To be enjoying this downfall?

[konfetto]

So today someone has released a new video outlining the chef/campaigner Jack Monroe's many many lies AND it was announced today that one of her previous donors has been successful in getting her summoned to court to address an unpaid CCJ. As someone who has been irritated by her obvious lies for years I can't deny I'm so happy word is getting out!

@24KaratCucumber She was outspoken and eloquent on Question Time and other media outlets. Her first recipe books are excellent. Her Twitter feed used to be passionate and thought provoking, and spoke truth to power. Yes, it's all gone badly wrong, but I'm not prepared to delight in her downfall.

What do you feel about the fact that she's received a lot of money from people and which she never then used for the reason she claimed to need it for? You know, the scamming thieving part of her MO?

Interesting.

So no proof of activism or any good she's done anyone.

Just she's was a bit good on one TV appearance.
'spoke truth to power' whilst being a useful idiot to those in power by supporting austerity, being paid by Tories and promoted by right wing press and telling the Tories people only need £20 a week to live on and putting pressure on women to cook better with no money.

Yeah, no. That's not good enough.

No matter how awful someone is, it is nasty to enjoy their downfall...don't lower yourself to their level as atm you are.

She spoke at an event I was at and was really good at explaining how inflexible and expensive childcare contributes to poverty and prevents women working. She spoke really well and movingly about her experience as a single mum.

It's clear she now has some mental health issues.

I respectfully disagree. I hear her perpetuating the myth that if you just shop a bit wiser, cook a bit differently, stop being reckless you too can feed your family a nutritious and satiating diet

her recipes actually demonstrate that you can’t. The few I’ve tried simply did not work, and were not adequate to sustain anyone

It's not nice to revel in someone's downfall no.
But I'll save my sympathy for the people who have been taken in by her over the years. Her victims. Because however she likes to play it, the victim isn't her.

I do remember she posted about a £10 (or might have been £20) shop and how it could be done. Then revealed that her extensive larder made up the rest of the ingredients and her point was completely pointless.

And has a wealth of expensive items that are always miraculously gifted to her or she has found. Personally if my friend was unable to afford shower gel or lightbulbs I wouldn’t be buying them an expensive neon sign for their wall…….

Ah but you can't mention anything negative she's done as you're then being 'hateful and damaging' to her MH. Despite how gleefully she is nasty about other people and not giving a shit about their MH!

@Handsnotwands actually, I have several recipes I use on a regular basis from her books. And they are easy to follow and not intimidating for a novice cook. But obviously she has screwed up in a BIG way. Don't enjoy delighting in anyone's downfall, though.

She was outspoken and eloquent on Question Time and other media outlets. Her first recipe books are excellent. Her Twitter feed used to be passionate and thought provoking, and spoke truth to power. Yes, it's all gone badly wrong, but I'm not prepared to delight in her downfall.

You see, it's this sort of minimising of what she's done which is probably firing people up to delight in her downfall. Saying 'it's all gone badly wrong' implies that she's just been unlucky, or made a couple of minor slip ups.

That's not the case. JM is a liar and a scammer. She begs for money off people under false pretences and then blocks them if they dare to ask if the money is being used as she claimed it would be. She admits she's spent crazy amounts on furniture and booze while pleading poverty and that she can't afford shower gel

It's very damaging to those in genuine poverty (and to those with disabilities and mental health issues) when someone uses those factors as an excuse for being an arsehole.

I’m enjoying this spectacular fall from grace. She’s absolutely deplorable.
I hope HMRC start asking questions about the grifted income, her company was struck off Companies House for not filing accounts.

Sorry I haven't read the whole thread but what's the problem with jack Monroe. I have only known anout her ages ago when she was doing cheap recipes to help those of us who are skint. Does she not do that anymore?

She’s a chancer and you’re seeing people taken in by her flagrant idiocy get buyer’s remorse and try to defend said idiocy after the fact.

It’s hilarious.

She's a scammer and a liar. Her backstory is full of holes and she grifts unearned income from the public on the back of her made up poverty whilst also admitting she spends people's money on expensive furniture and other tat. The last book she published was full of dangerous and stupid tips and inedible recipes.

Grifting aside, I've never understood how her terrible recipes "help people". If you're skint, why not avail of the thousands of free recipes online by actual chefs and food writers too numerous to mention? I was once a skint single mum who loved cooking and the internet was a vast treasure trove for me, supplemented with a few books. Why would I go near her tasteless slop when I had Jamie and Nigel and the BBC Good Food archives?!

In fact the focus on food poverty alone struck me as odd because in my experience the biggest obstacle if you're a single working mum is affordable accommodation. Food is cheaper than was for our grandparents, even after inflation. I suspect she never went near that subject because her family are wealthy landlords.

Her major backstory is that she also grew up in poverty, which is also clearly not true. Her family have pots of money and her parents have a large house in Thorpe Bay. Her grandfather was wealthy.
She has no clue about poverty. She just regurgitates others stories.

I've been reading up on a few things and I don't understand why she's told so many lies? Never mind the taking people's money under false pretences, she's lied and lied about events in her life which didn't happen and made things up to try and prove how poor she was. It's mad. How did she think she'd get away with it?

@malificent7 , lowering to her level? Give over. I'm laughing and "slagging her off" (does it count if it's just the truth?) from a distance.

She has coldly lied and scammed people out of money. She has lied to gain pity, to make people scared to question her outlandish lies and turn on those who dare, to get money out of people some of whom are actually struggling, to be paraded round as the pretty and acceptable face of the deserving poor.

She's a criminal.

@Meansz
"Sorry I haven't read the whole thread but what's the problem with jack Monroe."

A short history.

Jack has 2 parents who are also foster careers. Her dad was awarded an honour for services to foster caring, he was also a firefighter.
Jack worked in a call centre for the fire service on a very good wage for a 20(or so)year old.
She got pregnant by a 'Friend'
She wanted to change hours, Fireservice said No. She quit that job in protest.
Her kids dad moved in with her to help whilst kid was small.

Whilst you get Jack tried to be a photographer, failed. A seamstress, failed. A local councillor involved in politics, failed.

During this time she was unemployed.
Started a blog about budget recipes.
Was poting on Facebook about make up and such under her birth surname.

Her blog got spotted.
It played into the hands of anti austerity types and those with middle class guilt that enjoy playing poor. She became the face of poverty.

She claims her parents didn't know and she don't tell them... These are people remember that made a name for themselves for fostering kids in dire need, but they're supposedly so monstrous she couldn't confide in them.

At some point she walks into a job for the local paper.

She may or may not have used a food bank once.

After the period of self inflicted poverty, her stories of those times change. At one point she claimed she was so poor she sold her kids toys. But she also invited all the local mums around for dinner.
She claimed she sold her light bulbs, but posted about beauty products on Facebook groups under her birth surname.
She claimed she did sex work... But deleted that post.
She claimed her GP diagnosed her with autism, when someone poi ted out that it isn't a go that will diagnose it, she said that actually she was diagnosed as a kid BUT HER MUM DIDNT TELL HER....(so her mum's a bit shit then?)

Fast forward to recent times.

She released a blog saying she was still broke, commonly called Hunger Hurts 2.
Claimed she is melting soap to make shower gel.. and a load of other nonsense. Unfortunately for her in the photos she posts on social media anyone with a brain can see her house is stuffed to the brim with expensive furniture... Even in the kitchen she had 6 or so stools worth £££ each.

She claimed at one point to be working on a price inflation index for cheap food. Nicknamed the 'Vimes Boot Index'
Nigella Lawson tweeted about it. This got Jack several Patreon suppprters... (Note.. no Comes Boot Index' has ever materialised)

Patreon - at one time she had over 700 patreons. Now it's under 450.
Her lowest tier is £3.50 a month. Her highest tier is £44 a month.
If you multiply £3.50 X number of patreons, let's say 500 that gives minimum monthly income of: £1750 a month.
Times £44 a month gives £22000 a month income.
If reality is somewhere in the middle, say £12000 a month, that's a a huge amount of money given to her by other people.
She doesn't fulfil patreon rewards either... Hasn't for 2 years.
So she's getting several thousand pounds a month for nothing.

Isn Jan this year she did an article for The Guardian and admitted she spent that donated money on drink, drugs and sideboards.

And still people wonder why others call her a scammer...

And that doesn't even cover half.. like teemill,.Kickstarter, libel fund and begging for donation to fix website that never got fixed...

Agreed. Obtaining money by deception is literally the definition of fraud. She's a criminal.

The fact she's made a few good arguments is irrelevant.

And the whole "you can feed yourself on £1.50 a month" thing is a harmful narrative that plays into the hands of the right wing.

👏👏👏

Just out of curiosity @CurlewKate which recipes do you use? Even when I first saw some of her recipes via the Guardian, I was not convinced by them. Plus the portion sizes always seemed tiny.

Is there a way to watch the video? It seems to be offline now 😕

@SweetSakura , that is exactly it! She has been held up as "see, where there's a will there's a way (and gosh she's so perky while doing it!)" when she never actually had to walk the walk.

It hurts to be a parent properly on the bones of your arse. It's anxiety and guilt inducing.