Labour supporter Jack Monroe defects to Green Party

[Gumbo Robot]

That's the Richard Littlejohn version ...

Dear Richard Littlejohn, here’s some polish for that turd. | JACK MONROE: COOK, CAMPAIGNER, GUARDIAN COLUMNIST, MOTHER, AUTHOR, ETC.

Which can't be that wide of the mark otherwise she'd be suing him for libel surely?

[d000hg]

As you point out though D000hg however is wrong as usual,.

Nope. I said she had experience living on benefits and amongst others who struggle to make ends meet. Which is true, regardless if she chose that path or was forced down it.

[pjclarke]

It hardly contradicts Littlejohns attack on her. She is still an "entitled" leftie

I didn’t sail out of the door for a life on benefits, I left to find a job closer to home, with better hours more suited to bringing up a young child alone. It took 18 months for me to find that job, and hundreds of applications, but I did it. And that’s what sticks in your craw, isn’t it? Because in order to satisfy the stereotype that you peddle day in day out in the rag currently lining my ferret cage, I should have stayed feckless and unemployed, and not tried to feed myself and my son decent nutritious meals, nor had the audacity to write about it.

She still left her job and let the state pay for her. It wasn't even as if she was made redundant.

Ah, so on Dodgy/Mail/Littlejohn island, anyone in a job must stay in it, even when family circumstances make it impossible? And nobody should have children until they're totally financially independent. For the record she has paid taxes her whole life, other than 13 months unemployment. Seems to me this is exactly the sort of thing the welfare state is there for ...

Monroe says it was her own circumstances that made her political, rather than the other way round. There’s a lengthy post on her blog explaining exactly why she was forced to leave the fire brigade but it was so far from “choosing a life on benefits” as to be laughable. “I loved that job and my colleagues, so I didn’t want to badmouth it, but when people say that I quit my job to live on benefits, that’s just so untrue.”

The problem was that no one would look after a child during her night shifts — which were hard to predict, week-to-week. Jonny’s father helped as far as he could but her attempts to negotiate flexible working hours and alternative positions came to nothing. “It was such a complicated situation. I know that not everyone needs childcare for shift work — but some of us do. He was being passed round from pillar to post. Poor kid. I was very young when I had him, so I didn’t think a lot about how I’d cope but I knew it was inherently wrong to foist your kid on other people the whole time. I think it’s partly ’cos my parents are foster carers, so I grew up with children who’d had disjointed and traumatic upbringings. I saw the damage that had done. I was just so scared that my precious darling boy would end up like that.”

The stress eventually caused her to overdose on sleeping pills and beta blockers. “I woke up in Southend Hospital and thought: that’s enough. This has to stop.” She says the overdose wasn’t an accident. “I maintained that it was for quite a while to friends and family ’cos I didn’t want social services to get involved. It was a low point one-off as I just couldn’t see an end to it all. So it’s hurtful to see it reported that I chose to live on benefits.

[DodgyAgent]

Ah, so on Dodgy/Mail/Littlejohn island, anyone in a job must stay in it, even when family circumstances make it impossible? And nobody should have children until they're totally financially independent. For the record she has paid taxes her whole life, other than 13 months unemployment. Seems to me this is exactly the sort of thing the welfare state is there for ...

I agree with you. It is exactly what the state is for. I just don't like the tone of her left wing entitlement manner. She is fortunate that there are enough hard working people and in particular risk takers that generate the wealth that enable people like her to benefit in times of hardship. Can they bring themselves to show gratitude to people (like you) who pay a lot of tax by being engaged in the free market of buying and selling goods from one another? No they usually align themselves with left wing parties who strip as much as they can from the endeavours of others and do their level best to kill aspirations of those who might themselves want to become entrepreneurs.

[pjclarke]

Which can't be that wide of the mark otherwise she'd be suing him for libel surely?

What planet are you on? No legal aid for libel, and you need a solicitor ....

[d000hg]

JM is now a (presumably) wealthy woman with several income streams that stem from an entrepreneurial spirit. Being on benefits allowed her the ability to become an aspirational, self-made woman of whom the Tories would like more of us to aspire to.

[vetran]

JM is now a (presumably) wealthy woman with several income streams that stem from an entrepreneurial spirit. Being on benefits allowed her the ability to become an aspirational, self-made woman of whom the Tories would like more of us to aspire to.

well that's her & JK Rowling then.

The point being made by me was she was probably going to have an epiphany and realise some people her taxes help may not be worthy of help and uncontrolled low end immigration almost certainly made it more difficult to find work. The NHS needs reorganising because they are pouring away money. So most of the policies she objects to are related directly to her actions.

I would like to have enough spare money to give decent money to the deserving. Those that quit their job on a whim aren't deserving IMHO.

Interesting no one has asked why the Fire Brigade didn't grant flexible working to a lesbian single mother? I would of thought most of their HR department would be screaming don't mess her about she will have us in front of a tribunal.

[Gumbo Robot]

What planet are you on? No legal aid for libel, and you need a solicitor ....

You think she can't afford a lawyer with what her frequent diatribes in the Guardian must be coining in for her?

[SueEllen]

Interesting no one has asked why the Fire Brigade didn't grant flexible working to a lesbian single mother? I would of thought most of their HR department would be screaming don't mess her about she will have us in front of a tribunal.

While you have the right to ask for flexible working the employer can refuse if there is a good reason.

People who work in public services are normally in a union so the reason for the refusal must have been a good one.

Also lots of organisation (and you don't even have to be an employee to benefit from this) do go out of their way to help carers of young and disabled children but this doesn't include changing working hours including shift rotas.

[d000hg]

For all we know she blogged about why she had to leave, though I can't be bothered to search. She does come across as extremely centred and focused on putting her child first, to an extent I'm not sure is healthy but which must resonate with many, many mothers.