A year-to-the-day on Matthew Steeples asks: “Whatever became of the libel suit of gobby Jack Monroe v gobby Lee Anderson MP?”
Exactly a year ago to the day, on the 16th May 2022, the nauseatingly noxious ‘food poverty campaigner’ Jack Monroe promised to sue the nauseatingly noxious Tory twerp ‘30p Lee’ Lee Anderson MP for libel.
In the time since, using crowdfunding platforms and most likely the ‘tip jar’ ‘she/it’ continually bangs on about, Monroe has supposedly raked in funds to ‘support’ such an action. In one way, that would be understandable as Anderson – now quite ridiculously elevated to the position of deputy chairman of the Conservative Party – is quite frankly one of the deservedly most hated politicians in Britain; in another way, it most definitely isn’t given Monroe is equally grating and grim. Here is a case where, most definitely, both sides deserve to lose.
As she trended this morning on Twitter, I asked: “Exactly a year ago, gobby campaigner Jack Monroe promised legal against gobby Tory MP ‘30p Lee’ Lee Anderson. She supposedly crowdfunded to aid her in this ‘endeavour’ but no filing appears to have been made. Should she come clean and return funds raised?” By 11:30am on Tuesday 16th May 2023, the very, very clear majority of the 536 responses to date, 65.1% in fact, were unsurprisingly: “Yes; outrageous behaviour.” Another 25.7% took the view: “Yes; it was just a stunt.”
I’m left with just one question: “Isn’t it time Jack Monroe explained herself and isn’t it time ‘she/it’ explained what has happened to money given in good faith towards a libel action against Lee Anderson that has still failed to materialise?”
Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
Exactly a year ago, gobby campaigner Jack Monroe promised legal against gobby Tory MP '30p Lee' Lee Anderson. She supposedly crowdfunded to aid her in this 'endeavour' but no filing appears to have been made. Should she come clean and return funds raised? https://t.co/5Olbmwq2PS
This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “Exactly a year ago, gobby campaigner Jack Monroe promised legal against gobby Tory MP ‘30p Lee’ Lee Anderson. She supposedly crowdfunded to aid her in this ‘endeavour’ but no filing appears to have been made. Should she come clean and return funds raised?” By 11:30am on Tuesday 16th May 2023, the very, very clear majority of responses were unsurprisingly: “Yes; outrageous behaviour.”
In a video uploaded to YouTube on 20th May 2022 by the media outlet ‘Tortoise’ featuring an interview with her, Monroe enthusiastically declared: “I have instructed libel proceedings. I am limited to what I can say in public about that whole situation now… It is on the record… I am, I am sending a legal letter letting him know that what he said was libelous and defamatory and has contributed to the downfall of what I have, what I have of a ‘reputation.’ And that he might want to reconsider his stance publicly and to all the agitators and instigators of that… I have instructed lawyers and we are in touch. Unfortunately, my lawyer decided to go off and get married this week; it’s a bit rude. Yeah, it’s been being planned for a few years, but he could have timed it better.”Social media users reacted to the threat of the libel action issued during the ‘Tortoise’ interview by making comments that included: “So, Jack Monroe has initiated legal action against Anderson and Daubney? (11 min) Yet they confirm receiving no letter before action. She’s a complete fraud and should run out of the charitable sector, as well as the media.” Others added: “What a charlatan” and “I hope Lee Anderson wipes the floor with her.”Yesterday, ‘GB News’ presenter Martin Daubney stated: “Jack now needs to answer questions about the missing funds for her non-existent legal case against us.” Within two minutes, Monroe had responded: “They’re not missing; they’re exactly where they’ve always been, and I’m doing exactly what I said I’d do with it. (I’m quiet because I have a very full and pleasant life outside of Twitter!)Is there anyone Monroe doesn’t want to have a pop at? Her own family even are ‘fair game’ for her bile, it seems. In July 2020, ‘she’ declared: “My brother was in the RAF last time we spoke, a couple of Christmases ago, when he described Iain Duncan Smith as the best thing to happen to this country and told me I had chosen to have a baby outside of marriage so deserved everything I got. It’s fair to describe us as ‘estranged’ these days” in a bizarre rant about potatoes and their link to suicide.In August last year, a Monroe recipe that involved rinsing canned spaghetti hoops of their accompanying tomato sauce, microwaving, microwaving a bit more and adding butter, oil, cheese and a pinch of pepper trended on Twitter. It was hardly revolutionary, helpful or intelligently thought out and though the mouth of the south thought it amusing to call it the work of a ‘Tin Can Cook,’ all it did was make her look like a buffoon and a berk.Michael Portillo very effectively shut down the ‘Thrifty Kitchen’ author in May 2019 when he forced her to step down from supporting ‘milkshaking’ right-wing politicians by asking if she’d do the same to centrist and left-wing figures. She had to pathetically concede: “Oh, OK… I condemn it.”‘Thrifty Kitchen’ was torn to shreds when it was published in January 2023 and mocked as “complete drivel.” Ideas for using fluff and water from tumble dryers – devices that anyone cutting back on costs would have already have stopped using during the cost-of-living crisis given how expensive they are to operate – were slammed as were Monroe’s thoughts on towels. To save money, the whack job stated: “Both me and my son can dry our entire bodies after a shower with a hand towel and a bit of vigorous application.” She laughably then added: “I have actually already perfected this down to the humble flannel.” Quite frankly, this nonsense was called out for the gibberish it truly was and will forever remain.“Cooks cook” Jamie Oliver has done more to help those struggling to feed their families than most. That he has been repeatedly attacked by a self-declared acid tongued “freelance food-and-politics-gob” who once crassly had a pop at David Cameron after the death of his son – she shockingly claimed “he uses stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling our NHS to his friends” – is indicative of the lowbrow tendencies of the person making such attacks.If the Southend-on-Sea born daughter of David Hadjicostas MBE and Evelyn Hadjicostas wanted people to like her a bit more, why doesn’t she adopt the humour of the late, great council house estate born Keith Floyd. Here was a legend – from the very same humble beginnings she claims to be from – who enjoyed life to the full and who cooked simple yet delicious food that brought joy to millions. Some positivity and joie de vivre might actually get her somewhere.Equally, the late, great Julia Child could also inspire better things of Monroe. This Pasadena, California born ex-Office of Strategic Services worker once stated: “I believe in cooking with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food.” Reading the works of a true cooking legend like this might provide the Moaning Minnie former call handler for Essex County Fire and Rescue Services with something to actually enthuse about. If the author of ‘A Girl Called Jack’ would only pay attention to the words of the wonderful young man that is Big Zuu, she might be more widely appreciated. In 2020, this rapper turned inspirational cooking sensation remarked: “’Big Zuu’s Big Eats’ is the show for people who don’t live near a Waitrose or who can’t afford to go to one. I’m a massive fan of all cooking programmes, but I think this show stands out as we’re sourcing the food from local shops rather than big chains. I’m hoping it proves to people, especially in my generation, that cooking can be a fun and affordable experience. A lot of people I know can’t be bothered to cook and think it costs too much so they’d rather just get fast food. Hopefully, ‘BZBE’s’ can change that for some people.”
Jack Monroe likes to pick fights; amongst those she’s had a pop at are…
When ‘she’s’ not living-it-up with I’m A Celebrity bestie of Stanley Johnson, Georgia Toffolo, aside from myself, Jack Monroe has variously kept herself busy launching warbling words of war against:
Lee Anderson MP.
The Right Honourable David Cameron and his deceased child.
The Conservative Party – with their members in Bath being particularly high up on her list of ire.
Germaine Greer.
Katie Hopkins.
The Labour Party.
Jamie Oliver.
Michael Portillo.
The late The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher LG OM DStJ PC FRS HonFRSC.
The Right Honourable Liz Truss MP.
And many members of the Twitterati… And many, many others elsewhere.
As Pan Macmillan issue a “safety statement” over ‘gender X’ harpy Jack Monroe’s patronising-the-poor book ‘Thrifty Kitchen,’ Matthew Steeples suggests they’d do better to recall it and pulp it
Over the years, there haven’t been many people who gender-something-or-other-gender-anything-goes Jack Monroe (once known as ‘A Girl Called Jack’ and later as ‘Jack at a Pinch’) hasn’t chosen to patronise or pester. Here is a prattling pontificater with more front than Harrods, but less tact and an ability to troll more twaddle than Andrew Tate even.
From the inception of The Steeple Times in June 2012 – and even before for myself personally also as far back as 2011 – the nation has witnessed this grim grifter seeking out fights with everyone from hapless harridans like Katie Hopkins to national treasures such as Michael ‘Choo Choo’ Portillo. David Cameron’s son, Ivan, was not immune from her poisonous pen after he died aged just six.
Monroe – who is astoundingly listed on speaker fee rosters at £10,000 to £15,000 yet bangs on about poverty continually – is a hypocritical “them” (“neither man nor woman,” if you go by her all-over-the-shop narrative) who does not differentiate in her hatefulness. Instead, here is someone who targeted even the chirpy, cheeky chappy chef Jamie Oliver for his commerciality whilst herself being sponsored, for a time, by Sainsbury’s. Her campaign for the supermarket, very predictably and quite sensibly, was ended after just six weeks.
Back in 2011 – sadly now beyond unlikely impossible today given the cost-of-living crisis – I proved that you could actually make a meal for 30p with ingredients bought in London’s tony Knightsbridge district. In doing so, I became portrayed as someone that the likes of Monroe loathe more than anything else in spite of an esteemed restaurateur reader observing: “Keep up the good work and bring this problem of supermarket food waste to your readers on a regular basis.”
Subsequently, last year, a Conservative MP – admittedly himself deservedly mocked as a total twerp when it comes to his views on many other matters – named Lee Anderson MP (AKA ‘30p Lee’) got into a fight with Monroe since she’s jolly good at that. She threatened to sue him for libel after he claimed: “She’s taking money off of some of the most vulnerable in society and making an absolute fortune off of the back of people” and now, at the end of the first week of 2023, she’s again started as she means to go on and got herself into another stinker of a bun fight.
This time, in the wake of The Bookseller sharing news that Bluebird, a Pan Macmillan non-fiction imprint, has issued a “statement regarding ‘potentially risky’ hacks and tips included in Jack Monroe’s latest book Thrifty Kitchen, which was published on the 5th January,” comes proof that here is someone who doesn’t actually think before she puts pen to paper (or fingers to the keyboard).
Amongst the definitely dangerous ideas suggested by Monroe in her latest profiteering pamphlet are to not buy a tin opener if you don’t already have one – they are currently available in branches of Tesco for 60p (and in other stores also are available) – and to instead use a “small sharp knife that you are not particularly attached to, a hammer or a mallet, a bit of vigour, some patience and a VERY steady hand.” A&E departments across the land must be celebrating this incredibly stupid suggestion.
Even more bizarrely, should you even desire to own one, Monroe warbles on how about to create an ‘egg ring’ – currently on offer on Amazon for £2.10 (and available in other stores also too). Her tip is to remove the lid and base of a tuna tin and then sand away the rough edges. She pointedly profers: Wash afterwards to remove “any tiny dusty bits of metal.” Egg-tastic to someone somewhere, but clearly a route to cut fingers for most.
This morning, The Bookseller’s Lauren Brown reported:
“The statement reads: ‘Bluebird and Pan Macmillan understand that some of the hacks and tips in Jack Monroe’s Thrifty Kitchen have been pointed out to be potentially risky if proper care and attention is not taken. These include a way to open a tin can without a tin opener, how to repurpose a tin can after first use, and a method of straining food without a strainer or colander.”
“It continues that these hacks come from when Monroe ‘found herself in extreme circumstances of food poverty and necessity required creative solutions to overcome the obstacles’ and that ‘proper tools should, of course, be used where possible.’”
“Moreover, it states that ‘the tips are not recommended for daily use but have been mentioned for completeness and to give alternatives’ and that ‘safety measures should be given the highest priority, especially when dealing with knives and sharp objects, and heat and electrical appliances,’ concluding: ‘Bluebird has amended text in the e-book edition, and will do the same for future reprints, removing or amending some of the content that has been flagged, and adding enhanced safety information at the back of the book.’”
“In response to concerns raised regarding the book’s content, the Trussell Trust – a UK charity to combat poverty – wrote on Twitter: ‘While Jack and BookShop have agreed to donate a number of books for our food banks, we don’t have any editorial control of the content. The safety of people who use food banks is our priority and food banks aim to help people access essentials such as tin openers if needed.’”
“‘The publishers have assured us that they’re taking action. The books that will be donated to our food banks will contain an addendum that addresses any health and safety concerns and we will not be distributing any books via our food banks in the current form.’”
A complete contrast to the utterly delightful ‘£1 store cupboard cook’ Miguel Barclay – a jolly gent who focuses on actually helping people cook affordably by “buying the basics” and “cooking in bulk” to save costs yet eat well – the annoying and condescending “not a boob hater, just my own” Monroe’s publishers would be better to take further action. They should take Thrifty Kitchen off the shelves and pulp it; so-inclined people of all wealth levels could then spend what they might on this bag-of-bilge book on several tin openers (and an egg ring even, if they must).
Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
Pictured Top – Rather like Prince Harry’s tacky tome, ‘Spare,’ Monroe’s ‘Thrifty Kitchen’ has already hit the discount bin at Waterstones. It’s on offer for £9.99, RRP £19.99. Purchase at your personal peril.
Jack Monroe likes to pick fights; amongst those she’s had a pop at are…
When she’s not living-it-up with I’m A Celebrity bestie of Stanley Johnson, Georgia Toffolo, aside from myself, Jack Monroe has variously kept herself busy launching warbling words of war against:
Lee Anderson MP.
The Right Honourable David Cameron and his deceased child.
The Conservative Party – with their members in Bath being particularly high up on her list of ire.
Germaine Greer.
Katie Hopkins.
The Labour Party.
Jamie Oliver.
Michael Portillo.
The late The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher LG OM DStJ PC FRS HonFRSC.
The Right Honourable Liz Truss MP.
And many members of the Twitterati… And many, many others elsewhere.
Monroe’s latest book, which Pan Macmillan released only yesterday, has been torn to shreds and mocked as “complete drivel.” She offers ideas for using fluff and water from tumble dryers – devices that anyone cutting back on costs will have already have stopped using during the cost-of-living crisis given how expensive they are to operate – and shared her thoughts on towels. To save money, she says, “both I and my son can dry our entire bodies after a shower with a hand towel and a bit of vigorous application” before adding: “I have actually already perfected this down to the humble flannel.”Sainsbury’s quite rightly disassociated themselves from Monroe after her November 2014 outburst about Ivan Cameron. They responded: “Jack Monroe blogs independently. Sainsbury’s is not a political organisation and we certainly don’t share her views.” A source also revealed that Monroe’s contract with the firm would not be renewed and equally, Andrew Percy MP, a member of the Commons health select committee, spoke for many at the time when he added: “This is not just a distasteful tweet, it is sick. If a right-wing politician or columnist had made such a comment, Miss Monroe would be writing hand-wringing columns about how evil or cruel such a comment was.”“Cooks cook” Jamie Oliver has done more to help those struggling to feed their families than most. That he has been repeatedly attacked by self-declared acid tongued “freelance food-and-politics-gob” Jack Monroe who once crassly also had a pop at David Cameron after the death of his son – she shockingly claimed “he uses stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling our NHS to his friends” – is indicative of the lowbrow tendencies of the person making such attacks.Finger-wagging Conservative Lee Anderson MP was called out by self-appointed “humble food blogger” and “potty-mouthed activist” Jack Monroe in May 2022 after suggesting people could “make a meal for about 30p a day.” He responded: “She’s taking money off of some of the most vulnerable in society and making an absolute fortune off of the back of people. You know, it’s her that’s rich. I’m not rich… No, I was dragged up in Huthwaite. As you know, I’ve worked down the pit all my life, didn’t have two ha’pennies to rub together.” Whether the libel action Monroe has threatened will progress or not remains to be seen.Michael Portillo very effectively shutdown in May 2019 when he forced her to step down from supporting ‘milkshaking’ right-wing politicians by asking if she’d do the same to centrist and left-wing figures. She had to pathetically concede: “Oh, OK… I condemn it.”For those looking for someone into budget cooking to follow, we urge readers to look to the brilliant Miguel Barclay instead of the mouthy person of gender-whatever.
The elevation of busybody-bore and all-round grim grifter Jack Monroe by ‘The Grocer’ represents a pinnacle in pointlessness claims Matthew Steeples
“A grifter’s gotta grift” has become a firm favourite phrase in 2022 and today the ultimate example of such, the vitriolic viper that is Jack Monroe, is again trending on Twitter.
This time ludicrously ‘elevated’ to “Hero of the Year” by The Grocer in an article by some nitwit named Harry Holmes, the petulant pest whom once wrote to me to tell me “I want no association with your sh*t” was then quite deservedly slammed on Twitter as a “grifter” and a “constant liar” akin to the mendacious menace formerly known as Meghan Markle.
Though laughably made out to be “an essential voice for thousands” and someone “reduced to tears” by Asda supposedly caving in after she tweeted about them not having stocked enough “value” products by ‘most definitely not Sherlock’ Holmes, Monroe was condemned as someone who’d “best make up some fresh lies and manipulate people to donate to my tip jar” by another going by the name of @Scbusiness4.
Going further, another member of the Twitterati going by the handle @SevenSeasSoBlue surmised the situation best. They tweeted: “At first I thought Jack Monroe was an idealistic spirit, a bit scatterbrained, a bit drama queen, but that her heart was essentially in the right place and that she did some good. Then I got alerted (thanks @AwfullyMolly!) and now I see what a scam artist she was.”
Elsewhere yesterday, in an especially telling feature, a blogger going by the aforementioned name ‘Awfully Molly #bekindnotblind’ shared her thoughts on the matter. She highlighted allegations that Monroe’s supposed donations to charities including the Trussell Trust had not amounted to quite what she had herself suggested.
Amusingly also, ‘Awfully Molly’ highlighted that Monroe had also tweeted fake news in April when she recommended a book titled Georgia Church Suppers in April when attempting to ‘support’ the people of Ukraine. The book was about food in Georgia in America and not Georgia, the country in eastern Europe.
‘Awfully Molly’ added: “When this was called out, initially Jack just deleted the tweet and reposted it without including the book from Georgia. Several months later, she claimed that it had been a mistake due to a lack of geographical knowledge.”
“It may not seem important, although it is another example of Jack being flesxible with the truth, but it demonstrates Jack not taking responsibility for the influence and platform she has, or showing respect to her followers.”
In August this year, the mouthy menace Monroe was quite rightly condemned after patronising the poor by telling those on a budget to “tip [canned] spaghetti hoops into a sieve and gently rinse them to get rid of the tomato sauce” and then microwave and “enjoy immediately” with “a pinch of pepper.” In 2023, we can only hope for one thing and that is to not hear from this braindead bore; sadly that’ll most certainly not happen.
Pictured top – Jack Monroe: A person of very confusing identity – who has variously been “non-binary” and going by “they/them” and “she/her pronouns,” “gay,” “genderqueer,” “lezzer” and “cisgender lesbian” according to Wikipedia – likes to fight utterly anyone. In 2018, she got into a spat with Bath Conservatives after they quite rightly called out parents who “don’t know how to feed their children” as “indolent.”
Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
In August this bombastic bore bizarrely turned her attention to examining Liz Truss’s name and banged on about Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May also. Jack Monroe as a conspiracy theorist is one thing, but Miss Marple she most certainly ain’t as this rabid rant most definitely proves.
Twitter reacts to the feckless food bank forager being elevated by ‘The Grocer’…
In actually showing the British public how to actually cook a meal costing no more than £1 per head, TV chef Miguel Barclay contributes something useful whereas the likes of food bank fighters Lee Anderson MP and Jack Monroe continue just to carp
Whilst mouthy menace Jack Monroe and Tory twerp Lee Anderson MP respectively showed themselves as pugnacious, pathetic pillocks in May this year during their stupendously stupid spat over food poverty in Britain, thoughtful television chef and author Miguel Barclay has actually done something helpful and written not just one but seven books filled with £1 per head meals.
Unlike the bombastic bully and bore Monroe and the ludicrous “[people] can make a meal for about 30p a day” prat Anderson, what innovative Barclay does is to provide sensible food savings tips that are actually both practical and useful.
Amongst them are to “cook from scratch” and end up with “receipts that should read like an ingredients list and not a menu” when you leave the supermarket. “It needs to say ‘onion, tomato, garlic, and not ‘pasta sauce,’” he adds and “even things like carrot batons – you shouldn’t have the word ‘batons’ there.”
“Buy the basics” and “cook in bulk” are two of his other suggestions and today we urge readers to follow this sensible chap’s advice and learn to eat better for less… And before you forget, always look out for the ‘yellow stickers’ when in anywhere from Asda to Waitrose.
To purchase ‘Storecupboard One Pound Meals: 85 Delicious and Affordable Recipes’ via Amazon, click here. The book is the 6th in the £1 series and a 7th titled ‘Green One Pound Meals’ is available to pre-order by clicking here.
RECIPES BY MIGUEL BARCLAY
Featured in The Sun earlier this week, Barclay shared a number of £1 per head recipes with the paper’s Hayley Minn, amongst them:
Cheese and Potato Hotpot (pictured top right)
“I’m using cheddar here but you can totally throw in any other interesting cheeses that you have got lurking in the fridge.”
“This dish is a great template for using up other leftovers, too. Imagine adding some layers of Sunday’s roast chicken or a few slices of ham like I have here.”
To make one portion, you need:
2 potatoes, very thinly sliced.
1 onion, very thinly sliced.
A couple of slices of cooked ham, torn into chunks.
A big handful of cheddar cheese, grated.
Salt and pepper.
1 teaspoon dried oregano.
Olive oil.
Method:
Preheat oven to 190C/170 fan/gas 5.
Grab an ovenproof dish and start by adding a layer of potato slices, then onion slices and ham, then cheese, with a little salt and pepper and a pinch of oregano.
Repeat four or five times until the dish is full to the top and finish with a layer of potatoes.
Drizzle over a little olive oil and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the top layer is golden brown and all the potatoes are cooked.
Prawn Fried Rice
“The secret to this dish is the sesame oil, which replicates the authentic Chinese flavour that home-cooked dishes often lack. So, why not buy yourself a bottle, transform your cooking, stop ordering take-aways and save yourself a fortune?”
To make one portion, you need:
1 mug of water.
½ mug of long-grain rice.
Sesame oil.
Handful of cooked and peeled prawns.
1 egg.
2 spring onions, chopped.
Soy sauce.
Method:
In a saucepan, bring the water and rice to the boil, cover and simmer gently.
When the rice is cooked and has absorbed all the water, tip it into a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature (or refrigerate).
When the rice is cold, heat a wok (or large saucepan) over a high heat and add a splash of sesame oil along with the rice.
As the rice starts to fry – keep stirring so that it doesn’t burn at the bottom – add the prawns.
Scoop everything to one side of the pan and crack the egg into the empty side.
Start to fry the egg and, once it is half-cooked, scramble it with a wooden spoon and mix it in with the rice.
Add the chopped spring onions and a final splash of sesame oil.
Then mix it all together over the heat and serve in a bowl with a splash of soy sauce.
Finger-wagging Conservative Lee Anderson MP was called out by self-appointed “humble food blogger” and “potty-mouthed activist” Jack Monroe in May this year after suggesting people could “make a meal for about 30p a day.” He responded: ““She’s taking money off of some of the most vulnerable in society and making an absolute fortune off of the back of people. You know, it’s her that’s rich. I’m not rich… No, I was dragged up in Huthwaite. As you know, I’ve worked down the pit all my life, didn’t have two ha’pennies to rub together.”
