The name Jack Monroe may ring a vague bell with regular readers. She was the Guardian blogger on ‘poverty issues’ who featured in a Labour party political broadcast last year masquerading as an ‘ordinary person’.

Among her top tips for beating the ‘savage cuts’ was a recipe for making Kale Pesto Pasta for 42p a portion. Kale Pesto Pasta is what the Guardianistas think ‘ordinary people’ should eat.

Jack, then a single mother with more tattoos than your average professional footballer, gave up her £27,000-a-year job answering the phone for the fire brigade to exercise her ‘right’ to bring up her son on benefits and pursue a full-time career sitting in front of her laptop moaning about ‘austerity’.

Guardian blogger: Jack Monroe was hailed by Left-wing rags like the Guardian and the Independent as 'the modern face of poverty'

Naturally, she was hailed by Left-wing rags like the Guardian and the Independent as ‘the modern face of poverty’. Pretty soon she was being invited on to the BBC as a spokeswoman for the welfare classes.

She even got a gig at Sainsbury’s on the strength of it, demonstrating exciting things to do with left-over chicken.

When I lampooned her in this column, she published an indignant reply on the Guardian website — where else? — denying all manner of stuff I hadn’t accused her of and claiming I was only picking on her because she was a lesbian.

That wasn’t true, either. I had no idea she was a lesbian and hadn’t even alluded to her sexuality. Still, the Left never let the facts get in the way of a good smear campaign. It’s pity she’s white, in a way, because otherwise I could have been accused of ‘racism’ as well as ‘homophobia’ and demonising single mums.

Resignation: As the furore over the Emily Thornberry (left) ‘White Van Man’ tweet (right) has exposed, Labour - and the Left in general - has nothing but undisguised contempt for ‘ordinary people’

It’s what the Left always do when someone shines a torch into their murky Fantasy Island world. Instead of engaging in an argument, they sling dirt.

When they’re not parading their moral superiority, the Guardianistas like to posture as victims of an evil Right-wing conspiracy. Thus, any mild criticism of their behaviour or opinions, however justified, can be dismissed as ‘hate speech’.

The truth of the matter, as I have long maintained, is that the real hatred comes from the Left. Those who preach ‘tolerance’ the loudest are among the most bigoted, intolerant people on earth.

As the furore over the Emily Thornberry ‘White Van Man’ tweet has exposed, Labour — and the Left in general — has nothing but undisguised contempt for ‘ordinary people’.

Thornberry was forced to resign from the Shadow Cabinet after appearing to ridicule the owner of a house festooned with three English flags, complete with ubiquitous white van on the forecourt.

It proved, we are told, that Labour is a metropolitan, middle-class party which doesn’t understand white working class voters and holds them in contempt.

This analysis is right, but only up to a point. It doesn’t go far enough. The Left don’t just hate the white working class, they hate everyone who doesn’t share their warped world view. The Guardianistas never, ever, demonstrate the kind of ‘respect’ towards their opponents that they routinely demand for themselves and their chosen client groups. When it comes to slagging off ‘Tory scum’, nothing is beyond the pale.

Take the saintly Jack Monroe, who postures as a victim of ‘poverty’ and every kind of ‘phobia’ going. She goes mental if anyone casts aspersions on her ‘lifestyle’ choices.

Yet she appears to believe it is perfectly permissible to use a dead child to make a political point.

Yesterday, it emerged that she had attacked David Cameron on Twitter — the online asylum for those suffering from advanced narcissism — for using ‘stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling the NHS to his friends’.

This was a disgusting reference to Cameron’s son, Ivan, who died after suffering from cerebral palsy and epilepsy, aged six, in 2009.

Admittedly, the Prime Minister has spoken publicly about his admiration for the medical staff who cared for Ivan and cited his family’s own experience to counter those who claim he doesn’t ‘care’ about the NHS.

And there was a moment before the last election when he came dangerously close to getting into a distasteful ‘arms race’ about the NHS with Gordon Brown, who also lost a young child in unbearably sad circumstances. But to rake up this tragedy in support of an outright lie — the entirely false allegation that Cameron intends to ‘sell’ the health service to his ‘friends’ — is as indecent as it is insensitive.

Father: It has emerged that Jack Monroe had attacked David Cameron (pictured with his son, Ivan) on Twitter for using ‘stories about his dead son as misty-eyed rhetoric to legitimise selling the NHS to his friends’

No doubt Jack’s ‘followers’ are giggling into their Kale Pesto Pasta. Her cheerleaders at the Guardian will be basking in the reflected glory of their celebrity chef sticking it to the hated Tories.

What makes Jack Monroe think that Samantha Cameron (right) isn’t worthy of human compassion?

By the time you read this, she will probably have been invited on Newsnight or Radio 4’s Today programme to expound her views on how Cameron is exploiting the death of his son as a smokescreen to ‘privatise’ the NHS.

Presumably, A Girl Called Jack — as she styles herself online — is big on ‘women’s issues’. So why does she believe that intruding on another woman’s grief is a proper way to behave?

No parent ever gets over the loss of a child. It is especially tough on the mother who has brought that precious life into the world.

What makes Jack Monroe think that Samantha Cameron isn’t worthy of human compassion? Doesn’t Sam Cam count, because she happens to be married to a Conservative politician?

Probably not. In the sick world inhabited by the Guardianistas, all Conservatives are wicked monsters and are not entitled to common decency.

Look at the way the Left reacted with jubilation to the death of Margaret Thatcher. They queued up to dance on her grave and now, thanks to Jack Monroe, they are dancing on the grave of a dead boy, just because he happened to be the son of a Tory Prime Minister.

Last night, as revulsion at her remarks escalated, Sainsbury’s sacked her. Heaven knows why they hired her in the first place. Would you buy a left-over chicken recipe from this woman?

Conservative MPs are calling on the Guardian to fire her, too. They should save their breath.

Jack Monroe should be preserved in aspic, as a stark reminder of the true, deep-seated hatred which lies behind the self-regarding, self-satisfied, self-pitying posturing of the modern British Left

There’s a picture of my sister and me sitting on Santa’s knee, taken in a toy shop around 1962. I’m wearing short trousers, long socks and my school mac.

Father Christmas has a bright red nose to match his tunic and looks as if he’s been on the sherry all day.

It was a rite of passage for generations of children. That’s before elf’n’safety decided to get in on the act.

Last week, I brought you news of how council killjoys had banned the annual Christmas parade in Poole, Dorset, and prevented a taxi driver in Barnsley wearing a white Santa beard for charity.

Now officials in Dundee have gone a step further. Panicked by child protection considerations, kids are no longer allowed any contact with Father Christmas.

Visits to Santa’s grotto have been replaced by, wait for it, a live link via Skype. Children are gathered in groups of up to ten, presumably because there’s safety in numbers, and can talk to Santa on the computer.

A spokesman for the local shopping centre said the decision had been taken because some kids are frightened of Father Christmas.

Well, that’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Savile remains dead.

Look who’s putting the frighteners on us all...

We know we live in dangerous times, but why do they have to keep ramming it down our throats?

Our ambitious, charisma-free Home Secretary polishes her image by warning that Isis is the biggest threat to Britain, ever. What, greater than Nazi Germany? Or the IRA, even?

The Met commissioner Bernard Hyphen-Howe boasts about how many terror plots he’s foiled, presumably to divert our attention from Plebgate and other misdemeanours.

Yesterday, Sky News featured a ‘security expert’ walking round London’s Covent Garden shopping centre, warning of all the possible dangers.

There could be a bomb in that bag, he said. An assassin could be lurking behind that pillar waiting to chop off your head.

Boo!

The purpose of terrorists is to terrify. So why are so many politicians, police officers and ‘professionals’ willing to do their job for them?

The price of rubber washing-up gloves is set to increase by up to 20 per cent because of new EU standards.

Officials are insisting on all gloves being tested to a temperature of 200 degrees Centigrade.

That’s twice the boiling point of water. Or, as it’s known in the trade: steam.

Turning Christmas into a real dog's dinner

Is there anything some organisations won’t do to get their name in the papers?

A supermarket chain, which I won’t identify, yesterday put out a press release saying that one in six British households now celebrates the American Thanksgiving festival, which falls this week. No, they don’t. It’s simply a clumsy attempt to flog frozen turkeys. Another ‘story’ claimed that many families were planning to buy not one but two Christmas trees this year.

No, they’re not.

But you won’t be surprised to learn that piece of ‘news’ came from tree growers. Meanwhile, a ‘survey’ from a pet food company warned that five and a half million dog owners will let their pets share Christmas dinner, which could give them diarrhoea and kidney stones.

The dogs, that is, not the owners.