Our job-seeking blogger, Henry Mackley, responds to the criticism he took last week and discusses the benefits of being unemployed – like going to Aldi:

Last week in this column I got a bit political, and I socked it to The Man – right in the goolies. BAM!

This caused readers to write some interesting comments. Some of you agreed with me, others didn’t and then spat cyber-bile right back at me.

That’s fine, I can take it, and more to the point I don’t really care. If I’m right, I don’t care. If I’m wrong, I don’t care.

Arrogant? Childish? Come on, you can do better than that.

Like a lot of people who write things, I occasionally use a spot of poetic licence to make something dull seem a little more interesting.

A little literary white-lie here and there if you will. So calm down dears, I didn’t really tell the lady at the call-centre that I was a “militant Jihadist”. Had I done so I would have been writing this from Guantanamo Bay.

I don’t really care, because in fact I’m writing this overlooking the Dart Estuary in Devon, cold beer in one hand, fishing rod in the other, and my toes merrily typing away.

I’m having a little holiday, not that I deserve one, but it’s a holiday nonetheless.

One of the few nice things about being unemployed is that you can go on holiday at the drop of a hat because you don’t have a job to go to.

So that’s what I’m doing, because let’s face it, if you had some wealthy acquaintance with a pile by the seaside who told you that you’re more than welcome to go and stay in said pile for a few days, free of charge, you’re not going to say no. Are you?

Another nice thing I’ve discovered about unemployment is that I can shop in Aldi without feeling like I shouldn’t be there.

I’ve always enjoyed shopping in Aldi, but before I was unemployed I felt like I was needling my way into a club where I didn’t belong.

But now, I can stroll along the aisles with my head held high, unshaven and greasy-haired with my fellow unemployeds, eyeing-up the bargains, and you know what?

It’s a good feeling.

It feels good to be in the Aldi Club. Okay, so it’s not the East India, or even the Groucho (where they’ll let anyone in these day so long as they can pay for it), but the Aldi Club serves my purposes very well indeed thanks.

Now I don’t really know if this is a good or bad thing – for the purposes of this column, it is probably good – but I have also been learning about unemployed cookery: scrape out the fridge and the freezer, sling it all into a pot (one pot mind – Fairy liquid isn’t cheap), and voila!

If you’re lucky, I may furnish you with one of my esteemed unemployed recipes later this week. After I’m back from my undeserved hols of course.

• Henry blogs at This could be Ludlow or anywhere