One of the unwritten rules of being a caustic newspaper columnist is that you keep your fury on the page, and then serenely observe the ripples of chaos left behind. But sometimes anger can get the better of anyone.
On this occasion it was Sarah Vine, a spiky, weekly contributor to the Daily Mail (whose profile is further boosted by the fact she is married to Michael Gove), who succumbed. Vine is very publicly bristling – through Twitter, inevitably – at criticism from another journalist, the Observer food writer Jay Rayner.
The saga began earlier this month when Vine filled her column with a description of Ed and Justine Miliband’s “forlorn little kitchen”, in which the couple were pictured for a BBC profile. The initial fallout from this piece came when it emerged this was merely the smaller of two kitchens in the Miliband household.
However, others later noted Vine’s self-deprecating description of her own family kitchen in the column:
My own is 10 years old, has several uninvited furry residents and a wooden worktop that would almost certainly not pass any health and safety inspection.
The hob has many knobs missing, the oven smokes and the lighting strips under the kitchen units have long since been abandoned for an old fat-splattered lampshade and an Ikea spotlight.
It particularly caught the attention of the magazine Private Eye, which ran a piece noting that Vine’s supposedly down-at-heel kitchen had £7,000 of public money spent on it after Gove designated the London property their second home. Items included a £750 table and £430 dining chairs. Gove then designated his Surrey constituency home their second property and claimed for items there too.
Here's @SarahVine skewered by @PrivateEyeNews on a bunch of state-funded breakfast knives, via @jpublik and @heawood pic.twitter.com/DtMl9fuNn3”
— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) March 19, 2015
Over the three years between his 2005 election and the start of the expenses scandal Gove claimed more than £66,000 in expenses, three times that claimed by Miliband, Private Eye said.
@jayrayner1 @PrivateEyeNews @jpublik @heawood ah, Jay, you of all people - and to think you used to be a colleague on the Mail on Sunday.
— Sarah Vine (@SarahVine) March 23, 2015
Among the 2,000-plus retweets of an image of the Private Eye story was by Rayner, sent last Thursday. On Monday evening Vine finally snapped, replying: “Ah, Jay, you of all people – and to think you used to be a colleague on the Mail on Sunday.”
The exchange continued, with Rayner asking why their shared work history “defends you from criticism for behaviour of this kind?” Vine replied, icily: “Of what kind?” The inevitable reply came: “Slagging off one man’s kitchen as a mark of character while filling your own on public funds.”
@SarahVine @PrivateEyeNews @heawood slagging off one mans kitchen as a mark of character while filling your own on public funds.
— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) March 24, 2015
The spat rumbled on, with Vine saying the Private Eye version of events was “a twisted interpretation”. Rayner, Vine fumed – before making her excuses to head off on the school run – was “swallowing the lie because it suits your political agenda and makes you look cool”.
The response came: “The lie? You slagged off a man’s character through his kitchen while using public funds for your own. And only paid it back when you discovered there was a principle involved.”
@SarahVine @PrivateEyeNews @heawood so you used public funds to kit out your kitchen and found it awkward enough a situation to repay.
— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) March 24, 2015
If this debate wasn’t already sufficiently 2015, the food writer and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe weighed in, noting that Vine had criticised Monroe’s former receipt of benefits. “Your kitchen cost taxpayers many x more than my benefits did.”
.@SarahVine @jayrayner1 Your kitchen cost taxpayers many x more than my benefits did. Remember this? That's trolling. pic.twitter.com/2bEvmhyG6r
— Jack Monroe (@MsJackMonroe) March 24, 2015
Vine fulminated further – the Milibands claimed lower expenses as “they have stacks of money”, she said. But the inevitable Twitter onlookers saw it as a convincing Rayner win.
The lessons? Well, look around one’s own kitchen before you write a column about someone else’s. .
- You can read the full exchange here.
