Tory MP blames food bank use on people not knowing how to cook or budge

Blondiescot and all on the (small) balcony of a high rise flat!

The problem is the poor just do not try hard enough. They should be aiming to be self sufficient. (joke)

I heard the interview between Jane Garvey and Mr Anderson on Radio 4 this morning too, OakDryad.Bombastic in the extreme he came across as a know it all with no time for anyone else.
Dreadful.

Very true .

I don't know how they have the nerve to come on TV and say things like that, knowing that we know that they claim so much on expenses alone.

I love the idea of limiting their expense claims to 30p per meal per day.

It is also clear that those who eat substantial, nutritious and delicious food subsidised by the taxpayer then claimed on expenses have no clue whatsoever that food cannot be produced for 30p per meal and are patronising in the extreme to think anyone can do this.

It's clear from this thread, and entirely unsurprising, as we are all human, that most people see the world as they live it.

Those who are able to cook think everyone should be able to cook. Those who learnt cooking and budgeting at school think it should be taught there, and if those who well by learning what they see as more important subjects think that others should also pick it up as they go along. Those whose mothers taught them think the skills should be taught in the home and so on.

It may seem obvious to those with a fridge, freezer, microwave and soup maker that veg can be bought in bulk or cheaply when 'on the turn' and made into batch cooked meals, and equally obvious to those without a local market or transport to get to one that this isn't an option. And so it goes for that side of things, too.

What is, however, very clear, is that the idea that you can cook anything other than gruel for 30p a portion is ridiculous, and that the fact that some might have to try to get as close to this figure as they can to fend off hunger is utterly shameful.

It's one of those days for threads on here. I think it follows Eurovision.

Everyone knows things are not quite as they seem, and yet they are, and more so.

so true

JaneJudge

Blondiescot

And yet, funnily enough, our local Co-op had a freezer offer where you got two pieces of cod in batter, a pack of fish fingers, a pack of oven chips, pack of garden peas and a Vienetta - all of £5. So who can blame people for buying that instead?

I love these deals

Prepare to be judged - how could you not have gone and caught your own fish, grew your own potatoes for the chips, grew your peas and milked your own cow to make ice cream for the Viennetta???

Blondiescot

And yet, funnily enough, our local Co-op had a freezer offer where you got two pieces of cod in batter, a pack of fish fingers, a pack of oven chips, pack of garden peas and a Vienetta - all of £5. So who can blame people for buying that instead?

I love these deals

I’ve asked her which branch is selling 3 chickens for £10 as we eat a lot of chicken and it’s very good value….

And yet, funnily enough, our local Co-op had a freezer offer where you got two pieces of cod in batter, a pack of fish fingers, a pack of oven chips, pack of garden peas and a Vienetta - all of £5. So who can blame people for buying that instead?

Indeed M0nica.

I'd need curry powder, coconut milk and rice, onions etc already to go with the chicken but they come free, presumably.
Along with the onion bahjis.

this is what is on the 3 for £10 offer

www.coop.co.uk/products/deals/3-for-10-pounds

That is what I meant earlier by you cannot chuck something together if you don't have enough food in the first place

I knew it wouldn't be 3 complete chickens.
Still, not much waste on thighs, as there isnt all that much meat on them either.

MissAdventure

3 chickens (which I absolutely doubt is true, by the way) and some fruit isnt actually going to make meals for a week.
No veg?
No gravy?
No potatoes/rice, or something to go with this chicken?

I'm fed up with people thinking that spotting a special offer means they are some sort of savvy shopper.

No breakfasts, no beverages, condiments, bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, lunches etc.

Presumably these all appeared in the cupboard and fridge by magic.

The Coop have a 3 for £10 offer on 520g pack of chicken thigh fillets until end of May. Usually £4 per pack.

shop.coop.co.uk/product/612942e3-bd0a-4595-9b98-d1f873efc3fd

I don’t see a fruit offer.

3 chickens (which I absolutely doubt is true, by the way) and some fruit isnt actually going to make meals for a week.
No veg?
No gravy?
No potatoes/rice, or something to go with this chicken?

I'm fed up with people thinking that spotting a special offer means they are some sort of savvy shopper.

I would have a lot more confidence if heather Wheeler and the other MP went on YouTube actually shopping and buying these so cheap food products and then cooking them up to make a week of nutritious meals for a family of four, wth no freezer and too poor to use their cooker for more than 20 minutes a day.

Why do better off people expect the poor to be such paaragons of virtue when they are incapable of meeting those standards themselves?

Do they live in the real world?

MayBee70

Heather Wheeler said on tv today that if you go to the Coop you can get three chickens for £10 and 5 pieces of fruit for 80 pence. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m still not going shopping I’d drive there now to check it out. And she said her mailbag was full of letters supporting what Anderson had said. Funny how she never seems to comment about anything I write to her about I do agree that things like cooking should be taught in schools. But it was recent Conservative governments that ignored Jamie’s Oliver’s attempts to get children eating more healthily.

The nearest Co-op is a 40 minute drive away, I have been there once and quite liked it but the bus there and back would take about 5 hours.
I'd have to pay bus fare too.

MayBee70

Heather Wheeler said on tv today that if you go to the Coop you can get three chickens for £10 and 5 pieces of fruit for 80 pence. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m still not going shopping I’d drive there now to check it out. And she said her mailbag was full of letters supporting what Anderson had said. Funny how she never seems to comment about anything I write to her about I do agree that things like cooking should be taught in schools. But it was recent Conservative governments that ignored Jamie’s Oliver’s attempts to get children eating more healthily.

But what do you do with three chickens if you are on your own and have no freezer?

The idea that most people don't know how to make the best of what they have is beyond me. We also have to recognise that there are the poor, the excessively poor and those verging on destitute.

Thank you for the update OD. Thanks to technology I am now listening to Broadcasting House.

Maybee

Do you mean Heather Wheeler Tory MP for South Derbyshire who has:

consistently voted for a reduction in housing benefits,
consistently voted for a reduction in spending on welfare,
consistently voted against improved benefits for people who are ill of disabled,
consistently voted against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices

www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24769/heather_wheeler/south_derbyshire/votes

She shares a lot of Anderson’s unpalatable views on the poor and people of non-white ethnicities and another MP not being as economical as they could be with their expensese claims.

In March 2018, following her promotion to a Government position with responsibility for homelessness, Wheeler said she did not know why the number of rough sleepers had increased in recent years. Wheeler rejected the suggestion that welfare reforms and council cuts relating to her Government had contributed to the rise. Earlier in the same month, Wheeler promised to resign if the number of people rough sleeping got worse while she was in office. They did and she remained in office. In 2018/19 (her period in that particular job), nearly £1 billion less was spent on support services for single homeless people than was spent in 2008/09.

I think you can tell what I think of her.