to feel abit sorry for ed milliband and his comment on grocery shopping

[Ohnonotagen]

I'm not a labour supporter so don't often feel sorry for him but was on holiday this week and so watched GMTV (or whatever its called these days) and the presenter asked him how much the average family spent on groceries each week and he said "we spend £70 or £80 at least" then the presenter said the average family of 4 spend at least £100 and made him out to be really out of touch. Well i'm not sure of Ed's family size and we're only a family of 3 and i spend about £60 to £70 a week on shopping so i didn't think his estimate was too unrealistic. Now i'm back from holidays and just catching up on my recorded emmerdale episodes and they keep replaying this clip in the breaks to demonstrate how out of touch he is. i'm thinking its a case of 'dammed whatever he says'. If asked the same questions and he said 'yes me and the family spend an average of £150 per week' i can't see that having gone down any better.

Facepalming at the Jewish comment...

"Of Jewish decent" is not even comparable to "practicing Kosher".

I think the Labour MP, Graham Stringer, is right about this. It was "unprofessional" for Miliband not to know the figures since "cost of living" is the cornerstone of the Labour campaign. Ed is not just some normal guy off the street - he is leader of the Labour Party challenging the Tories and the toffs over the cost of living. Not to be prepared and knowledgeable about costs is "unprofessional".

'The centrepiece of our campaign has been the cost of living, and yet Ed didn’t know his own cost of living when he went into it, he didn’t know how much he was spending on shopping.

'Really, people around him should have said when David Cameron had been attacked as a posh boy not knowing the price of milk that we should not fall into that trap. We should know the price of milk and bread. That sort of thing is unforgivably unprofessional.'

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2637338/Labour-MPs-round-weird-Miliband-gaffe-prone-campaign-fails-build-momentum-general-election.html

I too am a bit baffled by the responses on here to this story, earlier this week.

Ed Milliband's household circumstances and income bear no resemblence to the average Labour voter or most of the general population.

Both him and his DW are high earning professionals. I would expect that they both eat outside the home a lot, perhaps only eating at home for some breakfasts, some dinners and at weekends. Their DCs probably have school lunches, and they must have a nanny or other substantial household help, who will probably cook evening meals for the DCs.

So their grocery bill probably only covers a third? or so of their meals, so I think the figure quoted, which would multiply up to about £250 to £300 pw if they ate all their meals at home and shopped somewhere like Waitrose, as a sensible amount for a very rich family to spend.

There is only so much food a person can eat, so just because their household income is over 10 times the average amount, it doesn't lead to them spending over 10 times the average amount on food, does it?

And we are talking about food. On the other thread, people were saying they spent loads more than that, but were including tens of pounds per week on booze for example, which is ridiculous.

The same £70 to £100 PW is also a sensible figure for the weekly food shop for an average sized family on an average income, and would provide a full week of meals of decent quality food.

Many people will either choose to or have to spend a lot less than that, and some will obviously spend more. Do the people criticising Ed Milliband think that he should do all his shopping at Aldi and live on lentils, so that he can identify with his core voters?

Why didn't he just say that he didn't know ? I'm not ashamed to admit that I don't.

Yanbu. I like Ed. I hope he wins the general election.

I don't think what he quoted was out of touch - he did say "at least" and he wasn't asked how many days/nights he eats out, which comes with the job!

I can't see why £80 is not an accurate amount either? What on earth do people eat these days? Aren't portion sizes monitored? Pffft

Why is it assumed Waitrose is where all the very well off do their grocery shop?

DC was quoted 2 or more years back saying Downing Street do their weekly shop on Tesco.com.

his comment isnt too far wrong he spends most of his time at the house of commons (free food) and on the road (free food) so he doesn't eat at home which is why his food shop is reasonable if they had to provide packed lunches for him while he is working it would be more

But isn't it just two adults, one pre-schooler and a young toddler in their family?

A bit different to a family with older children.

It's a ridiculous fuss about nothing. He isn't even at home that much and I wouldn't necessarily expect him to know how much his family spends. I don't suppose he does the shopping either.

If they'd asked him how much fuel had gone up in the past year and he had no idea I'd be a bit more bothered I suppose.

The guy may not be too personally charismatic and I think the focus of this news story is about reinforcing that. Any labour voter whose voting intentions are swayed by this must be thick.

There was a nice comment article in the Times earlier in the week saying the only people who know the cost of bread and milk are those on a VERY tight budget and those who've learned it for political purposes. Slight exaggeration, no doubly, but still a good point.

The cost of an average shop isn't relevant - knowing that the average person earns £26k and spends £100 on their shopping is useless. Do they have a mortgage, or do they rent, and what does it cost? How many kids? What part of the country? Commute cost? What about people on considerably less than that? What money really comes in, with benefits? What is that actually LIKE?

I really just want politicians to have enough insight and imagination to have an inkling of what life would be like on a low income, and to know that £150k and 'struggling with the school fees' is NOT the squeezed middle.

Mostly I just hate the idea that no one whose life is reasonably comfortable can empathise with people whose lives are harder. On the way home from our union conference my colleague bought a £2 loaf of bread from a stall outside the station - hardly negates everything we'd just been discussing.

My DH wouldn't have a clue what the shopping costs, I wouldn't have a clue how much a lot of the household bills are. He knows I do the best to get what we want for the best value, likewise I know he regularly price checks and swaps suppliers.

I do think that asking people what their grocery shop costs is very hit and miss. Some talk only about food, others include household cleaning products, others only state the weekly shop and forget the odds and sods bought between big shops.

I don't feel sorry for him.

I think it just shows incredible stupidity to have a policy of attacking the cost of living while having actually no idea of the costs of your own personal living costs let alone those of your potential voters.

Ed wasn't press-ganged into leading the Labour party. He volunteered. I have absolutely no sympathy for public figures whose stupidity cathches them out.

Mrs Thatcher knew the cost of a pint of milk.

I look forward to the next spot of "stupidity" which causes Cameron or Farage to be caught out. I'm sure it will happen in due course.

Personally I feel more inclined to judge Thatcher on more important grounds than whether she knew the price of milk.

Agree that it's hot or miss, Joysmum. We had a mortgage interview some months ago, and DH was baffled as to why our expenditure had come out so low. I pointed out that the advisor had asked us about our weekly grocery bill, not about DD's school dinners, our lunches at work (while I often take packed lunches DH rarely does), meals out, coffees, top-up shops ... DH simply hadn't noticed, and he's usually more financially savvy than me.

As an aside, today's Times magazine has a big article about supermarket CEOs and their shopping, and they're asked the price of six eggs. Most of them have clearly been well-briefed (I can just imagine them being taught eggs, bread and milk before they go in) but the CEOs of Asda and the CoOp are way out.

I don't know how much we spend on a weekly shop. We are in the happy position of being able to live easily within our means, so we certainly don't need to, nor do we try, to save money on our food bills.

That doesn't mean I am not aware that other people are not as comfortable or that I am not concerned about this and wish to see change.

Ed Milliband & his family are considerably better off than we are, so why he should be expected to know the cost of his shop? All he needs to know is that lots of people are not as well off as him and really struggling and want to do something about it.

I know there is a cost of living crisis, even though it has not affected me personally. I would vote for Ed on the basis that he has acknowledged this and wants to change it - he doesn't have to pretend it directly affects him and he has to watch the cost of his food shop, that would be ridiculous.

But he does not want to admit he is well-off and spends lots, as he accuses the Tories of doing that and his stroy is that because they are rich they do not undertsand the average person - he is selling a lie and this question catches him out in that lie. If he is well off and understands the poor, so can the Tories.

But he does not want to admit he is well-off and spends lots

But why do people assume that he must spend a lot? We are very "comfortable" and can afford to buy whatever we want at the supermarket, we just don't have expensive tastes! Maybe £70-80 buys the Milibands whatever they want and need!

I don't see why someone being comfortably off prevents them fro being empathic and compassionate about other people's difficulties.

Milliband doesn't have to know how much his shopping bill is in order to be concerned about social welfare.

In any case Thatcher might have known the price of a pint of milk but she didn't five a fuck about people struggling to buy it. Especially if they were miners with no money coming in fighting for their jobs.

If he is well off and understands the poor, so can the Tories.

Yes, but he has also said it is not fair and he wants to change it, whereas the Tories seem to blame the poor for being poor. Both Ed M and Dave C are wealthy, but at least Ed doesn't want to punish people for not having his good fortune.

He's a joke. Did you hear him on Radio Wiltshire last week? It was like a comedy script?

I hope Labour keep him, as it will make it easier for Labour voters to vote for other parties.

The fact is he looks like a Tory, acts like a Tory and speaks like one. Not saying that's his fault but it doesn't really help.

But Labour are almost Tories these days. How many have come from a true working class mackground via the Tus etc. Hardly any left now. They're all public school Oxford educated PPE career politicians and Traditional Labour voters are strating to realise that they simply do not represent them any more. They can't relate to them. So, in some ways UKIP, with its band of 'ordinary' candidates is much more appealing to the ordinary worker.

Cameron knew what it was like to have a child with a disability. I have a vague memory of some incident though where he didn't know the cost of nappies.

And it didn't stop him screwing the disabled and vulnerable at every opportunity.

I wonder if anyone's asked the comfortably off Farage about his grocery bills yet, or commented on the trouser in of EU payments for not actually fulfilling his duties?

So do tell me about the oh so ordinary background of Farage then...

I think it just shows incredible stupidity to have a policy of attacking the cost of living while having actually no idea of the costs of your own personal living costs let alone those of your potential voters.

Ed wasn't press-ganged into leading the Labour party. He volunteered. I have absolutely no sympathy for public figures whose stupidity cathches them out.

Yes. This. (Except he didn't just volunteer, he fucked over his brother.)

Anyway, it's Miliband under the press screw at the moment, but Cameron, Clegg and Farage will all get their turn in. It's like a sick merry-go-round, and in the meantime, nobody is doing anything to make things better.

What a shower of shit.