Make do and Mend

The BBC has adopted the Miss Make Due and Mend model and Newsnight is exploring in a very old fashioned way what it might mean. Old-fashioned? The host has packed her sewing machine into her car. Call me modern, but, that is not the first thing I would bring. I'd probably get a free skype to skype phone sim card for starters. And I might fix that old laptop under my bed and throw it in my bicycle pannier. The sewing machine strikes me as a slightly dated and sexist icon. Never mind the car.

On the programme, Mary Jane Baxter is trolling the country looking for ways to earn some cash along the way. Perhaps she should exit the country. A friend of Missmc who was a company director in the construction industry is about to accept a two-year contract in Qatar as he has been unemployed here for four months. His family will remain behind in sunny London. All a bit heart-breaking to say the least.

The old make do and mend certainly was about the sewing machine. But, what does it mean in this modern world? I will certainly be curious to see if this BBC adventure evolves...