Austerity, Women and Right-wing Populism The Case of Monroe vs Hopkins
Kirsten Forkert (Birmingham School of Media)
Austerity politics in the UK 2015 General Election, a Conservative government continued the austerity n the aftermath of the financial programme. Cuts were applied to a great Icrisis of 2008 and the 2010 General number of welfare benefits such as Child Election, which ended 13 years of rule Benefit, Employment and Housing by the Labour Party, the Conservative Support Allowance, Universal Credit, Liberal-Democrat Coalition government but also to the salaries of public sector undertook a programme of drastic cuts to employees and to the budgets of local public spending. This was justified by the authorities, who in their turn were forced argument that the previous government to close hundreds of libraries and youth had irresponsibly overspent and that the clubs as well as reduce support for creative public must now ‘live within their means’ activities. All these measures together – essentially a revival of the economy- had the combined effect of entrenching as-household metaphor used by former social and economic inequality. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher many years earlier. Like in Thatcher’s time, Women hit hardest this was an argument which was mostly accepted by the public, who – as intended t a closer look the brunt of austerity - made the common-sense intuitive link Awas mostly borne by women, thus between household finances and macro- reversing gains made on gender quality. economics. Although there were vibrant Although women were already at a protests and anti-austerity campaigns, disadvantage because of the gender pay these did not involve a majority of gap - they earn 82 p for every pound the population and did not force the earned by a man - and were more likely government to change course. After the to live in poverty, at the time of writing £22 billion of the £26 billion of ‘savings’
Page 66 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Kirsten Forkert since 2010 have come from women The role of right-wing media and (MacDonald 2018). This was partly popular responses due to tax and benefit changes which reward traditional single-earner families he tabloid press (with a conservative with a male ‘breadwinner’ and penalise Tor right-wing bias) have successfully the ‘second earner’ (most likely to be a supported austerity propaganda by woman) in dual-income households. vilifying certain social groups such as Furthermore, according to the Women’s the unemployed and immigrants as Budget Group, public sector job cuts scroungers and burdens on the taxpayer. have affected women in particular, as Positioning these people as objects of 73% of the work-force is female. Cuts to resentment has caused a hardening of benefits for low-paid part-time workers public attitudes towards them, which have also disproportionately affected then has made further cuts affecting women, notably mothers who find it these groups more socially acceptable. difficult to work full-time because of ro-austerity arguments are often based inadequate childcare support. By 2020, in old prejudices such as the lingering women will have borne 86% of the P Victorian fears of the ‘residuum’: the burden of welfare cuts. (Stewart 2017). lazy, feckless and dangerous underclass, ome groups of women are hit especially who were seen as a demographic threat Shard. Among them are lone mothers, to other social classes. A large number who represent 92% of single parents and of the stories proliferating in the tabloid are 50% more likely than the average press along these lines additionally draw citizen to be living in poverty (ibid). on ideologies concerning traditional Black and Ethnic Minority women are views of social reproduction and family also particularly vulnerable, as, due to care, putting most of the blame on workplace discrimination, they are more women: single mothers, unemployed likely to be unemployed than white and migrant women with large families women. These groups depend more than - not coincidentally the groups which others on the benefits system and are are also the most vulnerable to austerity therefore more vulnerable to the cuts, cuts - have served as favourite targets which increases their risk of falling into for scorn. They are blamed for being deeper poverty and deprivation (Women’s irresponsible parents who had too many Budget Group/Runnymede Trust 2017). children. Such accusations tend to play on moral panics about public health.
n particular, food has become a Ipoliticised issue within the austerity Page 67 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Austerity, Women and Right-wing Populism context, as the increasing reliance on there is the fact that the past few years foodbanks and reports about children have seen a renewed activity in feminist going to school hungry have alarmed and LGBT+ campaigning, from #MeToo the public. Commentators in the media, to women’s marches to the increased arguing from a mixture of old and new visibility of trans rights campaigns. The prejudices, have especially singled out UK voted for gay marriage in 2013, and working class mothers, blaming them there are currently plans to update the for rising childhood obesity and the Gender Recognition Act to define gender poor diets of children. For example, in terms of self-identification rather than in 2013 celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s biology. Therefore, an austerity discourse bemoaned “the mum and the kid eating which draws on traditional gender and chips and cheese out of Styrofoam sexual norms is no longer uncontested. containers, and behind them is a massive f*cking TV” (Deans 2013). Note that further form of othering within in Oliver’s comment mothers, and not A austerity discourses is the framing fathers, are assumed to be responsible of people as unpatriotic subjects. I for cooking and preparing meals. Food have mentioned immigrants as key is thus mobilised within discourses and targets for public resentment and have processes of othering. The reference written about this elsewhere (Forkert to televisions and other gadgets in the 2017). However, unlike immigrants - quote further suggest en passant that the whose very right to be in the country is poverty experienced by working-class disputed - British citizens can be vilified mothers is not real, and that unhealthy as traitorous, often through accusations food is an irresponsible lifestyle choice of lacking respect for the military. These and an example of bad parenting. accusations are routinely employed to discriminate those on the Left, as for part from traditional gender roles, instance the frequent attacks by the Aheteronormativity and cis-gender tabloid press on Labour Party leader normativity are brought into play to Jeremy Corbyn for his anti-imperialist underpin austerity rhetoric. For example, politics show. Conversely, to assert the former Prime Minister David Cameron’s importance of respect for the military is “hardworking families” rhetoric to make a claim for the authority and combines ‘hardworking’ and ‘family’, moral superiority of traditional values which suggests that the hard work of such as the discipline associated with the individuals who are not in families or British national character - symbolised might have other living arrangements in the stereotype of the ‘stiff upper does not matter. On the other hand, lip’ -, adherence to social norms, etc..
Page 68 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Kirsten Forkert
Disrespect for the military is also proxy for or Britain First – has created pressures other controversial issues. Thus it is used on mainstream politics to embrace as an argument in an intergenerational compulsory patriotism in the form of conflict: the younger generations are English nationalism, lest this be ceded accused of lacking gratitude towards to the far right. Conversely, those who the bravery and sacrifices of older do not embrace patriotism are dismissed generations, particularly those who had as an out-of-touch metropolitan served in the Second World War, which elite (ironically a right-wing version still is a powerful symbol of British of Stalin’s “rootless cosmopolitan”, identity. At this point in history there are a discriminatory term for Jews). few people still alive who served in the Second World War, so that it has become Jack Monroe and Katie Hopkins as less of a living memory and more of a paradigmatic figures of Austerity generalised and simulacral association Britain with older generations. Memories of the hese three themes underpinning backlash in the 1970s against anti-war austerity discourses – responsibility protestors and stereotypes about scruffy, T for providing healthy food, the undisciplined hippies are also deliberately traditional role of women and respect exploited – the tabloids’ obsession with for the military – became issues in the the clothes Corbyn wears during official controversy around a dispute between memorial events is a good example. two public figures: the food blogger and ccusations of disrespect for the anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe Amilitary have become further and the right-wing columnist Katie politically loaded in the context Hopkins. In different ways they are of discussions about ‘compulsory paradigmatic figures of Austerity Britain. patriotism’, originally an American ack Monroe first came to prominence concept much employed after the 9/11 through a food blog entitled A Girl attacks and in the war on terror debates. J Called Jack (now renamed as Cooking Whilst the 9/11 attacks have, however, on a Bootstrap), on which she shared not mobilised the same strong support cheap recipes which could feed a of ‘compulsory patriotism’ in the UK family under £10/week. Formerly a as in the US, the recent rise of the call handler for the Essex County Fire populist right and far right - represented and Rescue Service, Monroe became by the UK Independence Party, the unemployed after having given birth Brexiteers and street protest groups and being unable to negotiate changes such as the English Defence League to her work schedule to accommodate
Page 69 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Austerity, Women and Right-wing Populism childcare. She was living in poverty and recent article in The Guardian she sharply struggling to feed her family, which led criticised the government’s decimation her to develop the blog. The term ‘Jack’ of free school meals and pointed out referred to a ‘Jack-of-all-trades’: someone the hypocrisy of “those who sit back who is good at fixing things and does a and moralise under a warm roof with combination of odd jobs to make a living. food in the cupboard” (Monroe 2018).
onroe became known as both a nsurprisingly, Monroe’s views on Mfood writer (she has since published Ufood poverty have made her the several cookbooks with budget recipes target of columnists in the right-wing and written for The Guardian, The New Daily Mail, including Sarah Vine (the Yorker and The New York Times) and as wife of former Prime Minister David an outspoken anti-poverty campaigner. Cameron), who accused her of choosing In her newspaper columns and in her a life of poverty, and Richard Littlejohn, campaigning, Monroe consistently who described her as “a cross between rejected these stereotypes and moralising [Labour Party politician] Yvette Cooper and [cookbook writer] Delia Smith, with tattoos” (Littlejohn 2013). Littlejohn berated her for resigning from her job at the fire brigade, calling it a “lifestyle choice” – ignoring the difficulties she faced in securing flexible working arrangement or job-shares that would enable her to keep her job. He also got some other facts wrong, including her marital status (Monroe 2013).
onroe has been frequently targeted Mby right-wing commentators and received online abuse not only because of her living circumstances, but also because of her gender identity. Although Jack Monroe, English writer, journalist and campaigner, in 2015 using the pronouns she/her, Monroe © Fox Fisher identifies as non-binary; she came out as lesbian at the age of fifteen and identifies arguments and contested the necessity of as trans. At one point, Monroe had austerity cuts in general. For example, in a considered transitioning and having a double mastectomy, which provoked
Page 70 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Kirsten Forkert a furious response from journalist the defacing of a war memorial during James Dellingpole, who, in a blog an anti-austerity demonstration. A post on the far-right website Breitbart, memorial to women of the Second compared the operation to “drowning World War in Whitehall, Central a sack of puppies” (Dellingpole 2015).
ight-wing newspaper columnist RKatie Hopkins first attracted media attention in 2006 as a contestant on The Apprentice, a reality television programme, in which she made a series of negative statements about the other contestants, working-class children’s names and overweight people (The Guardian 2013). Hopkins worked for the tabloid newspaper The Sun, who promoted her as “Britain’s most controversial columnist”. She then left The Sun in 2015 to work for the Daily Katie Hopkins in 2018 Mail until 2017. She has since become © Almostangelic123 known for her extremist views, like London, had been vandalised with the comparing refugees to cockroaches, words “Fuck Tory Scum”. Hopkins saying that Islam disgusted her and was in fact confusing Monroe with expressing conspiracy theories about Laurie Penny, another prominent anti- white genocide. She repeatedly attracted austerity campaigner and New Statesman complaints and legal challenges for both columnist. Penny had tweeted from her the content of her columns and her Twitter @PennyRed account saying that she feed; the latter will be discussed below. didn’t “have a problem” with the graffiti as a form of protest because “the bravery The Monroe vs. Hopkins case of past generations does not oblige us to he issues discussed above - gender be cowed today”. Hopkins attributed the Tidentity, anti-austerity campaigns tweet to Monroe, tweeting her former and perceived lack of respect for the account @MsJackMonroe and saying: military - came together in the Monroe “Scrawled on any memorials recently? vs. Hopkins court case. This was triggered Vandalised the memory of those who by a Twitter exchange in 2015, in which fought for your freedom. Grandma got Hopkins accused Monroe of approving any more medals?” Monroe, who is from
Page 71 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Austerity, Women and Right-wing Populism a military family, responded by saying “I memorials or supporting others who do. have NEVER ‘scrawled on a memorial’. Brother in the RAF [Royal Air Force]. he court case was the beginning of Dad was a Para in the Falklands. You’re Ta series of events in 2017 which a piece of shit.” She then followed this led to Hopkins’ financial ruin and the up with a demand for a public apology: collapse of her career as a mainstream “Dear @KTHopkins, public apology + journalist, and her self-reinvention as £5K to migrant rescue and I won’t sue. a spokesperson for the alt-right. After It’ll be cheaper for you and v satisfying losing the court case in March 2017, for me.” Hopkins deleted her tweet Hopkins left LBC Radio in May 2017 but refused to apologise, asking what after tweeting about the need for a “final the difference was between “irritant solution” following a terrorist attack @PennyRed and social anthrax @ in Manchester. In July 2017 she was MsJackMonro”. The judge ruled that tweeting on board a boat which was Hopkins’ tweets were defamatory and had commissioned by Defend Europe, an caused reputational damage to Monroe. international coalition of far-right groups Jack Monroe won the case in court on formed with the intention of disrupting 10 March 2017, with Hopkins being and harassing NGOs rescuing refugees ordered to pay hundreds of thousands in the Mediterranean. Her association of pounds in damages and legal fees. with projects such as these possibly explains why Hopkins did not apologise Why does the court case matter? to Monroe or donate £5,000 to a refugee organisation: such a gesture would he confusion of Monroe and have made it more difficult for her to TPenny reveals how easily right- operate as a far-right spokesperson. On wing commentators conflate the issues 27 November 2017 Hopkins’ contract of anti-austerity campaigning, trans and with the Daily Mail newspaper was not queer identities and (lack of) respect renewed after a series of complaints from for the military. Notably, Laurie Penny readers, although a spokesperson said identifies as pansexual and is involved that this was by mutual consent and gave in polyamorous relationships. There is no further details. The collapse of her a sense that the sexuality of both Penny journalistic career, combined with the and Monroe represents something costs of the court case, forced her to sell unsettling and transgressive for right- her home and apply for an insolvency wing columnists like Katie Hopkins, who arrangement to avoid bankruptcy. then make a link from the challenging Hopkins then became a columnist for of sexual norms to other forms of Breitbart and the Canadian far-right news transgression, such as vandalising war
Page 72 Hard Times 102 (2/2018) Kirsten Forkert website The Rebel Media, which features Forkert, Kirsten (2017). Public Mood: contributors such as Tommy Robinson, Social Anxieties and Social Struggle. founder of the English Defence League. London: Rowman & Littlefield International. here are lessons to be learnt from Tthe court case and Hopkins’ further “Katie Hopkins: From Apprentice movements. For a while, Hopkins Candidate to Rent-a-Gob” (2013). provided profitable clickbait to right- The Guardian 5 July.
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Helping from Government”. The Guardian 6 September.
Stewart, Heather (2017). “Women Bearing 86% of Austerity Burden, Commons Figures Reveal”. The Guardian 9 March.
Women’s Budget Group/Runnymede Trust (2017). “Intersecting Inequalities: The Impact of Austerity on Black and Minority Ethnic Women in the UK”. 10 October.
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