Jack Monroe #116 Burger and lies

[Gnomic Gnome]

I just found an article online, dating from 2014 (just after the C5 row). It could have been written in 2020. We're going to be on Tattle forever, in some sort of dystopian Groundhog Day. Brace yourselves, frau and frauen!

LINK REMOVED DUE TO DUBIOUS REPUTATION OF THE PUBLICATION. TLDR: its criticisms of JM and some of her followers echo those we're making today.

Also 77 days of "poverty"! WTF! That's not much longer than the school summer holidays.

 

[Satisfying Click]

Jack's letter to Edwina gives such a strong cringe. It's the angry letter a teen writes to their parents as a manifesto over why they should be allowed to go to Glastonbury.

 

[Falkor]

Yep! Decades ago, when people were priced out of Chelsea and moving south of the river, they did the same to Battersea (Bat-tease-ee-ahh) and Streatham (Saint Reetham). Dear heart Nige was having a laugh and has created a storm in a portmeirion tea cup.

Nouveau Croix for New Cross was the best one of those I heard at the time!

 

[MooBelle]

Doesn't that fluctuate? Sometimes she says 11 weeks, sometimes 18 months? She doesn't exaggerate does she??

Does exaggerate mean lie?

Asking for a friend

 

[Nottonightbabe]

That letter . I can just picture Jack writing that, gnashing and wailing because of all the things she wished she'd said at the time .

 

[ReginaPhalangee]

Christ what an absolute liability Jack is.

By inserting it into a debate about benefits it gives the impression if we only had a fairer benefits system it would never have happened. People attempt suicide because they are very seriously mentally ill not directly because of a tragic or difficult life event. If Jack were remotely interested in the well being of other people I'd suggest she spend some time reading the Samaritans Media Guidelines on Suicide.

this is so perfectly said. As is often reiterated on here, mental health doesn’t discriminate and so often the victims are described as seeming like they had a great life/lots to live for/seemed fine after the event. There are situations that definitely exacerbate mental health issues and certainly situations that arise because of them, but having money/a full fridge/lightbulbs doesn’t make someone immune from despair.

 

[Captainmouse]

Oh, honestly! Anyone who thought Nigella was being serious needs to do some deep thinking. It’s a bit like people who try and be funny/silly by calling Primark pree-marsh-ay, a sort of French slant, as if making it posher. Might not be side-splittingly hilarious, but hardly marks someone as a posh freak!

I thought it was pry marney

Yep! Decades ago, when people were priced out of Chelsea and moving south of the river, they did the same to Battersea (Bat-tease-ee-ahh) and Streatham (Saint Reetham). Dear heart Nige was having a laugh and has created a storm in a portmeirion tea cup.

I lived in battersea before the gentrification, it was referred to as south Chelsea and Clapham was clarm

we always called it bat tar sea

 

[jenny2603]

Doesn't that fluctuate? Sometimes she says 11 weeks, sometimes 18 months? She doesn't exaggerate does she??

The 11 weeks she refers to is a delay in her Housing Benefit rather than the length of her claim, which in fairness I could believe. It was a common issue when I was doing welfare rights. Of course Jack does her usual dramatics of hiding from the landlord and being terrified. Instead of telling people that they should go to CAB or a similar money advice service where they will assist them to establish what the issue is with housing benefit and negotiate with the landlord. In my experience social housing are easiest to deal with in that situation but we did have a lot of success dealing with private landlords who would usually ease off a bit once they had assurances that the benefit issue was being dealt with and that they would be paid.

I appreciate for Jack playing at benefits was a good way to passively aggressively attack her parents as part of whatever the duck is going on in that bizarre family but for most people it's a way to keep a roof over their head and it would be helpful if Jack would stop telling people that they have no hope and no rights in that situation. I appreciate it's very much in the interests of someone due to inherit a property empire to promote the idea that tenants have no rights but it really isn't the case and help to enforce those rights is available.

 

[crystaleyesd]

I just found this article online, dating from 2014 (just after the C5 row). It could have been written in 2020. We're going to be on Tattle forever, in some sort of dystopian Groundhog Day. Brace yourselves, frau and frauen!

Jack Monroe: pleb-lite for Guardianistas

'Recessionista' Jack Monroe is a hero of the thrift-obsessed middle classes, not the poor.

www.spiked-online.com

Also 77 days of "poverty"! WTF! That's not much longer than the school summer holidays.

Hmmm maybe let's not link to rightwing populist publications? We can critique her without resorting to barely concealed hate speech - even if the article does have a point.

 

[Captainmouse]

Slopbot could give her ideas! I reckon she would give this a go

My latest creation is turnip, pear and red lentil souffle. I imbibed it cringily hunched over my performative to-do list and Krish Mate declared it the best ever.

 

[Gnomic Gnome]

Hmmm maybe let's not link to rightwing populist publications? We can critique her without resorting to barely concealed hate speech - even if the article does have a point.

I wouldn't describe the piece as 'hate speech', but I agree that it is confrontational and divisive. So in the interests of civility I will certainly remove the link TBH - I only found it as I was curious about the DEAD grandfather's obit.

I was more taken aback at how the criticisms being made of JM (and certain groups of her followers) have been made ad naseum and still she continues!

 

[crystaleyesd]

I wouldn't describe the piece as 'hate speech', but I agree that it is confrontational and divisive. So in the interests of civility I will certainly remove the link TBH - I only found it as I was curious about the DEAD grandfather's obit.

I was more taken aback at how the criticisms being made of JM (and certain groups of her followers) have been made ad naseum and still she continues!

Sorry I didn't mean the article was hate speech (although the contempt for so-called 'champagne socialists' is obvious, and one I sometimes share ), just that Spiked often publishes articles that could definitely be classed as hate speech designed to whip up racist, misogynistic, transphobic etc etc sentiment - so I just don't trust anything that is published there as being legit criticism. Thanks for removing it!

 

[Mycuppatea]

Jack's letter to Edwina gives such a strong cringe. It's the angry letter a teen writes to their parents as a manifesto over why they should be allowed to go to Glastonbury.

All of Jack's writing - "journalism", blogs, cookery books - just has SUCH an Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3/4 vibe to it that I always have a tiny percentage of my brain whispering to me "it has to be performance art, right?"

 

[Veronicaaa]

All of Jack's writing - "journalism", blogs, cookery books - just has SUCH an Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3/4 vibe to it that I always have a tiny percentage of my brain whispering to me "it has to be performance art, right?"

It's so bizarre to me now that she was ever taken remotely seriously as a political columnist?

 

[Jelly Bean]

Oh dear that letter to Edwina Currie is cringe
She didn't have the debating skills at the time and knew it so went home and seethed about it. Owned - by a Tory
We all do that I'm sure - think of the perfect retort days after being humiliated - but we don't then petulantly publish that oh so searing (in our heads only) put down.
This is when I feel a bit sorry for Jack. She is so gauche at times.

 

[Pixieboots]

It's so bizarre to me now that she was ever taken remotely seriously as a political columnist?

I suspect Jack took a lot of patronising "look at this scruffy little urchin, isn't she just delightful?" reactions to her writing a bit more seriously than she should have and now thinks she's absolutely brilliant at it.

 

[jenny2603]

Just a general suggestion so feel free to dismiss but might be useful for those occasions for when some usually horrible publication that we'd maybe rather not give the clicks (e.g The Sun) makes a decent point. If you link it in https://archive.org/ people can read the article without giving the publication the benefit of additional traffic.

 

[Jelly Bean]

All of Jack's writing - "journalism", blogs, cookery books - just has SUCH an Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3/4 vibe to it that I always have a tiny percentage of my brain whispering to me "it has to be performance art, right?"

Haha yes - his awful cookery programme where he was terrible (only difference being he knew he was terrible) and his accompanying book 'Offally Good' (written by his mum in the end because he kept finding excuses to put it off ).
Maybe you are right - Jack's whole existence is a rather good tribute to Adrian Mole.

 

[HotesTilaire]

We did the “sau saaaaggge” thing until the kids started saying it in public
Mom can say microwave any way she likes. That’s just the way it is for certain icons.

It Was Comedy GIF by CBC - Find & Share on GIPHY

A GIF from the CBC

gph.is

 

[Cookiecookie]

The 11 weeks she refers to is a delay in her Housing Benefit rather than the length of her claim, which in fairness I could believe. It was a common issue when I was doing welfare rights. Of course Jack does her usual dramatics of hiding from the landlord and being terrified. Instead of telling people that they should go to CAB or a similar money advice service where they will assist them to establish what the issue is with housing benefit and negotiate with the landlord. In my experience social housing are easiest to deal with in that situation but we did have a lot of success dealing with private landlords who would usually ease off a bit once they had assurances that the benefit issue was being dealt with and that they would be paid.

I appreciate for Jack playing at benefits was a good way to passively aggressively attack her parents as part of whatever the duck is going on in that bizarre family but for most people it's a way to keep a roof over their head and it would be helpful if Jack would stop telling people that they have no hope and no rights in that situation. I appreciate it's very much in the interests of someone due to inherit a property empire to promote the idea that tenants have no rights but it really isn't the case and help to enforce those rights is available.

I don't believe she ever really tried to access any of the support available. No taking SB to any of the Sure Starts that were still around in those days, no mentions of any training courses that are offered, free nursery hours, CAB, nothing. Just the food bank (although she must have been referred by someone at some point?)

Even in my own situation, which was more recent than Jack's, I found that people within 'the system' were good at directing me to resources, because I didn't know how things worked or what to do and I asked for help.