The founder of Clap For Our Carers and Clap For Heroes has distanced herself from tonight’s event after getting abuse and threats from “a hateful few on social media channels”.
The original Clap For Our Carers took place every Thursday during the first lockdown, with millions across the UK taking to their doorsteps to applaud and bang pots at 8pm.
Celebrities, influencers, politicians and public figures including the royal family rushed to support the campaign, which originated in Europe. But the event later faced criticism for becoming politicised, with some suggesting the NHS would benefit more from extra funding than applause.
Since relaunching the campaign on Wednesday under the new title, Clap For Heroes, Annemarie Plas, a Dutch woman living in London, said she had been “targeted with personal abuse and threats against myself and my family by a hateful few on social media channels”. She urged people to make their own decision on whether to clap on Thursday.
In a statement, Plas said: “Irrespective of their views and reasons for believing this is an acceptable way to behave, I did not set out to make a political statement and will not put my loved ones at risk.
“I have no political agenda, I am not employed by the government, I do not work in PR, I am just an average mum at home trying to cope with the lockdown situation. As a consequence I have opted to distance myself from tonight’s planned applause and will no longer seek to raise further awareness of it.”
She added: “I do acknowledge the frustrations and anger felt by some. However vilifying me personally or attempting to destroy the goodwill and positive intentions of the national applause and the millions of people who want to take a few moments on a Thursday evening to think about and acknowledge their pandemic ‘heroes’, is simply destructive and counter intuitive.”
The original Clap For Carers was ended by Plas in May after 10 weeks. Suggesting it should instead become an annual event, she said at the time that the public had “shown our appreciation” and it was now up to ministers to “reward” key workers.
“Without getting too political, I share some of the opinions that some people have about it becoming politicised,” she told the PA Media news agency ahead of the final clap. “I think the narrative is starting to change and I don’t want the clap to be negative.”
Before Plas’s statement on Thursday, celebrities and other public figures had been reluctant to publicly state their support for the new campaign. But on Twitter, the public largely greeted the relaunch with the negativity Plas feared.
Some said “its time has passed” while medics posted messages asking people “please don’t clap us. Just wear a mask, wash your hands and respect lockdown”. Others had alternative suggestions for the event. “We could clap for heroes but we could also boo for Boris,” said one.
Plas said, however, that the national applause at 8pm on Thursday had not been cancelled. “I don’t have that authority or right and nor do I want to dampen the show of positivity and unity of those who recognise what we stand for and why we created Clap For … in the first place (and opted to bring it back),” she said.
“It absolutely can and should still happen at 8pm tonight if you choose and want to clap for your heroes on an individual and personal basis – it’s up to each person to decide how relevant or worthwhile they feel it is to participate.”
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