This letter appeared in the Southend Echo on 25/08/2015. I felt compelled to reply in full, below. Dear Editor, It appears that your correspondent P. Farrington in Tuesdays Letters page has fallen foul of the first rule of Common Sense and Decency that is, do not believe a word that is published in the Daily … Read more
Dear Daily Mail, I don’t know how you generally kickstart your working week, but at 6am on a Monday morning I’m just about hanging in to my last REM cycle before being woken up by a 5 year old, to begin the email flails and checklists that have gathered in my inbox from the last … Read more
When I arrive at her flat in Southend-on-Sea Jack Monroe is where fans of her compulsive blog A Girl Called Jack perhaps imagine her always to be, in front of her cooker, making an omelette. The flat, which she moved into three weeks ago, overlooks the wild grey Thames estuary, just up from the longest … Read more
Every week, I answer the same email again and again and again – and I keep meaning to do a blog post about it but just haven’t got around to it. So what better time than a 3 hour drive through Tanzania? Now before we start, I’m not suggesting that you rush out and buy … Read more
Taken from Hansard, 18th December 2013. Adams, Nigel Afriyie, Adam Aldous, Peter Amess, Mr David Andrew, Stuart Bacon, Mr Richard Baker, Steve Baldry, rh Sir Tony Baldwin, Harriett Barker, rh Gregory Baron, Mr John Barwell, Gavin Bebb, Guto Beith, rh Sir Alan Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Bingham, Andrew Blackman, Bob Blackwood, Nicola Blunt, Mr … Read more
It’s taken me almost 24 hours to write this post, as if I had written it after the debate last night it would have probably been a big rant about what a nasty piece of work Esther McVey is – and the work that has gone into the debate and the efforts of 142,000 people … Read more
I can finally let this enormous orange cat out of the bag now that the Guardian have run it – from January, I will be fronting a new ad campaign for Sainsburys. I’m sure people have a LOT of questions and I will blog about it in more detail later on, but for now here’s … Read more
Today I have launched a campaign in the Daily Mirror, a petition to investigate the causes of food bank use and hunger in the UK today. After speaking at both major party conferences this summer about the realities of food banks and poverty in the UK, after sharing my experiences again and again, after countless … Read more
The question we were asked to answer today, was “are food banks a sign of hope or failure?” I think we all know the answer to that – or at least we think we do. Here’s my story. You might think you know it already, but listen carefully. Here it is without any media spin, … Read more
I can finally let one of my big cats out of the bag – as today the first of my columns for The Guardian was published. ‘Austerity Bites’ is a comment piece on the impact of welfare reform, and will be featured on the Society pages of The Guardian, both in the newspaper and online. … Read more