Next week’s clap for carers should be the last

I started clap for carers after being inspired by what I saw back home in the Netherlands. If the Dutch have it in them, I thought, then the Brits definitely have it in them as well. It didn’t even take 24 hours for clap for carers to take off and appear on the Instagram pages of celebrities like Victoria Beckham.

And here we are. Nine weeks on, I think the reason for the success of clap for carers is that it is a chance for people to reunite with their neighbours and communities. It also gives people a chance to see each other and thank key workers. But I think that next week, being the tenth week, is a good time to end it there. Why? I feel like things are slowly shifting and other opinions, perhaps more negative ones, are starting to rise to the surface.

Clap for carers has had its moment and we can move on to something else. It’s uncomfortable when we start to get criticism, for instance when people get a hard time for not taking part. That’s not what it was designed for.

So it’s time to say as a nation: we have shown our appreciation. Now let’s make next week’s clap for carers the last.

This is an edited version of an interview Annemarie Plas gave on the Jeremy Vine show this afternoon