To never want anyone to champion Jack Monroe again?

[SuperScrimper]

After what she has tweeted about David Cameron. here

Like him or loathe him to describe the way he talks about his deceased son as 'misty eyed' and used for political gain is disgusting.

The greatest loss any of us can imagine is the loss of a child. Shock horror, even politician have real feeling. It's just awful that she would say that about another parent.

I don't care what she can do with a bloody lentil. Something's are just too low.

I think what she said was right.

This isn't a case of Cameron being unable to win. There is a difference between talking about his son as any other parent would, and bringing him up as a means of stopping people criticising what he is doing to the Health Service. If you want an example of how to avoid this and how to deal with the death of a child with real dignity, look at Gordon Brown.

After reading Bluestocking's excellent link, I'm going with breathtakingly deluded.

What Bluestocking and rootypig said. It's possible to believe that he was devastated by the loss of his child, but also that he speaks about it to shut down debate.

Exit, listen to that party conference speech and tell us how Cameron was in any way using his son to explain his actions. He was blatantly using him to try to disguise the truth of the awful things he has done to other people's children.

Some things are just too low.

Yes OP, I think that's exactly the point she was making. We should never ever hear about his son in day to day politics, and yet...

I think you are missing the point completely.

I think the real question, the real story, should be, the toxic politics that mean he has to resort to invoking his son.

Gordon Brown had no such need to defend himself, because his politics were essentially decent.

I agree with her. Glad someone had the balls to say it.

Yes, objectively he didn't need to mention his son in that comment and he has overseen many cut backs, so I do think he leaves himself open to critiscism.

Looking after his own son is not the same as ensuring that there is adequate state funding. If it was a genuine off the cuff remark that he didn't think through, fair enough. However, I don't think prime ministers make many off the cuff remarks these days.

If you think Cameron is trying to privatise the nhs and give all the money from it to people he knows in the form of multi billion quid contracts then her comments make sense.

He wants to kill off poor people :

Live in an area without an nhs dentist? Fuck you, do without
Spend 2 months waiting for cancer treatment? Fuck you, do without
No money for prescriptions? Fuck you, be sick

He doesn't give a tiny flying fuck about people who have little money, he wants you to compulsorily pay for treatment and have much less children if you can't pay for them - if they're disabled, he wants YOU to look after them
and not services.

He absolutely does use his son for political gain. He did it a few weeks ago in parliament after the Lord Freud comments about disabled people and the minimum wage. He said “I don’t need lectures from anyone about looking after disabled people. So I don’t want to hear any more of that." in order to shut down the debate. It was quite effective

He's also done it much more explicitly in the past, in particular that speech at the Tory conference in 2012. While he may be able to empathise with the emotional side of having a disabled child his suggestions that he has any concept of the day to day struggle of less afluent parents of children with disabilities is laughable.

Yabu. She was right.

I think I agree with her, actually.

I agree with her 100.%. Good to see someone balsy enough to say it.

Looking after his own son is not the same as ensuring that there is adequate state funding.

That's the nuts of it really, and he should have the brains to see it himself.

I agree with her too. And I'm not particularly in her fan club - I admire her very much but found her pretty charmless during her MN webchat. Cameron did indeed make misty eyed pledges about the NHS during the last election campaign. Using his son's story to pretend that he has a clue what life is like for poor/ill/ disabled people in this country is utterly shameless.

Actually, I've just had a light bulb moment and see the point clearly now. You're right, he does use his son to shut down debate now that you mention it.

Yes, that is a really low thing to do. He should be ashamed of himself.

YANBU, I agree with you OP.

Once you resort to that kind of nastiness you lose respect in my mind, and what's worse is that the point you are arguing, which may be valid, is significantly devalued. She has done herself and her supporters no favours.

Meh. Isn't she the food blogger?

Having an opinion on politics doesn't mean she can't cook, or write well about it.

I absolutely agree with her but as soon as I read it knew that she would be roundly attacked for saying it mainly because she is so virulently anti-Tory. I think DC's comment about needing no lectures was beyond vile ( apart from not bring true).

Whatever your politics, I don't understand how people can disagree with what she tweeted, because he does indeed speak about his son whilst talking about the NHS.

Then he gets angry if people point out what he's doing.

she was spot on

I don't think it makes her vile.
It does make her naive to the backlash she us about to experience.

These days what you say is far, far more important than what you do.

I can't open that link, but I do agree that Cameron has invoked the memory of his son to justify his policies. The loss of a child is unutterably devastating ; using that as a cover for making the lives of thousands of other disabled people miserable and poverty-stricken is not acceptable.

It is possible for somebody to be both a devastated, loving father and a callous hypocritical politician.