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Tory MP moans poor people 'can't cook properly' and boasts meals only cost 30p

dweezil said:
Another aspect of education where we fail dismally.

The MP might moan but it's crazy that schools don't give us basic life skills.

I know loads of adults who can't cook, luckily well off enough to arrange something or chauvinistic enough to leave the job to a partner.

In the good old days we used to get food stolen from the field, now half the population wouldn't know that there's a load of food under those potato plants.
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It's certainly hit and miss. My school (old school single sex grammar) seemed to assume that you would marry someone who would cook for you. I didn't really learn until I went to uni and had to fend for myself. I'm still a bit rubbish in the kitchen but manage.

My brother went to the local comp, did Home Ec and has worked as a cook since leaving school.
 
Cookery was the female equivalent of woodwork back in my day; you did it up to the point where O levels loomed then dropped it unless you were in the B stream and couldn't handle the academic stuff. This was late 60s/early 70s, so nothing to do with Thatcherism, the national curriculum, or anything like that.
 
30p per meal is far too low, although some of my wholefood vegan meals can be fairly near that price. There is however, less ability to cook from scratch in the population than there used to be, which does push up food costs considerably.
 
dweezil said:
The MP might moan but it's crazy that schools don't give us basic life skills.

I know loads of adults who can't cook, luckily well off enough to arrange something or chauvinistic enough to leave the job to a partner.
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In the interview, the MP also said that to have access to a food bank, one would have to register for budgeting and cooking courses. I agree that both are essential life skills for people to have and coaching should be offered, budgeting is useless if you have f**k all in the first place and I have a real issue with conditions being placed on access to food, especially as they are usually charities and so should give food to who they choose, not to those who an MP decides is deserving.

dweezil said:
In the good old days we used to get food stolen from the field, now half the population wouldn't know that there's a load of food under those potato plants.
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There's enough who know where cheap lamb can be found.
 
Joe Hutch said:
Cookery was the female equivalent of woodwork back in my day; you did it up to the point where O levels loomed then dropped it unless you were in the B stream and couldn't handle the academic stuff. This was late 60s/early 70s, so nothing to do with Thatcherism, the national curriculum, or anything like that.
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I did Home Economics for the first year at secondary school. It taught me important life lessons like:
  • Tupperware leaks in school bags
  • Banana goes manky if you put it in a fruit salad and don't eat it straight away,
  • Home-made orange squash is a waste of time when you can buy Robinsons which has the bonus of being palatable.
  • You can never eat too much Vit C.
 
The problem isn't people don't know how to cook FFS.
Seems many are running with this Tory tw@ts assertion that it's down to those on benefits' lack of cooking skills, no doubt reinforced by a picture of benefit claimants as feckless overweight lazy trash rather than the reality which is employed, hard working, decent people/ parents.
 
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We had a bit of a rebellion at my middle school, largely at my initiation because I was more interested in cooking than woodwork/metalwork (my grandad was a professional coachbuilder so I had plenty of the latter at home). We argued it was sexual discrimination to prevent boys from learning home economics and to the credit of the school they opened it up. Unfortunately I was less successful in persuading the troglodyte sports department at high school to allow boys to play tennis because clearly that was a girls' sport. Those idiots managed to turn a 13 year old boy who loved pretty much any sport you've got into a 14 year who hated games more than physics. Peak twattery was one freezing morning I was told to remove the gloves I was wearing, by a teacher who didn't much like it being observed that while we boys were wearing shorts, he was fully kitted out in a snug tracksuit. I suppose I should be grateful we weren't beaten or interfered with.
 
Seeker_UK said:
I did Home Economics for the first year at secondary school. It taught me important life lessons like:
  • Tupperware leaks in school bags
  • Banana goes manky if you put it in a fruit salad and don't eat it straight away,
  • Home-made orange squash is a waste of time when you can buy Robinsons which has the bonus of being palatable.
  • You can never eat too much Vit C.
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In my school there was none of that namby-pamby Home Economics stuff. Proper bloke skills like woodwork were taught. There seemed to be a shortage of wood, so sometimes we had the dubious pleasure of carving up polystyrene tiles with a heated fretsaw instead. At some point after I'd stopped doing woodwork, the woodworking hut burned down one night.
 
Joe Hutch said:
In my school there was none of that namby-pamby Home Economics stuff. Proper bloke skills like woodwork were taught.
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IIRC, Home Ec. was for one term, then we went to do Woodwork.

Girls were allowed to do woodwork but weren't allowed in the metalwork shop where 11 year old lads were allowed access to proper men's equipment like blowtorches and welders.
 
ks.234 said:
Speaking in the Commons during a debate on the Queen's Speech, Tory MP Lee Anderson claimed people could "cook meals from scratch" for "30p a day".

30p a day means 10p per meal.

What does a 10p meal look like?

Speaking in the Commons during a debate on the Queen's Speech, he claimed people could "cook meals from scratch" for "30p a day" instead.

30p a day means 10p per meal. What does a 10p meal look like?

At my local Aldi Baking Potatoes are 11p each, carrots slightly less. It would seem that Lee Anderson’s calculations do not include the energy cost of cooking, so here’s your daily feast…

52066814852_a08115c3cd_m.jpg

Breakfast

52067871888_7ec54f7b57_m.jpg

Lunch

52066814852_a08115c3cd_m.jpg

Tea

…..Enjoy
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Of course, ye have to take into consideration the fact that he's struggling as well. He's just entered his expenses claim allowances - £200,000 o_O
 
I made a boat (or rather we were instructed to plane a vessel that would be fluid-dynamic) in CDT (Craft, Design & Technology). On its maiden voyage it capsized, and sea tests proved it was slow even as a partial submarine.
 
kensalriser said:
Unfortunately I was less successful in persuading the troglodyte sports department at high school to allow boys to play tennis because clearly that was a girls' sport. Those idiots managed to turn a 13 year old boy who loved pretty much any sport you've got into a 14 year who hated games more than physics. Peak twattery was one freezing morning I was told to remove the gloves I was wearing, by a teacher who didn't much like it being observed that while we boys were wearing shorts, he was fully kitted out in a snug tracksuit. I suppose I should be grateful we weren't beaten or interfered with.
Click to expand...

The winter sports choices at my school were rugby and cross-country. I opted for the latter, or rather, running a few hundred yards, then lurking behind a hedgerow until everyone else came panting back into sight, and tagging along. Then we got a young, keen games master who decided to do the run instead of staying at the games field, so I dropped games altogether.
 
Nagraboy said:
There is however, less ability to cook from scratch in the population than there used to be, which does push up food costs considerably.
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Of course. Though has already been mentioned upthread for many people it's not a lack of knowledge that prevents them batch cooking dozens of healthy meals from scratch, it's a lack of time (long hours, childcare) or opportunity. Lots of food banks prepare 'kettle' boxes for folk whose only means of preparing hot food is a kettle. They also do 'cold' boxes for the poor sods who don't even have that.
 
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