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

Wow, he either has serious alcohol or anger problems

She'd need to write a lot of articles explaining why she married him. He's unhinged and can't write.

It's strange that he doesn't consider campaigning for a much needed law is "stoical". I'd disagree and say it shows great stoicism.

An irredeemable POS.

Shows how low The Times have sunk, too.

Absolutely this. He’s a horrible man.

Yes, wonder if they get together for Christmas? To be a fly on the wall would be interesting!

Jesus! I thought you know he's a massive cock obviously but I thought he was at least smooth about it. Wow.

Giles is a cock who makes outrageous remarks because he has nothing vaguely interesting to say.

Natasha's law has undoubtedly saves 100's of lives already.

TBH he comes over as an arrogant, patronising idiot with small man syndrome and very little talent.

but that’s what he’s saying that’s his opinion, it is an opinion piece. You don’t have to agree it’s not like compulsory or mandatory.

His brother in law is Alexander Armstrong, who I’ve always thought was pretty sound. Giles must get a pasting

I think he gets along very well with his wider family from what I’ve seen and heard.

Everyone’s entitled to an opinion and everyone is entitled to say if they find someone else’s opinion repugnant. Some opinions add very little but upset to the world.

He wrote about being sexually attracted to his child? Not enough WTFs in the world.

And his other brother-in-law is David Mitchell who I think must be quite hard work to live with, but not actively a massive arsehole. I hope they gang up on him regularly.

No. It is the laboured, studiously calculated sense of banal, pub bore outrage where obviously he doesn't really care that makes it so awful. Is it possible to be tedious and outrageous? Giles Coren shows us how even in field populated by posho journalists that he is thoroughly third rate, in both spirit and execution.

It's weird that a parent would say that kind of thing. Perhaps he is so smug and thinks that nothing similar could ever happen to one of his children. I hope it doesn't, but If it did he might find himself suddenly transformed from the a-hole that he currently is into someone who campaigns with all his might to make sure that other parents don't have to endure the same emotional torment.

He's got a point though. Why on earth would you buy takeaway food if the tiniest mistake in the ingredients means certain death? Baffling.

I said YANBU but really YABU to care what GC says about anything. He is deliberately hurtful and I am sorry he got to you

But if you take that approach you could apply that to everything other than stuff you have grown and reared and prepared from scratch...

Food is such a huge part of society and missing out is hugely isolating.

It's easy to judge until you live that life.

Plus any one of us could get nasty food poisoning from a restaurant and die. Or die in a crash on the way to the restaurant. Life is full of risks and judgement calls about how to balance them.

(My children have allergies and I take a very cautious approach to eating out but the reality is that huge numbers of social occasions etc revolve around food and eating out and I do try and eat out a bit to help model choosing good restaurants and flagging allergies to the staff etc)

I don’t think Giles ever made this point though. [And for what it’s worth I am always extremely cautious about my daughter consuming any food that I haven’t prepared for her]. His point was that bereaved parents engaging in legal activism is a “hysterical” reaction to their child’s preventable death, and that instead they should be dignified and stoic.

So don’t read it?

Or read it and disagree with it, which is what this thread is doing?

He is unbearably irritating and he comes across as such a wanker. How he has a column and it on TV is an utter mystery.
Put your complaint to the paper.
so sorry to hear about the difficulties you have had .
Hes an utter moron.

Well that’s true

Thanks and just confirms he’s a vacuous cunt. Again.

People who have allergies can’t be expected to live in a bubble. They have the right to safe food standards and labelling when they’re buying food. Just as you shouldn’t be grudgingly accept a bout of the shits next time you buy anything you didn’t prepare with your own clean hands 🤷🏻‍♂️