My feeling, after watching Jack's behaviour the past few weeks, is that she's a bit of a sociopath. A while back there was a trans Labour activist called Lily Madigan. Their name had been Liam.
Madigan stood as a Woman's Officer in Kent and then got involved in student politics, then was in Labour. They had caused loads of trouble at their school and were absolutely toxic. Then they disappeared. They studied at Goldsmith's and there was a nasty episode where a female friend quit the Uni and took an overdose or something, because Madigan organised a hate campaign.
Anyway, when I read Jack's tweets it is exactly the same language/style as Madigan's. Carbon copy. When Madigan was on TV they couldn't speak, voice shaking, nervous. But online, a complete bully and aggressive and sarcastic and vicious.
Just like Jack.
So I think Jack has some kind of personality disorder. A narcissist, yes - but also a sociopath. She never leaves her house, she exists solely online, she talks to people and treats people online like dirt, while saying "Be kind", and she seems to have no friendships or real human relationships.
It just reminded me yesterday of what that Madigan person did a while back. It used to be on Mumsnet and it really is carbon copy. Anyway, rambling over!!
OK. I was out of work due to sickness (which became disability, much to my utter joy [/sarcasm] after a while.
1. In the 00s - early 10s, if you had a small child, you were not required to be available for work. Full stop. No signing on, all you had to do was complete the IS form. You therefore qualified for Income Support, Child Benefit, full Housing Benefit, full Council Tax Benefit, milk vouchers (enough for a tub of formula or 7pints of fresh milk a week), possibly vitamin drops if you lived near a child health clinic, free prescriptions, free travel to hospital appointments, free dental care. However, any maintenance received from a kid's father would be taken into account and, IIRC, deducted pound for pound from your entitlement. You would also be expected to pay your water rates, gas, electricity and food. If you were short of something like a refrigerator or bed, so could apply to social security via an SF100 form and get either a non repayable grant or a zero percent loan from the social fund, which was paid back at something like £4 a week by deducting from your IS payments. If you were in social housing, your rent would be paid direct to the landlord, if you rented privately, you could opt for the money to be either paid direct to your landlord or direct to you. Landlords were still happy to accept 'DSS' tenants, as the money was good and generally reliable once a claim was set up.
2. If you were working and earned below a certain amount, you would receive Tax Credits. These included 70% of any registered childcare fees and money in respect of the child. When they were called Family Tax Credit (I can't remember when exactly they changed over), the same amount was paid for six months at a time, so if you were working for 16 hours a week at the time of the claim and then increased your hours or got another job that was fulltime, whilst the childminding costs would be adjusted and increased as soon as you told them the average amount had varied by over £10 a week, you were perfectly entitled to keep the higher figure for that six month period.
You were unlikely to qualify for Housing or Council Tax Benefit if you were in receipt of tax credits, as they raised your income significantly higher.
3. With both schemes, a single parent would have several separate income sources, which you could get monthly, weekly, four weekly or fortnightly as you preferred. If one of them screwed up, you would still receive the others, so you were never without at least the Child Benefit, which wouldn't make you rich, but would get you food. In addition, if it was IS or CHB/CTB that fucked up, you could go to your local benefit office or council offices and see somebody who, after a fairly long wait, would be able to sort it out for you.
4. At a slightly later date, the rules around maintenance changed and you were then able to keep every single penny you received from a child's father without it affecting your benefit entitlement in the slightest. Tax Credits changed their name at some point into what they are now. However, they often calculated entitlements based upon what you earned the previous year and wouldn't adjust the figures if you said you were earning more, so overpayments became a real risk and many people found the following year that they then owed a lot of money.
5. The CSA was crap. But if somebody was on benefits or low pay, they'd take from zero to a fiver a week if they weren't responsible for a child in their household. If they had a job or dole money, they were easy to find. From the point of view of the absent parent, buying clothes, shoes or other items wasn't counted as maintenance, they were counted as presents. Receiving IS as a single parent was conditional upon confirming the name of the absent parent and consenting to the CSA claiming from them.
6. Alternatively, if you were unwell at all, a doctor's note was enough to get you put onto IS by virtue of sickness. As long as your GP signed the notes and you handed them in, you got the money.
7. If they completely fucked up, it was a nightmare to get payments started, however, for the vast majority of single parents, once the claim got paid, the money just kept coming in, so you could plan, take out a social fund loan, etc. And the money wasn't bad.
8. There were Surestart Centres, decent funding in the NHS to keep to the targets, schools received absolute fortunes for adopting specialist school status, large scale building programmes were started. So waiting lists were shorter, you could get treatments pretty easily, there were free things such as books for babies, babies Rhymetimes in libraries, toddler groups, etc.
Times were pretty good for the single parent then. It wasn't pleasant relying upon somebody other than yourself for your income, as one glitch could cause your card to be refused at the till and that would be your first indication that something was wrong - and the fear of that was a bloody nightmare (literally at times) - plus, waiting with your kid surrounded by angry addicts and screaming claimants around you as you waited for your turn to try to sort a problem out was horrible. So getting off benefits and at least getting some of your income via work was a lot less stress.
Once the Tories had sole power, things started getting far more shit over a fairly short period of time, depending upon whether you found yourself in an 'early adopter area' where they piloted all the ideas, had all the mistakes and chose to do fuck all about them before rolling them out elsewhere. Usually based upon where they didn't need to garner votes.
I think she can't take the kitten to the vet because she doesn't have the money. This is entirely my opinion m'lord. Under normal circumstances she would happily share a vet's professional opinion and give obnoxious retorts to anyone giving their tuppence worth to that, same way she does with her own health issues. Why wouldn't she share with all those lovely followers who adore her kitten posts? No matter how much dough she has, she's split with her partner who had a well paying job and I imagine she's feeling that pinch. Maybe she's now paying all of the rent herself and things are tight?! Thing is, everyone knows she took on the kitten after the split so she can't take the fallen on hard times or even the crowdfunder route, everyone will know how irresponsible it was. (Pretty sure the people on these threads alone would cover the costs, just say the word, Jack).
Sorry, bollocks. You'd sell a sideboard (or a Tracey Emin/Vivienne Westwood/or an iPhone) to pay for it. Or dip into your savings from only paying yourself NMW whilst earning significantly more. After all, you aren't travelling to London for filming, shopping, socialising or anything else. Not even paying for school dinners or music lessons/football clubs. And buying food isn't a particularly high priority when there's a vet to pay a basic consultancy fee to. You wouldn't be buying teething necklaces, either. Or paint. Or more shelves. Or more sideboards. If you were actually broke, that is.
1/ I don't fancy keir starker, but I can appreciate why people do.
I'm going to attempt a spoiler, if it doesn't work, then TW: sexual abuse, bullying, racism.
2/ I too was bullied horrendously growing up, by adults and peers for being mixed race in a very white town. By my parents (just because they were abusive, addicts and my mum is a narc) in high school for being a slag (my parents pimped me for money) and this all culminated in me having the nickname "a girl called it" because I was seen as less than human, by the vast majority of people in my life.
I'm glad Jack hasn't done a chaos, it's been ages since I could tattle in real time, might even have a look at other threads I used to follow
I'd just get a new one, but I'm a bit profligate like that. Ovens usual last us about 10 years, my friend gets through an oven every three years, however she is a shit cook, and I think they die of embarrassment.
Thinking of books we read when we were 10 - Half my class had read flowers in the attic in the last year of junior school which had murder, neglect, incest (!) and abuse. I didn’t, but I heard other (quite posh - more than half my class went on to private secondaries) girls chatting about it.
The stuff I was reading by 10 I had an advanced reading age and plundered my mum’s books. Virginia Andrews, Jackie Collins, Stephen King, the Idi Amin biography
I turned out ok. On the outside.
Hahahahahahaha.
Not related to the DW bollocks but was thinking about Jack’s crappy slop food she thinks poor people deserve for some reason. Jack, I have about £22 in my bank at the moment. I don’t have a lot of money, never have really and yet every day I make delicious, filling and nutritious food with the small amount of money I have. How has she made a living out of disgusting recipes and telling the less well off what they should be eating? It’s insulting is what it is.
Eldest is fine. Operation was only an hour and actually turned out to be the more positive problem of the two (wont bore you with the details kinda gross too)
So a good day.
Thank you kind caring coven of haus fraus.
Alas....
Jack Monroe has made another comment trivialising and generalising autism and it's not made me as a ragey as it normally does.
Because I'm used to her ignorant ways x
I saw a still of her from this morning from a few years ago. She looks much more confident.
She has a huge ego. Constantly brownie pointing. While other people are getting on with it quietly.
What activism has she actually done? In the beginning she was getting awards right left and centre? What about lately.
There’s a woman called Charlotte Hughes on twitter. She lives well below the line. I believe she lives in Manchester. She stands outside job centres in all weathers handing out food parcels and sign posting people to services when the DWP don’t.
That’s activism. Her area was one of the first areas to get UC, I believe they were one of the pilot areas.
Jack? What activism has she done lately? Poverty wise. Political wise.
As far as I can see her activism consists of acting like a prick all over twitter
It really was @heretoreaditall2019 , it would make a great novel/tv drama/expose. People think we’ve come so far but most people are very quick to revert to ‘harmless’ banter when they think they’re with likeminded people.
As a stupid aside, but interestingly kind of linked because the article was about harrassment, Thandie Newton had a great interview out yesterday where she talked about Tom Cruise and a spot on his nose. She was very candid and it was very funny.
Oh bless thank you for kind words my coven I didn’t mean to sound JM at all, tbh it’s not bad and as I pointed out it’s infinitely worse for my BAME colleagues and tbh I’d even say regional WC colleagues. You’re dead fucking right though at the shit people say when they think it’s safe to is abhorrent really. It’s good in a way as you know who not to talk to or trust, it’s funny because that BLM square was all over social media and posted by people I know have upset black colleagues before, I’m sure we all saw that though
It’s exhausting to navigate and JM really has no idea at all about it and I wish she’d fuck off pretending she could even imagine. Networking & work social things fill me with so much dread, they often occur at places like her beloved Groucho (other member’s only clubs are available x) but it’s inevitable you get stuck with a keen posho and it’s just so much emotional energy absorbed for no reason at all. Unlike her I don’t pretend to be some sort of urchin who has to work really hard to assimilate, assimilating is relatively easy tbh as we are not all disgusting like she presents herself, it’s just so fucking mind numbingly dull and so insincere and pointless and you wonder what you’re doing with your life, feel guilty, wonder if you should retrain as a maths teacher or work in the third sector, blah blah, emotional hangover the next day. Yet she thrives on that shit and loves positioning herself as one of them, in the media clique? It’s just so fucking transparent. I wonder how she gets around her fellow poors™️ talking about childhood with her
Also I really hope the little ones of the thread are all okay tonight - it’s been a big day of post surgery / bullying / different but nice to hear about the book loving kids. I hope they’re all cosy sleeping and happy they’re lucky to have such wonderful mums x
I’m not sure David W has made 100 million from his books. He’s had 100 million pounds worth of sales. She knows how the industry works. He will get a percentage
No matter. She’s raging. He’s made millions and she hasn’t.
She’s very tired. She started a dogpile and she’s tired. Poor poor jack. Must be so tiring going in on people on twitter all the bloody time.
Hang on, I’m white & I have crazy frizzy curly hair. I was bullied throughout my school years as it was seen as freaky.
what are you implying here, Jack?
Same. I was the only child in my parents marriage, (my dad had my much older half brother in his previous) and it took them quite a while and a struggle to conceive me. My dad made no secret of the fact he wished I was a boy and my mum had post natal depression which then turned into a general disinterest/resentment so I was saddled with short hair (my dad refused to let me grow it as a child and right through my teens) and also a sense that that the fact I'm a girl caused endless disappointment. My dad and I ended up being really close in adulthood life ironically, but that feeling of being a disappointment has never really left me I don't think.
It stays with you. I always knew I was unplanned, I always knew mum really didn't want me, so I turned to my nan who lived with us, I adored her. It was only years later that mum admitted trying to get rid of me my drinking gin in a scalding hot bath. It hurt, but it confirmed what I already felt.
I went on her all old blog agirlcalledjack via the WayBack Machine (on a looong Zoom call this morning ) and she really has had it in for JO since the start. This was from a 2012 blog.
God, this attitude of hers is so pathetic. I am sorry that you were unemployed, and I know it has scarred you a lot more than most people but that does not make you the oracle on budget food.
She says here "I hardly think a celebrity chef would be the expert on poverty and nutrition." Erm, they kind of would though? Jamie Oliver isn't just a celebrity chef, he's a trained chef with years of experience. He knows about nutrition and he knows about price/availability of ingredients.
She is so fixated on the fact that because she's had to live on a tight budget, she is the expert but the point is that an actual expert could obviously do it better.
When I go to the doctor, I want to see someone who has trained and got the knowledge required to help me recover, not someone who had the same illness as me??
I don't believe for one second she's taken the kitten to the vet. She's going to latch on to the splints idea now someone else has said it. I don't know why she's not taking it, perhaps she's scared of what they'll say. Point is, the kitten needs to be seen. Stop being selfish Jack.
There are definite issues with DW books but not the ones Jack thinks. My niece is an English teacher and says they are great for getting younger children reading but they are not suitable for an English class (soemthinf to do with grammatical stuff or something like like that).
I don’t know a lot about him as a person.
My son is autistic, he doesn’t read but listening to Gangster Granny at bedtime when he was a bit smaller remains a lovely memory of cuddles and laughter.
wonder how Jack feels about the How to Train Your Dragon series. ....lots of characters in those...she must be able to find some stereotypes in those. Big Boobied Bertha for example who could win battles by knocking out opponents with her mighty bosom.
Hot on the heels of his blackface backlash, David Walliams' children's books are the latest bit of culture to be placed under the microscope.
Some of his critics are saying that the stories are too problematic to subject young kids to - but, in fairness to Walliams, he seems to be doing more than most to stop children from actually reading any of them.
Walliams was approached by a literacy charity not too long ago to see if he would do something for the 100 or so children who completed their reading programme that year. He said he wouldn't have the time to record a video message, but would send the kids a book of his instead.
I didn’t mean to sound JM at all, tbh it’s not bad and as I pointed out it’s infinitely worse for my BAME colleagues and tbh I’d even say regional WC colleagues. You’re dead fucking right though at the shit people say when they think it’s safe to is abhorrent really. It’s good in a way as you know who not to talk to or trust, it’s funny because that BLM square was all over social media and posted by people I know have upset black colleagues before, I’m sure we all saw that though 
) and she really has had it in for JO since the start. This was from a 2012 blog.
