AIBU to be furious at the scorn Giles Coren shows towards grieving parents?

[AllergiesMum]

Since she was diagnosed as a toddler, DD (12) ha suffered from serious food allergies. If she consumes even a tiny fragment of a peanut she will go into anaphylactic shock and must carry an epipen at all times. She is also allergic to other nuts, eggs, and orchard fruits. Every time she attends a birthday party, play date, school trip I have to brief the supervising parent and also when she was little I had to watch her vigilantly. It has been stressful and terrifying, especially now that she is getting older and more independent although she is extremely sensible and cautious. However, so many lives have been saved thanks to the tireless activism of other parents whose children have died tragically, and specifically because of Natasha’s Law (after the death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse when her parents campaigned to change the law to demand increased transparency in the listing of ingredients for packaged food).

So it boils my blood to read in The Times today, Giles Coren’s column about how “baffled” he is that parents who’ve lost a child campaign against the “terrible 10,000 to 1 piece of bad luck that killed them.” As an allergies parent, unlike the contemptible Mr Coren, I have the utmost respect for grieving parents who lose a child to a preventable death and then try to save others from the same tragic fate.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/caitlyn-scott-lees-father-can-teach-us-all-how-to-handle-grief-jdhdspxbd

This Tweet by Guardian journalist and bereaved parent Meriope Mills (mother of Martha who died of sepsis in hospital due to catastrophic NHS failures and is campaigning for legal changes for patients to demand a second opinion from consultants) makes an important point about Giles Coren’s reaction:

”Amused that Giles (who famously went beserk at his subeditors & told a journalist "Youre a lying conniving c**t. I hope you f-king rot in hell") thinks he'd be quiet & stoical at the preventable death of his child. I guess he's just a better person than me.”

https://x.com/meropemills/status/1785320929943240790?s=46

If I called Giles Coren a talentless wankstain, I'd be insulting talentless wankstains. He wrote disturbing things about what he wanted to do to his neighbours child. He crowed about the death of a young woman. He sock puppeted antisemitic insults to himself . And that's just the stuff that's in the public domain. He's basically just a posh troll.

I’m amazed that Merope Mills is magnanimous enough to be “amused” by Giles Coren’s criticism of the activism of bereaved parents. As someone who is constantly terrified by their child’s vulnerabilities and always reminded of the fragility of her mortality, I am outraged and revolted. Giles’s column has caused much consternation and dismay among the activist community of bereaved parents on Twitter.

For instance Angela Mays, whose 22 year old daughter also died as a consequence of NHS malpractice:

”It is hard to believe that Giles Coren has ever contemplated, let alone experienced first hand the entirely avoidable death of a child through the clinical negligence/ neglect of an NHS Trust and the ensuing legal fight for truth.”

https://x.com/angelamays27/status/1785420384004706421?s=46

Giles Coren is an odious piece of shit.

Is there a share token for the article? He is the most pathetic, disgusting man I can think of and I'm loathe to give his crappy excuse for journalism any clicks but as an allergy parent too I'd like to read it and complain if necessary to the Times.

Grade A wanker.

It was probably Coren himself who posted that, he absolutely would hang around on Mumsnet describing himself as disturbingly sexually alluring. But since we all read the piece in which he talked about how sexy he found his three year old daughter, we're suitably repulsed by him. Also, the 'sex scene' in his novel that earned him the Bad Sex Award. What a revolting little creep he is!

He is inadequate and horrible to judge from his writing. Sounds like little has changed from this latest bid for attention.

I can't stand him for many reasons. But imagine my horror when I heard him being righteously angry and articulate about corporal punishment on Times Radio. I suppose it's stopped clock syndrome.

Giles Coren is a twat who makes his living saying obnoxious things to deliberately upset people. Don't waste your energy being angry about it, it's exactly what he wants. He's an irrelevant arse so don't give his pathetic opinions any headspace.

@nothingcomestonothing and @SheFellThroughTheIce what the actual fuck? 😱

Here we go. Read with caution.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4395892-Read-this-sex-scene-from-Giles-Coren-s-failed-novel

Sadly this thread probably works for him. More clicks on his article.

Please don't let that awful person ruin your day. He's got a bit of him missing, the bit that can appreciate the pain of others. Quite possibly he enjoys writing what he does. Over the past few years he's been ridiculed, called to account, lost his job at the BBC, and exposed his own sock puppet twitter account/s where he abused himself with antisemitic hatred. He's not living with any version of himself that's healthy and loving.

(I too wonder what Victoria does about him. He's a fucking nightmare. I think she's edgy enough - sometimes my eyes open a bit wide - but he's bound to have been abusive to grow up with.)

A prick filling the vacuum left by Katie Hopkins.

I daresay Giles Coren knows he is all of the things mentioned here. He makes money out of it by shite stirring to antagonise people.

He is revolting…what do his family think of him?

his wife should be mortified to love someone who thinks like this, I’m incredibly proud of my husband…I wonder is she?

his children will really disappointed and embarrassed when they are old enough to read his stuff, I doubt he cares about any legacy he’s leaving behind in print

But shite stirring bereaved parents by criticizing their activism in response to their children’s preventable deaths. Why on earth would anyone want to do that?

I’m glad Giles is no longer on TV any more.

Giles Coren is just a sad little knob with the absolute minimum of talent. Pity him, don't hate him.

His wife is also a journalist called Esther Walker. She is definitely not mortified by Giles in any way and obviously thinks her husband is a massive catch because she’s featured in the same edition in an article in which she is basically boasting about how she stalked and then seduced him.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dating-first-person-single-and-female-what-its-like-to-take-the-initiative-in-dating-nsqxxxbx7

Exactly. And there's no way that man doesn't google himself and drink deep from the well of hatred. He's completely broken.

This has made me laugh more than anything I’ve seen recently on Mn.

Why are you using ‘dwarf’ as an insult?

You’re as bad as he is.

It’s super weird that Esther Walker, his wife, seems to be his collaborator/enabler though. She’s written a whole series of articles about why she married Giles Coren -

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3447188/amp/Marry-man-house-Love-Money-No-s-new-way-pick-husband-s-bit-unconventional.html

She makes no mention ever of him rejoicing in Dawn Foster’s death, accepting a police caution in a row about parking with one of their neighbours, or using a sock puppet Twitter account to send himself anti-Semitic abuse though.

Not just me then!