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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Edwina Currie should do a few stints in a Food Bank...

79 replies

Misspixietrix · 29/01/2014 10:04

...to realise how ignorant her comments are? Just been reading the Morning Paper in which she is quoted to say Food Banks are the reason shops are closing Hmm. I can't link as using the phone to MN. At one it says "The ex-MP said many who rely on Food Banks are 'not poor' and have 'substantial benefits' to live on". I'm a volunteer for the Trussell Trust. To say this comment stinks of ignorance would be an understatement.

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Damnautocorrect · 29/01/2014 10:11

I love the fact she doesn't realise the foods been bought in the first place

KayHarker1 · 29/01/2014 10:14

I volunteer too, and frankly her twitter stuff last week just gave me the red mist. The ignorance is mind blowing. Though I'm not sure I'd be happy to have her do a few shifts at my food bank - we're trained not to judge, and I'm quite sure she'd feel no need to rein it in...

newyearhere · 29/01/2014 10:16

YANBU

Original poster
Misspixietrix · 29/01/2014 10:19

Im just asastounded by the level of ignorance. We have to sign confidentiality clauses when we sign up (for obvious reasons). So they then assume they must be loads of crackheads etc that use it when really is something as simple as social services helping a Foster Mum out who's had to take an emergency case in for example. She was defending herself on Twitter replying to one comment "have you been inside the houses of people that use them. I have. Its quite clear they make poor choices". Shock. She should go inside a Food Bank and see that being made to rely on one is anything but choice. They're actually very hard to be referred to aswell. Its not a case of simply strolling in. Which they would be well aware of but then I guess that doesnt make good news :(

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Quinteszilla · 29/01/2014 10:19

Oh, yes. yes yes. She is something.

She pulled the "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM" on a flight, after having complaining about the lack of business class, and my mate (steward) responded "Yes, you are that bird that shagged John Major" and left her with her jaw in the aisle.

bleedingheart · 29/01/2014 10:20

YANBU

This woman really gets on my thr'pennys.

She knows what closes down businesses is lack of money in the pockets of customers or, that great Tory dream, competition! Oh and people claiming eggs contain salmonella....

bleedingheart · 29/01/2014 10:20

Quinteszilla your mate sounds great!

NoArmaniNoPunani · 29/01/2014 10:21

love the fact she doesn't realise the foods been bought in the first place

Bloody good point

Original poster
Misspixietrix · 29/01/2014 10:21

Indeed KayHarker I'm just aghast that there seems to be no level to which the Right won't stoop. She would have to rein it in in mine. The Manager silenced an Edwina type a few weeks ago. Grin.

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Original poster
Misspixietrix · 29/01/2014 10:23

Haha! That's made me chuckle Quinteszilla

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KayHarker1 · 29/01/2014 10:24

So, you make 'poor choices', your children starve, is that it? Oh the compassion of a conservative...

Original poster
Misspixietrix · 29/01/2014 10:31

Yes I think she's going along the same lines of what most ignorant people people think. That everyone on Benefits smokes and drinks. Which is ignorant altogether. What about those Part time workers or ones who have had their full time employment changed to zero hours contracts and had to rely on food banks too. Wonder if they smoke and drink too? Would she say they made poor choices? Or by poor choices does she just mean they chose to shop at Tesco instead of Lidl and they wonder why their money didn't stretch far enough.

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Melonbreath · 29/01/2014 10:34

Silly bitch. I'm now following her on twitter in order to ridicule

KayHarker1 · 29/01/2014 10:34

It's the 'deserving poor' crap all over again. You'd have hoped we might have moved on from Victorian values.

napoleonsnose · 29/01/2014 10:35

Just read the article on The Spectator website and she has seriously pissed me off now. No evidence whatsoever to back up her ill-informed clap trap, just subjective right-wing rhetoric. Same old, same old - sadly though, many believe this shite.

blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/01/food-banks-arent-solving-problems-they-can-make-things-worse-too/#disqus_thread

SomethingOnce · 29/01/2014 10:36

Wasn't it dear old Edwina who, back in the 80's, advised pensioners in fuel poverty to knit themselves woollies to keep warm?

pointythings · 29/01/2014 11:03

Making her do a stint in a food bank would be pointless - none so blind as those who will not see and all that. She would just harangue your poor clients about their poor choices and fecklessness and make them feel even worse.

Original poster
Misspixietrix · 29/01/2014 12:12

pointythings I don't think my Manager would let the clients have to suffer Edwina Interaction be exposed to her. Although I do think it would be worth wondering that if she had to sit next to some body with a baby on their knee who has just fled miles away to escape their abusive partner with tears in their eyes and wonder how things have got this bad. If she would still hold the same opinion and be more compassionate. She was actually one of the very few Tories I tolerated but she's blown it with that last comment.

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HenriettaMaria · 29/01/2014 12:16

Wasn't it dear old Edwina who, back in the 80's, advised pensioners in fuel poverty to knit themselves woollies to keep warm?

Indeed it was. She doesn't change, does she?

OhBuggerandArse · 29/01/2014 12:18

LOVING the 'You're the bird that shagged John Major' story.

Original poster
Misspixietrix · 29/01/2014 12:49

OhbuggerandArse to be fair that's all most know her for. *That and something to do with eggs :) and stupid Twitter comments as above Wink.

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wetaugust · 29/01/2014 12:56

Edwina is regularly on Radio 5 in late night/early morning discussions.

She recently sad she had actually visited food banks on a number of occassions.

Just wanted to clear that up as the OP didn't seem to thing she'd visited one.

Original poster
Misspixietrix · 29/01/2014 13:29

wetaugust I don't believe she has. Did she say this on the Radio or in an article. The only thing I have seen her say is that she had visited their Homes. Indeed I may be wrong but if she has. I will take her visiting them literally. As in breeze in and out of there for a quick photo call. (Bit like Hunt does with NHS visits). She couldn't possibly have spent a full day with them. Getting the real side of them. The Spectator article alone has inconsistencies where she talks of people rocking up for want of a better word. If she had been in a food bank. She will know this simply isn't the case. To be referred to a Food Bank. You have to be referred by either a Doctor, a Social Worker or a School Welfare Officer. On occasion in some areas your local Church Minister can also refer if they work in conjunction with the Food Banks. You are only given 3 days worth of food. Imagine having no choice but to go to one of these Professionals and begging them to fill in an application form to give you a voucher to get food to last you the three days. If she has REALLY visited Food Banks that often and spent more than 10-20minutes in one she wouldnt make flippant comments such as most of them have Satellite tv in the article would she? Then again I'm a bit cynical like that :)

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