'Let Them Eat Gruel': The Oakeshott Answer To Child Poverty
'Journalist' Isabel Oakeshott has been dubbed 'the Marie Antoinette' of the rightwing media after making the astonishing claim that £1 can feed a family for a week.
The wealthy daughter of aristocrats has found a solution to foodbank Britain and it's this - porridge. Simple as that, farewell child poverty.
'A bag of porridge costs about £1, will last a family all week' she blithely declared after branding parents who can't afford to give their children breakfast 'failures'
Not suprisingly, her callous comments provoked a furious backlash of condemnation including 'So you're basically saying 'let them eat gruel' then?' . Her response: 'It's good enough for me'.
Challenged on why she felt the need to condemn parents struggling with poverty without any regard for their circumstances, she opined: 'Maybe we need to be a bit quicker to judge'. It didn't convince...
Short on support, she turned to fellow hatemonger Julia Hartley-Brewer to bolster her
Ms H-B had proven herself a kindred spirit earlier in the week by claiming that no parents were really unable to give their children breakfast - in defiance of the fact that children had returned from school holidays with actual malnutrition. She disapproved of the idea of schools providing it, and came up with the helpful suggestion that instead, children should be taken into care.
So is Oakeshott being deliberately callous, or has she simply had such a privileged life that she is completely out of touch with the reality of life for those at the other end of the wealth ladder? Let's examine her pedigree...
The daughter of one Lord and cousin to another, young Isabel was educated at Scottish private school Gordonstoun, whose alumni also include Prince Charles, the Duke of Edinburgh, and 4th Viscount Rothermere Jonathan Harmsworth. It may be here that her passion for porridge began...
Isabel went on to study history at Bristol University and got into political journalism by chance - knowing 'nothing about politics...I had to research what the main parties stood for' - because 'I fancied a bloke in the lobby at Holyrood'.
It paid off. Today she gives her place of residence as London and Chipping Norton. Her 6-bedroomed home in the Cotswolds village is valued at £1.3 million, and she numbers David Cameron, Jeremy Clarkson and Lord Bamford among her neighbours.
We don't know where she lives in London - but I'm willing to bet it isn't Peckham.
Her moneyspinning activities in recent years have included co-authoring a book with Lord Ashcroft, ghostwriting 'The Bad Boys of Brexit' for UKIP sugardaddy Arron Banks, and co-authoring 'Farmageddon' a book about 'the true cost of cheap meat' which at least suggests some basic knowledge relating to food.
She runs her own company Diamond Ink, which is ticking over quite tidily, thankyou, and lists its activities as 'television programming and broadcasting activities' and 'other service activities not elsewhere classified'. Oat-related lobbying, perhaps?
Call me 'quick to judge' but it seems plain that Ms Oakeshott has had a life so cosily cushioned by privilege that she has never needed to fear poverty for one single instant of it, which only makes her attack on people facing REAL disadvantage even more repellent.
Born with a silver spoon in her mouth - which may or may not have contained porridge.
Just in case any parental duty-dodging parents are reading this, I'll end with a recipe from the Isabel Oakeshott recipe book - a sure fire cure for symptoms of Tory austerity. Or if not, there's always the workhouse...
