Cheers, Wichser - so I shouldn't ask them to have one for you then?

Nosemonkey

If this had been proposed 2 days after the Shankill bomb or Greysteel wouldn't it be equally repellant to have suggested setting up a charity appeal for ambulance men and women to have got drunk in recognition of their endeavours when this is, in fact, what they're paid for?

Wichser,

It might be a New York thing, the tendancy to want to buy the police officer or firefighter a beer in recognition of a particularly hard day's work.

Alan

Be that as it may I think that this is highly inappropriate in the circumstances.

Wichser I don't think Ambulance men & women, fire fighters, police or any other emergency services are paid anywhere near enough to deal with the horror of what they saw last week. Many of them worked above and beyond and while you may argue that working in the sevices they do they should expect to see many horrible things 49 people blown to bits on their way to work by a bunch of nutcases with a grudge isn't one of them, not to mention the hundreds injured and scarred physically and mentally for life.

I think they deserve a lot more than a beer or two.

Dessertspoon

Buying beer in the circumstances of mass grief and shock (before the funerals, even) is the inappropriate bit, not that emergency services shouldn't receive praise or a decent standard of living. We knew all that before the bombs in London.

I don't see this as a mark of disrespect to the bereaved and injured, but as a gesture of solidarity with the rescue services and as such I think it's fine.

There are dangers in alcohol being used to self medicate and to bypass the impact of a trauma but if it encourages the resue workers to gather in an environment to talk to each other on an equal footing, then it may help.