Jack Monroe again

[scabbers44]

Has anyone seen the recent tweet about her pawning/selling three diamond engagement rings? Aibu to think if you are pleading poverty and asking the general public to donate money one week and then showing off pictures of three massive diamonds you own the next, it's never going to go down well? Especially when you are already being challenged on lying and grifting?

For a long time I thought JM was nothing but a force of a good but I can't understand how she can be so tone deaf. It can't be deliberate but equally how can she not realise how it looks to produce three huge rings just a week after claiming she's so skint she needs handouts.

Apologies if there's already a thread on this.

I used to quite like Jack until I started paying attention.
Shameless grifter.

Honestly, just stop with that. There were about 3 people on the last thread being called Jack. Someone can have stupid opinions without being Jack Monroe.

Back in the 70s, which was a really shite time for many folk, the BBC nightly news programme Nationwide did a feature every week about the cost of basic food items.

Valerie Singleton was the presenter. The format was a shopping basket of basic goods, such as a pint of milk, a loaf of bread etc and the price changes were shown every single week.

so there is absolutely nothing new or original about Jack suggesting a food poverty index. Her parents are old enough to remember the Nationwide Shopping Basket.

There seems to have been a lot of scrutiny since that account popped up on twitter a few weeks ago but honestly from reading all of the inconsistencies (pretty much all Jack's own words in screenshots) she needs to stop asking people for money.

She's clearly a great storyteller and is economical with the truth, and if she wants to do that then fine but if you're deliberately misrepresenting your financial situation to guilt trip people into giving you money then that's not OK.

If people are struggling and so following her advice you can make recipes for all the 80p meals you want (even though they aren't actually that cost as you can't buy half a washer of bacon or whatever) but then if you're taking a minimum of £3 a month off these poor people for what seems like fuck all benefit then they are actually worse off. Save your £3 and buy better food or soap with it.

There’s plenty of other people who have done cheap recipes better - Miguel Barclay for example.

And his food is appetising.

It's not as if you can buy a Bootstrap Cook carrier bag to go to the food bank and most of her recipes are online so her income mainly comes from donations from people who can afford it.

She definitely had an online shop at one point.

The shop is down at the moment (presumably because of the website redesign) but one of the main things her full time employee did (no idea if still employed) was to despatch merchandise. It mostly sells books, framed photos by her and signed stuff.

During furlough having to run the shop alone was the main reason cited for working 100 hour weeks.

Thanks RomeoMcFlourish Scepticalwotsits and everyone for the Patreon information.

Years ago I remember reading an interview with her in which she described being very upset because she paid for a tattoo of her grandmother's name and her grandmother thought it was a waste of money. She doesn't come across as being suited to a lifestyle in which she gets a lot of attention but she also seems to need the attention to feel validated.

I must admit her cookery skills are lacking. Watching her butcher a basic white sauce on tv in lockdown was awful, it looked like white water. The chef on the show(can’t remember his name) looked horrified.

The real thing with the Patreon is that despite having over 800 subscribers and promising content/merch for said subscription, JM hasn't sent a single thing, not even to address why a single thing hasn't been sent out, since the autumn of 2020. She is literally receiving monthly donations for absolutely fuck all return.

If she received £3k a month for actually doing something, then fair play. Countless twitter users have asked her why she continues to promote this platform and indeed the return she makes from it per month given there is fuck all provided as an incentive, which is more or less the point of a Patreon, and she steadfastly refuses to engage or address the very salient point.

Me? I didn’t mention any specific food bank! I’m fairly sure I’m not Jack Monroe.

Yes, and when asked questions about cheaper substitutes for things like (say) bacon, she couldn't....

Forgot to add thanks for the info about the shop donquixotedelamancha. I obviously underestimated her business interests!

Interesting how her patreon increases when she creates a twitter “attack” eg the hoops thing

I understand that she doesn’t have sole custody or even main custody of her son. I’m a single mum and we need good role models and public figures so her faux poverty thing annoys me on that basis too.

Someone changed their Twitter banner pic to a close up of spaghetti hoops after that little contretemps.

She doesn’t though imo. She does the opposite. Drowns out the voice of the genuinely poor with nonsense about selling lightbulbs and washing spaghetti. It seems like a career for her - being the acceptable middle class face of poverty all the while having millionaire parents, diamond rings and Tracey Emin original artworks.

i find that deeply offensive. I want to hear genuine voices speaking up on behalf of those in poverty. Pretending to be poor is not a career imo.

I don’t have any personal animosity towards her but I don’t want to see her grifting from the poor on food banks websites or tv. She needs to be honest about who she is imo.

Yes @KarlWrenbury - defend, attack, play victim - it’s getting formulaic now.

plus I found the utter outrage they created around the spaghetti hoops recipe was convenient timing as too many people were asking where the money had gone for Patreon, the PayPal donations for the Lee Anderson court case, the PayPal link on the mammoth begging blog post (despite Jack seemingly wanting people to give to trussel trust…yeah right)…

I really don't get all the hate. Many people add paypal links eg musicians that I follow, for donations - they play the music, you enjoy and contribute if you can. It's not compulsory. Jack has been posting her recipes free online for years but apparently it's fine to not pay for this service according to MN. Mumsnet has recently gone v cf-ery with its payable "premium" no ads feature but that's ok apparently....
I've been a supporter of her from the start. Yes, she has ups and downs in life (and is v open and honest about it all) like many of us. Her tv etc work isn't ongoing so I'm guessing she gets paid in bits here and there which makes life difficult to budget when you're not receiving a regular guaranteed income.
I honestly don't get the vitriol she experiences on here.

Oh righty ho 👍🏿Whatever you say ‘Donqix’ but my post wasn’t really about JM’s use of sock puppets - but the assertion by Floretta B that JM aka Melissa is still utilising a foodbank 🙄

Forgot to add thanks for the info about the shop donquixotedelamancha.

Most welcome. Actually the book shop is still there.

What's interesting is that she's removed the website adverts in the redesign. Given the traffic the website gets that's not a trivial amount to forego.

Possibly they will return once it's finished or perhaps she's decided the better user experience will mean more users, so more donations, which will make more money in the long run. I actually think the latter is a smart choice because she clearly has a lot of people willing to support her brand so her direct PayPal donations may be as much as her patreon.

I obviously underestimated her business interests!

We'll, in fairness, I don't know how successful it was and how much was bullshit.

That said (even if she's pissed all the book money and the 70k she raised for legal action, for which she was awarded costs) she must be on a bare minimum of 50k a year. She still sells books (getting a double cut when sold through her site), has that 30k+ patreon and writes several articles a year.

Whatever you say ‘Donqix’ but my post wasn’t really about JM’s use of sock puppets - but the assertion by Floretta B that JM aka Melissa is still utilising a foodbank

Don't get me wrong, I don't disagree or have any right to police your post- it just made the last thread very dull with all the "you're JM, no you are" stuff.

’I want to hear genuine voices speaking up on behalf of those in poverty.’

I agree. Unfortunately we don’t get to hear them often and when we do they’re often anonymised to protect people’s privacy. I understand why. You only have to look at the threads on here where people are struggling to see the attitude they get alongside the genuine helpful suggestions and links. The whole, ‘Well you can’t be that poor if you can afford X.’ The media likes a recognisable face. Anyone who speaks will be subject to intense scrutiny. At least with JM she welcomes the attention.

Food banks workers speak out, campaigners speak out and it’s just ignored. The Tories still roll out the ‘feckless poor’ line they’ve been using for centuries. The public still seems to lap it up even though most of the people struggling do work and are still left in a situation where they need help to feed their children.

She should have sold her diamonds before grifting

Oh, I see. I meant that JM is invited onto tv to challenge politicians and does. My fault for being vague. I don’t know if she uses food banks and
I don’t really care.