do agree. So many people sincerely raised monies. The press completely ignored the elderly Indian gentleman who was also an old soldier. This host may ask what the heck happened and say we all contributed....really it was a game the press played. The public really never got a word in .
The family who stole this money should be made to pay the money back and then sent them to jail
They didn't actually steal anything check your facts.
@@EppingLadSo you're sticking up for them?
@@bigkdog5091 It's a simple matter of language. The term "stealing" means intentionally and permanently depriving people of their property without their consent. People in this case gave the money perfectly willingly, so it's not theft.
Possibly, they obtained the money fraudulently since they misled their donors/customers as to how the funds would be used, but that's not stealing.
In legal terms it is fraud. However in common parlance, fraud is still known as stealing. Hiding behind semantics is just craven.
@@naishjam Obtaining money fraudulently is obtaining money dishonestly. The problem is proving the intent at the time the money was obtained. However, the original post is spot on - They should be made to pay it back.
The biggest problem with this story is that it shows how impossible it was to question the whole thing while it was unfolding. It was seen as unpatriotic and evil to question the bizarre scheme just because it was headed by an old White veteran. Now, a lot of people are coming out to say they had doubts. Maybe next time, we need to give doubters a chance to ring the bill without fear.
Why do you feel the need to reference his colour? Why is that relevant as far as you're concerned?
But I wonder why!? Because no one ever was saying the literal man himself Cpt Tom was being dodgy, obviously not. I would expect people to take criticism of him personally badly. I don’t know why people would be upset at suggestions that people around him were milking it for their own benefit, as they obviously were. Maybe I think I’m assuming people are more nuanced than they are.
He was ok, its his family
@@ankitm3439 All cut from the same cloth.
The captain was party to the plan.
@@kevinsimpson-dw6vuyou’re saying a black or brown Cap Tom veteran would have received the same amount of adulation, money? Ok. They’d be painting him as a scammer or digging up dirt from the get go
Someone needs to go to jail.
right there,the words that come to me is, as bent as a nine bob note................................jpj
Which misinformation? Are you referring to the initial reporting when the Captain Tom grifters first started lying to the public? Is that the misinformation that concerns you? The lies told by these morally bankrupt thieves.
@@JohnJohnson-cn9fhcan we still use that phrase? 😂
@@paulfrancis8764 it depends on how you use it,i mean it to refer to someone being corrupt,nothing else.......................jpj
They’re too rich to go to jail.
The Salvation Army: The CEO's base salary is around £501,000.
Charity work seems well paid these days.
500 grand for a CEO of such a big organisation isnt that high
True well said
They do come up with many arguments why that's necessary - which can also be considered rationalizing.
It's an Army and he's the Secretary of Defense. That's reasonable.
Yes it is a big con.
Right wing mania that ended in total shame. If he had just been plain "old Tom" from Barnsley, and not "Captain Tom" the press and media wouldn't have been interested in what he was doing.
How's that right wing?
@EppingLad Because it was mainly The Sun that pushed and pushed and pushed this. It served their agenda and even when the massive con was coming to light they couldn't even come out and say so. Just shows the danger of getting swept up in the craze
@@EppingLad This was used as a diversion to take pressure off of the government during covid.
@@EppingLadI’m just surprised he didn’t blame Trump! 🤣
He was in on it
At the time, when he was walking his laps, I thought it was a much-needed feel good story that we all needed, and I think a lot of the country were desperate for something positive to cling to and his family took advantage of it to line their pockets.
When the family set up multiple charities and events in his name that he wasn’t even involved in and his daughter was the one doing interviews I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t have imagined the truth.
I’ve always wondered what kind of person uses their elderly parent like that.
As they say, charity begins at home!. Their greed has cost other charities millions of pounds in donations. So sad.
Millions of pounds that will only actually get spent on administration fees hoovering up about 98% of the donations. I'm not saying that all charities are scams - but most of them are.
Has it? How do you know that?
Charity did begin at home. For her whirlpool spa
@@AndrewBISHOP-ii7hs Party party time!.
I remember thinking at the time that it was shocking that the NHS needed charitable donations - shouldn't it be funded properly by the government? And I was sure that NHS workers would have preferred proper payment instead of a round of applause once a week. Even my husband fell for that one.
NHS doctors are among the highest paid in Europe.
@taffyterrier not a fan of doctors and nurses eh 🙄
@@taffyterrier Any evidence for that assertion?
@@bubmazthey're greedy and demanded a 22% pay rise.
The NHS isn't fit for purpose, we need to scrap it and start gain with a US style system where everyone buys their own health insurance.
People trusted a lovely 100 year old man doing his best to help the NHS. The problem seems to be his family who have now tarnished a lovely mans name.
I'm not saying that's untrue. I certainly hope it is the case. But part of the problem that led to this is people are far too trusting to "important figures" when they're told to be. I hope the old veteran was on the up and up. That it was his family taking advantage of him. But I can't say for certain.
Never trust celebrity. Power corrupts, and when given the chance, most people will end up bending towards it. Hard to even blame them too much, when the money is on the table to take. But it's a thing that does keep happening.
I've never trusted a celebrity charity, and in retrospect, I feel like it was always a smart decision.
He knew what was going on, don't be fooled
Absolutely spot on - all these comments about the whole thing being a swindle says more about the commentors than about Cpt Tom.
Not quite. The whole thing was a con from the off. It was the son in law's idea & the poor old sod got shoehorned into doing it.
@@occamraiser exactly, how long did you know him?
In early 2021, while we all freezing our bollocks off and being confined to barracks, the family went on a free holiday to Barbados courtesy of British Airways. The old man contracted covid on the flight and did as a result of it
They own high-walled mansion with own grounds in a nice village. Work it out...
They owned this long before captain Tom's sponsored walk.
@@jackiepeters7424 how much did "Old Tom" leave in his Will?
As soon as a separate charity was set up, with family members involved, the alarm bells should have been rung. Another existing charity could have been selected to handle the income independently.
I am going to be cynical and contrarian by saying most people are foolish and gullible and this should be a lesson. It should never be up to one person to inspire any one to donate or to help out. You should do that by yourself without anybody like an old 100 year old man inspiring you to do the right thing. What kind of a morality is that? So when I get this news that the old man's daughter and her husband pocketed the donations, People gullible people , absolutely deserve to be hoodwinked like that. let that be a lesson. If you want to do charity just do it on your own. WHY DO you need an athlete or an actor or a celebrity to press you into doing the right thing???
Sometimes you do have to trust people. But I agree about the celeb problem.
Other ‘tulip mania’ candidates include Princess Diana, Susan Boyle and Jimmy Savile. People become empty symbols to feed an appetite I don’t understand.
Glad i didnt donate...my suspicions have been proved right..shame we couldnt dodge most the PPE criminals
Its much like "Clap for the NHS" neighbours near us were using it purely for Instagram posts. We decided to not bother and instead donated to nurses instead.
It must be great being as self- righteous as you. Give yourself a clap lol.
Sounds like you were donating to nurses purely for social media posts to me...
The nurses who spent their working hours dancing for Tik Tok videos.
@@taffyterrieryou’re right, how dare they have the audacity to have a bit of fun for motivation at the front and centre of a health crisis that had half of the world panicking.
So did I. I do not do things just because everybody does, and I do not do things that Boris Johnson does.
When someone (or a cause) starts to get that much attraction from the media in absolutely no time at all, then something seems off for me from the start. Charity hysteria.
I was never a fan of Captain Tom because I thought other old people had walked in their yard with their zimmer before him and they did not get any recognition. Captain Tom did not come up with this and the buzz was because he was a veteran. When I heard the family went to the Caribbean with him while it was still not safe after the lockdown, it sounded bad. It was totally unsafe for him and he got covid. Did he not die from it? He was used by his family.
The buzz came up because he had a past on with the BBC
I never gave a penny to their charity, as I only give any of my money to a recognised charitable organisation.
That also means nothing to the BBC, Children in Need.
What exactly do you think is a "recognised charitable organisation"?
Children in need another big scam. Terry Wogan got a massive salary for hosting it.
The lesson here is not to allow emotions to dictate your financial decisions.
Investigate the recipients of your donations.
Ensure you are giving to a reputable organization with a record of accomplishments.
I always do !
She was a scam course seller before all of this. So called 'life coach'
Old man walks round his posh garden, gets Knighthood. Yep, con from day 1. Some of us didn't fall for it.
He was just a lovely old man trying to do his bit.Can't blame captain Tom for the actions of his family .
@jackiepeters7424 what if his family were instilled with Capt Tom's ideology, brought up to take what you can when you can?
People dressing up as him, cakes in the shape of Tom, pets dressed as Tom, £100 gin, the fella in Scotland who's neighbours banged his door and told him to turn his music off because "Capt Tom is in hospital..."
We've lost our f***ing minds.
😂😂😂😂
The usual British rainy Tuesday afternoon, then.
😂👍
Well, especially given the lockdowns, there was nothing else to do tbh...
🐑
I did door to door fundraising for a charity when I was a teenager. I felt bad when I realised that the vast majority of donations go towards salaries. I imagine this is true of almost every charity.
Don't worry , they'll get Clarkson to bleat on about how the family did nothing wrong ,a tide of zimmer frames and crimson faced hooligans will riot for them ,and a snappy word or phrase will be invented for people who think that scamming is scamming ,no matter who, nor how much.
Like ‘far right’?
And this is any different than the Royals how?
Oh, it's bad, but it's not nearly as bad as that lot!
Where do you think oligarchs learned how to do it? 😂
Exactly !😢
Are we saying that Sir Tom knew about this?? I find that hard to believe. He was just a very old guy - military veteran - but it was the fact that he was old, and he made such an effort to do that walk - and it was difficult for him - that was what caught the pubilc attention. I find it hard to beleive the Captain Tom knew. about this, or menat this to happen. His daughter should be thoroughly ashamed. Nothing heroic about her.
Who knows?
You're absolutely right,he was a decent man,badly let down by his family.
How do we know that? Just because someone is old doesn't mean they are a nice person - this could have all been more PR.
He was in on it
@@KallistiUK So true, biggest conman I know is 85 years old.
It was dodgy from the get go. But like you said, people would have been shouting outrage from the roof tops if we had have said anything. The mind set of this country is pathetic and shallow.
Remember the death of Diana? The hysteria was way over the top.
I remember saying to my Dad how this felt like the same thing. Had they been doing the 100 Greatest Britons vote around the same time, probably Captain Tom would have been with Diana in the top ten along with Nelson and Shakespeare. I think he was a remarkable man, from what I've read, but because of someon'es luck or skill with using social media, suddenly he becomes some kind of totemic figure for the population.
That’s a superb example of another case of public frenzy.
Nope. I don't remember because I'm not old.
@@Cannon_Fodder_Russians How can you not remember 'The Queen of Hearts' ?!?
u will be or dye young@@Cannon_Fodder_Russians
Didn't they take him on holiday to barbados against medical advice and he came back and died of Covid.
Yeap. I was really suspicious of that at the time. Why would you take a 100 year old with mobility issues on a plane when covid was raging. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep him safe in a bubble. My grandparents were nearing 90 when this happened and there was no way I was going to drag them on a holiday. We had steps in place to protect them by testing and isolating before we visited. That is what made me suspicious of that trip.
His family were willing to risk his life catching COVID in Barbados before restrictions tightened in December. Ruined his legacy
Plenty of people did click on very early to the family but were shouted down by the happy clappers.
Yes,People were funny when I mentioned it at start
They’ve ruined that poor man’s reputation 😢
I couldn't agree more,he must be turning in his grave.
No, they didn't, it wasn't his fault
Given how his daughter turned out, I wouldn't be surprised if the apple didn't fall far from the tree, and the old goat was in on it as well.
@ even though he signed contracts that all the money from the sale of his book would go to charity?
I don’t think they ruined his reputation- he raised the 30 odd million to the NHS and the NHS got that money.
The issue was the promised money from merchandise and from the book that the foundation were promised and never got. Also using the money to buy a spa and cinema room for their own personal use. That was the daughter & son in laws doing and I don’t hold Sir Tom responsible for their misdeeds in regards to them fleecing the foundation out of money
Should never have happened. The NHS isn't a private charity...
And you point is?
I've just remembered this from the time, the NHS was not allowed to accept donations like this as it is publicly funded by the government, but the money raised would be used to buy iPads and other stuff for patients and children in hospital.
You're clueless. There any many charities supporting the NHS and it's staff
Like the sickly outpouring of grief when Diana died. Nauseating
Great documentary about that by C Hitchens "The mourning after".
That was a strange period. A complete media bombardment about “a nation in mourning”, and news reports of people queuing up overnight to sign weird books of remembrance. All of which went entirely against my experience at the time of no-one being particularly upset or interested.
How dare you! She was the "Queen of Tarts" or something...
To be honest I only vaguely remember the Captain Tom story as I wasn't remotely interested in a bloke walking round his (large) back garden. It was the clappy period of either gloomy press conferences, or corny morning TV-type news items all day, like that one.
That's probably how they got away with it. Sensible, critical people switched over or off to avoid the nonsense. The rest watched and clapped along.
Money corrupts... What started out as a small fundraise, quickly brought in nearly £40m for the NHS.
The daughter, having seen £40m go to the NHS, then does everything to get her "cut".
No.
She wasn’t corrupted by the money - she was corrupt
I wonder who started the whole thing on social media. I mean, if I or most people put something online, it would be seen by a few people and then forgotten about. I don't imagine that Cpt. Tom was a wizard of social media, so someone was going above and beyond to make this go viral.
Days into this people on fb were talking about howuch money the family were going to be personally making from this. They saw it as a get rich quick scheme and it worked. Many people saw this for what it was. Many people got bans for discussing this topic. Obrien is the king of hindsight. He saw nothing at the time.
I've just set up a charity with friends and there's very strict rules and if you are a trustee of the charity you CANNOT make money from it. Any conflicts of interest must be declared and disqualifies you from voting on the matter.
If she was a trustee, she MUST have known that it was wrong to receive any money because you're categorically not allowed to
A couple made their elderly father walk around his garden to raise money for a FULLY FUNDED HEALTH SERVICE.
If you didn't see them as huxters and con men you need your eyes examined.
so would you like to have a think about what is wrong with your sentence?
We had something similar in Australia about 10 years ago. Belle Gibson, a wellness blogger claimed she had cancer and was healing herself naturally and promised any donation would go to cancer charities. She received 300,000 AUD. The charities saw none of it. She did not have cancer. It is hard to have faith in humanity anymore and donate to worthy causes as there are so many scammers out there.
Captain Tom was a convenient distraction for people fed up of COVID and looking for something to cheer them up. Other old people did the same thing to raise money but they didn’t have PR to profit off it personally. It was dodgy from day 1, and all the fuss made me cringe tbh.
It was on the end of every BBC news bulletin.
I had smelt a rat from day one...As for clapping for NHS workers each week during covid whilst ignoring the care workers in residential hones who had to care for covid victims discharged from hospitals to free up the beds. Those wirkers didnt matter one bit
My neighbour is a nurse who got woken up every Thursday evening by that moronic clapping.
Clap for carers wasn't it? Pretty harmless
Nurses too busy doing tiktok videos cos hospitals were empty!
@darrenenright1728
Nurses I knew were jumping the queues at Costco, getting free or half price MOT on their cars, meals delivered to them whilst on duty free parking with paper displayed to show they were NHS workers Don't get me wrong there were wonderful work being done on the wards but the recognition was only on nurses and NHS workers and not other essential workers sadly
@@ankitm3439 it was hijacked by the NHS.
"Trousering" and "Pocketing" are euphemisms applied only to people of Working or Lower Middle Class status when caught with their fingers in the till; in the case of people of Upper Middle Class or otherwise Privileged status, the same behaviour is described as "Seeing a Potential Investment Opportunity in a Rapidly Emerging and Expanding Market and, Given Public Enthusiasm for the Product, Speculating on an Almost Guaranteed Supernormalised Return."
*BANG!*
"It wasn't personal, it was just business."
If clapping seals sent money to the family of some old guy pictured walking around in circles in his garden, then that's their tough luck that they were conned.
Hindsight….
@@MsZelda2012 Not really, plenty at the time thought it nonsense - but they were ignored/shouted down.
Clapping seals are teachable but dumb people less so. So dumb that they blindly pay over cash to conmen and simultaneously bay for the blood of honest people having to depend on welfare benefits
No, they didn't do that. It would have taken you less time to find out what happened to their donations than it took you to write this inane comment. Try to do better.
It was an obvious con (to me, anyway; but I'm Irish, and we're well used to the vagaries of the English...). I remember laughing out loud when I first read about it on the BBC website. Why did so many people fall for it? That's easy: because it was a very British con that struck all the right chords: Brits are suckers for anything to do with the elderly, with the military, with titles like "Captain" (I'm sure Basil Fawlty would have been impressed), with WW2 nostalgia, and a hankering for a time when English people "all pulled together" and "got things done"; and with the (forelorn?) hope that some of that gutsy, self-sacrificing spirit still survived.
All together now: We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when...
Spirit of the Blitz. You are right!
Spot on.
Said the same in another comment, but an army captain is a junior officer and most definitely not allowed to use their rank as a title after retirement. You have to be a major or higher. A navy captain is a very senior rank and very different.
I'm English and I have to admit you're probably right.
You can say that again, bruv
They lived in the same village I’m living in. I noticed TV vans by the house. I asked my neighbour what was going on as the vans are there everyday. Then she told me it was captain Tom. They didn’t mess around when they were removing the outbuilding she had built.
Much too quick to honour crooks with 'knighthoods' .
It's exactly the reason why people won't give to charities. This is family. Imagine what they do with the national charities, ran as a business.
Hannah loved the spotlight
Didn't donate a bean highly sceptical from the inception
The cheek of this women and husband who has been part/trustee of 51 companies.
Hope they feel ashamed for a long time but by sounds of it they will just move onto another scam and dodgey money making avenue
I was amazed at the time by how many people were drawn into the hysteria of this. This pair didn't convince me and have been proven to be a shameless pair of fraudsters. I feel sorry for those who contributed. It seems you only have to fly the flag these days and sing "The White cliffs of Dover" or similar.
If this is a scam let the police get involved and the law take its course.
They will be protected by the powers that be.
Correction - cowards that be
People are greedy
Facts.
Greedier than they’ve ever been I reckon.
If anyone thinks that old man wasn’t in on all of this you need a rethink!
The thing is; they'll be a public statement, they'll apologize about the stress and deception that they've caused and every time this happens I think; you're not sorry for what you'd done - you're sorry that you got found out. Sorry is just a convenient word to these people...
The scary thing is if she wasn't quite so greedy by taking most of the money, she wouldn't have drawn so much attention to herself and maybe got away with it. 10% of millions is still alot of money but some people just cant help themselves. They have to have it all. The old chap just wanted to earn a few quid for his local hospital and she managed to sulley his reputation built up over a century for ever in some peoples eyes....Shameful.
The old chap wanted his daughter to have the money.
She was just following in the footsteps of most charities and taking the obligatory 95 to 98 % admin fee.
@@taffyterrier That's what she says. But can we trust that?
@@taffyterrierwho said so, his daughter?. If she is the source of that little nugget, I very much doubt it. Even so, he was a hundred years old, there is no way he had any control of anything she and her husband did. Anyway he's dead now, there's no way of proving it one way or another, but going of her behaviour, her lying isn't a stretch of the imagination is it.
As despicable as this whole affair is, there are also other better placed families that are, in effect, taking a cut of charitable donations for their own personal finances and for many this is entirely acceptable!
James O'Brien is of course part of the same media machinery that unquestioningly promoted this "charity" and played a significant role in presenting it to the public as legitimate and worthy.
Most large charities have directors being paid 6 figure salaries. Probably because their have great marketing skills. The whole sector operates primarily on self-preservation.
This was right when everyone was feeling utterly awful about COVID and lock downs. People were looking for absolutely anything even vaguely positive to cling on to. Emotions superseded scepticism. We all collectively wanted to believe it so badly, because it was a ray of sunlight, it was hope! And every single person who has donated has been let down.
Those dumb enough to donate let themselves down.
Well anyone who was daft enough to donate deserved to be fleeced - we all knew it was a con and a publicity stunt but some people wanted to be involved so donated like the mugs they are.
A major factor here is the unthinking apotheosis of anyone who has served in the forces. We treat all military veterans as though they were self-sacrificing demi-gods. I can't understand it. Their contribution to society is no more worthy or significant than someone who raises children, or a carer, or a teacher, or an engineer, or a civil servant, or a labourer, or a scientist, or a doctor, or a solicitor, or a receptionist, or an artist. Being in the military doesn't make you a hero, even if you saw combat.
Ex-RN and I could not agree with you more! All this ‘thank you for your service’ horseshit is ridiculous!
It is generally only the media and politicians that pretend to laud veterans as heroes! Evidence the appalling numbers of ex-servicemen and women living on the street, most with undiagnosed and/or untreated PTSD. Folks on the street will put coins into a collection box, stand silent for two minutes once a year, and pay no nevermind at all other times. Most serving servicemen or veterans don't use the word. Having said all that, I think you are wrong in saying that their contribution is no more than any other person. For whatever reason, these folk volunteered to put themselves between you, the public, and the charging elephant. That in and of itself singles them out as different from the crowd. Working in conditions that the population cannot imagine, seeing and doing things that the public can't imagine, and then being thanked (if they're lucky) and abandoned is not their just reward. Arguably, if it were not for men and women like these, past present and future, it is not likely that people would be able to carry on their chosen profession in they way they currently do, and people certainly wouldn't be able to come on to a site like this and talk as they do. Whether acknowledged or not, there is a debt, which is rarely repaid.
@@dolly22215 thank you for everything except for your service :)
Capt Tom was ok
Well said! I find the reverential attitude adopted by many when it comes to those serving or retired from the military slightly nauseating. It's much worse in the United States, where lesser mortals are duty-bound to greet a hallowed member of the military with the "thank you for your service" mantra.
I never donated to the charity, but I also missed all the signals that others on social media obviously picked up on when the alarm bells started ringing. It was only when I saw the story about the plan I got application that I realised those saying that there was something seriously wrong were correct.
That clip of her handing her father some cake where she says something along the lines of "you dont have to eat it, just look like you're happy", I think that shows the real her. She'll be on 'I'm a celebrity' next. 😂
Piers Morgan would have had James flogged in the street if he'd publicised his fears at the time.
Almost as bad as insider trading and illegal phone tapping !
😂😂😂😂
@@davidcornwell7522 Piers would have recognised it as a scam 😀
You think James had fears at the time? He is just giving it now to try and make himself look insightful.
Is this any different to what the royal family are doing.
Yes.
Yes
Criminals plain and simple.
So glad I was sensible enough to see it for what it was right from the very start. At least you Brits got something else to moan about...
It's always the same, greed corrupts it's one of the many things I hate about human nature !
They didn't get a penny out of me.