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.

His response to being challenged on the less than minimum wage for disabled people thing was absolutely using his experience to silence.

That action was political. His 'point' bore no relation to the issue, it was just him using the sensitivity surrounding bereavement to shut someone up.

Do we say people who lose their husbands in war and then campaign for better funding for the MoD etc are 'pimping' their memory?

That's not really an equivalent. People naturally campaign for things which they have been touched by, such as the British Legion for military families, or Bowel Cancer awareness for someone who has bowel cancer or the removal of kidney dialysis as a prescribed service on the NHS from 2015 for people who need kidney dialysis.

The equivalent would be a war widow(er) MP slashing at MoD budgets, sending soldiers out into illegal wars woefully under equipped, and removing disability benefits and mental health services for those who make it back alive and then bleating 'Don't talk to me about losing someone in the war. Don't you dare.'

Like many others, I'm sure, I've never heard of her until now - so her tweet has obviously had the desired effect of raising her profile. Go Jack, you must be thrilled - you've ignited a political debate AND raised your blog traffic figures.

Has she got a Christmas cookery book coming out?

If she wanted a debate she would have used such emotive terms.

She tweeted it as an insult.

She could have said. 'I'm frustrated to see DC still doesn't wish to engage on disability issues. Having a disabled child as a millionaire does not create the issues it does when you are already on the breadline'. We all want what is best for a children, but DC needs to understand it is much harder to get it when you are also worrying about your gas bill'

In several tweets, obviously.

What she said wasn't nasty.

It is the truth, albeit an uncomfortable truth.

Absolutely, KneeQuestion.

She probably doesn't see the need to tiptoe around his feelings, given what he has done. He doesn't see the need to tiptoe around peoples feelings. David Clapson's, for example, or bereaved parents who get slammed with the bedroom tax before their kids are even buried.

Interesting too that in other (ie: real) professions, you'd be pilloried as 'unprofessional' if you brought your personal stuff into the work you do.

I know a (Labour) politician who for years cared for a disabled parent, on top of being an MP. I have never, once, ever seen this MP make any reference to that in public. No doubt the experience may form some of their opinions on related issues. But it is not paraded for the press to coo over their sainthood.

Truth is, Cameron knows of all the issues that could lose him the next election, this (justified) perception that the NHS is not safe in tory hands, is potentially the most damaging. So he has brought out the big guns. And gone there. So now anyone else's response to that, however visceral, is valid. He went there first. His choice.

Once he raised the subject, he has also made himself fair game for the people to make the reasonable observation that he is sick and wrong. Using your dead child for political gain has to be the ultimate repulsive action, in fact. I can't think of much worse. And this particular government are about as venal and poisonous as any I have seen in my lifetime.

I think what she said is offensive and ignorant. The Camerons' experience of the NHS may well be no different from anyone else's - they frequently had to call an ambulance etc. It's beyond me that anyone can call into question his love for his child.
DC's vision of the NhS (ie largely privatised) may well not be everyone's (I don't agree with him) but that doesn't mean he doesn't think it did great things for his son.
Jack sounds as silly as bloody Jamie Oliver and his 'feed chillies as punishment'.

Could you imagine someone doing this in their day job?

"Look, nobody cares more about getting the mail delivered on time than me, because my mother, who died very recently you know, she used to really appreciate seeing the postman every morning. So we'll have no more talk about late delivery times!"

Of course not because it is so utterly inappropriate and also irrelevant but because DC does it in PMQs it's ok because his deceased son is "at the forefront of his thoughts".

Seriously?!

No, I suspect she doesn't feel any need to tiptoe around his feelings. It takes someone with a complete lack of regard for an individual to bring their deceased child into her twitter attack.

Who is questioning "his love for his dead child"? What is being questioned is the lower-than-a-snake's-belly act of using that for political gain or to make a political point.

What should (but won't) give him pause for thought is - if he's pulled out that big gun already and is still not persuading us the NHS is safe in his hands - he's blown it.

Cant stand Jack Monroe.......she even had me ever so slightly agreeing with Edwina currie . However I agree with her on this, David Cameron wheels out the death of his child whenever anyone dares to qurstion his policies within the NHS or treatment of people with disabilities.

The NHS is an emotive issue and I'm sure DC's sentiments about his son are genuine - you never forget the personal kindness of paediatric staff in my experience.

I saw Jack Monroe on Question Time a few months back and was not impressed.

what do you really think they sit around and say David you can use Ivan to shut up those who do not agree with us

listen to what he actually says, you can not tell me I Know

he does know the pain of having a disabled child (not the financial struggles) and also of his sons death but whatever he says there is a backlash but I do not think he can see beyond that because it is just too painful to relate to others is hard when there is unresolved issues/hurt

it is probably an area he should not get involved in but he has to because he is the PM

it is the only time you will really see him get angry you can see him seething and that I feel is genuine

David Cameron brought is his deceased child into it when he used him as a tool to shut down a question in PMQs.

Jack Monroe has called him out on it. That's all, she didn't pluck it out of the air, she was making a point using the evidence provided by David Cameron. Good for her because his behaviour was shameful.

This is the same David Cameron as I recall that personally visited a mners house during his campaign because her dc had similar condition to his son and he promised to make changes so families like hers would get more help and then didn't? No you're right he doesn't use his son at all

Yes I do think that tweets are totally comparable. They are both really nasty unpleasant comments which are designed to hurt. Just because you agree with one but not another doesn't mean that one is okay and the other isn't. One uses bad language to hurt and another uses a dead child. But they're both still hurtful and unpleasant.

I think the tweets she's been sent are horrible and unpleasant but I think she's a hypocrite because she's been trying to provoke people and now she's getting upset when she's suceeded.

Pfffft. He is angry at being challenged on his government's treatment of the NHS.

I heard him saying it. It was cynical and manipulative.

'The NHS is an emotive issue and I'm sure DC's sentiments about his son are genuine - you never forget the personal kindness of paediatric staff in my experience. '

I agree with that

BUT
as the PM he has to distance him self from his personal feelings.
he is the PM, he can't use his personal greif, to shut down debate, yet he does.
that is wrong and very unfair on the disabled people shafted by his government.

You think the illiterate, sweary and threatening tweet is comparable? Gosh that's a dim opinion!

I was watching PMQs two or three weeks ago when Cameron did this. It was breathtaking in its cynicism and arrogance.

It was also utterly effective.

Milliband shut up immediately, because even though he was making a good point, if he'd continued to press it he'd have got the same 'heartless bastard' shit that Monroe is getting from people who are deliberately or mistakenly misconstruing the comment and its context.

There needs to be a debate on the future of the NHS. I am unclear about what needs to be done so that's why I would welcome it.

If Cameron is proud of what he is doing, then why doesn't he want to talk about it?

He often gets himself out of sticky debates with this as he knows it will stop the conversation in its tracks. He is shameless in many areas of his govt so this is no surprise but it is wrong and he should be called on it.

aermingers The tweet I posted, that JM retweeted, is in no way comparable to her tweet about DC. A culture has grown up among women on twitter, of retweeting the often misogynist abuse that they come in for when they express an opinion. Hardly - what was your unpleasant phrase? - playing the poor little flower card.

Having thought about it, I do agree, OP, that 'misty eyed' is unnecessarily cruel and mocking, given that DC is grieving his son.

And yet I can't place that grief comfortably alongside his cynical and opportunistic use of his son's life in debates, either.

I think I agree with her.

Cameron is in a position to help other families and children who are in the same position he was several years ago. And the impression I get is that he could not give a shiny shit about them. The Tories are cutting services and making their life harder. But, when he was challenged on this in the HoC he used his son to halt any further discussion.