Lee Anderson, Ashfield MP insists Jack Monroe has made a fortune on the backs of the poor.

[newnamethanks]

AIBU to hope for a libel trial as entertaining as Vardy v Rooney and an outcome that rivals the Katy Hopkins debacle?

There seems to be quite a few people that have tried most of her recipes before deciding that they don't like them. How else would they know that they are mostly bad? Surely after the first two or three you give up...

I've tried a few, and the ones I have used, I've mostly made more than once because the family enjoyed them. So much so that when my kids went to university, they both got in touch asking for the recipes.

I agree with this and I can remember being that child. It was certainly true that if we didn't eat what was on the table there was little else usually but the notion that kids therefore ate better isn't true.

Women with little money don't buy "crap" because they are ignorant and stupid but because its within their budget and they know it will be eaten.

Women in past eras have been berated for buying chips (end of frying batch cheaper than making your own) and bread (again cheaper than making it), both the cheap fillers of their day.

@HarlanPepper can you explain what you mean when you say she's 'a force for good'? I see quite bit of this when there's no actual evidence to back it up, but people say it because they're vaguely aware of her work and take everything she says at face value. She's a liar and a grifter, from what I can make out, much of which is evidenced in the thread.

I've had mixed success with her recipes, some have been great, some not so much. The 'Kindanara' from Veganish (involving blitzing a sauce that contained an entire raw onion) I should have known better than to try. It was horrible. But her vegan bakewell tart recipe was amazing, and there have been a few other decent ideas I've tried from elsewhere.

She's a force for her own financial good.

As ana activist, she scarce.leaves her kitchen rarely, if ever, actually visits food banks to help with donations and package collating. Sneers at the poor as evidenced with the 'Jeremy Kyle' quote above. Claims to 'Give books away' when it's proven that actually donations pay for those books and she gets money from each sold.
It's all there n black and white, people swallow it up though.
Trying to prove the truth to some people is like trying to prove the globe to a flat earther. They won't listen and you'll get annoyed at their hand waving away of evidence.

@ermagerdabear Come on. The 'evidence' has all been extensively thrashed out in this thread, I'm not going through it again. If you've taken against someone, no argument in their favour will satisfy you. That's how these things go.

@HarlanPepper yes, that's kind of my point. How is someone who takes money off a person on Carers Allowance for a non existent court case a 'force for good'?

I'd never seen Tattle.life before this thread and that's an unpleasant rabbit hole that I never want to go down again.

What a lot of effort on tearing someone down. Perhaps all these people could go and volunteer at a food bank with all their spare time, or even just go and buy some stuff for it.

What a lot of effort on tearing someone down. Perhaps all these people could go and volunteer at a food bank with all their spare time, or even just go and buy some stuff for it

How do you know they don't?

Maybe it's because they do those things and live in poverty that it drives them to pointing out the lies and nonsense of someone who pretends to be poor?
You don't know the back story of anyone on there after a few minutes read, you can't possibly.
If you don't like seeing the contradictions of Jack, the lies of Jack, the nonsense taht is spewed to perpetuate the myth of Jack, that's up to you, but you need to own it and accept it.

Yep. I remember reading a book about low income women looking after their families in the early 1900s, and there was a discussion in there about why they didn't give their children cheap, nutritious porridge for breakfast instead of bread. Most of them only had one pan, and limited washing facilities, meaning the pan often tasted of whatever meat or fish had last been cooked in it so the porridge wasn't very nice. The children then wouldn't eat it, so the money was in fact being more wisely spent on bread, because women in that situation needed to know all the food they bought would be eaten. But it took actually speaking to them and understanding the constraints the women were operating under to realise this. Nothing new under the sun, eh?

Tell me how someone who has experienced poverty, understands nutritious cooking, and is a good food writer, would create a recipe where you wash the sauce off baked beans to use the beans in a tomato and bean soup? Absolutely staggering lack of thinking there.

But I’m sure it’s fine that she takes money off vulnerable, generous people who have experienced or are experiencing poverty and feel bad for her and her kid, while she does absolutely nothing for the money, because “she’s a force for good in the world”.

(Plus, as PPs have said, she doesn’t need a medal for having free recipes online - literally every single recipe online is free, including loads by every major food writer.)

agreed - it seems to me that she has no understanding of real poverty from the evidence above. As a single mum who has lived on benefits, it doesn’t go down well with me to see a wealthy person pretending to be poor.

Also many of the people paying into her patreon and to her personal PayPal presumably want to help those in need. Funds are therefore being diverted from the poorest in society. Hardly a “force for good”.

I think people forget that she has a financial interest on driving traffic to her website. The good banks are doing her a favour by promoting her website.

She isn’t giving them access to something no one else has. The food banks basically promote her website

She literally lives off poor people in the main.
People who believe her and are in a similar position and share what little money they have with her and she's been doing this for years.
It's sick.

When she was first in the media I liked her, someone in a similar position to me, I bought her first book and thought the recipes were good, I made quite a few and enjoyed them, but as time has gone on it's clear it's all just a grift.

She leeches off the poor and poverty. She literally has no shame but there’s always some gullible twits who will big her up. She’s a darling of the Guardian and many of their readers, who funnily enough actually can’t stand a lot of the poor people in the U.K. and sneer at the ‘Jeremy Kyle watchers’ just like Monroe does.

I post occasionally on Tattle life.

I volunteer and help with food banks. Unlike Jack.

I also bulk buy stuff when I can see it’s needed….also unlike Jack. This included Easter Eggs for Easter because why shouldn’t a child have a chocolate egg.

Try reading the Wiki…it might open your eyes to the reality of her.

@Tigofigo Based on celebrities with a similar profile, atleast 6 figures. A good six figures.

"Tell me how someone who has experienced poverty, understands nutritious cooking, and is a good food writer, would create a recipe where you wash the sauce off baked beans to use the beans in a tomato and bean soup? Absolutely staggering lack of thinking there."

The idea is that the sauce is full of sugar and salt so unhealthy. Washing the sauce off baked beans is cheaper than buying a tin of white beans. I get the logic.

They do add iron to the sauce though. All those Heinz foods have added iron.

But the sauce tastes nice, adds calories, and is generally liked by children (unlike tinned-tomato-and-washed-bean soup), not to mention the fact that most recipes for tomato soup would involve putting salt and sugar in anyway.

It’s such performative stuff (sugar and salt bad!) and shows clearly that she doesn’t know poverty or food very well.

"But the sauce tastes nice"

Unhealthy things often taste nice.

"adds calories"

British people have an overweight and obesity problem. It's worse in low income people so I don't see 'add calories' as a positive personally for the average person in the target audience.

"most recipes for tomato soup would involve putting salt and sugar in anyway"

not as much though I think, usually 'add sugar to counter the acidity if necessary' and 'season to taste'.

"performative stuff (sugar and salt bad!)"

Well, sugar and salt is bad...

I do understand all the general criticisms of her by the way, but I think washing the sauce off baked beans is actually a good idea. I personally buy the low sugar, low salt ones, but I suppose they're more expensive.

Yep- I'm not keen on either of them but Anderson is the one taking 300k of state money annually - JM only makes if people are prepared to offer'contributions' or pay for features etc.

He's an opportunistic yobbo , and his suggestions are patronising to women struggling to manage - he hasn't factored in so many things- I'm fascinated at his 30 p meals -- and if his government- the one he is part of hadn't been so busy causing price mayhem by leaving the EU (see reports today by independents- 80% is caused by Brexit) if they hadn't been leaving private rental housing benefit well below what private rentals actually are in many parts of the country , put rent controls in and if they had actually got a grip on more affordable housing of all types and sizes and stopped selling off social housing - then we wouldn't need to be dictating and mansplaining who can have food from food banks !!!! Because we wouldn't need them.

Yep- I'm not keen on either of them but Anderson is the one taking 300k of state money annually - JM only makes if people are prepared to offer'contributions' or pay for features etc.

he’s a twat but you do realise that that money is to pay the salaries of his staff, right?

Do you think that when beans are cooked in sauce that they somehow magically manage to not absorb some of the salt and sugar in the sauce? Yes, the sugar / salt content is quite high, but the sauce also contains some essential nutrients that we need so why wash it off? I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t season their food - a stew without any salt would be almost inedible!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/are-baked-beans-healthy

www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/are-baked-beans-healthy

Buying a tin of beans and immediately throwing away up to a third of the contents is extremely poor food management whatever way you look at it.

from the link above:
If you're buying baked beans, it's worth keeping an eye on the salt and sugar content. On average, half a can of shop-bought baked beans can contain around 9g of sugar (10% of the daily reference intake) and up to 1.3g of salt, which is about 20% of the daily reference intake. According to NHS guidelines, a portion of 80g (cooked weight) beans and pulses, approximately 3 heaped tablespoons, makes up one of your five-a-day. Nutritionally speaking, beans (typically haricot or cannellini) are a good source of plant-based protein and are high in fibre, as well as being low in fat and calories. They also contain minerals such as iron and zinc, and are a good source of B vitamins such as folate. Including beans and pulses in your diet is also associated with a lower cardiovascular risk and may help balance blood sugar levels. Shop-bought baked beans (canned in tomato sauce) are a quick, easy and cost-effective snack or component of a meal, but don’t forget they have added ingredients including salt and sugar. Typically, about a third of the can contents is tomato sauce, which is rich in lycopene – a protective carotenoid that's associated with a lower risk of heart disease