There but for the grace of God Mr Gove

[LEMisdisappointed]

you cunt

www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/11/food-bank-britain-didnt-ask-be-ill

Just unbelievable!! I am not going to comment, too angry

The man is an idiot, no more, no less... an idiot.
If you think what he said this week is bad, you should work in education - we've had 3+ years of this particular brand of bollocks

I think you got it right with your first comment.

Hopefully he will persist in spouting such utter garbage and Cameron will be forced to remove him from government. We can but hope.

He is an idiot.

Ok SOME people may have made bad choices which contributed to them being in a poor situation currently but even if that is the case they still deserve to eat.

All this does is work right into the hands of the idiots who believe everyone on benefits is a lazy scrounger and shows how clueless Gove is.

Gove's actual quote is rather different to what he's being blamed for saying.

"I had the opportunity to visit a food bank in my constituency only on Friday and I appreciate that there are families who do face considerable pressures. It's often as a result of some decisions that have been taken by those families which mean that they are not best able to manage their finances. What we need to do is to ensure the support is there not just financially but also to make sure that the right decisions are made."

Although one might replace "often" with "sometimes", that statement is nothing like as incendiary as is being made out. I don't quite see how Sirzy's accurate statement "Ok SOME people may have made bad choices which contributed to them being in a poor situation currently but even if that is the case they still deserve to eat." is in any conflict with what Gove actually said.

I don't think he's an idiot, I think he's an uncaring twat.

He's trying to claw his way to notoriety. Arsehole.

Disgusting. He spends more than some of us make in a year on furnishings for his second home and all on expenses given to him as an MP. How he can sleep at night defeats me. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5305434/Michael-Gove-flipped-homes-MPs-expenses.html

friday - i have just read your quote of what he said as i hadn't actually read it before, thankyou for enlightening me.

I still think he is a cunt

I don't agree with Gove's education policies, however I agree with Friday on this.

What he is doing to teacher training is awful. And we are going to need to train more teachers in the next few years. He's destroying systems that won't be easily put back together.

The full quote doesn't change the thrust of what he said. He's a clueless wanker. Horrible shitty ignorant thing to say.

I can certainly think of one poor choice a lot of people in his constituency made in 2010. Perhaps that's what he's referring to?

there's just no words for people who can see poverty on that level and then smugly blame those people for their own problems

cunt comes close though

Yes Beewi you're right

Cunt or not, is what he said factually incorrect?

I recently fell and broke my arm, which means no cleaning for a couple of months. Huge financial ramifications for my family. This happened at the same time my husband was forced to take a massive (33%) pay cut.

Of course, it was an accident. But, I neglected to A) build up a safety cushion of savings, and B) buy Loss of Income insurance.

I don't think we'll end up at a food bank but if we do, these bad financial decisions will be part of the reason why.

Katy, I'm guessing you've not read the article.

Even if you have, you can't judge every situation by your own experience. Not everyone can afford to save or buy loss of income insurance as they're just not earning enough beforehand.

But Katy, isn't that the point? Unexpected shit can crop up and hit people without any warning, and not everyone can afford insurance or savings etc.

I did read the article.

I could afford insurance. I have all kinds of insurance, and Loss of Income would have been peanuts to add. I just forgot. But, it was my responsibility.

My husband was lied to by his employer, promised lovely things in order to keep him at a job for a while. I can't type it all out. He neglected to get anything in writing and got screwed. And he's out of a job entirely in six months.

Meanwhile, we spent money on fun stuff and didn't pay debts aggressively.

If we end up at the food bank, I could tell a very sad story about accidents and being deceived, but the fact is that we made choices that weren't wise and neglected to do some basic stuff.