The Left hate everyone - not just the white working class

Blackleaf

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The Left hate everyone - not just the white working class, says RICHARD LITTLEJOHN



The name Jack Monroe may ring a vague bell with regular readers. She was the Guardian blogger on ‘poverty issues’ who featured in a Labour party political broadcast last year masquerading as an ‘ordinary person’.

Among her top tips for beating the ‘savage cuts’ was a recipe for making Kale Pesto Pasta for 42p a portion. Kale Pesto Pasta is what the Guardianistas think ‘ordinary people’ should eat.

Jack, then a single mother with more tattoos than your average professional footballer, gave up her £27,000-a-year job answering the phone for the fire brigade to exercise her ‘right’ to bring up her son on benefits and pursue a full-time career sitting in front of her laptop moaning about ‘austerity’.


Guardian blogger: Jack Monroe was hailed by Left-wing rags like the Guardian and the Independent as 'the modern face of poverty'


Naturally, she was hailed by Left-wing rags like the Guardian and the Independent as ‘the modern face of poverty’. Pretty soon she was being invited on to the BBC as a spokeswoman for the welfare classes.

She even got a gig at Sainsbury’s on the strength of it, demonstrating exciting things to do with left-over chicken.

When I lampooned her in this column, she published an indignant reply on the Guardian website — where else? — denying all manner of stuff I hadn’t accused her of and claiming I was only picking on her because she was a lesbian.

That wasn’t true, either. I had no idea she was a lesbian and hadn’t even alluded to her sexuality. Still, the Left never let the facts get in the way of a good smear campaign. It’s pity she’s white, in a way, because otherwise I could have been accused of ‘racism’ as well as ‘homophobia’ and demonising single mums.


Resignation: As the furore over the Emily Thornberry (left) ‘White Van Man’ tweet (right) has exposed, Labour - and the Left in general - has nothing but undisguised contempt for ‘ordinary people’


It’s what the Left always do when someone shines a torch into their murky Fantasy Island world. Instead of engaging in an argument, they sling dirt.

When they’re not parading their moral superiority, the Guardianistas like to posture as victims of an evil Right-wing conspiracy. Thus, any mild criticism of their behaviour or opinions, however justified, can be dismissed as ‘hate speech’.



The truth of the matter, as I have long maintained, is that the real hatred comes from the Left. Those who preach ‘tolerance’ the loudest are among the most bigoted, intolerant people on earth.

As the furore over the Emily Thornberry ‘White Van Man’ tweet has exposed, Labour — and the Left in general — has nothing but undisguised contempt for ‘ordinary people’.

Thornberry was forced to resign from the Shadow Cabinet after appearing to ridicule the owner of a house festooned with three English flags, complete with ubiquitous white van on the forecourt.

It proved, we are told, that Labour is a metropolitan, middle-class party which doesn’t understand white working class voters and holds them in contempt.

This analysis is right, but only up to a point. It doesn’t go far enough. The Left don’t just hate the white working class, they hate everyone who doesn’t share their warped world view. The Guardianistas never, ever, demonstrate the kind of ‘respect’ towards their opponents that they routinely demand for themselves and their chosen client groups. When it comes to slagging off ‘Tory scum’, nothing is beyond the pale.

Take the saintly Jack Monroe, who postures as a victim of ‘poverty’ and every kind of ‘phobia’ going. She goes mental if anyone casts aspersions on her ‘lifestyle’ choices.

Yet she appears to believe it is perfectly permissible to use a dead child to make a political point.

Yesterday, it emerged that she had attacked David Cameron on Twitter — the online asylum for those suffering from advanced narcissism — for using ‘stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling the NHS to his friends’.

This was a disgusting reference to Cameron’s son, Ivan, who died after suffering from cerebral palsy and epilepsy, aged six, in 2009.

Admittedly, the Prime Minister has spoken publicly about his admiration for the medical staff who cared for Ivan and cited his family’s own experience to counter those who claim he doesn’t ‘care’ about the NHS.

And there was a moment before the last election when he came dangerously close to getting into a distasteful ‘arms race’ about the NHS with Gordon Brown, who also lost a young child in unbearably sad circumstances.

But to rake up this tragedy in support of an outright lie — the entirely false allegation that Cameron intends to ‘sell’ the health service to his ‘friends’ — is as indecent as it is insensitive.


Father: It has emerged that Jack Monroe had attacked David Cameron (pictured with his son, Ivan) on Twitter for using ‘stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling the NHS to his friends’

No doubt Jack’s ‘followers’ are giggling into their Kale Pesto Pasta. Her cheerleaders at the Guardian will be basking in the reflected glory of their celebrity chef sticking it to the hated Tories.


What makes Jack Monroe think that Samantha Cameron (right) isn’t worthy of human compassion?


By the time you read this, she will probably have been invited on Newsnight or Radio 4’s Today programme to expound her views on how Cameron is exploiting the death of his son as a smokescreen to ‘privatise’ the NHS.

Presumably, A Girl Called Jack — as she styles herself online — is big on ‘women’s issues’. So why does she believe that intruding on another woman’s grief is a proper way to behave?

No parent ever gets over the loss of a child. It is especially tough on the mother who has brought that precious life into the world.

What makes Jack Monroe think that Samantha Cameron isn’t worthy of human compassion? Doesn’t Sam Cam count, because she happens to be married to a Conservative politician?

Probably not. In the sick world inhabited by the Guardianistas, all Conservatives are wicked monsters and are not entitled to common decency.

Look at the way the Left reacted with jubilation to the death of Margaret Thatcher. They queued up to dance on her grave and now, thanks to Jack Monroe, they are dancing on the grave of a dead boy, just because he happened to be the son of a Tory Prime Minister.

Last night, as revulsion at her remarks escalated, Sainsbury’s sacked her. Heaven knows why they hired her in the first place. Would you buy a left-over chicken recipe from this woman?

Conservative MPs are calling on the Guardian to fire her, too. They should save their breath.

Jack Monroe should be preserved in aspic, as a stark reminder of the true, deep-seated hatred which lies behind the self-regarding, self-satisfied, self-pitying posturing of the modern British Left




Read more: The Left hate everyone not just the white working class, says RICHARD LITTLEJOHN | Daily Mail Online
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Walter

Hall of Fame Member
Jan 28, 2007
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Lefties are very unhappy people for the most part. They have no joy in their lives.
 

WLDB

Senate Member
Jun 24, 2011
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Ottawa
In politics a lie is as good as the truth if you can get someone to believe it.

I'd say that goes for just about anything, not just politics. You just have a higher chance of being held accountable outside of politics.
 

BaalsTears

Senate Member
Jan 25, 2011
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Leftists in all the nations of the West suffer from a psychological disorder which causes them to destroy the heritage of the West in order to create a fantasy world which will forever remain inchoate. The leftists believe in a utopian form of Social Progress which is an atheistic replacement for the Christian ideal of Moral Progress. Social Progress comes up short because it is inconsistent with human nature and the limits of human behavior.

Other civilizations resist the attempts of Western leftists to impose their vision of Social Progress on them. This can be seen in the rejection of leftist nostrums, notions, shibboleths, and ideology by Muslim, African and Asian societies. The sad thing is that Western leftists have weakened the West in the competition of civilizations to the extent that a new non-Western world order is being born that will submerge the West, including Western leftists.
 

Blackleaf

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Oct 9, 2004
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Sainsbury's has axed cropped haired, tattooed Guardianista Jack Monroe for her vile Tweets about Cameron and his dead son Ivan.....


Sainsbury's axes Left-wing blogger for vile PM slur: Guardian columnist accused Cameron of exploiting his son's death... but was happy to trade on her OWN child


Tattooed Jack Monroe is a darling of The Guardian, the BBC and the Labour Party


Sainsbury’s is cutting ties with a trendy cookery writer after she said David Cameron should resign for using his ‘dead son’ as a front to privatise the NHS.

Jack Monroe was the face of budget cooking for the supermarket chain, but last night it emerged that her contract would not be renewed after she posted an ill-advised tweet about the Prime Minister.

The mother-of-one starred in ads for Sainsbury’s Value Range and was employed on a fixed-term contract to write a food blog.

But on Sunday Miss Monroe, 26, wrote on Twitter that Mr Cameron should go because he ‘uses stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling our NHS to his friends’.

The Prime Minister’s son Ivan, who suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy, died aged six in 2009.

Mr Cameron has spoken about his admiration for the NHS and how it helped care for his son. At the last Tory conference, he questioned how Labour could ‘dare’ to claim he does not care about the Health Service when it had been so important to his family.

Last night Miss Monroe, who also writes for The Guardian, said she was standing by her comments, which Tory backbenchers branded sick and distasteful.




On Twitter: The writer's original message attacked Mr Cameron for 'selling off our NHS to his friends'



Mother: Jack Monroe repeatedly writes heart-rending stories about trying to feed her young son Johnny


Prime Minister: David Cameron with his son Ivan, who had cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Ivan died in 2009

Miss Monroe, who lives in west London with her partner Allegra McEvedy, the co-founder of restaurant chain Leon, said: ‘I stand by the fact that I don’t think that [David Cameron] should be using rhetoric about his son to prop up policies that he hasn’t stood by himself.

‘He does use it as a means to shut down debates, or if anybody says anything about disability he comes out and says: “You can’t say anything about disability,” when actually he doesn’t come from the same place as a lot of parents of disabled children, who may not have the money to afford top of the range healthcare for their kids or might be living in cramped accommodation etc etc, so I do stand by what I said.


‘I didn’t do it in the most sensitive manner but you know Twitter is a fairly limiting place to try to express yourself.’

She added: ‘I regret not thinking about it a bit harder but we all do things that when you look at the next day that you go “I could have done that a bit better, or a bit more sensitively”.’

Sainsbury’s came under pressure from customers who urged the supermarket chain to end its relationship with Miss Monroe.

David Webster tweeted: ‘Jack Monroe’s comments regarding David Cameron’s deceased son are deplorable. I hope that @sainsburys reconsider her employment.’

Andrew Havery said: ‘#boycottsainsburys until they get rid of heartless leftist @MsJackMonroe.’

Dwayne Pipe posted: ‘I quite like @sainsburys, but every time I now walk into one of their shops I will be thinking of Jack Monroe’s dead kid tweet. Not good.’

Sainsbury’s issued a statement, saying: ‘Jack Monroe blogs independently. Sainsbury’s is not a political organisation and we certainly don’t share her views.’

A source revealed that the supermarket would no longer be working with the food writer whose contract is to expire in the not too distant future.

Grammar school-educated Miss Monroe was branded a hypocrite by those who said she often wrote about her son Johnny in her blog and in other publications.

HOW SHE TRADED ON HER CHILD

Monroe repeatedly writes heart-rending stories about trying to feed her young son Johnny.

Extracts from blog post entitled Hunger Hurts. Date: July 30 2012.

This morning, small boy had one of the last Weetabix, mashed with water, with a glass of tap water to wash it down with. ‘Where’s Mummy’s breakfast?’ he asks, big blue eyes and two year old concern.

Tomorrow, my small boy will be introduced to the world of pawnbroking, watching as his mother hands over the TV and the guitar for an insulting price.’

From a speech she delivered at the TUC on 9 September 2013. Published in the Guardian 10 September 2013.

And you think if you admit to skipping meals, to feeding your child the same cold pasta for nights on end, you think if anyone notices the badly damaged wrists from your recent suicide attempt, that you might lose your son. He might be taken into care. And despite the cold and the despair and the mind raging with doubt and fear and uselessness, there’s a little boy that relies on you to provide his meals – no matter how rubbish they are – and to put his jumper on before he goes to bed at night.

Guardian, 11 September 2014

Poverty is the sinking feeling when your child finishes his one Weetabix and says: ‘More, Mummy? Bread and jam, please, Mummy,’ as you’re trying to work out how to carry the TV to the pawn shop, and how to tell him that there is no bread and jam.




Leftists in all the nations of the West suffer from a psychological disorder which causes them to destroy the heritage of the West in order to create a fantasy world which will forever remain inchoate. The leftists believe in a utopian form of Social Progress which is an atheistic replacement for the Christian ideal of Moral Progress. Social Progress comes up short because it is inconsistent with human nature and the limits of human behavior.

Other civilizations resist the attempts of Western leftists to impose their vision of Social Progress on them. This can be seen in the rejection of leftist nostrums, notions, shibboleths, and ideology by Muslim, African and Asian societies. The sad thing is that Western leftists have weakened the West in the competition of civilizations to the extent that a new non-Western world order is being born that will submerge the West, including Western leftists.

Here's a letter in the current edition of The Spectator:

Embedded leftism

Sir: The Labour party may be an irrelevance, crumbling faster than the two ‘governing’ parties (‘Left in the lurch’, 15 November), but ‘leftism’ has become embedded in the establishment, from its welfare-state ethos to its imposed ‘equality and diversity’ ideology. Several Communist Manifesto requirements are already in place, and if ‘the workers have no country’ because finance and labour are globalised, nations themselves are on the way out. Keir Hardie, Blatchford and Attlee have been replaced by Gramsci, Marcuse and Žižek — which is nothing to be pleased about.

David Ashton
Sheringham, Norfolk
 
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Tonington

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When I lampooned her in this column, she published an indignant reply on the Guardian website — where else? — denying all manner of stuff I hadn’t accused her of and claiming I was only picking on her because she was a lesbian.

That's pretty rich. Here's what she actually said:

"Oh, and if you really wanted your readers to foam at the mouth about me, I can't understand why you omitted the detail that I'm a lesbian. Number 19 on this years Pink List lesbian, to be precise."

'Denying all manner of stuff I hadn't accused her of', heh. That's exactly what Dick did! :lol:
 

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
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That's pretty rich. Here's what she actually
"Oh, and if you really wanted your readers to foam at the mouth about me, I can't understand why you omitted the detail that I'm a lesbian. Number 19 on this years Pink List lesbian, to be precise."

'Denying all manner of stuff I hadn't accused her of', heh. That's exactly what Dick did! :lol:

She was claiming he was only picking on her because she's a lesbian. I think we all know what "A Girl Called Jack" means here, whichever way she words it.

" Number 19 on this years Pink List lesbian, to be precise."

Good for you, my darling. Do you want to call Reuters, or shall I?


Ah, Pesto! These poverty poster girls of Welfare Britain want the gravy too... without having to pay for it, writes RICHARD LITTLEJOHN

8 November 2013
Daily Mail
Richard Littlejohn

Jack Monroe is a young single mother and Left-wing activist, described as ‘the modern face of poverty’. Sounds about right.

When it comes to poverty, it doesn’t get much more modern than that.

She writes a blog called ‘A Girl Called Jack’, moaning about the ‘savage’ cuts and giving advice on how to prepare a hearty meal for less than £1.

Think a cross between Yvette Cooper and Delia Smith, with tattoos.

Those whom the Guardianistas disdain as 'ordinary people' don't eat pasta - they eat spaghetti out of tins. Most of them will have never heard of kale, let alone eaten it


‘A Girl Called Jack’ calls to mind Johnny Cash’s memorable 1969 hit record A Boy Named Sue.

In the Cash version, recorded live at San Quentin prison, a boy goes through life lumbered with a girl’s name by an absentee father.

Well, my daddy left home when I was three,

And he didn’t leave much to ma and me . . .

Coincidentally, Jack’s young son is three, too. We don’t know how old he was when his daddy left home, or indeed if his daddy was ever around in the first place. Nor do we know whether his daddy has ever contributed a penny in child maintenance to his upkeep.

What we do know is that after Jack ‘fell’ pregnant, she resigned from her job in the fire service to look after her new baby full-time.

That meant giving up a £27,000-a-year salary in order to live on benefits. Jack says she simply couldn’t make ends meet on her fire brigade income.

We must take her word for it, but plenty of other people do manage to raise a family on 27 grand, including married men with a wife and more than one child to support.

Although perfectly capable of earning her own living, Jack decided, like so many others, that it was her ‘right’ to expect someone else to pay her to bring up her son.

That someone else, naturally, being the already hard-pressed British taxpayers, many of them struggling on far less than £27,000 a year.

Her case goes to the heart of Iain Duncan Smith’s efforts to tackle the welfare monster and cap benefits.

Why should people in work, often on relatively low wages, be forced to subsidise those for whom claiming benefits is a ‘lifestyle’ choice?

Relieved of the chore of having to turn up for work every day, Jack could concentrate on sitting at her laptop complaining about the ‘cuts’.

It was her blog which brought her to the attention of Left-wing rags such as The Independent and The Guardian, for whom Jack now writes a food column for the welfare classes.

In Wednesday’s Guardian she could be found giving her recipe for budget Kale Pesto Pasta, a snip at 42p a portion.

You couldn’t make it up. If I’d set out to compose a spoof Guardian food column aimed at those living in ‘poverty’, I couldn’t have done any better. It is beyond parody.


Cait Reilly and Jack Monroe are the Pesto Kids of Welfare Britain

This is a typical Guardianista’s idea of what ‘ordinary people’ should eat. Do they really think the ‘poor’ are going to sit down in front of The Great British Bake Off on their 52-inch, taxpayer-funded plasma TVs, and tuck into a plate of Kale Pesto Pasta?

For a start, those whom the Guardianistas disdain as ‘ordinary people’ don’t eat pasta — they eat spaghetti out of tins.

Most of them will have never heard of kale, let alone eaten it. And if they are vaguely aware of pesto, they probably think it’s some kind of fancy foreign gravy mix.

Ah, Pesto!

To her credit, Jack has now embarked on a media career. But no one makes any money out of blogging and given what The Guardian pays contributors, I shouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t still rely on some kind of income support from the state.

Jack has come to our attention only because she was chosen by the Labour Party to represent ‘ordinary people’ in a party political broadcast about high energy bills.

Mind you, one of the other ‘ordinary people’ in the broadcast was former advertising executive Beresford Casey, who lives in a £1.5 million house near Ed Miliband in Primrose Hill, and runs a chain of upmarket burger bars called Haché, a posh French name for mince.

Haché will flog you a ‘scotch steak burger topped with celebrated Reblochon cheese’ for a very reasonable £10.95.

Would you like frites with that?

Only the trendy metropolitan Lefties who comprise the modern Labour Party could come up with an ‘ordinary person’ called ‘Beresford’. Wasn’t he one of the Wombles?

Presumably, the lovely Cait Reilly wasn’t available, on account of the fact that she was in the High Court complaining that being made to work in Poundland in exchange for claiming benefits was ‘slave labour’. She thought she should choose what kind of work she was out of, while continuing to receive the Jobseekers’ Allowance.

The court didn’t agree, but did decide that the Government’s initial measures to encourage people into work were legally flawed. The rules have since been changed.

Her taxpayer-funded legal action is estimated to have cost £50,000. Her lawyers, Phil Shiner’s Public Image Limited, are now considering an appeal to Europe.

Cait and Jack are certainly poster girls for poverty, but not in the way the Left would have you believe. They both think they are entitled to benefits on their own terms.

In Jack’s case, she may have had more money for food and heating if she hadn’t spent so much on tattoos. Her arms look like your average professional footballer.

Tattooists typically charge £60 an hour and Jack’s bill for ‘body art’ must run into several hundred quid as a basis for negotiation.

Older readers will remember the ‘Bisto Kids’ advert, which featured two street urchins salivating over the smell of gravy.

Cait and Jack want the gravy, too, but without having to work for it. They are the Pesto Kids of Welfare Britain.

Incidentally, you may recall Cait Reilly initially claimed that working in a supermarket was an affront to her dignity.

So you will be amused to learn she has now got a job — on the check-out in Morrisons. It would appear that Duncan Smith’s welfare reforms are working, after all.


Read more: RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Ah, Pesto! Meet the poverty poster girls | Daily Mail Online
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Blackleaf

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So cruel and such a hypocrite: How SARAH VINE - who saw first hand how dearly the Camerons loved their son - describes food writer who sent heartless tweet



By Sarah Vine for the Daily Mail
25 November 2014
Daily Mail

As a single mother, Guardianista Jack Monroe was claiming benefits, but made no secret of the fact she thought the money she received from the government paltry

Among politicians and their families there is an unspoken rule: don’t fight back. Don’t complain. No one’s interested. Criticism is just something that comes with the territory.

For the most part, I respect this rule, not least because if I lost my rag every time someone said something stupid, unfair or untrue about my husband, Michael Gove (the Government’s Chief Whip), I would drive myself and everyone around me mad.

But there are some things I just can’t let pass. Some things that really make my blood boil. And when, on Sunday night, I read this Tweet by Labour activist and bestselling cookery writer Ms Jack Monroe, I saw red in more ways than one.

Contributing to a thread on the site called ‘cameronmustgo’, she wrote: ‘Because he uses stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling our NHS to his friends.’

In a fury, I replied: ‘If I’m not wrong, you used misty-eyed rhetoric about your son to build your career. People in glass houses…’

Since then, I have received so much online abuse from her Left-wing supporters I seem to have ‘blocked’ half of North London.

Not that I care particularly. Sometimes in life you just have to tell the truth, even if it means having your head bitten off. And the truth is that Jack’s comment was revolting.

David and Samantha Cameron will, wisely, observe the first rule of political life, as previously outlined.

Nevertheless, Monroe’s cruel and heartless remarks will have hurt. They cannot have done otherwise.

Because they loved their boy, Ivan, as much as any parent loves their child. And when he passed away unexpectedly that awful night in 2009, aged six, the bottom fell out of their world.

Mother: To readers wondering how, as a lesbian, Jack Monroe got pregnant, her son Johnny (above) was the result of a relationship with a man, shortly after which she realised she was attracted to women

Those of us fortunate enough to have healthy children have no concept of what it is like to have a seriously sick child. The round-the-clock care, the night shifts, the medication, the worry, the exhaustion, the constant crises, the nights in hospital.

I watched those two work like Trojans to give Ivan the best quality of life possible. They never complained, they never felt sorry for themselves, or sought to place the blame for his many complex and severe disabilities on anyone else; they just got on with it, as so many carers in Britain do. Out of necessity, true; but mainly out of love.

It brought them closer and it made them stronger. Many relationships would have collapsed under the strain, but not theirs. It also toughened them up: there are few situations harder than living with a severely disabled child. By comparison, the odd spat with Vladimir Putin seems like a walk in the park.

Still, Ivan’s death was a great shock. It is a common misconception that the death of a child such as Ivan is ultimately a blessed relief. It is not. The grief is just as choking, the future just as bleak.

So when David Cameron talks about Ivan in the context of the NHS, he does not do so for callow, political reasons. He does so because his boy’s short existence has defined him. It has shaped his character and his political views. It is central to the man — and the politician — he has become.

Couple: After an engagement to a policewoman, Jack Monroe (right) now lives with her girlfriend, the chef and fellow Guardian writer Allegra McEvedy (left)

And when it comes to the NHS, he genuinely has more understanding and appreciation of how it works and what can be done to improve it than most in his position. His determination to protect the NHS is not rhetoric: it’s real and heartfelt.

That is why Monroe’s behaviour makes me so angry. In those few throwaway lines she stripped him of his humanity in the most cruel and unfair of ways, and overlaid her own, warped and biased, view of the man and his motives.

She claims to stand for compassion and fairness. But Monroe is a tribal Left-winger who genuinely believes herself to be morally superior to anyone not on her political wavelength.

For Monroe and her comrades, no insult is too vile when it comes to Cameron, no aspect of his life — not even the death of his son — out of bounds.

And if anyone dare question this self-appointed moral and ethical status, they get awfully uppity.

When I pointed out to Ms Monroe on Twitter, for example, that she herself might perhaps be guilty of what she was wrongly accusing Cameron of — i.e. making a career out of her child’s suffering — she got very huffy indeed, responding that it was hardly her fault she had been offered a book contract.

Maybe. But there’s no denying that her blog, A Girl Called Jack — about the difficulties of being a single mother on benefits — proved her passport to success. It was — dare I say — ‘misty-eyed’ passages such as the following that helped secure a book deal with Penguin in 2013 and a column in The Guardian.

‘Poverty is the sinking feeling when your small boy finishes his one Weetabix and says “More, Mummy?

Bread and jam please, Mummy?” as you’re wondering whether to take the TV or the guitar to the pawn shop first, and how to tell him that there is no bread and jam.’


Prime Minister: David Cameron with his son Ivan, who had cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Ivan died in 2009

And what about this wistful passage: ‘I remember the cold bloody winter sitting in a flat with no heating, the Christmas Day spent by myself because I realised my son would have a better time at his father’s than in a freezing cold flat with no tree and no presents — as I lay on my sofa without him and sobbed, alone.’

As a single mother, she was claiming benefits, but made no secret of the fact she thought the money she received from the government paltry, and says she sold her son’s belongings to make ends meet.

‘Johnny’s toys, that was quite hard, to see all the things I’d chosen for him go. I had to tell him that Mummy had had a tidy-up,’ she says.


The liberal Press welcomed her with open arms and Monroe turned out to be a bit of a star, appearing on Question Time and the like, champion of the hungry and the homeless. This pretty slip of a girl, standing up to all those nasty evil male politicians: she was — and is — a spin-doctor’s dream come true.

But hang on. Why is it OK for her to personalise her politics in this way (she is literally, a poster girl for Labour, posing in their adverts), but when David Cameron does the same, it’s somehow beyond the pale?

The answer is, it’s not. Suffering is suffering, whichever side of the political divide you find yourself on.

But there is one factor that differentiates her hardships from Cameron’s. His was accidental, some terrible twist of fate. Hers was, if not by design, then at the very least by choice.

I was 34 when I had my first child. Why? Because that was the age at which I felt I was stable enough, both financially and emotionally, to meet the needs of a growing family.

Ms Monroe didn’t feel bound by such constraints. She went ahead and had a child in her early 20s. When her relationship ended shortly after, she had to give up her job at Essex Fire brigade and found herself, in 2012, living on the breadline.


Despite a middle-class upbringing — her mother was a nurse and her father a fireman — and a promising start at grammar school, Jack Monroe passed only four GCSEs, and struggled to find work

To readers wondering how, as a lesbian, she got pregnant in the first place, her son was the result of a relationship with a man, shortly after which she realised she was attracted to women. Born Melissa, in 2012 she changed her name to Jack.

No one forced her to have a child. Indeed, if she was in anyway uncertain of her sexual orientation, arguably she should have taken greater precautions. But it seems that Ms Monroe isn’t one for assuming responsibility for her actions.

Despite a middle-class upbringing — her mother was a nurse and her father a fireman — and a promising start at grammar school, she passed only four GCSEs, and struggled to find work.

‘I struggled at that school, grades gradually getting worse each year, until I dropped out with not enough GCSEs to take A-levels. I went to work, in a shop, at the age of 16. No degree, no Oxbridge education, no feet on ladders, no family business to inherit — just me and about £5.85 an hour.’

What self-serving twaddle! Millions have lives just like this, but they don’t try to make themselves out to be some kind of martyr.

After an engagement to a policewoman, she now lives with her girlfriend, the chef and fellow Guardian writer Allegra McEvedy. So it’s all worked out for her in the end. But the question remains: whose choice was it to have a child in such unstable circumstances? Hers, and hers alone.

Fact is, there are lots of young women like her out there who long to start a family. But, because they are responsible individuals who think hard about the consequences of their actions and know that they can’t expect someone else to pick up the tab, they don’t. Why should Monroe know the joy of motherhood when they don’t?

It is, of course, possible that I am judging her very unfairly. But not even this harsh cynic’s take on her tale comes close to being as heartless and cruel as her comments about David Cameron.




 

Cliffy

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Nakusp, BC
This coming from the guy who hates everybody who is not a right wing, white Anglican Brit. Too fukin funny, Blackhead
 

Walter

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Now why is Fascism alive and thriving in the EU.
Yes, the UK, France, German, Greece, to name a few.
You forgot the US. The gubmint and its cronies have taken over a lot of business since BHO"s regime came to power.
 

Goober

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63
Moving
You forgot the US. The gubmint and its cronies have taken over a lot of business since BHO"s regime came to power.
I was focusing on racism.
Fascism | Define Fascism at Dictionary.com
noun
1.
(sometimes initial capital letter) a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.