My son sat on the stairs of our home crying on Monday, and for once I had no more words. I could not justify my decision to not cook his tiny, budget pizza beyond that of making sure we practised being poorer. I didn’t feel able to cook it because it would cost too much to turn the oven on for this one small thing.And what did you end up doing, making the kid eat it raw? Shouldn't social services be having a word?
Once, this would be something I, and no doubt many others, would have asked in the comments. But the 'Guardian' long ago decided that awkward questions should never be asked, so this article doesn't allow them, of course.
Do those sound like the words of a 12 year old with 'additional needs and significant sensory processing issues' to you, Reader?I have seen our gas and electricity charges double. We have just had our toughest winter yet as I couldn’t afford to turn on the heating. Instead, we bundled up in bed to stay warm. There is now a minimum of a third less in my shopping basket for the same money. It’s largely fresh food we are cutting back on, short shelf-life items, tiny luxuries and toiletries too, but even that won’t be enough soon.
And don't forget those pizzas that you buy but won't cook! Might as well cut those out too, unless the goal is to torment your child...
How dare those in power tell us how to spend the appallingly low budgets we receive on social security while we perform the mental gymnastics of just getting through the day on 500 calories. Crying because we know how living in this way will affect our children, how deadly poverty can be for vulnerable people and older people among us.
The person who's 'affecting children' seems to be you, actually.
The stigma of living like this stops those suffering from speaking out.
Except you, getting a column in a major newspaper, under your own name?
My son’s response about the tiny pizza was tears and rage at the inequality of it all. As staff at energy companies receive millions in bonuses, we can’t afford to heat a budget pizza. When I said to him that that this is why we need to speak out and help people, he told me through his rage: “I can’t help the people mummy, I am the people.”
Or like the words ascribed to him by a political operator in the 'Guardian's' poverty porn troops?
Staff at those energy companies work, but she doesn't. Where does she get her money from? Where is the child's father? If she dumped him, why doesn't she work? Idle bitch, thieving from the taxpayer - i.e. people like me.
ReplyDeleteBut surely the real question raised by the final line is this: when he said it, did everyone on the bus clap?
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's your regular reminder that when liberals talk about 'working families' they mean a fragment of a family where no one actually works.
I'm guessing this is another case of The Father Was Not Available For Comment
The odd thing is that the evil Tories are to blame, just not in the way that Guardianistas think they are. Them no longer being actual Tories but left wing green fanatics is the problem. Did people think there would be no consequences to letting millions of people bunk off their jobs while the government printed imaginary money to pay them with? Did people think that the government deliberately restricting supplies of coal, gas and oil wouldn't effect the price of anything that needs to be produced or moved around? These are the kind of policies that Guardian types approve of, yet they don't seem to care much for the consequences.
ReplyDeleteWe're in crazed times now, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteThe real problem is the complete lack of self awareness. Zero understanding that calling for more highly subsidised 'renewables' and shouting for all fossil fuel production here be banned (and then having to buy it from abroad at inflated prices) results in higher energy costs.
ReplyDeleteWe could have lean, clean, efficient, virtually free energy in this country.
Its a complete disconnect in understanding that how they vote and the things they support actually have real world consequences.
Heaven forbid that their worldview might actually be wrong or that they might actually be responsible for their own actions. It'll get a lot worse before the eventual wake-up call . .
You have to admire the Dickensian pathos of the phrase ‘tiny budget pizza’ - as Wilde said of Little Nell, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh - but surely her implication that, were it not for the cost, she would have heated an entire oven to 200C for ‘this one small thing’ is somewhat at odds with the Guardian’s Green principles.
ReplyDeleteThe comment feature on later posts seems to be broken Julia. It just goes to a really narrow white strip that is too small to type in.
ReplyDeleteActually, it sounds rather like an obscure indie band from the 90s:
ReplyDelete“...and we’ll be right back after this latest single from Tiny Budget Pizza...”
Make him a cheese sandwich or is that beyond her cooking skills?
ReplyDelete"Idle bitch, thieving from the taxpayer - i.e. people like me."
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
"But surely the real question raised by the final line is this: when he said it, did everyone on the bus clap?"
😂
"Did people think there would be no consequences to letting millions of people bunk off their jobs while the government printed imaginary money to pay them with?"
No, plenty warned them! But it fell on deaf ears...
"We could have lean, clean, efficient, virtually free energy in this country.
Its a complete disconnect in understanding that how they vote and the things they support actually have real world consequences."
Sadly true...
"You have to admire the Dickensian pathos of the phrase ‘tiny budget pizza’ - as Wilde said of Little Nell, it would take a heart of stone not to laugh"
I clearly don't have one of those after all! 😆
"The comment feature on later posts seems to be broken Julia. It just goes to a really narrow white strip that is too small to type in."
Oh? I don't see this on the PC or the phone. Maybe it was one of Blogger's random glitches?
"Make him a cheese sandwich or is that beyond her cooking skills?"
Cooking skills...? 🤔