to be shocked that Jack Monroe

[samandi]

was on £27,000 a year just back in 2011?

This is a woman I associate with desperate poverty and yet in the space of one and a half years ? she managed to go from having a prosperous job at a pretty young age to struggling to feed her son?

At the age of 22 she had about a £20,000 net income, which is more than many people can dream about. £27,000 is way more than I've ever earned in my life and I'm over ten years older than her.

Am I being unreasonable to think this detracts a bit from her message? Or am I just living in a different world.

squoosh spot on but detractors want to focus on the how and why instead of looking at the inspiration her blog has become for those who are of limited means.

Exactly. The picking apart of Jack's circumstances is all about deflecting attention from the point itself, which is that there are families in the UK who are so poor that they have to resort to food banks to feed their children.

Jack wrote a great response on her blog about the bashing she's been getting in the media.

Its all a bit tedious and predictable really... lets pick (inaccurate, ridiculous) holes in her life story trying to make out that its an expose and shes not truthful/ genuine in some way. Yay! squished another dissenting voice ...

YY mignon Jack wiped the floor with that arsehole.
He probably DOES expect parents to take their children to work Collluegue of mine brought her 11 year old daughter into work when her childcare fell through that night.
Littledick would shrug his shoulders and say so what.......until he would then find out it was a sex chatline office. Prick!

For those of you throwing muck about the DS dad and how he failed to support his son or her how about a dash of truth.
The father in this case actually contacted the mother after they split after discovering she was pregnant to find out if he was the father,
He was told he didn't need to be involved at all but stated it was his child he will be there for him.
He was at the birth, moved in with mother and child for first month to support and help, then returned to work but from 4week old had his son for 2 nights a week and paid maintenance.
When his circumstances changed and was able to as now he has his son 3-4 nights a week sometimes more.
When the Moyer of his child was struggling and he found
out he did provide food, Christmas presents and offer to take there son full time whilst the mum got back onto her feet to help.
His son wants for nothing has a stable and loving family despite his parents being separated it is just the case that the father does not promote his side as he has to try and keep the peace to be able to keep seeing his son as regularly as he can and so has to suffer people's misinterpreting the gaps left in the publicity machine around the 'single mother does good' bubble

She got back on her feet - good on her!

As someone who is a lone parent to a disabled child with no support from the father (the csa is useless!) I admire her. Lone parenthood and disability is a double whammy in terms of escaping poverty.

Not every single mother is an illiterate, feckless sponger. It's good to see the media raise the point that many intelligent, high-achieving women are thrown into poverty when family breakdown occurs.

The most vulnerable group of all are the loyal 40+ "pin money" Mums who have been totally reliant on their husband's career since their 20's. The Kate Middleton types. I've seen a few of these break down over the years after their men have deserted them.

The politics of envy are the worst of all.

Hi all,

We just wanted to let you know that your requests for a webchat with Jack were duly noted, and we've managed to get her in on Wednesday 5th March (tomorrow!) for a chat with you all.

Make sure you get your questions in over here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/a2011496-Live-Webchat-with-Jack-Monroe-Wednesday-5-March-12-30-1-30PM

We can't wait to have her in and see what you ask her.

Much as I admire the woman, and her recipes are fab etc I do think she exaggerated a great deal for affect. Sorry.

That's not to say there aren't people out there in her position, (( I've been there )) there are and I think it's great this is being discussed - do I think she's the person who should be doing the speaking ?? No. Mainly because when her inconsistencies are pointed out she resorts to impassioned screeching, swearing and ranting.

Isn't she known as the 'Guardian's favourite poor person'? I'm thinking of setting up a rival blog. It will be named a "A girl called Slack" and budget recipes will include Gregg's frozen pasties with oven chips and peas, and basic range digestives topped with own-brand 'nutella' (tasty and affordable). I will ask Iceland to sponser me.

Thats right, kick people for making a success of themselves

Or you could just say, well done Jack for writing about your experience in a way that has made people take notice.

FGS some people really can't accept that poverty is a real genuine thing. Just because Jack had the resources to write about it doesn't make it any less real for her or anyone else.

God, this thread's horrible!! (I've read the whole thing, took some time!) It's really sad that Jack felt the need to come on here and defend herself and put right a few misconceptions, she shouldn't have to justify herself and prove her worthiness of being properly poor to anyone!
So, if I'm reading this right, you're only poor if you're poor constantly and for year in, year out, right?!
If you were in a well paid job and then your husband/partner left you when you had a small child, what the f*ck are you supposed to do when the job you were in with night shifts suddenly becomes 'undoable' as there is no overnight childcare available?! Hmm???!!!
She was feeling desperate, with barely any money and it helped to write about her experiences.
I can relate to the writing about things and setting up a blog. As she said, she never intended anyone to be reading it, let alone for it to take her where it has.
You set up a blog to write, and don't expect anyone to read it ( except your mum if you're lucky as a pity read lol ) so when you end up with a few thousand reading it like I have you're a bit at it.
Christ, I can't begin to imagine being picked apart like this for every little thing I had written though and having to justify everything and prove I was actually as poor as I said I was.
You can be well off, rich and then have circumstances change. Some people should remember that.

agree with Living. It could happen to any of us. She couldn't despite trying find childcare for anti-social hours so had to leave her job. I think she is a fantastic person and a great anti=poverty campaigner.

I do find it a bit odd tbh.

There are all these lovely Waitrose recipe card recipes, and this is represented as the solution to poverty, when really it seems like all it is just another middle class food blog, but with a side order of right-on.

When I was like most people of her age hard-up I cooked nice middle class food on a budget, and now I'm no longer hard-up I cook nicer middle class food on a bigger budget. It's not exactly revolutionary.

If you visit certain ethnic areas of Britain you'll find thousands of families who are already cooking much nicer chickpeas and lentils than the ones she's got on her blog, but it hasn't inspired their white neighbours to stop shopping for frozen pizzas at Iceland and start buying 10kg sacks of dried pulses at the Asian grocers next door.

I suppose it must speak very loudly to Guardian journalists, but it misses the supposed target demographic rather widely. (And just to say, that target is more of a media creation, as a personal blog, I'm sure it has its niche.)

If she's managed to do one thing,she's managed to market herself well.

you'll find thousands of families who are already cooking much nicer chickpeas and lentils than the ones she's got on her blog, but it hasn't inspired their white neighbours to stop shopping for frozen pizzas at Iceland and start buying 10kg sacks of dried pulses at the Asian grocers next door.
and I suppose it must speak very loudly to Guardian journalists, but it misses the supposed target demographic rather widely

What, so if you've not got much money, you're going to be buying frozen Iceland pizzas and turning up your nose at chickpeas and lentils (unless you're Asian, that is?!)
Lovely stereotypical view, there!
(For what it's worth, I'm skint and we love lentils and chickpeas in this house -makes lovely nutritious meals. We use them a LOT in pur cooking so her recipes are great. Oh, and we're not Asian. We're white.

pur our

My sister went from 27K To Zero when the company she worked for fired her for being sick. She was Lucky that my late father was able To step in and paíd for things she couldn't buy for her DS, school uniform being the main ítem, I'm not talking about expensive toys.

It can and does happen To Anyone at any time. I don't think having previously earned X distracts from not having enough money for bills and food.

Well SwingYourPantsNow, if you walk through poorer areas with high Asian populations you will find many shops selling fresh fruit, veg, pulses, cheap cuts of meat, and so on. Whereas in a poor area with a white British population you get convenience stores selling crap.

That's reality as it exists in Britain - Guardian journalist prototypes aren't.

I'm white too, and I ate lentils and chickpeas when I was skint, but I didn't portray this as some sort of revolution, it was just what you do because you have to, and now, like Jack, I no longer have to, because, just like her, I'm middle class and my state of penury was a stage in life, and not a multigenerational ingrained part of my cultural heritage.

Middle class person manages in temporarily straitened circumstances isn't really much of a shock.

She worked with the fire service as a call handler. IIRC her shifts were mostly nights,and she tried to get on a days rota and they couldn't/wouldn't let her. Therefore she had child care issues and had to give up her job.

I get lost when she says the father of small boy (she's gay) is very involved in his child's life so I'm wondering why he wouldn't have helped out, or why they couldn't have shared a flat platonically therefore solving the problem of her giving up what is an incredibly well paid job at the age of 22. Surely they could have worked an arrangement out since she was on nights- it would have been ideal I'd have thought if they weren't in a relationship therefore they wouldn't be spending a lot of time together and chill care costs during the day could have been shared.

Adorabell I hope she took them to an industrial tribunal, it's illegal to sack someone for being sick.

Jack wrote a blog about cooking on a budget and included reflections on her personal life and feelings.

The blog became famous.

Jack began to earn some money from it.

The end.

It's not like there was a competition for " most virtuous poor person in England " and she lied in order to enter it.

Unfortunately it is not unlawful to fire someone for being sick - you can dismiss for capacity. It is unlawful to fire someone for being disabled but not all sick people are disabled.

Jack wrote a good blog about cooking cheaply on a very tight budget. I do admire her. But, I do also wonder how many of her target audience will be able to afford over a weeks worth of food budget £12.99 on her book.

And also while she is doing a grand job of promoting poverty, she's putting herself out there, so people WILL want to ask questions- such as if the dad is a great dad,for instance, he didnt look after his son overnights so she could keep her job. I have no interest in how/why or the mechanics of conception that IS nobody's business, but if you're a lesbian you do make a conscious choice to conceive obviously, and I don't understand why anyone (someone said in the thread above) would think that choosing to have a child at the age of 22 is ideal. Given that the cost of housing where she lives is apparently high, and childcare costs, she would have been financially struggling even if she could have gone to day shifts.

I also don't understand how a "great" dad would watch as furniture, possessions and heating were all sacrificed and do nothing. Putting it out there and going on to make a living out of it is a great turn around, but as anyone in the public eye realises, people will ask these questions.

I'm not the target demographic for her book, have read her blog with interest and think its marvellous, but I honestly think the people buying it will use it a few times and then go back to their normal diet- which kind of defeats the purpose. maybe if one of the food banks could supply it at a much reduced cost to their clients that would be an idea, and stay true to the original message a bit more.

I think Jack will end up having a very good career out of this which shows her inguenuity and talent, another thing I've wondered is, will she carry on frugal cooking or change to a different market as she becomes financially secure.

She is putting herself out there, not the father of her child.

What do the manuals say? Don't let your child hear you say bad things about the other parent. Anything she says about him is recorded and her child can read it some day.

Lots of possibilities I can think of off the top of my head:

He may not live near enough to her to help
He may live in shared accommodation where he can't take a child
He may be homeless
He may also have a shift job, or a zero hours job, that make him providing child care just as hard as it was for her
He may have a regular hours job but needed to leave before she got back from shift/get back after she went on shift
He may be disabled
... And finally he may not be quite so great but she knows her son will read what is said.

She is in the public eye NOW - but she wasn't when she had her son, lost her job, had benefit delays - she wasn't tallying up her actions thinking, "how will this look when I write a blog one day and then ages later when a telegraph journalist picks up on the recipes in it." She wasn't a columnist when she started - she was someone writing stuff on the internet. Like we all are.