Jamie Oliver disrespectful to Rotherham?

[Mathom 10]

Sorry, but a 42" flat screen is expensive second hand, and even more expenseive from Brighthouse or a catalogue. Given that the people aren't working, they have a limited income, and limited scope for increasing it. It shows a complete lack of budgeting - so for the same people to then say they can't afford to eat properly is as a little upsetting.

 

It's not expensive at a couple of quid a week. And once you get into the agreement you can't back out easily if you find the payment of a few quid is more than you can spare. So you carry on with it.

 

I live in one of the poorest areas of Rotherham, where the programme was filmed. I can walk to a co-op supermarket, a Sommerfield, a green grocers, Spar, and a proper butchers. Or, I could get a bus to a massive Morrisons - or even walk; it's only a few miles.

 

As the woman said, she must catch a bus in order to shop for meat she can cook. Didn't you also notice she has two little kids to wrangle as well? So walking "only a few miles" as you put it is out of the question. I know I wouldn't even contemplate walking "only a few miles" just to buy fresh food. I'd make do with what I could get nearby. And I do, if the stuff from my weekly Tesco order has run out.

 

If you can afford a TV from Brighthouse, or cigarettes, or 4 kebabs a week, you can afford ingredients. Sainsburys do a bag or Organic Veg for a fiver (i.e. 1 ansd 2/3rds of a kebab and chips at Maltby prices) that would feed a family for 4 or 5 nights.

 

I think the point of her whole involvement and the entire programme was that she could not afford to keep using the takeaway?

 

Also I wouldn't like to live on nothing more exciting than a bag of ruddy organic veg for half a week. How miserable. You've missed the point that when you haven't got the spare cash to have nice holidays or clothes that you look forwards to the cheap treat offered by a packet of biccies - even Orwell recognised this way back in the 1930s.

 

I wonder was there a Sainsburys on her estate? Or if she could afford the cost of electric/gas to cook a tasteless turnip stew for an hour? If she'd have known how to cook them anyway. Which again was the point of the programme, to show her how to avoid cooking a tasteless turnip stew.

 

Ah, but bless em, these poor people can't get to Tesco, you said.

 

Are the ready made ones additive free? I think eating healthily was the point. The home made ones would be better for you than the Tesco ones, and still be cheaper than a kebab

 

I'm not poor but even I would buy the cheaper ready made ones! I've not got money to flush down the bog!

[Mathom 10]

Under the Housing Act I think it is a legal requirement in all rented accommodation to provide a fridge and a cooker.

 

That said I lived in a flat where the cooker was rubbish once, so I bought a steamer (£9) and a microwave (£30 - but it was new - I'm sure you can get them for less)

 

There is no reason at all for people to not have the means to cook.

 

No, there is no obligation.

 

Until you've been there you have no idea You can patronise all you like but you have no idea.

[Little Buzz 10]

No, there is no obligation.

 

Until you've been there you have no idea You can patronise all you like but you have no idea.

 

It's not me saying people might live in places where they can't get peppers! I live in a poor area, and can walk to numerous places to get them - as explained in my post where you seized on the fact that one of the places is a few miles away (on a bus route) and ignored the fact that the other four are no more than a five minute walk. Oh, and you know nothing about me.

 

From the Housing Act 2004

Kitchens used by a single occupant must have the following minimum facilities:

 

A refrigerator of not less than 0.15 cubic metres capacity

 

A standard sink unit and integral draining board fixed within a base unit, together with an adequate supply of hot and cold water, and a tiled splash-back.

 

A suitable worktop (not including the draining board) no less than 1m by 0.6m

 

A cooker with two cooking rings, oven and grill

 

A storage cupboard of not less than 0.16 cubic metres capacity, e.g. a standard 500mm width cupboard

[Grandad.Malky 11]

Im sorry but that is a load of rubbish. I have been a single mother on benefits and whilst I couldnt afford an 8 ring cooker and top of the range microwave and blender and a kebab 4 nights a week.I could afford to put healthy food on the table and plenty left in the pot for whoever turned up.

 

Good on ya, well done, there are too many bleeding hearts that blame everything but them selves and there are just as many do-gooders sympathising with them which doesn’t help.

 

I am surprised that the latest figures for people living below the “poverty line” hasn’t been wheeled out yet.

[Mathom 10]

It's not me saying people might live in places where they can't get peppers! I live in a poor area, and can walk to numerous places to get them - as explained in my post where you seized on the fact that one of the places is a few miles away (on a bus route) and ignored the fact that the other four are no more than a five minute walk. Oh, and you know nothing about me.

 

No you were making a point that even if you could only buy fresh foods and it was a few miles' walk then people should do so.

 

In the case being discussed, the woman on the TV show, she had to catch a bus in order to buy fresh food, and could not afford the expense one week. Your own neighbourhood is irrelevant to the discussion really, you might well have umpteen shops near you and be able to get to them, but this woman did not.

 

The frustrating reality for her that she literally could not access the fresh food was only underlined by her tears because she had enjoyed the cooking and had gained a lot from it. Even Jamie Oliver could see that fact.

 

From the Housing Act 2004

Kitchens used by a single occupant must have the following minimum facilities:

 

A refrigerator of not less than 0.15 cubic metres capacity

 

A cooker with two cooking rings, oven and grill

 

Shame that local councils do not have to comply with these rules then, as you will NOT get provided with a fridge and cooker in a council property, it's up to you to buy/borrow/steal them!

[Agent Orange 11]

I had a lot of respect of Jamie Oliver at one time - I thought what he did with 15 was commendable. However, I have become increasingly annoyed at his use of northern stereotypes to boost his own ego and self image.

 

Where should we make a programme about the poor eating habits of the British? Should we film it in inner city London? Bristol? Birmingham? Nah, lets film it 'oop North' cus we know those Northern Monkeys live off rendered pig fat and gristle pies:rolleyes:

 

People in this country do, on the whole, eat poorly. Much of it is ignorance, much more of it is pure economics and lifestyle. All of which needs to be tackled - but not as a vanity project for a fat tongued, mokney cook with delusions of grandure.

 

GO HOME JAMIE

 

PS I'm not from Rotherham, before anyone asks

 

The reason he chose Rotherham was because he opened his Ministry of Food or whatever they call it in the town, not because he wanted to reinforce northern stereotypes. I didnt see the programme, but will definitely tune in if it is on again.

[Little Buzz 10]

No you were making a point that even if you could only buy fresh foods and it was a few miles' walk then people should do so.

 

I suggested that it would be cheaper to travel a few miles on the bus (or walk if you wanted) than to buy take aways.

 

When I was little my mum used to walk with me to the shops that were about two miles away. That was only 27 years ago.

 

In the case being discussed, the woman on the TV show, she had to catch a bus in order to buy fresh food, and could not afford the expense one week.

 

And yet she was smoking whilst she said it - but presumably the cigarettes were on HP, or a gift?

 

Your own neighbourhood is irrelevant to the discussion really, you might well have umpteen shops near you and be able to get to them, but this woman did not.

 

She had shops that were only a bus ride away - and I suspect she could have walked if she wanted to. She chose to spend her money on other things, and she chose not to walk.

 

Fair enough, it's her choice.

 

The frustrating reality for her that she literally could not access the fresh food was only underlined by her tears because she had enjoyed the cooking and had gained a lot from it. Even Jamie Oliver could see that fact.

 

She was too selfish to get proper food for her children, preferring to spend the money on cigarettes. And presumably the children ate something? Like take aways that cost more than a bus fare and ingredients.

 

Shame that local councils do not have to comply with these rules then, as you will NOT get provided with a fridge and cooker in a council property, it's up to you to buy/borrow/steal them!

 

Are local councils really exempt from the Housing Act?

[Chopsie 10]

In the case being discussed, the woman on the TV show, she had to catch a bus in order to buy fresh food, and could not afford the expense one week. Your own neighbourhood is irrelevant to the discussion really, you might well have umpteen shops near you and be able to get to them, but this woman did not.

 

The frustrating reality for her that she literally could not access the fresh food was only underlined by her tears because she had enjoyed the cooking and had gained a lot from it. Even Jamie Oliver could see that fact.

 

You have to admit though, her case was undermined slightly by the fact she was sparking up whilst pleading poverty. Ultimately, she chose to spend her spare cash on fags rather than healthy food for herself and her kids. When he looked in her fridge at the start of the programme, there was a good tenners worth of chocolate in there, and what looked like 12 cans of boddingtons too. I'm not suggesting she should live her life without any kind of 'treats', but she needs to realise that she is choosing to spend what little money she has on crap, because it's the easy option. To say she literally had no access to fresh food is rubbish - she just chose to spend her cash elsewhere.

 

Hopefully as the series progresses, she will come to appreciate this - like the 'epiphany' she had at the cooking display in Rotherham town centre, when she admitted she fed her kids crap because it was easier for her.

[Annoni_mouse 10]

The reason he chose Rotherham was because he opened his Ministry of Food or whatever they call it in the town, not because he wanted to reinforce northern stereotypes. I didnt see the programme, but will definitely tune in if it is on again.

 

But why did he chose Rotherham? Why not Slough? or Romford? Or is it just northern cities that have this problem?

[Mathom 10]

You've missed the point entirely. She wanted to do the cooking, she was loving it, but she was in a stick that week and literally could not afford the fare to the shops to buy the fresh food. The issue of her cigs is a red herring as smoking is an addiction stronger than heroin addiction and from her foul mood I got the sense she had hardly been chain smoking them.

 

Oliver was looking at why people don't cook, and he found out some reasons and they shocked him out of his complacency. He could even see that whether she had budgeted right or not was by the by, she was in difficult circumstances and could barely see the wood for the trees for worrying.

 

She wasn't 'selfish' or she wouldn't have signed up in the first place. I really, really, really hate this self-righteous attitude that we must drag people down when they stumble along a new and better path they choose to take in life. That's why so many never succeed in giving up drugs, dieting, learning etc.

[waxonwaxoff 13]

That's why so many never succeed in giving up drugs, dieting, learning etc.

 

I thought it was because people made too many excuses for them instead of facing the reality of the situation.

[Mathom 10]

But why did he chose Rotherham? Why not Slough? or Romford? Or is it just northern cities that have this problem?

 

I know, yeah. I was gobbing off about it myself the other day, about the patronising southern git But I think it was because of the nasty things he said about that woman who was buying the pies for the kids' dinners - and it was nasty, even Clarkson, he of the biggest gob in the world, thought it was. He apparently apologised and they became friendly so he chose Rovvrem in the end.

 

I wouldn't have minded some of that stew and dumplings she'd made, either, it looked great.