Jack monroe challenged on twitter

[KarlWrenbury]

Maybe by a sock puppet account Etc but yes- how are they still not making ends meet after all this time ?

It might be boring but the message she's trying to get across is an important one, which a lot of people (including on this thread) seem to be choosing to turn a deaf ear to.

But she’s diluting her message by lying about her own situation. And she’s no friend of the poor, grifting money from the public by falsely (fraudulently?) claiming poverty rather than, say, encouraging support of and donations to charities supporting those in financial difficulty instead.

Mean income for an author is something like 6.5k per annum

I usually hate all these types of threads, 'catching out' personalities - whether true or not, it seems witch-hunty ... BUT in the case of Jack, her inconsistences have been rife, and she has variously portrayed herself in a myriad of different roles and situations. There is a huge attention-seeking aspect to what she does - assuming every kind of illness and crisis that can possibly occur and then making it her 'thing'.

I feel fairly knowledgeable about Jack, having read her Poverty Hurts blog at a critical time in my own life, when my abusive marriage was at its worst, and when I was in serious financial difficulty thanks to said abusive marriage. I found it profoundly moving and wrote to her, she wrote back a few times and we would exchange tweets etc (all back in the days when she wasn't famous like now and did things like this). I read everything she wrote or was in, bought her books, followed her career, and while I can't speak about her finances any more than anyone else can, there is just no way that all the claims she makes about her living situation and state of her finances can be true.

I can readily believe she (and many authors) make very little, overall, but not to the extent that she describes the bone-grinding poverty in her latest blog - the melting of soap, no lightbulbs, pawning all her possessions. She does have the resources and contacts to get a regular job / gigs that would enable her to have a reasonable income, certainly one that she and her child could live on, perhaps frugally, perhaps without any huge spare money but definitely manageably.

One of Jack's great strengths is her writing ability (very similar to another person similarly being less than truthful, Liz Fraser) and she is engaging and believable.

Over the years, many many people, who could ill-afford it, have donated to her enterprises, and this is the part that is quite sickening, really.

There are clearly MH difficulties of one kind or another there but at the same time it seems often deeply cynical, how she chooses to write and portray herself, changing facts as it suits her latest narrative.

She was probably poor once but don't believe for one minute she is now. She was on TV on Monday saying she's doing a new book and she's not doing that for benefit money and no one is stupid enough to believe she's no money now.

Sal

Her message about teaching people how to budget shop for food and cook said food is excellent.
It IS lost in the constant griping and grifting though.
The inconsistencies in her story(ies) are all in plain sight.
The dog is just the latest in a long line of ill advised life choices and that poor dog will probably have to be rehomed.

Someone with a very broken background, poor mental health and "managing" skills.

She comes from a wealthy, loving family who supported her during the 18 months of poverty after she quit her job. She was privately educated. The father of her child has always paid maintenence.

Authors make absolute peanuts from their books. For every book that sells she is likely to receive pence not pounds

That's not quite true, although certainly new authors and those who sell very little don't do well. She's an established author with guaranteed returns. I'd be stunned if she sees less than 15% of the price paid per book.

At London prices, I could believe she is broke until next book profits come in? Maybe I am gullible. Not sure why her ex (Allegra?) did not have to pay half.

Because they split up 7 years ago. Monroe doesn't live in London and it's been her house since then. She's referring to her split from Louisa Crompton a couple of years ago.

But she’s diluting her message by lying about her own situation. And she’s no friend of the poor, grifting money from the public by falsely (fraudulently?) claiming poverty rather than, say, encouraging support of and donations to charities supporting those in financial difficulty instead.

This, exactly.

She's got some powerful points to make, but I wish she didn't feel she had to consistently lie about her own reality in order to make them.

She split up with her partner 2 years ago, plenty of time to have sorted out somewhere cheaper to live.

If I was close to someone with poor mental health, a compulsion to come out with controversial opinions on social media and a poor memory for detail (to put this charitably) I would be doing my level best to get hold of that person's phone and cut off the wifi.

And yes, the obvious thing to do is to get a job.

My take away from this is that I would be terrified to cross "Awfully Molly" as they have got some serious research skills and the time to cross reference your entire social media footprint.

I often think she is full of contradictions and when challenged turns a bit nasty. She posted a pic the other week with her skin looking very dark and her hair in braids. People said it was cultural appropriation but her response was (a) the ancient Greeks had plaits and she's Greek 🤷🏻‍♀️ and (b) her disability means she can't do her hair properly so this was easier. It was bizarre.

Wow. Exposed or what.

This was all very recently, within the last 3 months. The designer puppy in question was purchased at the start of last month, and is credited (rather than her own child) for stopping her from killing herself.

Writing cookbooks, a column and appearance fees on daytime tv isn't going to pay that well once agents fees and costs are deducted. I don't get the impression she is good with money either, many people aren't (I'm a debt counsellor, many clients have decent jobs and still can't cope)

About time too.

And I thought she/they was being non-binary again? Or was that last week?

Didn’t she get damages from Hopkins?

I take what she says with a pinch of salt.
I knew someone years ago who is a relative of her ex, she said that Jack was the NRP for her Son and then spoke about the struggle to feed him.
I think her books and campaigning are excellent, I choose to overlook her porkies because she is doing good for others and I suppose we wont all be able to make a mark on people who are struggling.
When I had a lot of debt to clear and striped spending right back I really liked her and the mortgage free in three woman.

So that's an annual salary of £32,424 JUST from people bunging her money through Patreon. Minimum - as some people will be paying the £7 a month, or £10 a month, or £44 a month.

Before you start adding in any other income from blogs, videos and the rest of it.

Holy shit, whoever Molly is she has done her homework.

Writing cookbooks, a column and appearance fees on daytime tv seems to make a reasonable and sometimes very good living for a number of other people. I understand she may be poor at managing money, but it's still a job description and income many genuinely struggling people would love, especially when you add in £2000+ a month from patreon, advertising fees she's had, etc.

Also the making shower gel out of bits of soap etc - that just sounds so odd. Just use soap, that's the cheapest possible way to use soap. It is not a normal behaviour of the desperately poor and struggling to try to make their own shower gel. It's like a rich person's idea of poverty.

I've now read the thread on Twitter. Wow.

The good she might do teaching people how to cook doesn't justify spinning a pity story so people give you cash. It's not much better than the Captain Tom daughter. People are giving thinking she's struggling but it's bullshit.

Also how long did she split from her partner? It was years ago. Why is she still trapped renting that house?!

I really like JM, but was baffled by her latest article - surely if you can't afford a lovely home, you downsize. There's nothing of note about it really - it's a standard life choice.