Victim blaming dressed up as concern for poor

I WAS quite shocked when I heard that the Conservative MP for Ashfield, Lee Anderson, had told the House of Commons that good and plentiful meals could be cooked for 30p.

His logic appeared to be that if only people could be taught to cook and budget, there will be no need for food banks.

At first I thought this was just an amateurish attempt at victim blaming.

I thought back to 2019 and Jacob Rees-Mogg telling an interviewer that the people who died in the terrible Grenfell Tower disaster would have lived if they had used common sense and not ignored instructions from the Fire Brigade: victim blaming at it ugliest.

Mr Anderson’s was of a different order, given that it is a good idea that we should all (not just poor people) learn to cook.

However, as for eliminating the need for food banks, no.

This is victim blaming dressed up as paternalistic concern for the poor.

On second thoughts, what if I’m wrong?

If so, then his views on how to save money by learning to cook should have wide-ranging and positive benefits for his colleagues. Here are two ways.

First, get his food bank cooks down to the House of Commons to teach the cooks there how to do it.

I looked up what MPs have to pay for a steak chips and nice-sounding extra meals. It is a bit over £8: slightly more than 26 times more than 30p. For visitors, the same meal costs something over £15 so the MPs get it heavily subsidised.

What a message to the country it would be if the cooks there cooked the Ashfield way! It would not only save the country a lot of money but would also demonstrate that, despite appearances to the contrary, they really are just like us.

Secondly, ask those money-saving cooks to teach the Prime Minister himself. Then he would save enough money to be able to pay for any future decorations himself out of his £151,000 salary, rather than seeking donations from wealthy and generous contacts.

Come on, you Leicestershire MPs! Promote these ideas to your colleagues – you know it makes sense.

Les Gallop, Syston