# Benefit Street - Channel 4



## editor (Jan 6, 2014)

Anyone see this tonight?

I thought it was pretty interesting stuff. There was some real community spirit on the street:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefits-street

Some of the people involved aren't happy:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/benefits-street-channel-4-documentary-2994242


----------



## weepiper (Jan 6, 2014)

I didn't watch it but it's invaded my personal space anyway


----------



## Clair De Lune (Jan 6, 2014)

Ugh


----------



## kittyP (Jan 7, 2014)

So better a murderer than a benefit claimant 

*I haven't seen it by the way, just going on weeps post*


----------



## panpete (Jan 7, 2014)

I thought the community spirit was great.

I hated the fact that it seems like the program is going to stir up more hatred for benefit claimants.


----------



## RedDragon (Jan 7, 2014)

> The ‘stars’ of Channel 4's Benefits Street claim they were tricked into appearing in the documentary by the film-makers.
> They claim they took part after being assured the series would be about neighbourly togetherness and community spirit in James Turner Street, Winson Green, Birmingham.
> But they say the show paints a rather different picture, making residents out to be anti-social benefit scroungers, irresponsible parents, drug-takers and foul-mouthed wasters.
> And several of the show’s subjects, who have seen previews of the first three episodes as well as attention-grabbing TV adverts, claim they were lied to and betrayed by the programme makers Love Productions.


Daily Mirror


----------



## TruXta (Jan 7, 2014)

Someone should murder that TV production company. Now there we have some right parasitic scumbags.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jan 7, 2014)

glad I didn't bother to watch it.

usual media trick - decide their agenda, then edit what they get to fit and edit out anything that doesn't.

I had hoped for something marginally better than pandering to the standard prejudices from channel 4.


----------



## Treacle Toes (Jan 7, 2014)

....and there was me wondering how they convinced people to take part in such a programme. Haven't watched it, will never watch it..It was never going to be pretty. _'Benefits Street'? _Yuk on so many levels.


----------



## Doctor Carrot (Jan 7, 2014)

#stoptherebenefits


----------



## twentythreedom (Jan 7, 2014)

TruXta said:


> Someone should murder that TV production company. Now there we have some right parasitic scumbags.



 Too right



> Love Productions was launched in October 2004 and has made programmes ranging from BBC’s Great British Bake Off to documentaries including Britain’s Youngest Grannies, Stairlift To Heaven and Underage And Having Sex.


----------



## weepiper (Jan 7, 2014)

twentythreedom said:


>


No great loss then.


----------



## laptop (Jan 7, 2014)

From the comments on the _Mirror_:



> For the information of some of the numbnutz commenting on here!
> 
> A record number of people are NOT now in employment!! the tories privatised many government run public sector jobs and re-classified them as new jobs!!
> 
> ...



+112 so far... 113...


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 7, 2014)

Dismally the standard response to that kind of comment is:

"Well YOU'RE one of the good 'uns. It's the rest of them I can't stand!"


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Jan 7, 2014)

twentythreedom said:


> Too right



'Love Productions' should change their name to 'Love Poshos Baking and Eating Fancy Cakes and Hate Everyone Else Productions'.


----------



## laptop (Jan 7, 2014)

laptop said:


> From the comments on the _Mirror_:
> 
> 
> 
> +112 so far... 113...



+146 and counting...


----------



## goldenecitrone (Jan 7, 2014)

editor said:


> Anyone see this tonight?
> 
> I thought it was pretty interesting stuff. There was some real community spirit on the street:
> http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefits-street
> ...


 
Not watched it yet. Why do you think they are unhappy about their portrayal if it shows real community spirit?


----------



## editor (Jan 7, 2014)

goldenecitrone said:


> Not watched it yet. Why do you think they are unhappy about their portrayal if it shows real community spirit?


I guess it very much depends on the politics of the viewer. 

I saw people at the arse end of the pile struggling to get by. Many clearly had quite serious issues (alcoholism/drug addiction etc) but there seemed to be a real pulling together of the community by people trying to make the best of their pretty shitty lives. 

Obviously,  a Daily Mail reader will see it differently ("spongers!" "scum!" etc etc).


----------



## panpete (Jan 7, 2014)

editor said:


> I guess it very much depends on the politics of the viewer.
> 
> I saw people at the arse end of the pile struggling to get by. Many clearly had quite serious issues (alcoholism/drug addiction etc) but there seemed to be a real pulling together of the community by people trying to make the best of their pretty shitty lives.
> 
> Obviously,  a Daily Mail reader will see it differently ("spongers!" "scum!" etc etc).


It's a deliberate attempt to brainwash the tv watching public into hating people on benefits and it looks like it worked.


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Jan 7, 2014)

editor said:


> I guess it very much depends on the politics of the viewer.
> 
> I saw people at the arse end of the pile struggling to get by. Many clearly had quite serious issues (alcoholism/drug addiction etc) but there seemed to be a real pulling together of the community by people trying to make the best of their pretty shitty lives.
> 
> Obviously,  a Daily Mail reader will see it differently ("spongers!" "scum!" etc etc).



Yeah, but the production team kinda nailed their colours to the mast by calling this 'benefits street'. Of all of the things that they could have emphasised about the community they chose to highlight the fact that many of them were on benefits - a clear dog-whistle title aimed at  right-wing opinion. On top of which it appears as if they deceived the participants about their intentions and then edited them to reinforce crass stereotypes.


----------



## existentialist (Jan 7, 2014)

panpete said:


> It's a deliberate attempt to brainwash the tv watching public into hating people on benefits and it looks like it worked.


I suspect it's more about making a TV show that lots of people will watch than a deliberate bit of propaganda. 

But, with a population fed an interminable diet of politician fuelled rhetoric about dole scum, it's perhaps no surprise that a production company and TV channel see that pandering to popular - and ill-informed - prejudice would see a programme like this as a safe ratings bet. 

Which, of course, plays even more into the prejudice, and guarantees more of the same into the future. Boo.


----------



## editor (Jan 7, 2014)

Jeff Robinson said:


> Yeah, but the production team kinda nailed their colours to the mast by calling this 'benefits street'. Of all of the things that they could have emphasised about the community they chose to highlight the fact that many of them were on benefits - a clear dog-whistle title aimed at  right-wing opinion. On top of which it appears as if they deceived the participants about their intentions and then edited them to reinforce crass stereotypes.


I can see that the TV company may have had an agenda, but I felt the production was still able to generate a certain amount of of empathy with the characters and their plight (based on your own viewpoint, of course).


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Jan 7, 2014)

editor said:


> I can see that the TV company may have had an agenda, but I felt the production was still able to generate a certain amount of of empathy with the characters and their plight (based on your own viewpoint, of course).



That may be the case (I didn't see it), but it appears that a number of the participants themselves are rather pissed off with how they and their community were portrayed and also feel as if they were tricked into appearing on false premises. That to me is a pretty strong indicator of the company's intentions in making the show. Also, I'd like to know what the context of the 'empathy' was in the show. It's worth remembering that an important component of rightwing anti-welfare state propaganda (particularly that espoused by 'compassionate conservatives') is that welfare claimants are themselves _victims_ of a 'dependency culture' encouraged by the benefits system.


----------



## editor (Jan 7, 2014)

Jeff Robinson said:


> That may be the case (I didn't see it), but it appears that a number of the participants themselves are rather pissed off with how they and their community were portrayed and also feel as if they were tricked into appearing on false premises. That to me is a pretty strong indicator of the company's intentions in making the show. Also, I'd like to know what the context of the 'empathy' was in the show. It's worth remembering that an important component of rightwing anti-welfare state propaganda (particularly that espoused by 'compassionate conservatives') is that welfare claimants are themselves _victims_ of a 'dependency culture' encouraged by the benefits system.


I think you really should watch it first.


----------



## Sprocket. (Jan 7, 2014)

Maybe Love Productions should make a programme on how easy it is to make propaganda films for the Tories that infuriate those with no compassion or knowledge of poverty, alcoholism and drug dependency enough to go on social media threatening to kill the less fortunate and ill.
Haven't watched it, won't watch it.
The BBC are doing immigration tonight.
The work of Joseph Goebbels and Leni Riefenstahl continues.


----------



## paulhackett (Jan 7, 2014)

I thought the 50p man came across well.


----------



## editor (Jan 7, 2014)

paulhackett said:


> I thought the 50p man came across well.


Indeed, as did 'White Lynn' who seemed a lovely soul.


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Jan 7, 2014)

editor said:


> I think you really should watch it first.



I may do, if I can find nothing better to do with my time. That said, I think due deference should be given to the views expressed by the subjects of the program. I'd place greater weight on their perception of the show than my own.


----------



## imposs1904 (Jan 7, 2014)

weepiper said:


> I didn't watch it but it's invaded my personal space anyway
> 
> View attachment 46152



fucking hell.


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Jan 7, 2014)

http://tompride.wordpress.com/2014/...ce-after-channel-4-programme-benefits-street/


----------



## goldenecitrone (Jan 7, 2014)

Sprocket. said:


> Haven't watched it, won't watch it.
> The BBC are doing immigration tonight.
> The work of Joseph Goebbels and Leni Riefenstahl continues.


 
Comparing TV programmes you haven't actually watched to Nazi propaganda is hyperbolic at best.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 7, 2014)

watched it
was grim in parts and that bit about the weed crop going missing was weird!!

50p man was great, as well as some of the other support going on


----------



## friendofdorothy (Jan 7, 2014)

Only saw a bit of it while I was busy doing chores but thought what it showed would have the job centre / atos asking questions. I felt sorry for all those involved on screen. Thought it was the usual exploitative reality rubbish -and turned it off as I couldn't stand it anymore.


----------



## lizzieloo (Jan 7, 2014)

*Police probe Twitter threats against stars of controversial Channel 4 documentary*

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/benefits-street-twitter-threats-against-2996710

Edit: wrong link originally


----------



## ddraig (Jan 7, 2014)

good, would love to see of the ever so hard authors of those tweets wriggling/crying/trembling their lower lip in apology and denial


----------



## lizzieloo (Jan 7, 2014)

The authors of some of those comments have reported "criminal activity" shown in the programme to police, police are investigating apparently.


----------



## mwgdrwg (Jan 7, 2014)

I'm going down 2 Benefit Street
I'm gonna crown the first girl that I meet
I'm gonna talk so sexy
She'll want me from my head 2 my feet

Yeah, yeah, yeah


----------



## friendofdorothy (Jan 7, 2014)

I went on hols once organised by a lesbian club and just before we were due to leave they anounced we were to have a TV crew with us, that we could be 'stars', or in the background or not in it at all. Thought I wouldn't mind being in the backgroud - till I met the TV crew, who were a smarmy lot who persuaded many of us that it would be good programme about who lesbians are, show us in a 'positive light' and we could 'have our say'.

I realised I would have no time to relax without a camera shoved in my face all the time, and if you want me on TV I want a haircut, full slap and a fee. They really pissed off the girlf who said 'if I see so much as my big toe on screen I'll sue you' - so we wouldn't sign up. The younger holiday grrls seemed the most media unsavvy and signed up to be 'stars'. Some others foolishly signed disclaimers when they we're drunk. All the sensible having-a-good-time bits ended up on the cutting room floor. The programme turned out to be the usual young brits get drunk and have sex tacky reality thing.

I met one of the 'stars' months later who had beeen a lively, confident young women - she was broken down and sad - she had moved town as she'd so much grief from complete strangers coming up to her calling her names. 

This was before internet/ twitter was such an issue. I feel sorry for all those involved who thought they were making a different show, they had no idea.


----------



## TruXta (Jan 7, 2014)

Pretty much every encounter I've had with journous and film makers has been overwhelmingly negative. I dunno why - does that industry attract cunts, does it make ordinary people cunts, or is it a mix of the two?


----------



## friendofdorothy (Jan 7, 2014)

TruXta said:


> Pretty much every encounter I've had with journous and film makers has been overwhelmingly negative. I dunno why - does that industry attract cunts, does it make ordinary people cunts, or is it a mix of the two?



Not sure - I used to work at a gay charity and tv people would call up all the time, every week, asking for this or that - because we were conveniently near by and they were so fucking* lazy*. I got really good at saying, sorry - why? - confidential - not applicable to our client group - no - *NO!*


----------



## TruXta (Jan 7, 2014)

friendofdorothy said:


> Not sure - I used to work at a gay charity and tv people would call up all the time, every week, asking for this or that - because we were conveniently near by and they were so fucking* lazy*. I got really good at saying, sorry - why? - confidential - not applicable to our client group - no - *NO!*


Lazy, yes. I did a bit of music promotion back in prehistoric days, and there's nothing or no one more lazy than music journos. They also like to arbitrarily alter trivial details in interviews given. WHY?!?!?!


----------



## xslavearcx (Jan 7, 2014)

panpete said:


> It's a deliberate attempt to brainwash the tv watching public into hating people on benefits and it looks like it worked.



think the hates already been there prior to this programme coming on tv tbf....


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 7, 2014)

TruXta said:


> Pretty much every encounter I've had with journous and film makers has been overwhelmingly negative. I dunno why - does that industry attract cunts, does it make ordinary people cunts, or is it a mix of the two?



More the latter than the former, in my experience.  Journalists, especially in the print media, basically have to conform to "house style" unless they're a Pilger.  That means that you could spend years of your career writing stuff that doesn't accord with your beliefs.  It tends to have an effect, because eventually the dissonance between your own views and the views you're being paid to propagate becomes too powerful to ignore.
*Some* cunts are attracted to the industry, though.  Gobshites like a platform.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 7, 2014)

friendofdorothy said:


> Not sure - I used to work at a gay charity and tv people would call up all the time, every week, asking for this or that - because we were conveniently near by and they were so fucking* lazy*. I got really good at saying, sorry - why? - confidential - not applicable to our client group - no - *NO!*



To be scrupulously fair, for the last 20 or so years, TV company researchers have been interns who don't have much of a clue about "research" except "ooh, there's a copy of the phone directory" or (more recently) "I know, I'll just google lesbians, but with safesearch *on* this time!".


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 7, 2014)

TruXta said:


> Lazy, yes. I did a bit of music promotion back in prehistoric days, and there's nothing or no one more lazy than music journos. They also like to arbitrarily alter trivial details in interviews given. WHY?!?!?!



Easy answer: It makes the journo's tale seem more "real" - individual detail (invented or not) adds gloss.
Complex answer:  Many music journalists are exceptionally egotistical and don't see the *subject* of the interview as the primary attraction, but rather believe this to be the fact that *they* are writing the interview, with the interviewee a distant secondary attraction.
Can we say "Alexis Petridis(h)"?


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 7, 2014)

xslavearcx said:


> think the hates already been there prior to this programme coming on tv tbf....



I can totally understand someone tweeting #"I'd love to shove a meat cleaver up Bob Diamond's shitter" or #"I want to piss petrol on Osborne as he burns".  Hating the authors of misfortune is an understandable reaction.
Hating the victims of misfortune because some fuckmuppet implies that they've brought it on themselves, though - that's stupidity and ignorance masquerading as public-spiritedness, and feeling way too fucking self-righteous about it!


----------



## Bitter&Twisted (Jan 7, 2014)

TruXta said:


> Pretty much every encounter I've had with journous and film makers has been overwhelmingly negative. I dunno why - does that industry attract cunts, does it make ordinary people cunts, or is it a mix of the two?




Dunno about journos as I know so few of them but I do know film-makers because I used to work with them.  The absolute truth is that they are cunts to start out with.  There are no "ordinary" people working in TV production because so few can get a foot in the door as that route is the reserve of those with contacts, most usually those with family members or parents already in the business.  The pay at entry-level is so low, if there's any pay at all, that you need to rely on parental support for the first several years of your career, sometimes longer.


----------



## TruXta (Jan 7, 2014)

Bitter&Twisted said:


> Dunno about journos as I know so few of them but I do know film-makers because I used to work with them.  The absolute truth is that they are cunts to start out with.  There are no "ordinary" people working in TV production because so few can get a foot in the door as that route is the reserve of those with contacts, most usually those with family members or parents already in the business.  The pay at entry-level is so low, if there's any pay at all, that you need to rely on parental support for the first several years of your career, sometimes longer.



I should say I know one film-maker who's really nice. She did come from a somewhat privileged background in Norway, but other than that AFAIK she did everything the hard way - film-school in Poland where she had to learn Polish (no mean feat), then doing lots of low-paying stuff, finally ending up directing some soap or other.


----------



## miss direct (Jan 7, 2014)

Can someone explain what the 50p man does/is? 
I went to school near that street.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 7, 2014)

he goes around with loads of different things like washing powder in cups and toilet rolls and it is all 50p
so even when people are on their arse they can get some essentials for cheap
great idea


----------



## editor (Jan 7, 2014)

I'm wondering if this will make it to episode #2 being aired given the shitstorm kicking off.


----------



## TruXta (Jan 7, 2014)

editor said:


> I'm wondering if this will make it to episode #2 being aired given the shitstorm kicking off.


Surely they'll see it as great PR?


----------



## editor (Jan 7, 2014)

ddraig said:


> he goes around with loads of different things like washing powder in cups and toilet rolls and it is all 50p
> so even when people are on their arse they can get some essentials for cheap
> great idea


And if they can't afford it, he gives some stuff away and was considering reducing his price to 30p after seeing the poverty on this particular street. 

Now compare him with your average banker boss.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 7, 2014)

there was one moving bit where someone couldn't afford anything and he gave them a few bits
also saying that he might have to reduce it to 30/20p as people were so fucked but still need stuff


----------



## weepiper (Jan 7, 2014)

imposs1904 said:


> fucking hell.



It happens every time there's a programme about really poor people like this. I can't remember what it was called but there was a show based in a poor Scottish housing estate a while back and that was the same. Also any of the My Big Fat Gypsy Exploitation series. Whatever the title of the programme is, search for the hashtag and you'll get hundreds of tweets exhorting the stars of the show to kill themselves or suggesting they should be gassed etc etc. It's really quite sickening.


----------



## purenarcotic (Jan 7, 2014)

I had a lovely evening rowing with people on the BIrmingham Mail website about their shitty comments on this. 

People's lack of compassion is beyond belief.


----------



## Sprocket. (Jan 7, 2014)

goldenecitrone said:


> Comparing TV programmes you haven't actually watched to Nazi propaganda is hyperbolic at best.


I cannot sit in my state and be enraged to the point of a stroke at the continual attacks on the poor in this fucking country.
If Love Productions could produce the same kind of national hatred toward the poor, against the rich by making a programme on the tax dodging multi-nationals I might give them the time and pleasure of seeing the veins in the side of my head explode.
I just cannot keep on being psychotically enraged any more something has to give,possibly the safety valve in my brain.
It's not hyperbole,it's bias and frustration at trying to have a reasonable attitude toward this corrupt, stinking, hateful situation we are not progressing from.


----------



## Frances Lengel (Jan 7, 2014)

weepiper said:


> It happens every time there's a programme about really poor people like this. *I can't remember what it was called but there was a show based in a poor Scottish housing estate a while back and that was the same.* Also any of the My Big Fat Gypsy Exploitation series. Whatever the title of the programme is, search for the hashtag and you'll get hundreds of tweets exhorting the stars of the show to kill themselves or suggesting they should be gassed etc etc. It's really quite sickening.



The Scheme, it was called IIRC. And I agree with everything you've said. And the really sickening thing about these type of programmes is that the people being filmed have let the crew into their houses in good faith and the snake-in-the-grass wankers will have been drinking their tea and eating their biscuits.


----------



## savoloysam (Jan 7, 2014)

Doctor Carrot said:


> #stoptherebenefits



No I can't stop now and my name isn't benefits.


----------



## Sprocket. (Jan 7, 2014)

4.3 million viewers watched this programme making it the most watched on C4 in the last twelve months.
The police have announced any participants in it seen committing any form of criminal acts will be arrested and prosecuted.


----------



## weepiper (Jan 7, 2014)

Frances Lengel said:


> The Scheme, it was called IIRC.


That's the one, ta.


----------



## white rabbit (Jan 7, 2014)

weepiper said:


> I didn't watch it but it's invaded my personal space anyway


Fascism, alive and well, it seems.


----------



## jakethesnake (Jan 7, 2014)

Copy and paste from the Guardian comments:

Reposted from Owen Jones on Facebook:
Where's the TV show about low-paid workers struggling on in-work benefits or unemployed people desperate for work?
Where's the TV show about low paying bosses and private landlords scrounging off the welfare state with low pay and rent subsidies?
Where's the TV show about rich tax dodgers who are hiding £25 billion from the public purse while millions struggle?
Where's the TV show about £16bn of benefits unclaimed by working and unemployed people, compared to £1.2bn benefit fraud?
Most social security goes to pensioners who pay in all their life. Most working-age benefits go to working people. 6.5m people are chasing full-time work
Make everyone think unemployed people are scroungers, and let the bankers and tax-dodgers get away with it. Clever, really
As for well-off TV producers trying to further their career by turning the poor against the poor: You. Are. The. Pits. #benefitsstreet


----------



## jakethesnake (Jan 7, 2014)

I fucking love this guy!


----------



## DotCommunist (Jan 7, 2014)

the sheer filth vitriol from twitter on this make me want to form a pro-active defence squad and get them first. We're leaner an more used to psychical labour and confrontations that end violently. So they wouldn't stand a chance.

But thats what the ptb want ennit. fuck em.


----------



## Clair De Lune (Jan 7, 2014)

I must email the link to my work programme adviser, her and her office chums would fucking love this shit.


----------



## mr steev (Jan 7, 2014)

Sprocket. said:


> The police have announced any participants in it seen committing any form of criminal acts will be arrested and prosecuted.



Have they? The comments I've seen haven't been as strong as that. Just that they've been inundated with calls from the public and they are looking into it



> “We are currently assessing whether the content of the programme can assist us as part of any ongoing investigations or indeed whether any new inquiries should be launched in light of the material that has been broadcast. This work is ongoing and viewers will have seen for themselves that my officers have already been actively involved with some of the individuals featured.



It's been on the local tv news here, but the story is how local residents are fuming about how they've been portrayed and that the police are looking into some of the more violent comments made on social media.


----------



## Sprocket. (Jan 7, 2014)

mr steev said:


> Have they? The comments I've seen haven't been as strong as that. Just that they've been inundated with calls from the public and they are looking into


 Thanks for the comment.
I was informed by a colleague who heard a report on the radio, but he may be exaggerating, he is an electrician after all and can be a bit of a drama queen.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 7, 2014)

http://thesecretlifeofamanicdepress...ce-after-channel-4-programme-benefits-street/


> The government and media are doing a bang up job. Instead of hating the ruling classes, the working classes are encouraged to hate each other. And it's working. A lot of the venom is from the young. Newsflash: You WILL get old. You WILL get sick. You may be unemployed at one point. And at some point, you may need benefits. And a massive 2.57% of your taxes goes towards benefits (not including pensions).


----------



## diond (Jan 7, 2014)

I watched it last night. I have tried hard to understand what the point of it all was? To me, it came across that its aim was pure viewing titillation , nothing else. I felt no empathy / sympathy for any of them (with the exception of the door to door salesman). The programme did not educate nor inform me. 

I suppose I should have known from the crude title that it wasn't going to be 'World in Action' but it just smacked of an old Victorian Freak show - There to be laughed at, vilified and pure entertainment value for the masses who are glad that it isn't them. Is it really a coincidence that this has been aired at a time when the Government has announced more cuts targeting welfare, and housing benefit in particular. It will certainly have earned the Government brownie points from the Daily Mail readers.


----------



## editor (Jan 7, 2014)

mr steev said:


> It's been on the local tv news here, but the story is how local residents are fuming about how they've been portrayed and that the police are looking into some of the more violent comments made on social media.


They'll need more convincing evidence than "I saw him smoke a spliff" on TV for a conviction.


----------



## Part 2 (Jan 7, 2014)

purenarcotic said:


> I had a lovely evening rowing with people on the BIrmingham Mail website about their shitty comments on this.
> 
> People's lack of compassion is beyond belief.



I was very tempted to find a number for Birmingham Travelodges and ring round until I found receptionist Joseph Egan and give him a piece of my mind. He must be terribly bitter having spent years at university only to end up as a hotel receptionist, so understandably he'd be looking for a weak group to pick on.

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/joseph-egan/46/61b/55


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 7, 2014)

so the bill are more interested in whether someone on the street smoked a wee spliff than the wankers saying that these people should be subject to murder and arson?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 7, 2014)

jakethesnake said:


> Copy and paste from the Guardian comments:


Do you have a link for the Guardian comments? I can't find any discussion of the show.


----------



## jakethesnake (Jan 7, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Do you have a link for the Guardian comments? I can't find any discussion of the show.


http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/07/benefits-street-criminal-activity-police-channel-4


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Jan 7, 2014)

Sprocket. said:


> 4.3 million viewers watched this programme making it the most watched on C4 in the last twelve months.
> The police have announced any participants in it seen committing any form of criminal acts will be arrested and prosecuted.



Imagine the sort of cunt you'd have to be to grass somebody up you saw smoking weed on tv. You'd really be beyond redemption imo.


----------



## Part 2 (Jan 7, 2014)

Sounds like a great use of police time.


----------



## phildwyer (Jan 8, 2014)

The title alone reveals the agenda, which is to stigmatize "welfare" recipients.

As does the narration: "95% of the people here are _claiming benefits."  _Not "95% of the people here are unable to find work."

The viewer is being invited to regard "_claiming benefits" _as undesirable and characteristic of the socially marginal.

The very words "claiming benefits" carry the implication that people are undeservedly acquiring something to which they have no right.

It's quite interesting to study the developing language the government and media employ on this subject.  I recall how they imported the term "welfare" from America, because they thought it would be more effective in stigmatizing claimants.


----------



## sim667 (Jan 8, 2014)

I watched it last night and genuinely didn't find anything in it that surprising, and people who are up in arms about are clearly pretty fucking mollycoddled if they think its a problem.

Overall I thought it showed a sense of community that puts the "average community" to shame, and of course people are going to try and make the odd bob or two on top off their benefits, when their benefits clearly aren't enough to live on.

The programme had a cursory look at addiction, but I think it should go further into depth on it later on in the series, its clearly a very relevent problem to a couple of the people on the show, and actually I quite liked fungi, he's mate was a bit of a nobber though.

Realisitcally I look at it like this, in a country where people dont have any kind of benefits, the poor and unemployed often live in slums, vast slums stretching for miles, with more violent crime and much worse infrastructure causing illness etc. If £50 odd quid a week per person helps sustain a basic level of health and infastructure and keeps areas that need support to a much smaller area then I'm all for that, even if they are flouting the odd silly law (imho with the growing in the spare bedrooms), or take "advantage" of huge corporation who has their clothing manufactured for pennies and then sold for a 5000% profit margin then I honestly am not that concerned with that either. Its their choice to take those risks, and put in the same position where I didn't really have much to lose, I'd probably grow a bit in my spare bedroom, or lift a couple of items of clothing too.

It may have caused a twitter shit storm, but tbh there'd a twitter shit storm about how to make a cup of tea if someone put that on the tele. Personally I didn't feel that the program portrayed any of them particularly badly, but obviously its been edited to give them narrative throughout the series, and I think a few people whiging to fuck about this may change their tune as the series goes on and looks into personal cirumstance a bit deeper.

The dude selling his stuff for 50p and "white dee" came across really well.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 8, 2014)

slight tinge of NIMBY there imo sorry
they were portrayed badly whatever the reality


----------



## sim667 (Jan 8, 2014)

ddraig said:


> slight tinge of NIMBY there imo sorry
> they were portrayed badly whatever the reality



Are you talking about my post?

It's not meant as NIMBY at all. 

I don't think they were portrayed as benefit scrounging because they're inherently bad. I think they were portrayed as doing whatever's necessary to survive on top of whatever pittance they're being given. In the case of the two with addictions the cost of supporting that habit just happens to be more expensive than someone without similar addictions.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 8, 2014)

apols, just this bit, probably reading it wrong as early-ish


> ...Realisitcally I look at it like this, in a country where people dont have any kind of benefits, the poor and unemployed often live in slums, vast slums stretching for miles, with more violent crime and much worse infrastructure causing illness etc. If £50 odd quid a week per person helps sustain a basic level of health and infastructure and keeps areas that need support to a much smaller area then I'm all for that,...


----------



## sim667 (Jan 8, 2014)

ddraig said:


> apols, just this bit, probably reading it wrong as early-ish



Oh right I see how you read it, it's not meant like that.

What I mean is if state support sustains a better standard of living and helps the issues that effect people in these circumstances to a smaller scale then I think that's beneficial.

It's not a "contain these scum" type comment.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 8, 2014)

cool
imo needs to be fair bit higher than £50 pw
not that you wouldn't go for that either


----------



## Grandma Death (Jan 8, 2014)

The right have effectively won the argument on benefits. Thats the most depressing thing. On the day this programme came out Osbourne announced a further 25 billion pounds worth of cuts-12 of which will come from welfare. Thats tory scum laying out their table in preperation for the election because they know that they have the broad support of the electorate. Myself I blame Labour for a lot of this. They support the benefits freeze and benefits cap-they follow the wind when it comes to benefits and that win is the tail wind from Osbournes arse. Their rhetoric, policies etc have given direct and indirect support to the tories and their attacks on welfare benefits and the working poor. They are afraid of being crucified by the right wing press so they masqerade as tory lite when it comes to benefits. Take the bedroom tax out of the equation and they have provided pretty much zero opposition to the tories on welfare. Expect more programmes like this.


----------



## Treacle Toes (Jan 8, 2014)

_'95% of the people on this street are claiming benefits' _

I would need a breakdown of what those benefits are...
How many are part time workers having a small proportion of their rent paid by HB?
How many of those benefits are tax credits paid to people in work?
How many are on a state pension?
How many are in receipt of DLA?


I imagine answering these questions would shatter the tabloid nature of the statement made in the voiceover.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Jan 8, 2014)

Rutita1 said:


> _'95% of the people on this street are claiming benefits' _
> 
> I would need a breakdown of what those benefits are...
> How many are part time workers having a small proportion of their rent paid by HB?
> ...


exactly, and you didn't include child benefit which i would imagine everyone on the street with kids is getting.


----------



## Paulie Tandoori (Jan 8, 2014)

phildwyer said:


> The title alone reveals the agenda, which is to stigmatize "welfare" recipients.
> 
> As does the narration: "95% of the people here are _claiming benefits."  _Not "95% of the people here are unable to find work."
> 
> ...


many people who work in the field have noted how we have moved from having a "social security" system to a "welfare benefit" system, whereby the simple change in terminology brings about a very different public perception of what it is, and who it's there for.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 8, 2014)

something on 'left foot forward' about what a 'real benefits st would look like'
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2014/01/what-a-real-benefits-street-would-look-like/


----------



## smmudge (Jan 8, 2014)

ddraig said:


> something on 'left foot forward' about what a 'real benefits st would look like'
> http://www.leftfootforward.org/2014/01/what-a-real-benefits-street-would-look-like/



That's just perpetuating the myth that some are 'deserving' recipients of benefits and some aren't (like the people on the program, the 'troublemakers'). It's all very well portraying someone on disability benefit as a smiling person in a wheelchair but that's just another stereotype which makes people think if you _aren't_ in a wheelchair you shouldn't be getting sickness/disability benefit.


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Jan 8, 2014)

I have recollections of channel 4 as a home of innovative programming, informative documentaries and pioneering comedy. Did it gradually descend into its current shitfest of rudetube and my big fat gypsy wedding type bollocks or did it happen overnight?


----------



## goldenecitrone (Jan 8, 2014)

What planet have you been living on? BBC4 and occasionally BBC2 have been the only decent channels for years now.


----------



## phildwyer (Jan 8, 2014)

Grandma Death said:


> Myself I blame Labour for a lot of this. They support the benefits freeze and benefits cap-they follow the wind when it comes to benefits and that win is the tail wind from Osbournes arse. Their rhetoric, policies etc have given direct and indirect support to the tories and their attacks on welfare benefits and the working poor.  They are afraid of being crucified by the right wing press so they masqerade as tory lite when it comes to benefits.



It's no masquerade, and there's nothing "lite" about it.  

No issue better illustrates the unanimity of the political class.


----------



## Treacle Toes (Jan 8, 2014)

Jeff Robinson said:


> I have recollections of channel 4 as a home of innovative programming, informative documentaries and pioneering comedy. Did it gradually descend into its current shitfest of rudetube and my big fat gypsy wedding type bollocks or did it happen overnight?



I personally haven't had a TV for many years but do go out of my way to find decent documentaries and such online.

That said, the widespread descent from meaningful social commentary/fly on the wall type documentaries into tabloid/shock and irritate, reality TV type crap is what it is and it's been happening for a long time.


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Jan 8, 2014)

phildwyer said:


> It's no masquerade, and there's nothing "lite" about it.
> 
> No issue better illustrates the unanimity of the political class.



I think NL's masquerade is pretending there's any real difference between them and the real tories...


----------



## ddraig (Jan 8, 2014)

smmudge said:


> That's just perpetuating the myth that some are 'deserving' recipients of benefits and some aren't (like the people on the program, the 'troublemakers'). It's all very well portraying someone on disability benefit as a smiling person in a wheelchair but that's just another stereotype which makes people think if you _aren't_ in a wheelchair you shouldn't be getting sickness/disability benefit.


fair enough and agreed. didn't read it and spotted it earlier, was more for the crap graphic


----------



## DotCommunist (Jan 8, 2014)

Puddy_Tat said:


> I think NL's masquerade is pretending there's any real difference between them and the real tories...




while thats an objective take on it we shouldn't forget that their are socialist-ish tendencies and members within the wider LP. Sidelined irrelevances fighting in a lost cause yes. Theres scant few in the PLP who can lay claim to even a shadow of soc/dec.

They aren't the tories but they do a damn good impression of it. Also policy implementation is different. New Labour was all about the think tanks, policy reviews and trial run micromanaged stuff. This lot just speak and expect it to be done- Universal Credit being a case in point. It's such a shambles we won't even see it till 2018 if its carried through.

Wouldn't vote for either mind. Labour=lube.


----------



## _angel_ (Jan 8, 2014)

DotCommunist said:


> while thats an objective take on it we shouldn't forget that their are socialist-ish tendencies and members within the wider LP. Sidelined irrelevances fighting in a lost cause yes. Theres scant few in the PLP who can lay claim to even a shadow of soc/dec.
> 
> They aren't the tories but they do a damn good impression of it. Also policy implementation is different. New Labour was all about the think tanks, policy reviews and trial run micromanaged stuff. This lot just speak and expect it to be done- Universal Credit being a case in point. It's such a shambles we won't even see it till 2018 if its carried through.
> 
> Wouldn't vote for either mind. Labour=lube.


They're worse than the  tories. Under the last tory government we had free education, grants and single parents could look after their children without being harassed or cut off from all forms of income. Labour started tuition fees and were obsessed with attacking lone parents on benefits from day one.


----------



## Hocus Eye. (Jan 8, 2014)

The contrast between the high quality Channel 4 News which for me has replaced the BBC Television News and the rest of Channel 4's output is striking. I did not watch the Benefits Street programme, the title summed it up before seeing it. I bet the Tories are enjoying the reaction it seems to have stirred up on Twitter. Let us hope that there is an equal and opposite backlash against the initial reception of this biased and prejudiced dog-whistle propaganda. The Tories think that the majority of people are against Welfare provision. As the cuts deepen the Tories might find their presumptions prove false as the election comes closer. What a pity there isn't an Opposition Party.


----------



## Grandma Death (Jan 8, 2014)

phildwyer said:


> It's no masquerade, and there's nothing "lite" about it.
> 
> No issue better illustrates the unanimity of the political class.



For me it's Tory lite in terms of the rhetoric coming from both. The tories have more or less been the instigators of this whole 'deserved and undeserved' poor debate. Pretty much most of their rhetoric has been about whipping up a real nasty hatred of welfare benefits claimants.


----------



## Belushi (Jan 8, 2014)

Shit show, though I did pick up some excellent shoplifting tips tbf.


----------



## editor (Jan 8, 2014)

Belushi said:


> Shit show, though I did pick up some excellent shoplifting tips tbf.


Looks like the basic foil trick is the work of an amateur:


> · Aluminum Foil: Any item containing or contained within a device that is designed to communicate with an EAS Pedestal can be defeated if you deny the communication. Quality aluminum foil, or cheap foil in abundance, can be used as a barrier that will deny the radio communication between the item and the tower, preventing the alarm from sounding. This tactic is used by beginners, is fairly noisy and easy to detect (because the sound of foil in your fitting room is pretty obvious), but is still fairly frequently used for electronics theft. Skill Level: Novice to Medium.
> 
> http://www.examiner.com/article/shoplifter-methods-for-defeating-electronic-article-surveillance


But here's how the pros do it: 


> · Aluminum Foil Booster Bag: This is the pro-level use of Aluminum Foil. The shoplifter has created a bag/box/backpack lined with thick layers of aluminum foil as a total enclosure (with a closure flap, is order to not have to mess with sheets of foil and make noise that will cause the crime to be detected. The aluminum, as before, creates a barrier which stops radio communication from the pedestal to the tags contained within. For the science geeks reading this, the booster bag is now a Faraday Cage. The bag can look like a purse, shopping bag, backpack or any other item they desire. Skill Level: Pro.


----------



## Frances Lengel (Jan 8, 2014)

If you get nicked shoplifting utilising one of those foil-lined bags, it's taken as an aggravating factor as it show pre-meditation.


----------



## Gingerman (Jan 8, 2014)

Reply from C4.
The series is not, was never intended to be and indeed could not be a general representation of the vast numbers of people in the UK who, for whatever reason, find themselves having to rely on benefits.

*Damn shame they really didn't make that point in the programme wasn't it ffs !!!!!!!!!!! *


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Jan 8, 2014)

> I've never seen a programme so obviously edited in order to generate Twitter posts. You can call a series anything you like – and at least Benefits Street, though inflammatory, isn't as crassly judgmental as the BBC's equivalent, Saints and Scroungers – but Channel 4 knows what it's doing here, and shows that it's quite happy to do the government's dirty work...
> 
> Benefits Street is, in spirit, straight out of Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle: a sort of visual vomit-fest in which you can binge on images of things you purport to hate the sight of and then purge yourself on Twitter, venting empty outrage and then going back for more.



http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-betrayed-residents-benefits-street?CMP=fb_ot


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 8, 2014)

purenarcotic said:


> I had a lovely evening rowing with people on the BIrmingham Mail website about their shitty comments on this.
> 
> People's lack of compassion is beyond belief.



In my (admittedly not particularly broad) experience, the same compassionless pricks are often the ones who *demand* compassion for the slightest little upsets in their own miserable lives.


----------



## weepiper (Jan 8, 2014)

Gingerman said:


> Reply from C4.
> The series is not, was never intended to be and indeed could not be a general representation of the vast numbers of people in the UK who, for whatever reason, find themselves having to rely on benefits.
> 
> *Damn shame they really didn't make that point in the programme wasn't it ffs !!!!!!!!!!! *



Wankers.


----------



## smmudge (Jan 8, 2014)

so what exactly is the point of it?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 9, 2014)

Divide and rule.


----------



## twentythreedom (Jan 9, 2014)

Interesting piece on Newsnight about this. Owen Jones in the studio debate with some other irritating dicks


----------



## xenon (Jan 9, 2014)

smmudge said:


> so what exactly is the point of it?



Channel 4's all about the freak show now. Mind you I haven't seen this the quote in Gingerman's post makes it plain.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 10, 2014)

demo outside Love production on Monday 13
posted by DPAC


> Monday 13th demo against Love Productions 3pm
> 
> Posted: 09 Jan 2014 12:31 PM PST
> 
> ...


----------



## xslavearcx (Jan 10, 2014)

Grandma Death said:


> For me it's Tory lite in terms of the rhetoric coming from both. The tories have more or less been the instigators of this whole 'deserved and undeserved' poor debate. Pretty much most of their rhetoric has been about whipping up a real nasty hatred of welfare benefits claimants.



Really? Take it you weren't around during new labours "hard working families" rhetoric?

Not to mention workfare ala new deal and getting ESA brought in etc


----------



## laptop (Jan 10, 2014)

Where's the bloody petition? Buried in hundreds of identical copies of (presumably) a PA wire story.



> More than 5,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Channel 4 to drop its TV show Benefits Street.
> 
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-25666968


----------



## AKA pseudonym (Jan 10, 2014)

laptop said:


> Where's the bloody petition? Buried in hundreds of identical copies of (presumably) a PA wire story.


This petition has over 17,000 signed 
Theres also a minibus coming down from Birmingham for Mondays protest at Love Production....


----------



## laptop (Jan 10, 2014)

Ta. 

18,846... 18,847...


----------



## girasol (Jan 10, 2014)

Even the Daily Mail is saying Channel 4 behaved unethically, although for some reason I can't c+p right now (logged remotely).

However, when I watched it I felt sympathy towards everyone involved, so some of the reactions aren't entirely due to their portrayal, I think some reactions are as they are because some people are just hateful and ignorant towards people on benefits.


----------



## Grandma Death (Jan 10, 2014)

xslavearcx said:


> Really? Take it you weren't around during new labours "hard working families" rhetoric?
> 
> Not to mention workfare ala new deal and getting ESA brought in etc



I'm wouldn't describe new deal as workfare. New deal people were getting paid and it was minimum wage at least.

That aside the rhetoric from both parties IS different. There may be some similarities but the tories have been way more vicious with their rhetoric


----------



## Frances Lengel (Jan 10, 2014)

On New Deal, claimants got a few extra quid and didn't have to sign on or get hassled to produce evidence of jobseeking - With workfare you don't even get an extra tenner a week, still have to sign on and still do all the jobsearch crap. I'm not defending new deal as such, but workfare is far worse.


----------



## tufty79 (Jan 10, 2014)

AKA pseudonym said:


> This petition has over 17,000 signed


ta for the link


----------



## xslavearcx (Jan 10, 2014)

Grandma Death said:


> I'm wouldn't describe new deal as workfare. New deal people were getting paid and it was minimum wage at least.
> 
> That aside the rhetoric from both parties IS different. There may be some similarities but the tories have been way more vicious with their rhetoric


they may be more viscious in their rhetoric but its simply further down the stream of the deserving/undeserving rhetoric that new labour where very much into. as for new deal a lot of their non-workfare programmes where an extra tenner a week on the giro, and sanctions where very quick to happen if one didnt failed to attend one of these sessions. fair doos if you think there is a qualitative difference between new labour and the tories on this, but ive signed on under both administrations and it has just come across as just the same piss in a different bottle.


----------



## Chick Webb (Jan 10, 2014)

Jeff Robinson said:


> a number of the participants themselves are rather pissed off with how they and their community were portrayed and also feel as if they were tricked into appearing on false premises. That to m


I half watched it last night and laughed at/enjoyed quite a few bits of it, even though I had prejudged it as a revolting looks at these chavs spectacle.  I did get the distinct impression that a lot of the people were lied to about what kind of show it was they were being filmed for though.  It was the wisdom and kindheartedness of "White Dee" or whatever her name was that I mainly enjoyed, but it was also extremely clear that she had been told she was being filmed for a "community spirit in tough times" type show.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 11, 2014)

I won't watch this show, I'm done with bollocks like this, so I may actually be wrong.

It's poverty tourism plain and simple. 

If you want to document life on benefits, then deal with the fraught nature of ESA claims, benefit fuck ups, JC staff being wankers, the WP being utterly and fundamentally unfit for purpose, the problems UC will bring, the effect of the Bedroom Tax and the lack of social housing, the _reality of what's required of JSA claimants_, and more I'm sure.

Don't just stick some cameras down 'benefit' street and film a bunch of random probably bewildered/struggling people under some pretence of it being a slice of life. 

Poverty tourism, plain and simple.


----------



## miss direct (Jan 11, 2014)

Well I watched this online and having grown up in Birmingham, there was nothing that surprised me at all.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 11, 2014)

And now this: benefit street draws sightseers!

Including a pair of roofers...


> Dave Perkins and Lee Wheeler were on their way from Northampton to Wolverhampton delivering paint. When they realised they weren't too far from James Turner Street – which has been rebranded Benefits Street for the hugely controversial Channel 4 documentary – they couldn't resist making a detour to pose for pictures in front of the sign.
> 
> "I was born in the hospital down the road," said Perkins, "but luckily I got away. As far as I can see the programme's a fair portrayal of what is going on. There's a lot of people trying to get away with not working and just living on the state."
> 
> ...



This makes me feel sick to my stomach. As a benefit claimant this is no different to being threatened - it's intimidatory. 

I don't know the people on 'benefit' street from adam, but i do know that we are all human beings and if we can't find a way to provide for people's need without scapegoating or programming them to want ridiculous and trivial things then this is going to get worse. That's before the cunt media stokes it all up. What kind of society are we that allows this kind of ridiculous intimidatory behaviour, that a pair of roofers can feel their anger toward supposed 'scroungers' is justified by parking at the bottom of 'benefit' street to gawp like rubberneckers. I hate these fucking people and I hate the media and the politicians and the corporate wankers that run the world for making me feel like this.




> West Midlands police were "inundated" by calls from people calling for them to take action against those allegedly shown committing crimes. It said it was assessing the programme and has not ruled out going to court to obtain unused footage.



Which will likely cost more than whatever the person stole.

And how many calls? Do we know? I notice it's not reported. This nation of curtain twitchers needs to fucking die. They didn't care about it before, but they sit and see it on TV in a world they feel powerless to control and so instead of campaigning for social justice like the rest of us, they take it out on the poorer. If you're nicking crap from shops (or food, for that matter), you are not some kind of underworld baron cocking a snook, you are a fucked up person that needs help. That help should be available before we all end up twisted beyond repair.

Fuck the man and his white van:


> Fungi was arguably the most sympathetic character. His scruffy doorstep has become a site of pilgrimage, where fans leave cans of strong lager. "Where's Fungi?" shouted yet another man in a white van speeding past.



Poverty tourism, plain and simple. Idiot sun reading white van cunts programmed into this behaviour. Makes me sick.


----------



## weepiper (Jan 11, 2014)

They got rubberneckers after The Scheme too.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotla...e-estate-where-the-scheme-is-filmed-1-1667787


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Jan 11, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> If you want to document life on benefits, then deal with the fraught nature of ESA claims, benefit fuck ups, JC staff being wankers, the WP being utterly and fundamentally unfit for purpose, the problems UC will bring, the effect of the Bedroom Tax and the lack of social housing, the _reality of what's required of JSA claimants_, and more I'm sure.



This is how it should be done:


----------



## Clair De Lune (Jan 11, 2014)

Frances Lengel said:


> On New Deal, claimants got a few extra quid and didn't have to sign on or get hassled to produce evidence of jobseeking - With workfare you don't even get an extra tenner a week, still have to sign on and still do all the jobsearch crap. I'm not defending new deal as such, but workfare is far worse.


In my personal experience, new deal was fantastic! My band got a few days in a recording studio and pressings of a demo cd out of it. I had a wonderful adviser who treated me like an actual person and I had a mentor who used to play for the damned, who would meet me for coffee and chat about our progress. It is such a massive change to how I am being treated these days


----------



## xslavearcx (Jan 11, 2014)

Clair De Lune said:


> In my personal experience, new deal was fantastic! My band got a few days in a recording studio and pressings of a demo cd out of it. I had a wonderful adviser who treated me like an actual person and I had a mentor who used to play for the damned, who would meet me for coffee and chat about our progress. It is such a massive change to how I am being treated these days



I think having a good adviser that does there job in a good spirited manner makes a big difference irrespective of the overall political climate.


----------



## Clair De Lune (Jan 11, 2014)

xslavearcx said:


> I think having a good adviser that does there job in a good spirited manner makes a big difference irrespective of the overall political climate.


Absolutely. I know I am only going on my own experiences, but I do think that the attitude toward the unemployed has changed drastically for the worse in the last ten years though. It has gone from 'well the only difference between me and them, is I have a job' to 'these people are low lives, scum, not to be trusted, lying cheats, bottom feeders- a true underclass' That attitude is present with almost everyone I deal with in the jobcentre, so much so that when once I met my old new deal adviser in there and he smiled and had a chat with me, I felt like crying with relief..and that's no exaggeration. He has somehow kept his cheery demeanor and attitude of respect and I praise him for that as all around him his colleagues have become enmeshed in this quagmire of 'us and them and let's sanction as many of these losers as possible'


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 11, 2014)

Clair De Lune said:


> In my personal experience, new deal was fantastic! My band got a few days in a recording studio and pressings of a demo cd out of it. I had a wonderful adviser who treated me like an actual person and I had a mentor who used to play for the damned, who would meet me for coffee and chat about our progress. It is such a massive change to how I am being treated these days


If they treated you well that's great.

However I remember being told that you could only go on the FND/musicians if a) there were places (there weren't) and b) after enduring 6 months intensive back to work activity. In other words they did everything they could to put you off attending or to avoid going through with it. At least that's how it seemed. I never did the course.


----------



## toblerone3 (Jan 11, 2014)

I also had a good experience on the FND and used it to shoehorn six months of an extremely relevant internship in a highly competitive sector while still claiming dole. This enabled me eventually to get proper paid work in my field.

It was really about me being proactive and seeing what I could get away with rather the advisors actively helping, although they were supportive.


----------



## girasol (Jan 11, 2014)

Jeff Robinson said:


> This is how it should be done:




1800 people applying for 3 vacancies.  What the hell


----------



## smmudge (Jan 11, 2014)

The thing is, as much as I'm sure the programme managed to confirm a lot of bigots' views of people on benefit, I've also seen lots - and in the mainstream (as well as less mainstream twitter stuff) - that has been criticising the programme and bringing attention to the demonisation of people on benefits.

So maybe this has all been a clever ruse by Channel 4/the prog's producers, the old trolling technique of pretending to take the other side's view, and emphasising all the ridiculous things about it so that only idiots would agree.

Ok yeah I'm giving the producers too much credit. However, it has caused quite a big backlash, which is a good to a degree. The only thing is a lot of that criticism takes the "most people on benefits aren't like that" line which is still a divide and rule tactic.


----------



## kraepelin (Jan 12, 2014)

Maybe i'm remembering it wrong but when i was young and living around some closed mind people
Channel 4 was were learnt that gay people werent all paedophiles, i saw programs showing the problems black people had suffering from racism.

How women fought for there right to vote and liking sex didn't make a woman a slag

How islam had been home to the greatest scientist at a time europe was in the dark ages

I remember a short film about a young man becoming a young woman.

It might be seem sad but i credit Channel 4 at least in some part for me not following the racism around me, I know where im from but sometimes travellers arent the most enlightened people.and on the estate i lived people who where diffierent got kickings and in one case killed

I learnt that be it gay,black,asian trans* we are all much more the same then we are diffierent. 

I was way too young to be watching most of the programs 6-7yr old

I remember watching it late at night when i should have been in bed, 

And when i grew older surrounded by bigots

And when they told me about the faggots,niggers and whores i knew they where full of shit because i had seen those people being people and not the gross stereotypes that almost everyone i met seem to believe.

For all my crimes not once did i forget that my struggle as a Irish traveller was the same theirs 

So the words nigger,faggot or whore/slag never passed my lips

I wonder what lessons i would learn from that same channel if i grew up watching it now


----------



## smokedout (Jan 13, 2014)

Grandma Death said:


> I'm wouldn't describe new deal as workfare. New deal people were getting paid and it was minimum wage at least.



no it fucking wasnt, the subisidised employment option was £60 a week and the voluntary sector option and environmental task force options (which most people were on) was a JSA plus a tenner.  placements were six months (unlike MWA which is just a month, although six month workfare is being rolled out in april)


----------



## Grandma Death (Jan 13, 2014)

smokedout said:


> no it fucking wasnt, the subisidised employment option was £60 a week and the voluntary sector option and environmental task force options (which most people were on) was a JSA plus a tenner.  placements were six months (unlike MWA which is just a month, although six month workfare is being rolled out in april)



It was in the workplace I was a union rep at. The employer took on 6 groundstaff and paid them over and above the minimum wage as it happens. Regardless of that it isn't /wasn't workfare which was working for nothing on top of your benefits.


----------



## laptop (Jan 13, 2014)

BTW, Charlie Brooker argues that once you get past the headlines the show shows "there also seemed to be far more authentic community spirit than I've seen on TV since Postman Pat's Magic Christmas". 

FWIW.


----------



## tony.c (Jan 13, 2014)

First program was bad, but tonight's is a lot better.


----------



## editor (Jan 13, 2014)

Fucking hell, those poor Romanians. This is bloody good TV.


----------



## Belushi (Jan 13, 2014)

editor said:


> Fucking hell, those poor Romanians. This is bloody good TV.



innit, I wasn't going to bother after last weeks episode but this has been excellent.


----------



## purenarcotic (Jan 13, 2014)

The police dealing excellently with a report of slavery.  FFS.


----------



## tony.c (Jan 13, 2014)

Yes much more about the feeling of community. And showing what the Romanians have to put up with, and why.


----------



## not-bono-ever (Jan 13, 2014)

the romanians dont seem to be taking too many of _our_ jobs or claiming _our_ benefits .

um

thats not what the papers are telling me


----------



## moomoo (Jan 13, 2014)

It was heartbreakingly sad.


----------



## neonwilderness (Jan 13, 2014)

Belushi said:


> innit, I wasn't going to bother after last weeks episode but this has been excellent.


I was avoiding it, but after reading the comments about this week's episode I might catch it on 4od sometime.


----------



## tony.c (Jan 13, 2014)

neonwilderness said:


> I was avoiding it, but after reading the comments about this week's episode I might catch it on 4od sometime.


For anyone else who avoided or missed it, the program does seem to be repeated a couple of times during the following week and it is worth watching.


----------



## Manter (Jan 13, 2014)

neonwilderness said:


> I was avoiding it, but after reading the comments about this week's episode I might catch it on 4od sometime.


ditto


----------



## Kidda (Jan 13, 2014)

So a report of slavery didn't get further than Pc plod saying he couldn't do much because there wasn't any proof. 

No investigation, no questioning, nothing. 

So how does a slave prove they are a slave, enough to get the police to act?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 13, 2014)

laptop said:


> BTW, Charlie Brooker argues that once you get past the headlines the show shows "there also seemed to be far more authentic community spirit than I've seen on TV since Postman Pat's Magic Christmas".
> 
> FWIW.


I can't take Brooker seriously at all anymore. His opinion isn't worth shit, quite frankly. 

I won't watch this programme at all. No matter how good this episode might be there's no way I'm supporting anything that promotes poverty tourism. These media cunts need to be sent a message, end of.


----------



## editor (Jan 13, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> I can't take Brooker seriously at all anymore. His opinion isn't worth shit, quite frankly.
> 
> I won't watch this programme at all. No matter how good this episode might be there's no way I'm supporting anything that promotes poverty tourism. These media cunts need to be sent a message, end of.


I'll go along with what you're saying about Brooker, but this episode really didn't feel that it had much to do with 'poverty tourism'.


----------



## tony.c (Jan 13, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> I won't watch this programme at all. No matter how good this episode might be there's no way I'm supporting anything that promotes poverty tourism. These media cunts need to be sent a message, end of.


So do you think people should be kept unaware of the difficulties of the people at the arse end of society?


----------



## Maggot (Jan 13, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> I can't take Brooker seriously at all anymore. His opinion isn't worth shit, quite frankly.
> 
> I won't watch this programme at all. No matter how good this episode might be there's no way I'm supporting anything that promotes poverty tourism. These media cunts need to be sent a message, end of.


As you refuse to watch the programme, your opinion ain't worth shit either.


----------



## smokedout (Jan 13, 2014)

Grandma Death said:


> It was in the workplace I was a union rep at. The employer took on 6 groundstaff and paid them over and above the minimum wage as it happens. Regardless of that it isn't /wasn't workfare which was working for nothing on top of your benefits.



doesn't sound like the new deal, if they were on minimum wage they'd have lost JSA

the New Deal was workfare, 30 hours a week for six months, for a tenner on top of the dole, or benefits were stopped.  it was run in London by and large by Reed Employment and the newly formed A4e and was every bit as, if not more exploitative than the current work programme


----------



## goldenecitrone (Jan 13, 2014)

Maggot said:


> As you refuse to watch the programme, your opinion ain't worth shit either.



Poor sap used to take Brooker seriously. How cheated he must feel.


----------



## xenon (Jan 13, 2014)

I watched ep one on 4OD. It wasn't as bad as I feared it might be. Charlie Brooker's article was pretty spot on IMO. There was no one any reasonably balanced person could actually hate. Feel sorry for, get annoyed at, maybe but actual hate? Obviously it's a politically charged subject, the title is shit and TV editing for a an angle or narrative you expect. But also there's always been a lot of sad embittered cowardly losers who will rather spit on those below than question why their lives are so unsatisfactory. Now they can do it in full view.

I agree it's not a representative portreyal of those who rely on social security of course but I never expected that from TV anyway.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 14, 2014)

tony.c said:


> So do you think people should be kept unaware of the difficulties of the people at the arse end of society?


Of course not, but I'd rather that awareness was delivered by someone or something that hasn't already caused so much anguish and misinformation - we've got IDS using benefit street to justify what he's doing.

I'm sorry if this sounds unfair, but I'm really fed up with all this right now, especially having read some of the latest horror stories on the DPAC site. Yes we need the message to get out there, but why not document and report some of those horror stories instead of yet another supposed fly on the wall documentary that has already tainted itself. I just won't watch these shows anymore, it's too painful, so if BS (interesting acronym) does redeem itself, it's too late for me.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 14, 2014)

editor said:


> I'll go along with what you're saying about Brooker, but this episode really didn't feel that it had much to do with 'poverty tourism'.


Maybe someone can come along and put out a documentary on these issues. TBF to C4 their ATOS expose on Despatches was quite good as hidden camera footage had them admit they work to targets. This sort of stuff is what we need more of. 

Though that good work was undone in a subsequent despatches about claiming JSA while working (Top 10 Secrets of the Benefit Cheats, or something).


----------



## Mr.Bishie (Jan 14, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> we've got IDS using benefit street to justify what he's doing.



Apparently he's quoted in the Mirror today, banging on about the majority of people support his welfare cuts, due to this programme. I mean, ffs!


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 14, 2014)

The very definition of populist politics, except they couldn't put things like the Bedroom Tax in their manifesto.


----------



## J Ed (Jan 14, 2014)

smmudge said:


> The thing is, as much as I'm sure the programme managed to confirm a lot of bigots' views of people on benefit, I've also seen lots - and in the mainstream (as well as less mainstream twitter stuff) - that has been criticising the programme and bringing attention to the demonisation of people on benefits.



How many people do you think are watching this programme and recommending it to their mates relative to people reading Owen Jones?

This programme is doing a lot of real damage.

Does anyone else get the impression that being nasty about people on benefits has become a way for people to appear more 'macho'? Sort of like supporting Help for Heroes and being pro-war.


----------



## editor (Jan 14, 2014)

J Ed said:


> How many people do you think are watching this programme and recommending it to their mates relative to people reading Owen Jones?
> 
> This programme is doing a lot of real damage.
> 
> Does anyone else get the impression that being nasty about people on benefits has become a way for people to appear more 'macho'? Sort of like supporting Help for Heroes and being pro-war.


Last night's show _really_ wasn't about "being nasty about people on benefits". It was about the awful, desperate plight of Romanians coming to the UK and looking to support their families. Did you watch it?


----------



## Mr.Bishie (Jan 14, 2014)

editor said:


> Last night's show _really_ wasn't about "being nasty about people on benefits". It was about the awful, desperate plight of Romanians coming to the UK and looking to support their families.



As per, the comments on social media in response were absolutely dreadful. And now IDS using this hatred to bolster his attack on welfare is off the fucking scale.


----------



## newbie (Jan 14, 2014)

I suspect Hard-Working Families Street would make rather dull telly but Gentrification Street and Exploiter Street ought to work .


----------



## editor (Jan 14, 2014)

newbie said:


> I suspect Hard-Working Families Street would make rather dull telly but Gentrification Street and Exploiter Street ought to work .


Exploited Hard Working Romanians Street would probably get even less viewers.


----------



## girasol (Jan 14, 2014)

Romanians: if anyone felt hatred towards them because of what they saw last night, then they are a lost cause anyway.

Right at the start one of the residents started going on about 'foreigners coming here, taking our jobs', and it felt like the hatred was directed at the wrong people, as usual.  Nobody seems to despise the gang masters or any of the employees who exploit the situation and pay people a pittance.  The hatred is usually directed to those easiest to hate, who are often the victims.

I couldn't believe the police reaction when the group of men reported it and when they had no money, didn't it occur to the people filming this to actually help them?  FFS they could at least give them access to a phone for those men to call their families.  It was really rather sad.


----------



## Zapp Brannigan (Jan 14, 2014)

Let me get this straight - a _*hardworking** _Romanian family (who _*want to work*_ to keep themselves and their further family back home) end up sleeping rough in a park through what seemed like a genuine fear for their lives, after having the guts to tell plod (who couldn't give a single shit) about some cunt barely paying them _*for their work*_ (tenner for a 16 hour day rings a bell, after "deductions for their contract") and there are still people on twitter having a go at the Romanians for having the temerity to live on "Benefits Street".

Jesus fucking wept.

*Sorry, I really am.  I feel dirty for using that word but it fits...


----------



## girasol (Jan 14, 2014)

mmm, not quite that.  From what I remember there was a family living in one house, collecting scrap metal, and then there was a group of unrelated men (about 12 I think?) living in another house working in slave like conditions.


----------



## moomoo (Jan 14, 2014)

girasol said:


> didn't it occur to the people filming this to actually help them?  FFS they could at least give them access to a phone for those men to call their families.  It was really rather sad.



It was heartbreaking. But perhaps the film crew did help them. We don't know that they didn't. I like to think they did anyway.


----------



## J Ed (Jan 14, 2014)

Zapp Brannigan said:


> Let me get this straight - a _*hardworking** _Romanian family (who _*want to work*_ to keep themselves and their further family back home) end up sleeping rough in a park through what seemed like a genuine fear for their lives, after having the guts to tell plod (who couldn't give a single shit) about some cunt barely paying them _*for their work*_ (tenner for a 16 hour day rings a bell, after "deductions for their contract") and there are still people on twitter having a go at the Romanians for having the temerity to live on "Benefits Street".
> 
> Jesus fucking wept.
> 
> *Sorry, I really am.  I feel dirty for using that word but it fits...



A lot of people are going to watch it and think that that is the standard of living at which people who are born here should start complaining, and since they don't have it that bad then they should just shut up and get a job.


----------



## weepiper (Jan 14, 2014)

I have just warmed considerably towards Frank Skinner

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...o-be-derogatory-about-birmingham-9059152.html


----------



## Part 2 (Jan 14, 2014)

Ahem.... weepiper , It's Frank Skinner?


----------



## weepiper (Jan 14, 2014)

Chip Barm said:


> Ahem....@weepiper, It's Frank Skinner?


FFS  you are of course right


----------



## Growl (Jan 14, 2014)

I watched the first program and then the 2nd one last night. After the initial  reaction when the public went haywire... One side or the other...depending on how their brain eats media launched vitriol in the comment boards. It was polarisation.


----------



## Frances Lengel (Jan 14, 2014)

Frank Skinner's an OK guy. Baddiel's the tossrag.


----------



## Growl (Jan 14, 2014)

Many people have identified "Love Productions" responsible for this piece on Channel Four ...and with a strong link to the Conservative Party. This should be known to all of the slavish readers of the Sun and Daily Mail.  You are being spoonfed the daily diet of propagandist vitriol to keep you full of bluster and bile.
I hope you never lose your job.. Get sick..redundant.. Crash your car..and all the other mishaps that may visit. You will know then where you are in life. Not worth a jot! As for the people on "benefit street"  they have grit and gumption.


----------



## Growl (Jan 14, 2014)

J Ed said:


> A lot of people are going to watch it and think that that is the standard of living at which people who are born here should start complaining, and since they don't have it that bad then they should just shut up and get a job.[/quote


----------



## Growl (Jan 14, 2014)

Exactly what it is designed to do. The Tory's have think tanks..spurious little wankers who masturbate collectively and pat each other... Not neccessarily on the back.. And then collect their donation. What they work at is a worst case scenario.. Frighten the low waged and anyone they hate into a state of fear and penury..a real fear.... And then cut their wages and conditions to absolute minimum. What is wrong here is that the really poor have already been decimated to the point of homelessness and suicide. And that is just the adults.


----------



## Dowie (Jan 14, 2014)

xenon said:


> I watched ep one on 4OD. It wasn't as bad as I feared it might be. Charlie Brooker's article was pretty spot on IMO. There was no one any reasonably balanced person could actually hate. Feel sorry for, get annoyed at, maybe but actual hate?



There have only been two who I can't say I'm fans of. The guy from the first episode who robbed the weed from his own neighbours resulting in his mate Fungi apparently being threatened with a gun and the guy they only briefly showed in the background of last nights episode shouting abuse at the Romanian family.


----------



## Growl (Jan 14, 2014)

Last night's episode really made me think. Fourteen Romanian men came to England and made not a decent meal from it.. Shared a flat...argued the cost of a call back home because all fourteen wanted to talk to the wife and children.. Make a payment back home.. No signing on in this country..just tough men willing to graft.. Got shafted by the contracter  All the guys did a flit because they were afraid. Gist of the story.. Romania was better! Is that a sad indictment of Britain?


----------



## nino_savatte (Jan 14, 2014)

From the above linked article


> Channel 4 has hit back at complaints, describing their documentary as *"fair and balanced"* and ensuring viewers that all contributors were "briefed extensively before any filming took place".



My bold. "Fair and balanced", eh? Like Fox News? FFS


----------



## laptop (Jan 14, 2014)

nino_savatte said:


> "Fair and balanced", eh? Like Fox News? FFS



Odds that was a conscious reference by the PR office?


----------



## nino_savatte (Jan 14, 2014)

laptop said:


> Odds that was a conscious reference by the PR office?


Undoubtedly.


----------



## Growl (Jan 15, 2014)

nino_savatte said:


> From the above linked article
> 
> 
> My bold. "Fair and balanced", eh? Like Fox News? FFS


----------



## girasol (Jan 15, 2014)

Growl said:


> Last night's episode really made me think. Fourteen Romanian men came to England and made not a decent meal from it.. Shared a flat...argued the cost of a call back home because all fourteen wanted to talk to the wife and children.. Make a payment back home.. No signing on in this country..just tough men willing to graft.. Got shafted by the contracter  All the guys did a flit because they were afraid. Gist of the story.. Romania was better! Is that a sad indictment of Britain?



Probably more a sad indictment of the financial situation and also population growth?  Back in the 90s when I moved to London everything was much easier, finding an affordable place, finding a job, getting into education, even getting benefits when needed.  It's gone so far downhill it's hard to believe.  In almost every aspect.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 15, 2014)

Romania is better, economically. Isn't that currently the case? Their economy is doing better than ours.


----------



## butchersapron (Jan 15, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Romania is better, economically. Isn't that currently the case? Their economy is doing better than ours.


What does that mean?


----------



## Libertad (Jan 15, 2014)

There's what will pass for a discussion about this programme with Danny Finkelstein of The Times on Richard Bacon's show in the next hour on Radio 5.


----------



## Libertad (Jan 15, 2014)

On right now.


----------



## RedDragon (Jan 15, 2014)

The Lord Fink had an interesting point when he said the show would show tory voters cutting benefits wasn't the answer and more help/support was needed including steps against exploitation.


----------



## Libertad (Jan 15, 2014)

Steve Chalk did a passable job of pointing out the fabrications of the production company but all in all it degenerated into a bit of a shoutfest. I'd like to have read Finkelstein's piece in The Times today but it's behind their paywall.


----------



## DotCommunist (Jan 15, 2014)

RedDragon said:


> The Lord Fink had an interesting point when he said the show would show tory voters cutting benefits wasn't the answer and more help/support was needed including steps against exploitation.




thats an interesting point but how likely is it that the scales will fall from eyes really?


----------



## Belushi (Jan 15, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Romania is better, economically. Isn't that currently the case? Their economy is doing better than ours.


 
In what sense?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 15, 2014)

Belushi said:


> In what sense?


In the sense it's growing faster apparently.


----------



## Treacle Toes (Jan 15, 2014)

> *“Get a f****** job or hang yourself”: Jobcentre official suspended over Facebook rant at dad-of-three *
> 
> 
> A Jobcentre official has been suspended after a dad-of-three was told to “get a f****** job or hang yourself” during a Facebook rant.
> ...



http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dawn-marie-sanders-jobcentre-official-suspended-3023502


----------



## J Ed (Jan 15, 2014)

RedDragon said:


> The Lord Fink had an interesting point when he said the show would show tory voters cutting benefits wasn't the answer and more help/support was needed including steps against exploitation.



I don't think that's the case. I think that this programme and programmes like it are creating an almost racialised hatred of people on benefits, that isn't going to cause a groundswell of support for maintaining current benefits let alone expanding them.


----------



## Belushi (Jan 15, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> In the sense it's growing faster apparently.



I get you, because in lots of other ways the Romanian economy is a lot worst than the UK, and the deprivation is some of the very worst in Europe.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 15, 2014)

Rutita1 said:


> http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dawn-marie-sanders-jobcentre-official-suspended-3023502


she should be facing criminal prosecution IMO. Evil creature.


----------



## D'wards (Jan 15, 2014)

Aside from the grimness, the church lady with the "in bloom" campaign and the Polish girl were very sweet I thought.

It was horrible when that prick attacked that camera-crew brandishing a hammer "It's only Winson Green in Bloom!"

Black Dee seems to be one of those misanthropic people who sees the negative in everything and everyone, probably nice a nice way to be.


----------



## Lorca (Jan 15, 2014)

Rutita1 said:


> http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dawn-marie-sanders-jobcentre-official-suspended-3023502


 
Ironically, she may well be signing on in that very job centre soon!


----------



## Part 2 (Jan 15, 2014)

Rutita1 said:


> http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dawn-marie-sanders-jobcentre-official-suspended-3023502



Blaming it on her son, what a fucking shitbag.


----------



## gabi (Jan 16, 2014)

D'wards said:


> Black Dee seems to be one of those misanthropic people who sees the negative in everything and everyone, probably nice a nice way to be.



It's hard to know whats real and whats not with this programme due to the heavy editing and obvious story arc they're going for but Black Dee does come across as a bit of a dick.

Fungi (i think thats his name) - on Romanians 'They're all fuckin tramps'. While slurping on a super strength lager in the middle of the day in the middle of the street before going round his neighbours begging for food  (again this may well have been the result of dodgy editing by Love)

Fucking awful programme, I can't quite not believe its release was timed almost exactly to coincide with Osborne announcing he's going to further slash welfare this year. Is there any truth Love has Tory connections?


----------



## ddraig (Jan 16, 2014)

read that they are apparently a donor to tory funds


----------



## Ranbay (Jan 16, 2014)

"Anyway, to the unions’ fury, Love Productions is not run by a Tory but by a friend of Ed Miliband, Richard McKerrow, who says he’s a ‘big fan’ of the Labour leader."


from ere
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9116701/britains-dirty-secret/


----------



## nino_savatte (Jan 16, 2014)

B0B2oo9 said:


> "Anyway, to the unions’ fury, Love Productions is not run by a Tory but by a friend of Ed Miliband, Richard McKerrow, who says he’s a ‘big fan’ of the Labour leader."
> 
> 
> from ere
> http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9116701/britains-dirty-secret/


He's still a cunt and the Labour leader is also a cunt. If Labour form a government in 2015, they'll keep the Tory cuts and will be just a ruthless towards benefit claimants.

What Fraser 'idears' Nelson has studiously avoided is the amount of hate directed towards the residents of James Turner St and benefits claimants generally. He's a dishonest cunt.

He should read this.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/benefits-street-kids-attacked-school-3026469


----------



## RubyBlue (Jan 16, 2014)

So far, from a street with aprox. 90 houses we have only seen a handful of residents so not even a true representation of the street (so far).  BUT why oh why would folk allow themselves to be filmed showing off their shop lifting "skills" and not expect to get judged?  When they decided to clear up the rubbish I thought good for them - but they then just shoved it into the street  why not just re-bag it all and leave it neatly?

I would like to hear more from the West Indian man who has lived there for donkeys years and has seen the street go from a desirable to an undesirable street.

The only ones I've liked have been the Polish woman - the Britain in Bloom woman who was trying to improve the area and 50p man.  Feel sorry for Funghi(?), obvs incapable of working in his current condition and also the Romanian guys - ripped off and fucked about


----------



## TopCat (Jan 16, 2014)

weepiper said:


> I didn't watch it but it's invaded my personal space anyway
> 
> View attachment 46152


If someone can get time for enthusing about riots can we grass these cunts up and get them put away? Crimestoppers?


----------



## ddraig (Jan 16, 2014)

Parasite St 
http://www.parasite-street.co.uk/


----------



## newbie (Jan 16, 2014)

RubyBlue said:


> So far, from a street with aprox. 90 houses we have only seen a handful of residents so not even a true representation of the street (so far).


fwiw in an interview someone from the prod company said they knocked on every door in the street and asked them to participate. 

He also said that the participants saw the programmes in advance, and liked them, and that they are still filming in the street.

Seeing their reactions to the current row would certainly be interesting.


----------



## mr steev (Jan 16, 2014)

newbie said:


> fwiw in an interview someone from the prod company said they knocked on every door in the street and asked them to participate.
> 
> He also said that the participants saw the programmes in advance, and liked them, and that they are still filming in the street.



I've read of (working) people who were filmed but haven't appeared in the final cut. There was a public meeting in Brum last night...



> Two of Benefits Street’s residents, who would only give their names as Mr Jones and Mr Robinson, came along and spoke about their family’s experiences.
> 
> Mr Robinson said the film crew
> 
> ...


----------



## Idris2002 (Jan 17, 2014)

Have we had this yet? One of my wee cousins posted it on facebook:


----------



## nino_savatte (Jan 17, 2014)

The thing is, a lot of people don't want to know the facts and want to have their biases confirmed any way they can. The question is: how can you get these people to think critically?


----------



## sim667 (Jan 17, 2014)

Chip Barm said:


> Blaming it on her son, what a fucking shitbag.


Vile bint turns to lying cunt shocker.


----------



## girasol (Jan 17, 2014)

Some people just like to hate other people, and feel superior to them.  Compassion is in shortage and that's the truth.  Or maybe it's always been in shortage, maybe we are only capable to care for certain number of people and after that they become our enemies.  Fuck knows.

Some people are more compassionate than others, I wonder what the percentage is...  Is it nurture or nature?


----------



## jusali (Jan 17, 2014)

girasol said:


> Some people just like to hate other people, and feel superior to them.  Compassion is in shortage and that's the truth.  Or maybe it's always been in shortage, maybe we are only capable to care for certain number of people and after that they become our enemies.  Fuck knows.
> 
> Some people are more compassionate than others, I wonder what the percentage is...  Is it nurture or nature?



I think it's evolution...........


----------



## William of Walworth (Jan 17, 2014)

nino_savatte said:


> The thing is, a lot of people don't want to know the facts and want to have their biases confirmed any way they can. The question is: how can you get these people to think critically?



Couldn't bring myself to 'like' this post but in a depressed way I completely agree with it. 

IME and IMO, people prefer to stick to their comforting prejudices and want to have someone to blame. It's so easy to be lazy and rely on third hand anecdotes, friend's relatives's neighbour's neighbour stories, related pub stories, shite TV programmes, even shiter tabloid headlines, ete cte etc etc ad nauseam ad infinitum, to boost what they already want to think.


----------



## Thora (Jan 17, 2014)

mr steev said:


> I've read of (working) people who were filmed but haven't appeared in the final cut. There was a public meeting in Brum last night...


Yep, I read a bit of an interview with a couple who were I think a mechanic (working) and a student midwife who had declined to take part as they were suspicious about it - and I assume they would have been counted as part of the 95% on benefits too since they had children and probably get child benefit.  Out of 90 houses the producers will have found the most vulnerable and least savvy ("oh yeah I'll show you how to shoplift and let you film me breaking my asbo, no problem") to participate.


----------



## William of Walworth (Jan 17, 2014)

I know I ought to bring myself actually to watch the bloody thing  before commenting but steev's and Thora's comments make a lot of common-sense, there's plenty of evidence generally about 'documentary' makers editing selectively to make create the most sensationalist outcome.


----------



## Belushi (Jan 17, 2014)

William of Walworth said:


> I know I ought to bring myself actually to watch the bloody thing  before commenting but steev's and Thora's comments make a lot of common-sense, there's plenty of evidence generally about 'documentary' makers editing selectively to make create the most sensationalist outcome.



The second episode is well worth watching.


----------



## Treacle Toes (Jan 17, 2014)

> _*Three things you should know before watching Benefits Street*
> 
> The boss of a Midlands housing association dispels some of the myths about his tenants recently popularised by the documentary set in a Birmingham street_



http://www.theguardian.com/housing-...s-you-should-know-myths-birmingham?CMP=twt_gu


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Jan 18, 2014)




----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 18, 2014)

So Katie fucking Hopkins returns to our TV screens again, this time invited by more media daemons to speak her brains. FFS, i'm beginning to suspect even a stake through the heart in pure sunlight won't destroy her.

Here, she's pretending to be a cleaner in what can only be described as Sue Pollard's charcter from Hi Di Hi auditioning for Camp Commandant of Auschwitz.

How much, I wonder, would she pay a cleaner to work in her business...oh that's right, her business is a massive failure just like her career. her only claim to fame is being a buzzing insect drawn to the money-light of a coke addled sneering media class happy to point her toward human decency armed with a chicken switch bomb of explosive bullshit, like a suicide pundit.

I hate her. I actually physically hate her in such a way that my nerves scream and I feel darkly alive.


----------



## nino_savatte (Jan 18, 2014)

William of Walworth said:


> Couldn't bring myself to 'like' this post but in a depressed way I completely agree with it.
> 
> IME and IMO, people prefer to stick to their comforting prejudices and want to have someone to blame. It's so easy to be lazy and rely on third hand anecdotes, friend's relatives's neighbour's neighbour stories, related pub stories, shite TV programmes, even shiter tabloid headlines, ete cte etc etc ad nauseam ad infinitum, to boost what they already want to think.


Hence the Nigel Farage's appeal. The carefully constructed 'bloke down the pub' schtick seems to have sucked in a lot of people. Some of them think he's *ahem* working class. I despair.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 19, 2014)

is that Katie hopkins thing an actual thing that is broadcast??


----------



## smmudge (Jan 19, 2014)




----------



## ddraig (Jan 19, 2014)

shudder


----------



## nino_savatte (Jan 19, 2014)

ddraig said:


> is that Katie hopkins thing an actual thing that is broadcast??


It was an segment on This Week.


----------



## tufty79 (Jan 19, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> So Katie fucking Hopkins returns to our TV screens again


who is she?


----------



## Frances Lengel (Jan 19, 2014)

If you don't know then keep it that way - No good will come from having her taking up space in your conciousness.


----------



## Autochthonous1 (Jan 19, 2014)

"It’s one of those programmes to get middle England up in arms and I think these people are sacrificial lambs on the altar of light entertainment." He added: "It’s an unfair representation of unemployment in this country because a lot of people do not choose to be on benefits".

http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/complaints-made-bbc-over-paul-ogrady-
comments160114

Yeah, he said it good n proper.


----------



## Autochthonous1 (Jan 19, 2014)

Fuck any of you cunts that want to fucking rip the shit out of benefit claimants! Fuck you and where you think your tax is or isn't going!
PARASITE STREET, SO FUCK YOU AND YOUR BLAME!
http://www.parasite-street.co.uk/


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 19, 2014)

Frances Lengel said:


> If you don't know then keep it that way - No good will come from having her taking up space in your conciousness.


Seriously. It's best you don't know. She's the moral equivalent of 2girls1cup.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 19, 2014)

ddraig said:


> is that Katie hopkins thing an actual thing that is broadcast??


I'm given to believe that "This Week" is intended as a serious Newsnightesque anaylsis programme, though I may be wrong.

So I would dearly love to ask the producers why they thought, of all possible pundits, to ask a failed game show contestant to comment on unemployment and the perception thereof. What's next; the vexed question of how to help civilians in Syria as discussed by Dave, who came runner up in the second to last episode of Fifteen to One?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 19, 2014)

smmudge said:


>



In 30 years time her life will be little more than a time lapse recording of the decline of society. As she loses the battle against time, eroding her face at an increased rate commensurate with the bitterness and hatred within, the background depicts the increasing fractures and divisions in society that are the result of the world she champions. As she desperately fights against the ageing process, the bitterness and venom that is stored within her Hate Bladder, will erode her features like an ocean beating a rockface.

All that will remain will be an angry irrelevant nub of the sort that belongs in Wookey Hole, pretending to be a Witch to scare schoolkids.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 19, 2014)

This topic was just discussed on The Big Questions.

One of the (right wing) pundits was a plumber called Charlie Mullens (iirc) who owns an outfit called Pimlico Plumbers. What's his game? How does a plumber get to be involved: none of the other debates (should it be illegal to reveal the sex of an unborn baby and does satan exist) had anything to do with plumbing. What's going on here? Is this someone trying to make a name for themselves?


----------



## Belushi (Jan 19, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> This topic was just discussed on The Big Questions.
> 
> One of the (right wing) pundits was a plumber called Charlie Mullens (iirc) who owns an outfit called Pimlico Plumbers. What's his game? How does a plumber get to be involved: none of the other debates (should it be illegal to reveal the sex of an unborn baby and does satan exist) had anything to do with plumbing. What's going on here? Is this someone trying to make a name for themselves?



They're a big company, he started out as a plumber but he's a rich businessman nowadays.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 19, 2014)

and he bet he pays £fuck all to a large number of immigrants whil bitching about benefits and paying taxes.

He made himself look quite stupid as well.


----------



## SovietArmy (Jan 19, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> So Katie fucking Hopkins returns to our TV screens again, this time invited by more media daemons to speak her brains. FFS, i'm beginning to suspect even a stake through the heart in pure sunlight won't destroy her.
> 
> Here, she's pretending to be a cleaner in what can only be described as Sue Pollard's charcter from Hi Di Hi auditioning for Camp Commandant of Auschwitz.
> 
> ...


I felt nervous about that because BBC gave to her privilege to take a part which poor people pay tv licence as well.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 19, 2014)

ddraig said:


> Parasite St
> http://www.parasite-street.co.uk/


3 likes


----------



## ddraig (Jan 19, 2014)

Autochthonous1 said:


> Fuck any of you cunts that want to fucking rip the shit out of benefit claimants! Fuck you and where you think your tax is or isn't going!
> PARASITE STREET, SO FUCK YOU AND YOUR BLAME!
> http://www.parasite-street.co.uk/


4 likes


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 19, 2014)

SovietArmy said:


> I felt nervous about that because BBC gave to her privilege to take a part which poor people pay tv licence as well.


I bet she's never cleaned a toilet in her life.


----------



## Autochthonous1 (Jan 19, 2014)

Sorry, was a bit drunk when posted that...didn't mean to be all shouty.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 19, 2014)

no need to apologise for being shouty!


----------



## moomoo (Jan 20, 2014)

The way they were speaking so harshly to their children really upset me.


----------



## Dowie (Jan 20, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> and he bet he pays £fuck all to a large number of immigrants whil bitching about benefits and paying taxes.
> 
> He made himself look quite stupid as well.



Nah he seems to employ plumbers at 80k, drains men at 100k and pays the lady in the cafe circa minimum wage... one of the mechanics who fixes their vans inexplicable earns almost double the amount his colleague earns for doing the exact same job. 

He was on some self promotion exercise/documentary where a whole bunch of people in the company revealed their wages and then were supposed to agree to pay cuts to boost other people's wages... aside from the PR manager generously donating some paltry sum to the woman they had working in the cafe it turned into a bit of a farce... and ended up with the owner having to pay out a bit more to employees who'd clearly been screwed/underpaid for quite a while.


----------



## girasol (Jan 20, 2014)

Only watched 5 mins and it looked more exploitative than before, so I turned over.  Quite tired as well.  Hope the tone wasn't the same throughout.


----------



## Kidda (Jan 20, 2014)

moomoo said:


> The way they were speaking so harshly to their children really upset me.



They are just kids themselves. Hard to see how they can parent well without first knowing who they are as adults. 

It's a shame they didn't show more of the work done by the Sure Start worker as it obviously had an effect and people could see what our communities are losing due to Children's centre closures.


----------



## moomoo (Jan 20, 2014)

Kidda said:


> They are just kids themselves. Hard to see how they can parent well without first knowing who they are as adults.
> 
> It's a shame they didn't show more of the work done by the Sure Start worker as it obviously had an effect and people could see what our communities are losing due to Children's centre closures.



Even the older lady, White Dee, spoke to her kids like dirt. I liked her in the first episode. I don't anymore. What hope have those kids got when even the people who are supposed to love them beyond anything talk to them like that?! Kids should be loved and cherished. Not sworn at. It's horrible.


----------



## Kidda (Jan 20, 2014)

moomoo said:


> Even the older lady, White Dee, spoke to her kids like dirt. I liked her in the first episode. I don't anymore. What hope have those kids got when even the people who are supposed to love them beyond anything talk to them like that?! Kids should be loved and cherished. Not sworn at. It's horrible.



Greatly reduced life chances. Shit state of affairs. 
That's why it's so important parents get the right support. 

Makes you want to weep doesn't it


----------



## smmudge (Jan 21, 2014)

Ugh god that voice over is so insidious
I found it really difficult to watch actually, because it seemed obvious how much emotional and mental stress a lot (most) of them are under. My heart broke for that woman trying to see her son. I wouldn't be able to keep clean in that situation.


----------



## Ming (Jan 21, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> So Katie fucking Hopkins returns to our TV screens again, this time invited by more media daemons to speak her brains. FFS, i'm beginning to suspect even a stake through the heart in pure sunlight won't destroy her.
> 
> Here, she's pretending to be a cleaner in what can only be described as Sue Pollard's charcter from Hi Di Hi auditioning for Camp Commandant of Auschwitz.
> 
> ...


*Business career*
Hopkins is often introduced as a business woman in television appearances, and refers to herself in her media articles as an employer in a small business. That business is 'Katie Hopkins Limited', a company classified as a "business & management consultancy", based in Exeter, Devon, and incorporated on 21 June 2007.[41] Hopkins is the sole shareholder and only director, with her husband, Mark Cross, acting as company secretary.[42] The company has run at a net loss since June 2009. As of 30 June 2012 it had a net worth of -£11,927, and had no declared turnover at all during the previous 12 months.[43] 

Looks like her get up and go attitude got up and went.


----------



## Part 2 (Jan 21, 2014)

moomoo said:


> Even the older lady, White Dee, spoke to her kids like dirt. I liked her in the first episode. I don't anymore. What hope have those kids got when even the people who are supposed to love them beyond anything talk to them like that?! Kids should be loved and cherished. Not sworn at. It's horrible.



She's depressed?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 21, 2014)

Dowie said:


> Nah he seems to employ plumbers at 80k, drains men at 100k and pays the lady in the cafe circa minimum wage... one of the mechanics who fixes their vans inexplicable earns almost double the amount his colleague earns for doing the exact same job.
> 
> He was on some self promotion exercise/documentary where a whole bunch of people in the company revealed their wages and then were supposed to agree to pay cuts to boost other people's wages... aside from the PR manager generously donating some paltry sum to the woman they had working in the cafe it turned into a bit of a farce... and ended up with the owner having to pay out a bit more to employees who'd clearly been screwed/underpaid for quite a while.


Sounds like that Undercover Boss programme.

Which I have long suspected is a bit of a joke (the pound shop one was dreadful).

I just can't understand why the BBC invited a plumber to discuss these issues. He was in the front row too: the seats reserved for the 'experts', not the plebs. None of the discussions required knowledge of plumbing!


----------



## Gingerman (Jan 21, 2014)

tufty79 said:


> who is she?


A low rent Dick Littlecock wannabee


----------



## girasol (Jan 21, 2014)

smmudge said:


> Ugh god that voice over is so insidious
> I found it really difficult to watch actually, because it seemed obvious how much emotional and mental stress a lot (most) of them are under. My heart broke for that woman trying to see her son. I wouldn't be able to keep clean in that situation.



Yeah, it was really difficult viewing - that's why I think they went too far with that one, it served no purpose at all, other than make viewers distressed about how those children were treated (that's how I felt after 5 minutes).  Not watching it anymore


----------



## UrbaneFox (Jan 21, 2014)

ddraig said:


> Parasite St
> http://www.parasite-street.co.uk/



This progamme could run and run, but somehow I doubt it will.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/21/truth-is-we-are-all-living-on-benefits-street


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 22, 2014)

Gingerman said:


> A low rent Dick Littlecock wannabee


More like Edwina Currie.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 22, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> More like Edwina Currie.



So Hopkins has been slipped a length by Major, then? 

Does the man have *no* standards?


----------



## RedDragon (Jan 22, 2014)




----------



## Frances Lengel (Jan 22, 2014)

Chip Barm said:


> She's depressed?



And stressed out probably - I must confess I haven't watched this show coz I refuse to give something like that the time of day but (and I hope this doesn't sound patronising), when people are properly struggling from one near-crisis to the next with no savings or relatives who could bail them out or any type of safety net whatsoever so that any kind of unexpected household calamity  can potentially to push them over the brink from struggling to get by to actually not being able to get by - Well, that level of constant, ongoing background stress will likely have the effect of fraying a person's nerves to the extent that they may well shout at their kids a bit.


----------



## Autochthonous1 (Jan 22, 2014)

Frances Lengel said:


> And stressed out probably - I must confess I haven't watched this show coz I refuse to give something like that the time of day but (and I hope this doesn't sound patronising), when people are properly struggling from one near-crisis to the next with no savings or relatives who could bail them out or any type of safety net whatsoever so that any kind of unexpected household calamity  can potentially to push them over the brink from struggling to get by to actually not being able to get by - Well, that level of constant, ongoing background stress will likely have the effect of fraying a person's nerves to the extent that they may well shout at their kids a bit.



Certainly agree, and the producers wanted the camera people to capture these bits just to get the viewers riled up... let's all focus upon and hate these broken, stressed out people who do not work, and portray them in the worst possible light to fuel and reinforce widespread prejudices to shift the glare away from the real villains of modern Britain. I've seen snippets, but I too refuse to watch the vile exploitative shit.


----------



## Autochthonous1 (Jan 22, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> She's the moral equivalent of 2girls1cup.



You're a genius. Bloody love that.


----------



## Treacle Toes (Jan 22, 2014)

When is the live aftershow debate? I might cave in and watch that.


----------



## Dexter Deadwood (Jan 22, 2014)

RedDragon said:


>




That was full on cringe.


----------



## gabi (Jan 23, 2014)

Frances Lengel said:


> And stressed out probably - I must confess I haven't watched this show coz I refuse to give something like that the time of day



Frankly that's a bit stupid. Know your enemy. I don't see how you can comment on something you haven't watched, no matter how vile it is.

Nobody comes out of it well, neither the participants or the producers. But you should probably watch something before judging it.


----------



## Frances Lengel (Jan 23, 2014)

gabi said:


> Frankly that's a bit stupid. Know your enemy. *I don't see how you can comment on something you haven't watched, no matter how vile it is.*
> 
> Nobody comes out of it well, neither the participants or the producers. But you should probably watch something before judging it.



I wasn't commenting on the programme beyond saying I have no interest in watching it. What I _was_ doing was offering a possible explanation as to why someone in a precarious, financially pressurised situation (not necessarily the person in the prog but anyone in a similar situ) might lose the thread a bit and shout at their kids a bit more than circumstances may require. And many of the people I know are in situations like that, so I do feel qualified to offer an opinion.

You have, of course, got a point that one shouldn't judge a programme without having watched it, but TBF, I don't think that's what I did.


----------



## gabi (Jan 23, 2014)

Fair enough. Watch the clips tho and the way the kids are treated are at times really sweet and at time really awful. I personally dont think a 6yo kid should be called fucking this fucking that but thats just me. At other times White Dee comes across as really sweet.

It is car-crash TV. And like many people I guess on this thread I don't know why I've kept tuning in. I've done three episodes. Think that's enough.


----------



## existentialist (Jan 23, 2014)

gabi said:


> Frankly that's a bit stupid. Know your enemy. I don't see how you can comment on something you haven't watched, no matter how vile it is.
> 
> Nobody comes out of it well, neither the participants or the producers. But you should probably watch something before judging it.


I don't need to eat dogshit to know it's nasty. 

I think it is perfectly reasonable, If you know the premise on which a programme is made, examples of the way it has represented people, feedback from participants, critics, Urbanites, etc, to not want to watch the show but still feel qualified to comment on it. 

It's not as if Frances is bitching about the camera angles, FFS


----------



## gabi (Jan 23, 2014)

When did I say he was bitching about camera angles? He was criticising the critics of people swearing (extremely harshly) at their kids. On a show he's never actually seen.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 23, 2014)

Nick Ferrari wishes not to appear offensive? Perhaps he should stop living then.


----------



## Treacle Toes (Jan 23, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Nick Ferrari wishes not to appear offensive? Perhaps he should stop living then.



I can't listen to that clip as it will upset my morning I am sure. NF makes his living on being offensive and polarising arguments. For me, that is tantamount to the concept of 'selling your soul to the devil'.


----------



## Part 2 (Jan 23, 2014)

Frances Lengel said:


> And stressed out probably - I must confess I haven't watched this show coz I refuse to give something like that the time of day but (and I hope this doesn't sound patronising), when people are properly struggling from one near-crisis to the next with no savings or relatives who could bail them out or any type of safety net whatsoever so that any kind of unexpected household calamity  can potentially to push them over the brink from struggling to get by to actually not being able to get by - Well, that level of constant, ongoing background stress will likely have the effect of fraying a person's nerves to the extent that they may well shout at their kids a bit.



It was explained on the program that she was suffering depression and her money had been stopped. It was uncomfortable viewing and I felt for the lad being sworn at. The daughter understood it was down to her mums illness though and only temporary. There's a good balance in the portrayal of dee I think but without empathising people will see what they want to see. I'm fairly confident her kids feel loved, hard as life obviously is for them.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 23, 2014)

Rutita1 said:


> I can't listen to that clip as it will upset my morning I am sure. NF makes his living on being offensive and polarising arguments. For me, that is tantamount to the concept of 'selling your soul to the devil'.


He's a big round ball of courteous bile.

I find him utterly repellant.

"I don't wish to appear offensive, but are you black?"

What difference does it matter which Dee you are talking to? Are they so powerful and polar opposite that one is God while the other is the Devil or something?

I can't listen to Clegg's voice, the constant gargling noise combined with his insincerity is toe curling.


----------



## existentialist (Jan 23, 2014)

gabi said:


> When did I say he was bitching about camera angles? He was criticising the critics of people swearing (extremely harshly) at their kids. On a show he's never actually seen.


You didn't. I was saying that it isn't necessary to watch the programme, or eat dogshit, to know it's nasty.


----------



## sim667 (Jan 23, 2014)

Dexter Deadwood said:


> That was full on cringe.



I didn't think he was that bad tbh.


----------



## bouncer_the_dog (Jan 23, 2014)

I haven't watched it but I am utterly shocked by everything.


----------



## William of Walworth (Jan 24, 2014)

bouncer_the_dog said:


> I haven't watched it but I am utterly shocked by everything.



I haven't watched it but I am utterly unshocked by everything.

Which is worse??


----------



## Frankie Jack (Jan 24, 2014)

> Benefits Street residents have been moved to safe houses by Channel 4 bosses after they were subjected to online death threats.
> 
> Producers acted after Twitter trolls threatened to, “set fire to #benefitstreet” and, “walk down #benefitstreet with a baseball bat and brain these scum bags”.
> 
> An insider said yesterday: “After we named the street in the show, some of the participants in Benefits Street have had to be rehomed. They are vulnerable and we have a duty of care towards them.”



Hardly surprising given the reaction of Joe Arseholes..


----------



## tufty79 (Jan 24, 2014)

'kinell.


----------



## gabi (Jan 24, 2014)

bouncer_the_dog said:


> I haven't watched it but I am utterly shocked by everything.



I'm actually astonishingly fucked off by the state of the food in kazakahstan. I heard someone bitching about it on the internet. Never been there, never tried the food but if someone on the internet says its shit.. well...


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 24, 2014)

Frankie Jack said:


> Hardly surprising given the reaction of Joe Arseholes..


Let's hope their new homes don't leave them vulnerable to the Bedroom Tax.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 24, 2014)

> Footballer Joey Barton joined in the abuse, tweeting the residents should be banned from having children.



Words fail me.


----------



## gabi (Jan 24, 2014)

Where's the Barton quote from?

I actually used to quite enjoy his tweets. Not the brightest of souls, but seemed to be going about educating himself a bit after behaving like an utter cunt for most of his youth. He actually came across as a bit of a liberal so im surprised to hear he'd say something like that.


----------



## Treacle Toes (Jan 24, 2014)

> *Benefits Street residents rehoused by Channel 4 after claiming they received death threats *
> 
> 
> Benefits Street residents have been moved to safe houses by Channel 4 bosses after they were subjected to online death threats.
> ...



gabi Barton is quoted in this article too.


----------



## weepiper (Jan 24, 2014)

gabi said:


> Where's the Barton quote from?
> 
> I actually used to quite enjoy his tweets. Not the brightest of souls, but seemed to be going about educating himself a bit after behaving like an utter cunt for most of his youth. He actually came across as a bit of a liberal so im surprised to hear he'd say something like that.



He's a complete cock and he's got form for this sort of judgemental pish

https://twitter.com/Joey7Barton/status/290447186708267009


----------



## bouncer_the_dog (Jan 24, 2014)

gabi said:


> I'm actually astonishingly fucked off by the state of the food in kazakahstan. I heard someone bitching about it on the internet. Never been there, never tried the food but if someone on the internet says its shit.. well...



This shocks me also. Utterly.


----------



## Frances Lengel (Jan 24, 2014)

Shocking isn't it?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 24, 2014)

gabi said:


> Where's the Barton quote from?
> 
> I actually used to quite enjoy his tweets. Not the brightest of souls, but seemed to be going about educating himself a bit after behaving like an utter cunt for most of his youth. He actually came across as a bit of a liberal so im surprised to hear he'd say something like that.


It's in the Mirror article. If he did say this then he's a total scumbag.


----------



## bouncer_the_dog (Jan 24, 2014)

Frances Lengel said:


> Shocking isn't it?



Totally!


----------



## nino_savatte (Jan 24, 2014)

Love Productions should be prosecuted for inciting hatred at the very least. If someone is injured or killed as a result of these no mark vigilantes deciding they can engage in random violence on the basis of someone claiming benefits, then the charge becomes incitement to violence/murder.  Channel 4, on the other hand, acted irresponsibly by commissioning the programme and are thus partly to blame.


----------



## DotCommunist (Jan 24, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> It's in the Mirror article. If he did say this then he's a total scumbag.




barton regularly chat shit on twitter


----------



## Schmetterling (Jan 24, 2014)

DotCommunist said:


> barton regularly chat shit on twitter



A Twitter Shitter?


Hmmm ; sounded better when I first thought it.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 24, 2014)

DotCommunist said:


> barton regularly chat shit on twitter


Then he's a scumbag.

What can we expect. He's a fucking manchild. He probably learned to count folding notes into the g strings of strippers.


----------



## Treacle Toes (Jan 25, 2014)

> It appears the majority of the people on Ch 4's 'Benefits Street' may not actually be on benefits:
> http://lartsocial.org/sites/default/files/field/image/jamesturnerstreetareadata.jpg
> 
> Tweeted by The Huffington Post's Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 25, 2014)

So the only benefit tourism that happens for real is the gaggle of white van man driving sun reading pasty eating tradescunts loafing around James Turner Street trying to flaunt their presumed moral superiority.

It's what makes Britain Great (or should that be _Grate_)


----------



## nino_savatte (Jan 25, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Then he's a scumbag.
> 
> What can we expect. He's a fucking manchild. He probably learned to count folding notes into the g strings of strippers.


Yet he quotes Nietzsche, though one suspects that he's taken the Thatcher approach and not actually bothered to read any of N's books all the way through.


----------



## _angel_ (Jan 25, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> So the only benefit tourism that happens for real is the gaggle of white van man driving sun reading pasty eating tradescunts loafing around James Turner Street trying to flaunt their presumed moral superiority.
> 
> It's what makes Britain Great (or should that be _Grate_)


ugly people empty lives


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 25, 2014)

He reads books?


----------



## mr steev (Jan 25, 2014)

Some residents charged with drug offences after raids in june 2013. Before the programme was aired but is it common to wait 6 months before charging someone  

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/...even-charged-in-benefits-street-police-raids/


----------



## xenon (Jan 25, 2014)

It's Joey Barton FFS.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 25, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Words fail me.



It's Joey "Deacon" Barton.  He's hardly gifted with the ability to think beyond "kick the ball", "tackle the opposition" and "be a twat".


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 25, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> It's what makes Britain Great (or should that be _Grate_)



It should be both.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 25, 2014)

nino_savatte said:


> Yet he quotes Nietzsche, though one suspects that he's taken the Thatcher approach and not actually bothered to read any of N's books all the way through.



It's easy enough to buy a "Book of Famous Quotes" nowadays.  I'm sure even Joey could manage it without tripping over his shoe-laces.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 25, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> He reads books?



Or has them read to him by his manservant.


----------



## inva (Jan 25, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> So the only benefit tourism that happens for real is the gaggle of white van man driving sun reading pasty eating tradescunts loafing around James Turner Street trying to flaunt their presumed moral superiority.
> 
> It's what makes Britain Great (or should that be _Grate_)


if only they'd learned how to do proper sophisticated sneering like you


----------



## nino_savatte (Jan 25, 2014)

ViolentPanda said:


> It's easy enough to buy a "Book of Famous Quotes" nowadays.  I'm sure even Joey could manage it without tripping over his shoe-laces.


Aye, true.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 25, 2014)

inva said:


> if only they'd learned how to do proper sophisticated sneering like you



To be scrupulously fair to the people being sneered at, at least half of the examples of vitriol I've personally seen have been poorly-spelled, so mocking the fact isn't so much "sneering", as making light of an established phenomenon.  Something "The Day Today" latched onto 20 years ago with "Speak Your Brains".
I'm not sure whether these commenters are naturally poor-spellers, or whether the obvious teeming reserve of anger and bitterness they hold for benefits claimants overwhelms their ability to spell properly, though.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 25, 2014)

inva said:


> if only they'd learned how to do proper sophisticated sneering like you


That's right, because not taking the piss out of people for being poor is the epitome of snobbery.


----------



## butchersapron (Jan 25, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> That's right, because not taking the piss out of people for being poor is the epitome of snobbery.


You stopped talking about 'chavs' now you two faced prick? You helped produce this. This is what you wanted.


----------



## Ax^ (Jan 26, 2014)

> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-25894192



hmm...


----------



## SLK (Jan 26, 2014)

Thank fuck for the policeman of this thread keeping order.


----------



## BigMoaner (Jan 26, 2014)

friendofdorothy said:


> Not sure - I used to work at a gay charity and tv people would call up all the time, every week, asking for this or that - because we were conveniently near by and they were so fucking* lazy*. I got really good at saying, sorry - why? - confidential - not applicable to our client group - no - *NO!*


i worked at a hotel where a load of tv people were staying. yes, there was an amazingly high ratio of cunts amongst them. they think that everyone else is like them and wants to work/is dazzled by TV. they LOVE wearing their lanyards round their necks that say BBC, Sky, etc even when GOING FOR A NIGHT ON THE TOWN.


----------



## Frances Lengel (Jan 26, 2014)

butchersapron said:


> You stopped talking about 'chavs' now you two faced prick? You helped produce this. This is what you wanted.


Yes Haystacks, I'm absolutely sure AW had a massive hand in producing this.



ViolentPanda said:


> It's Joey *"Deacon"* Barton.  He's hardly gifted with the ability to think beyond "kick the ball", "tackle the opposition" and "be a twat".



Ah now come on, VP - I'm honestly not trying to pick a fight with you but posters on these boards have (rightly) IMO objected to the use of "lame2 as a pejorative, so I hardly think Joey Deacon'a a cool term to use. As I said, I'm not wanting a go, I'm just saying maybe choose your words a bit more carefully, eh?


----------



## weepiper (Jan 26, 2014)

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...naire-tory-paul-3062319#.UuT1updzn6k.facebook



> The squalid rented four-bedroom home on TV’s controversial Benefits Street is so riddled with damp that water runs down the walls.
> 
> There is no heating because the boiler has long been broken – and the tenant’s children are so frozen at night they sleep with their clothes on.





> Mr Mbuyamba – a refugee from war-torn Congo who works full time in a local factory – pays Nischal £215 a week to live in this squalor.
> 
> He pays £118 himself and the state forks out the rest in housing benefit. He shares the house with wife Claudine, 44, their four children aged five months to 17 years old and two teenage nieces.


----------



## butchersapron (Jan 26, 2014)

SLK said:


> Thank fuck for the policeman of this thread keeping order.


That's right little miss flimsier - ignore the wider point about the role the use of terms like chav by people like wells over the last decade played in helping to create the climate where the guns can be turned on ever more people for ever less reasons, the softening up that 'chav-mania' produced in many by normalising the rhetorical and consequently social and political marginalisation and dehumanisation of  certain groups and how this has played right into the hands of the neo-liberals and austerity boosters (of all party political stripes and none) in favour of a misjudged late night attempted barb. Good move.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 26, 2014)

Frances Lengel said:


> Yes Haystacks, I'm absolutely sure AW had a massive hand in producing this.
> 
> 
> 
> Ah now come on, VP - I'm honestly not trying to pick a fight with you but posters on these boards have (rightly) IMO objected to the use of "lame2 as a pejorative, so I hardly think Joey Deacon'a a cool term to use. As I said, I'm not wanting a go, I'm just saying maybe choose your words a bit more carefully, eh?



How do you know I'm not referring to his recently-expressed religious interests, eh?


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 26, 2014)

Ax^ said:


> hmm...



Meanwhile, the cunts at Love Productions are probably shoving half the annual tonnage of Columbia's favourite national export up their gaping nostrils.


----------



## ViolentPanda (Jan 26, 2014)

butchersapron said:


> That's right little miss flimsier - ignore the wider point about part the use of terms like chav by people like wells over the last decade in helping to create the climate where the guns can be turned on ever more people for ever less reasons, the softening up that 'chav-mania' produced in many by normalising the rhetorical and consequently social and political marginalisation and dehumanisation of  certain groups and how this has played right into the hands of the neo-liberals and austerity boosters (of all party political stripes and none) in favour of a misjudged late night attempted barb. Good move.



Now now, don't be unkind to flimsier. You know he's not up to the rough and tumble.


----------



## treelover (Jan 26, 2014)

editor said:


> And if they can't afford it, he gives some stuff away and was considering reducing his price to 30p after seeing the poverty on this particular street.
> 
> Now compare him with your average banker boss.



apparently he has been offered jobs, that is if he isn't one the arrestees.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 26, 2014)

weepiper said:


> http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...naire-tory-paul-3062319#.UuT1updzn6k.facebook


This has almost reached the point of unreal. This is cartoon levels of nastiness; like Mr Burns or Scrooge.

How can this man treat people like this?

I don't even think I have the energy for anger anymore, it seems so futile. Another millionaire landlord pissing all over tenants - human beings.

...and in the picture, on the table surrounded by damp, a smartphone. Who took this fucking picture? How stupid are they? What do you think the tories will say when they see this? "well if he can afford a smartphone he can afford a better place to live - serves him right!" That's their perverse logic.

The world's a madhouse.


----------



## smmudge (Jan 26, 2014)

weepiper said:


> http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...naire-tory-paul-3062319#.UuT1updzn6k.facebook





> Midlands Labour MP John Mann last night slammed the Mbuyamba family’s plight. He said: “Private landlords are making a killing from housing benefit payments and often don’t care at all about the standard of the property they rent out. For them, it is all about getting rich on taxpayers’ money. The Government should limit the amount of rent paid out in housing benefit. It should be a fair amount per property.
> 
> “There’s no way that nearly £1,000-a-month is a fair market rent for a property in such a poor condition. It’s criminal.”



Uh ok, so private landlords are fucking over people with ridiculous rents and appalling living conditions, and topping up their wallets with public money. What's the answer? Limiting the amount of housing benefit a household can claim   
Is that really the most logical solution here? REALLY???


----------



## treelover (Jan 26, 2014)

Belushi said:


> innit, I wasn't going to bother after last weeks episode but this has been excellent.




Didn't it work along the lines of "indigenous claimants bad, migrant workers good' meme which is so prevalent amongst the media classes.


----------



## treelover (Jan 26, 2014)

Idris2002 said:


> Have we had this yet? One of my wee cousins posted it on facebook:



That's fantastic


----------



## bouncer_the_dog (Jan 26, 2014)

Should I bother watching this? I think it would take the fun out of it if I actually saw the program.


----------



## Frances Lengel (Jan 26, 2014)

ViolentPanda said:


> How do you know I'm not referring to his recently-expressed religious interests, eh?



You may well have been, but the first thing most people (at least of of a certain age - and lets have it right, U75 isn't exactly crawling with younguns is it?) think of when they hear the term joey deacon is "spaz" isn't it? A more carefully chosen term might've been a better idea- That's all I'm saying.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 26, 2014)

smmudge said:


> Uh ok, so private landlords are fucking over people with ridiculous rents and appalling living conditions, and topping up their wallets with public money. What's the answer? Limiting the amount of housing benefit a household can claim
> Is that really the most logical solution here? REALLY???


i assume he means capping rents, not what someone can claim 
I might be wrong but i think he means capp


----------



## smmudge (Jan 26, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> i assume he means capping rents, not what someone can claim
> I might be wrong but i think he means capp



I think that assumption gives him too much credit. He doesn't say anything about capping rents.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 27, 2014)

I can only hope that is what he meant.


----------



## _angel_ (Jan 27, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> i assume he means capping rents, not what someone can claim
> I might be wrong but i think he means capp


Didn't see anything about rent caps, just benefit caps. It was quite specific and they carefully chose a Labour MP to make the point.


> Midlands Labour MP John Mann last night slammed the Mbuyamba family’s plight. He said: “Private landlords are making a killing from housing benefit payments and often don’t care at all about the standard of the property they rent out. For them, it is all about getting rich on taxpayers’ money. The Government should limit the amount of rent paid out in housing benefit. It should be a fair amount per property.
> 
> “There’s no way that nearly £1,000-a-month is a fair market rent for a property in such a poor condition. It’s criminal.”
> 
> ...


----------



## panpete (Jan 27, 2014)

Why are channel 4 not making episode 4 available to online viewers, last weeks episode is the latest one.
Normally i can watch it on catch up tv, but its nearly twenty to eleven and nothing.


----------



## fishfinger (Jan 27, 2014)

panpete said:


> Why are channel 4 not making episode 4 available to online viewers, last weeks episode is the latest one.
> Normally i can watch it on catch up tv, but its nearly twenty to eleven and nothing.


It's not been shown on 4seven yet 11:05pm


----------



## Dexter Deadwood (Jan 27, 2014)

panpete said:


> Why are channel 4 not making episode 4 available to online viewers, last weeks episode is the latest one.
> Normally i can watch it on catch up tv, but its nearly twenty to eleven and nothing.



It's on again at 23:05 hrs
http://www.channel4.com/tv-listings


----------



## Awesome Wells (Jan 28, 2014)

_angel_ said:


> Didn't see anything about rent caps, just benefit caps. It was quite specific and they carefully chose a Labour MP to make the point.


This has really upset me. I canno imagine how unpleasant it must be to live like that - and in modern day Britain ffs. Kids sleeping in houses so cold they go to be fully clothed?the weather has recently turned nasty again as well. FFS there must be something we can do.


----------



## ddraig (Jan 28, 2014)

channel 5 apparently sniffing about Newport
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/benefits-street-tv-producers-target-6593218


> Hairdresser Bruno Virienzo of Bettws, Newport, had leaflets dropped off at his business.
> 
> “It is tarring everyone with the same brush and that is why the leaflets are in the bin,” the 63-year-old said.
> “I thought why come to Bettws in the first place?” he said.
> ...


----------



## Greebo (Jan 28, 2014)

ddraig said:


> channel 5 apparently sniffing about Newport
> http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/benefits-street-tv-producers-target-6593218


Loved one of the comments below the article, about how somebody should do a tax avoidance street programme.


----------



## peterkro (Jan 28, 2014)

It's up on 4od now.


----------



## Gingerman (Jan 28, 2014)

ddraig said:


> channel 5 apparently sniffing about Newport
> http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/benefits-street-tv-producers-target-6593218


Im sure with it being Daily Star and Express owning Dirty Dick Desmond's Channel 5 it'll be done in a sensitive non-sensationalist non-exploitative way....


----------



## SLK (Jan 29, 2014)

butchersapron said:


> That's right little miss flimsier - ignore the wider point about the role the use of terms like chav by people like wells over the last decade played in helping to create the climate where the guns can be turned on ever more people for ever less reasons, the softening up that 'chav-mania' produced in many by normalising the rhetorical and consequently social and political marginalisation and dehumanisation of  certain groups and how this has played right into the hands of the neo-liberals and austerity boosters (of all party political stripes and none) in favour of a misjudged late night attempted barb. Good move.



Do you realise how ridiculous this reads?

Maybe you think you're changing the world, internet page by internet page.

Back on ignore because you're fucking boring.


----------



## laptop (Jan 29, 2014)

SLK said:


> Do you realise how ridiculous this reads?
> 
> Maybe you think you're changing the world, internet page by internet page.
> 
> Back on ignore because you're fucking boring.



Whereas... what do you think you're doing? Do you think?


----------



## Belushi (Jan 29, 2014)

Interesting article on the history of James Turner Street http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/29/benefits-street-a-spiral-of-decline


----------



## teqniq (Feb 3, 2014)

Spoof in the graun

Bonus St


----------



## jusali (Feb 3, 2014)

Anyone see the shit fest that was the great benefit debate on Channel 5?


----------



## weepiper (Feb 3, 2014)

watching it on +1 now.


----------



## Numbers (Feb 3, 2014)

jusali said:


> Anyone see the shit fest that was the great benefit debate on Channel 5?


Katie Hopkins is a complete cretin.


----------



## eatmorecheese (Feb 3, 2014)

It's on in the background on +1 now. It's truly, truly ghastly. Livingstone, Chalke... Hopkins? Jeremy Kyle style bellow fest. Welfare beef as entertainment. Like having sewage sluicing into the living room.


----------



## moomoo (Feb 3, 2014)

Has benefit street finished now?


----------



## Ax^ (Feb 3, 2014)

was it on tonight?


----------



## Treacle Toes (Feb 3, 2014)

Numbers said:


> Katie Hopkins is a complete cretin.





eatmorecheese said:


> It's on in the background on +1 now. It's truly, truly ghastly. Livingstone, Chalke... Hopkins? Jeremy Kyle style bellow fest. Welfare beef as entertainment. Like having sewage sluicing into the living room.




I had thought about caving in to watch the debate...don't think I will bother now.  Serves me right for being optimistic.


----------



## Gingerman (Feb 3, 2014)

jusali said:


> Anyone see the shit fest that was the great benefit debate on Channel 5?


What would anyone expect from a channel owned by  Daily Express owning,right wing smut merchant Dirty Dick Desmond.....an intelligent,well informed discussion ?


----------



## Bakunin (Feb 3, 2014)

Gingerman said:


> What would anyone expect from a channel owned by  Daily Express owning,right wing smut merchant Dirty Dick Desmond.....an intelligent,well informed discussion ?



No, especially not after they booked campaigner Sue Marsh then booted her off the panel two hours before the start and replaced her with Katie Hopkins.


----------



## Ax^ (Feb 3, 2014)

*shakes head at john major*

Seriously you tapped that..

I'd expect her to eat me the moment it was finished..


always was a horrible example of the human race


----------



## Gingerman (Feb 3, 2014)

Bakunin said:


> No, especially not after they booked campaigner Sue Marsh then booted her off the panel two hours before the start and replaced her with Katie Hopkins.


 Hopkins is one of those people whos appearence on telly makes me grab the remote to change the channel,an instant channel changer if you like....


----------



## weepiper (Feb 3, 2014)

It was actually not as bad as I was expecting. Hopkins and Currie were predictably vile but got a very hostile reaction from the audience and Jack Monroe got the biggest cheer of the show, and even Matthew Wright was a lot more balanced than I'd have expected. It's crap that Sue Marsh got dropped at the last minute though.


----------



## Bakunin (Feb 3, 2014)

weepiper said:


> It's crap that Sue Marsh got dropped at the last minute though.



It might have been better if the venue had been properly accessible to disabled people. Apparently it wasn't.


----------



## smmudge (Feb 3, 2014)

It says on her wiki page that katie hopkins became a bit of a hate figure. is this not true anymore? are there actually normal people who agree with her?


it just seems a bit weird to me that someone wanted to book a 'hate figure'


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 3, 2014)

rentagobshite ennit


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 4, 2014)

Numbers said:


> Katie Hopkins is a complete cretin.


The only airtime I'll give that cunt is to watch her funeral and fucking cheer before hiring a Taoist monk to make sure she stays dead.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 4, 2014)

Ax^ said:


> *shakes head at john major*
> 
> Seriously you tapped that..
> 
> ...


Also the same evil cow that reduced a female caller to tears on national radio for daring to be poor while making sure the family pet didn't starve.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 4, 2014)

weepiper said:


> It was actually not as bad as I was expecting. Hopkins and Currie were predictably vile but got a very hostile reaction from the audience and Jack Monroe got the biggest cheer of the show, and even Matthew Wright was a lot more balanced than I'd have expected. It's crap that Sue Marsh got dropped at the last minute though.


Matthew Wright?

Oh dear!


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Feb 4, 2014)

I for one welcome the presence of disgusting, worthless cunts like Hopkins amongst the ruling class. These sort of pantomime villains do the left's propaganda for us.


----------



## RedDragon (Feb 4, 2014)

What got my goat about Currie was her sneering attitude towards food-banks when she spent a sizeable part of her career with her snout in the heavely subsidised Commons restaurants.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 4, 2014)

God damn. I'm angry now, because I feel a compulsion to watch this awful debate. FFS!


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 4, 2014)

RedDragon said:


> What got my goat about Currie was her sneering attitude towards food-banks when she spent a sizeable part of her career with her snout in the heavely subsidised Commons restaurants.


She's another one that could do with actually visiting such a place and engaging with the people there. But of course that's beneath her.


----------



## Gingerman (Feb 4, 2014)

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-big-benefits-row.html


----------



## Gingerman (Feb 4, 2014)

RedDragon said:


> What got my goat about Currie was her sneering attitude towards food-banks when she spent a sizeable part of her career with her snout in the heavely subsidised Commons restaurants.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/edwina-currie-happy-demonise-food-3098755#.UvEeV2J_v_E.


----------



## Gingerman (Feb 4, 2014)

RedDragon said:


> What got my goat about Currie was her sneering attitude towards food-banks when she spent a sizeable part of her career with her snout in the heavely subsidised Commons restaurants.


Seen as she was fucked by a Tory PM you'd think she'd have a bit more empathy with people getting fucked by this Tory government


----------



## ElizabethofYork (Feb 4, 2014)

Gingerman said:


> Hopkins is one of those people whos appearence on telly makes me grab the remote to change the channel,an instant channel changer if you like....


----------



## ddraig (Feb 4, 2014)

spoilers please! my eyes


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 4, 2014)

_"with every step you make yourself more my servant!"_


----------



## Obnoxiousness (Feb 4, 2014)

ElizabethofYork said:


>


If the Tories had a pirate ship, she would be the figurehead.


----------



## Gingerman (Feb 4, 2014)

ElizabethofYork said:


>


 Mind Bleach...Mind Bleach !!!!!!!!!!


----------



## SovietArmy (Feb 4, 2014)

Gingerman said:


> Mind Bleach...Mind Bleach !!!!!!!!!!


I look better than her hahaha.


----------



## William of Walworth (Feb 4, 2014)

moomoo said:


> Has benefit street finished now?




Apols if I've missed anyone's answer to this, but I saw a trailer after C4 news this evening -- I believe the last episode will be next Monday (9th Feb) with some sort of C4 'debate' to follow.


----------



## RubyBlue (Feb 4, 2014)

William of Walworth said:


> Apols if I've missed anyone's answer to this, but I saw a trailer after C4 news this evening -- I believe the last episode will be next Monday (9th Feb) with some sort of C4 'debate' to follow.



The 'discussion' was last night but it seems the repeat tonight was cut by 30 minutes?  When / wil an uncut version be shown?  I would like to see this.


----------



## Bakunin (Feb 4, 2014)

ElizabethofYork said:


>


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 4, 2014)

so channel 4 also had a debate?


----------



## ElizabethofYork (Feb 4, 2014)

ElizabethofYork said:


>



People get the face they deserve.


----------



## nino_savatte (Feb 5, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> so channel 4 also had a debate?


They are having a 'debate' after they show the last episode of Benefit Street. I expect it will be just as bad as C5's effort, only it will probably be moderated by Krishnan Guru Murthy.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 5, 2014)

nino_savatte said:


> They are having a 'debate' after they show the last episode of Benefit Street. I expect it will be just as bad as C5's effort, only it will probably be moderated by Krishnan Guru Murthy.


Do we know who's participating?


----------



## nino_savatte (Feb 5, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Do we know who's participating?


Not yet.


----------



## treelover (Feb 5, 2014)

ddraig said:


> channel 5 apparently sniffing about Newport
> http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/benefits-street-tv-producers-target-6593218




There was nothing more predictable than after the 'success' of B/S, there would be a gadarene rush to replicate it by other channels, especially Ch5, where the pornographer Desmond seems to have a massive downer on the unemployed/claimants, etc.

btw, there was a programme on BBC 4, These Four Walls' which treated the issues of poverty and inequality in a serious empathathic way, bit like 'Poor Kids'

but I suspect no one watched it.


----------



## treelover (Feb 5, 2014)

teqniq said:


> Spoof in the graun
> 
> Bonus St




should try and make that go viral


"Richie has just had a new wife delivered from Harrods"


----------



## Virtual Blue (Feb 5, 2014)

ElizabethofYork said:


> People get the face they deserve.



i can't believe she is younger than me.


----------



## treelover (Feb 5, 2014)

http://www.wewilldrivethemtotheairport.co.uk/


Another counter Benefits St site, sort of.


----------



## treelover (Feb 5, 2014)

Rutita1 said:


> I had thought about caving in to watch the debate...don't think I will bother now.  Serves me right for being optimistic.




I watched it, despite not watching B/S, although it was loud and rumbustious, there were very good points made, including some you would never hear on the BBC, Annabel Giles really gave it to Edwina Currie, and described what living on benefits is like(she has gone from Bermudan Holiday home to Child Support) a Girl called Jack(Monroe) who got a big cheer, told it like it is and Matthew Wright couldn't stop repeating the truism that tax evasion is much more costly than benefit fraud, etc.


----------



## teqniq (Feb 5, 2014)

Speaking of Jack Monroe here is a riposte to Currie on her blog


----------



## treelover (Feb 5, 2014)

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/big-benefits-row-live-night-3110786

FSF getting exasperated with Hopkins...


----------



## treelover (Feb 5, 2014)

Jack was visibly shaken by Currie's remarks, understandable but she should harden up a bit.


----------



## peterkro (Feb 5, 2014)

treelover said:


> Jack was visibly shaken by Currie's remarks, understandable but she should harden up a bit.


Harden up a bit? She should have grabbed her by the throat and choked the life out of her.


----------



## treelover (Feb 5, 2014)

peterkro said:


> Harden up a bit? She should have grabbed her by the throat and choked the life out of her.




I( meant she has to expect these sort of personal attacks(Curries was gross, bringing up her late grandfathers 'affluence') she is tough obviously, but very emotional which doesn't always translate well on TV, even though it can be endearing.

Using the F word on prime time TV won't go down well with Sainsburys sadly.

update, I didn't realise her granddad had just died, what a cow Currie is.


----------



## ddraig (Feb 5, 2014)

when are you next on tv?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 6, 2014)

treelover said:


> Jack was visibly shaken by Currie's remarks, understandable but she should harden up a bit.


Jack has said she isn' terribly comfortable in hat kind of environment. By contrast Edwina loves the attention and is media savvy. Perhapps looking understandably vulnerable will actually serve for the best. Besides who wouldn't feel under pressure with that evil shitbag bearing down on them probably ranting right in your face on the set. 

Personally I'd have spat in her fucking face and wished her to hell.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 6, 2014)

treelover said:


> I( meant she has to expect these sort of personal attacks(Curries was gross, bringing up her late grandfathers 'affluence') she is tough obviously, but very emotional which doesn't always translate well on TV, even though it can be endearing.
> 
> Using the F word on prime time TV won't go down well with Sainsburys sadly.
> 
> update, I didn't realise her granddad had just died, what a cow Currie is.


Just died?

FFS. That is the fucking pits. what a disgusting piece of shit you are Currie.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 7, 2014)

The on demand version of that show had been heavily edited.I don't even recognise those screenshots, jack was seated on the other side of the stage!


----------



## sim667 (Feb 9, 2014)

I'm watching the benefits row now. Jeez Katie Hopkins is an odious cunt.


----------



## Mrs Miggins (Feb 9, 2014)

sim667 said:


> I'm watching the benefits row now. Jeez Katie Hopkins is an odious cunt.


 
I've been vaguely aware of what Katie Hopkins has been up to lately but have just watched her on this show. I can't believe that she actually believes what she's saying. Surely it must be some sort of pose to get herself on the telly? Nobody could seriously think and behave like that. Could they?


----------



## sim667 (Feb 9, 2014)

Mrs Miggins said:


> I've been vaguely aware of what Katie Hopkins has been up to lately but have just watched her on this show. I can't believe that she actually believes what she's saying. Surely it must be some sort of pose to get herself on the telly? Nobody could seriously think and behave like that. Could they?



I don't think so, she's just essentially a tv troll.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 10, 2014)

Mrs Miggins said:


> I've been vaguely aware of what Katie Hopkins has been up to lately but have just watched her on this show. I can't believe that she actually believes what she's saying. Surely it must be some sort of pose to get herself on the telly? Nobody could seriously think and behave like that. Could they?


She's a wannabe tory. She says these things a) because she gets paid and b) because she's trying desperately to impress an elite of white privileged old men, ironic given her previous guise as a strong working female, happy to flaunt her sexuality. She wants to be Edwina Currie and I bet she'd even fuck Cameron if she thought it would help her 'career'. She's already tried, and failed, to be a politician. She's already tried, and failed, to be a business person. IIRC her career pre-Apprentice was in 'past' casting at the Metoffice (ie predicting yesterdays weather or some bollocks).

Noone takes her seriously. The mask slipped on this show and everyone rounded on her. As a result her shelf life is most seriously going to be curtailed and in a few years she will be an increasingly shrill and marginalised non entity or a celeb BB/IACGMOOH! candidate. 

Edwina Currie is the one we need to be aware of. She's the real danger out of the two on that 'programme'.


----------



## Mrs Miggins (Feb 10, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Edwina Currie is the one we need to be aware of. She's the real danger out of the two on that 'programme'.


 
She came across as a throughly nasty piece of work as well.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 10, 2014)

Mrs Miggins said:


> She came across as a throughly nasty piece of work as well.


But what made her more dangerous is how disingenuous she was, agreeing that the tax avoidance need to be tackled, when the case was made that more is lost thorugh fraud at the top. It's just sugar coating for her real attitude which was revealed when she tore that young girl to pieces. She just sat there "get a job" over and over winding the girl up who responded trying to explain what she was doing - made to feel she had to justify herself to a washed up old hag who's claim to fame, other than pocketing thousands off the state as a (failed) MP, was having an affair with a married man.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 10, 2014)

bTW I don't see any listing for a debate about benefits on C4 tonight?


----------



## D'wards (Feb 10, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> bTW I don't see any listing for a debate about benefits on C4 tonight?


Its in the Guardian Guide listings, but appears to have been replaced for some reason.

In fact, in the Guide it states tonight's is last in the series, and i remember them saying that a couple of weeks ago when the last one was on, but before this they said it was the penultimate one. I reckon that due to it's popularity they've cobbled together another one from the stuff on the cutting room floor, and moved the debate until next week.


----------



## purenarcotic (Feb 10, 2014)

Tonight's was meant to be the last one but next week they're going back to the residents to ask them how they feel about the reaction to the show, with a live debate afterwards.


----------



## Lorca (Feb 12, 2014)

'White Dee' wants to stand as an independent MP in Ladywood, in order to 'protest against the government giving too much Benefits to the unemployed!'

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/benefits-street-star-white-dee-6702546


----------



## J Ed (Feb 12, 2014)

Jesus Christ


----------



## weepiper (Feb 12, 2014)

Stockholm Syndrome.


----------



## Treacle Toes (Feb 12, 2014)

WTAF?


----------



## eatmorecheese (Feb 12, 2014)

I smell a follow-up documentary in the offing... which maybe is the point


----------



## purenarcotic (Feb 12, 2014)

That makes no sense whatsoever. WTF


----------



## seventh bullet (Feb 12, 2014)

weepiper said:


> Stockholm Syndrome.



Deserving/Undeserving, the criteria set by scum from on high.  And that piece of shit Kwarteng is the one who reckons we're all lazy (well, not people like him obviously) and should be grafting like super-exploited factory workers in Asia.


----------



## Kidda (Feb 12, 2014)

Lorca said:


> 'White Dee' wants to stand as an independent MP in Ladywood, in order to 'protest against the government giving too much Benefits to the unemployed!'
> 
> http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/benefits-street-star-white-dee-6702546



Source: Birmingham Mail.


----------



## treelover (Feb 13, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> She's a wannabe tory. She says these things a) because she gets paid and b) because she's trying desperately to impress an elite of white privileged old men, ironic given her previous guise as a strong working female, happy to flaunt her sexuality. She wants to be Edwina Currie and I bet she'd even fuck Cameron if she thought it would help her 'career'. She's already tried, and failed, to be a politician. She's already tried, and failed, to be a business person. IIRC her career pre-Apprentice was in 'past' casting at the Metoffice (ie predicting yesterdays weather or some bollocks).
> 
> Noone takes her seriously. The mask slipped on this show and everyone rounded on her. As a result her shelf life is most seriously going to be curtailed and in a few years she will be an increasingly shrill and marginalised non entity or a celeb BB/IACGMOOH! candidate.
> 
> Edwina Currie is the one we need to be aware of. She's the real danger out of the two on that 'programme'.




Yes, the media still love her, she did an authored piece on Food Banks for the Daily Politics, this week


----------



## treelover (Feb 13, 2014)

Kidda said:


> Source: Birmingham Mail.




just saw that, interesting.


----------



## treelover (Feb 13, 2014)

> TV executives must pay for wardens to protect Benefits Street, local MP demands
> 
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...protect-Benefits-Street-local-MP-demands.html



meanwhile


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 13, 2014)

treelover said:


> Yes, the media still love her, she did an authored piece on Food Banks for the Daily Politics, this week


I'm sure it was well informed, from her extensive experience of such places.

Of course if she has gone to visit them she'd use that other tactic right wing cunts use where they say 'oh the people coming here are ok - its them others that are scrounging'

She isn't worth a drop of fiery piss.


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Feb 13, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Jack has said she isn' terribly comfortable in hat kind of environment. By contrast Edwina loves the attention and is media savvy. Perhapps looking understandably vulnerable will actually serve for the best. Besides who wouldn't feel under pressure with that evil shitbag bearing down on them probably ranting right in your face on the set.
> 
> Personally I'd have spat in her fucking face and wished her to hell.



Matthew Wright did a pretty poor job of hosting that 'debate'. He stood back and let Curry keep interpreting Jack with ad hominem abuse. The odious Hopkins deserved what she got though - she can give as good as she gets.


----------



## RedDragon (Feb 13, 2014)

White Dee speaks


----------



## monsterbunny (Feb 13, 2014)

Meanwhile Black Dee appears in court charged with possession of crack, heroin, cannabis and several rounds of .38 ammo.  

Oh dear.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 13, 2014)

RedDragon said:


> White Dee speaks



If that's Julie Brewer you can shove the clip where the Sun don't shine, and I don't mean Liverpool!


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 13, 2014)

Jeff Robinson said:


> Matthew Wright did a pretty poor job of hosting that 'debate'. He stood back and let Curry keep interpreting Jack with ad hominem abuse. The odious Hopkins deserved what she got though - she can give as good as she gets.


'Wrighty' is a twat that long ago sold out to Dirty Desmond. Initially his show had more credibility; James O Brien was a regular panellist (it was him, Kate Silverton and 'Wrighty'). Then they changed the format to a more sensationalist approach with different pannellist coming and going.


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Feb 17, 2014)

They are 'debating' this now on c4...


----------



## purenarcotic (Feb 17, 2014)

First rage of the debate: 'it doesn't look like depression to me' - for fuck's sake.  This is how to resolve the stigma of mental illness.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 17, 2014)

eventually love productions will just start doing Great British Poor Off where teams of Hugh Fernley Whittingstals clones compete with an army of Blumenthal clones to produce a giant sausag roll where the meat is all benefit claimants and the pastry is made from what sloughed off of the producers soul


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

Richard Bacon?

Seriously?

Douglass Murray 

Seriously?

Alison Pearson?

Seriously?

I'm watching this

Seriously?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

John Bird is a cunt who exploits the homeless with this fucking newspaper. As far as I'm concerned he can go to hell.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 17, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Richard Bacon?
> 
> Seriously?
> 
> ...


You seem obsessed by these sort of people. Posting endlessly about them and little else. You help make them.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

Mike fucking Penning?

Rotting zombies this is going to go fucking shit and hard.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

I'm so fucking sick of this 'welfare destroys lives'. Straught out of the unum playbook.


----------



## Jeff Robinson (Feb 17, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> John Bird is a cunt who exploits the homeless with this fucking newspaper. As far as I'm concerned he can go to hell.



Aye, that cunt's and a right fucking cunt.


----------



## alpha slappa (Feb 17, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> John Bird is a cunt who exploits the homeless with this fucking newspaper.



How so?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

I think you're wrong Chris: the best route out of poverty is being born into the right social strata.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

Jeff Robinson said:


> Aye, that cunt's and a right fucking cunt.


and he's a cunt.

Actually I think there's something wrong with him. His attitude's odd. Remember that homeless programme with celebrities sleeping rough and the few that had a right go at him?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

This fucking plumber cunt? FFS!

What's the fucking point anymore! Stupid cockney twat was told the facts when he appeared on the BBC the other week. He wasn't interested then. But he's a rich 'self made' entrrepreneur prick so we should all absase ourselves at his annointed plates of meat.


----------



## DotCommunist (Feb 17, 2014)

alpha slappa said:


> How so?




proud self assesed working class tory


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 17, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> This fucking plumber cunt? FFS!
> 
> What's the fucking point anymore! Stupid cockney twat was told the facts when he appeared on the BBC the other week. He wasn't interested then. But he's a rich 'self made' entrrepreneur prick so we should all absase ourselves at his annointed plates of meat.


Been to any badaca stuff recently you moaning knob? Have you fuck.


----------



## peterkro (Feb 17, 2014)

In a program with more than its fair share of cunts,it's the one with the yellow watch I'd joyfully kick to fucking death.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

Can i not go one FUCKING week without seeing Fraser FUCKING Nelson on my TV? He's more ubiquitous than rain right now!


----------



## alpha slappa (Feb 17, 2014)

DotCommunist said:


> proud self assesed working class tory



Fair enough.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

Look at this media cunt from Channel 4. Coked up stubble wearing shitbag. Go fuck yourself buddy.


----------



## brogdale (Feb 17, 2014)

where did telegraph woman go?


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

alpha slappa said:


> How so?


They have to buy the stock; if they dont' sell they are fucked.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

This is a joke. Of course they won't discuss the problem caused by a Tory overclass waging class war and controlling all the resources, land and money.


----------



## tufty79 (Feb 17, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> Look at this media cunt from Channel 4. Coked up stubble wearing shitbag. Go fuck yourself buddy.


Stop watching. for the sake of your blood pressure/sanity


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 17, 2014)

Or go to badaca meetings/action and stop going on about _chavs and worthless people ruining your life everywhere you go._


----------



## purenarcotic (Feb 17, 2014)

Of course, food stamps will solve everything!


----------



## eatmorecheese (Feb 17, 2014)

This and that other bollocks on channel 5. Trundling out the hacks, inequality as entertainment. Christ it's dark.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

purenarcotic said:


> Of course, food stamps will solve everything!


Best thing is, it costs nothing to administer and produce! 

Oh wait.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

What a predictable waste of effort this show is.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

House building and renewable energy are pie in the sky according to Mike Penning.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

There's got to be a better place for discussion about this issues on TV. This can't be the best we can manage. FFS.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 17, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> What a predictable waste of effort this show is.


Well watched!


----------



## brogdale (Feb 17, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> There's got to be a better place for discussion about this issues on TV. This can't be the best we can manage. FFS.


 Bit tricky when it was a tv show on tv about a tv show on tv


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 17, 2014)

That he watched knowing full well that it a follow on from a program that he had watched and shouted the same shit at.


----------



## twentythreedom (Feb 17, 2014)

Bacon was a disaster, no fucking clue what he was doing, the 'discussion' stuff was just chaos and shouting. The Tories etc got away far too easy in that, could've been ripped to pieces.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

There's a chance I may have overracted watching that show.


----------



## brogdale (Feb 17, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> There's a chance I may have overracted watching that show.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 17, 2014)

twentythreedom said:


> Bacon was a disaster, no fucking clue what he was doing, the 'discussion' stuff was just chaos and shouting. The Tories etc got away far too easy in that, could've been ripped to pieces.


Especially as Penning is the disability minister - no mention or discussion of the horror being heaped on the disabled. Instead a free discussion allows people to air stupid opinions like that guy who wanted benefits cut entirely. What's the point? That's not a debate that's just The Stupid Hour with Richard Bacon.

And he loves the sound of his own voice way too much.


----------



## angusmcfangus (Feb 17, 2014)

brogdale said:


> where did telegraph woman go?


Myself and the wife were trying to work that one out ourselves.


----------



## treelover (Feb 18, 2014)

Haven't seen either of them, may watch on demand, the Ch4 sounds even worse than Wrighty's effort on 5


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 18, 2014)

angusmcfangus said:


> Myself and the wife were trying to work that one out ourselves.


She probably slithered off to write a scathing piece about owen jones/the left/scroungers before the print deadline.

They can dish it out, but they can't take it.


----------



## Part 2 (Feb 18, 2014)

twentythreedom said:


> Bacon was a disaster, no fucking clue what he was doing, the 'discussion' stuff was just chaos and shouting. The Tories etc got away far too easy in that, could've been ripped to pieces.



In which case it went completely to plan. The moment anyone tried to introduce the real issues he said "Oh I think that's going off topic" and walked away.


----------



## The39thStep (Feb 18, 2014)

I bet labour would have loved to have had someone like Mike Penning (who despite giving the impression that he was nothing to do with the government) came out of the debate better than Chris Bryant.



I used to have some time for Richard Bacon but he was both irritating and inept as presenter/ host.


----------



## The39thStep (Feb 18, 2014)

Chip Barm said:


> In which case it went completely to plan. The moment anyone tried to introduce the real issues he said "Oh I think that's going off topic" and walked away.



Very confusing and sprawling debate IMO. 
There were loads of issues introduced , what were the real ones?


----------



## Part 2 (Feb 18, 2014)

The39thStep said:


> Very confusing and sprawling debate IMO.
> There were loads of issues introduced , what were the real ones?



I was watching over the top of the laptop after about 20 minutes but the point he said that was when someone started talking about low minimum wages and tax breaks for businesses I think.


----------



## Doctor Carrot (Feb 18, 2014)

treelover said:


> Haven't seen either of them, may watch on demand, the Ch4 sounds even worse than Wrighty's effort on 5



I really wouldn't bother if I were you. It was the usual shouty bollocks you get on TV 'debates' none of the actual important issues were raised. Perhaps I'm asking too much for there to be a mention of 'army of unemployed to keep downward pressure on wages and conditions?' Asking too much to mention that the whole ESA fiasco is nothing more than a money spinner for private companies and that it ignores the advice of actual doctors? Asking too much that the bedroom tax and single occupancy rules has royally fucked people over? Asking too much that any benefits received are a pittance, so much so they don't even cover the costs of looking for work/getting to a job centre to sign on? It was even asking too much for the words 'neo liberalism' or even 'capitalism' to be mentioned at all FFS.

No solutions offered at all. The only even vague whiff of something passing as helping the situation was 'build more houses' mentioned by Owen Jones, and that is seriously stretching it. 

The commentariat can fuck themselves.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 18, 2014)

The39thStep said:


> I bet labour would have loved to have had someone like Mike Penning (who despite giving the impression that he was nothing to do with the government) came out of the debate better than Chris Bryant.
> 
> 
> 
> I used to have some time for Richard Bacon but he was both irritating and inept as presenter/ host.


The only reason Bryant struggled, aside from seeming permanently antagonistic, is that he was constantly heckled.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 18, 2014)

I bet Bacon's a proper little Tory.


----------



## butchersapron (Feb 18, 2014)

Oh god here we go again.


----------



## The39thStep (Feb 18, 2014)

Awesome Wells said:


> The only reason Bryant struggled, aside from seeming permanently antagonistic, is that he was constantly heckled.



Isn't that normally just wear and tear for a politician? Who was heckling him? I got the distinct impression that he couldn't engage with the actual residents.


----------



## Awesome Wells (Feb 18, 2014)

The39thStep said:


> Isn't that normally just wear and tear for a politician? Who was heckling him? I got the distinct impression that he couldn't engage with the actual residents.


Neither he nor Penning were engaging, and with Bacon's constant interruptions he had littl echance to expand on any point he tried to make. You could tell he found it fustrating.

I'm not here to make excuses for him, Labour are just as bereft as the tories.


----------



## treelover (Feb 20, 2014)

Just watched the repeat of the The Big Immigration Row and listened as a good proportion of the audience endorsed loudly Kelvin Mckenzie's opinion that many people who are critical of immigration "don't put in the work that immigrants do and for such low wages", a ringing endorsement of neo-liberal policy and the 'lazy locals versus hard working immigrants' meme, many of the audience clapping were from the liberal wing of public opinion.

oh, and failed community relations expert Lee Jasper walked off the set,

for two minutes...


----------



## Corax (May 2, 2014)

Apparently they're now filming a sequel on Derby Road in Southampton - titled "Immigration Street". 

The expected soundbites from councillors about it being unwelcome, and some outraged stories in the local rag about how residents have been "bribed" by having had pizzas bought for them - and slightly weirdly - their laundry paid for.


----------



## goldenecitrone (May 2, 2014)

Corax said:


> Apparently they're now filming a sequel on Derby Road in Southampton - titled "Immigration Street".
> 
> The expected soundbites from councillors about it being unwelcome, and some outraged stories in the local rag about how residents have been "bribed" by having had pizzas bought for them - and slightly weirdly - their laundry paid for.



The coalition got Benefit Street. Now UKIP are getting Immigration Street. What will Labour get? Inequality Street?


----------



## Citizen66 (May 21, 2014)

Love Productions turn up in Teesside and get pelted with eggs.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/t...?ref=BreakingNewsTeesside&utm_medium=facebook


----------



## Awesome Wells (May 22, 2014)

But...houses prices would have gone up! 

What a weird claim.


----------



## SpookyFrank (May 23, 2014)

goldenecitrone said:


> The coalition got Benefit Street. Now UKIP are getting Immigration Street. What will Labour get? Inequality Street?



I just got that, well done.


----------



## SpookyFrank (Aug 7, 2014)

Citizen66 said:


> Love Productions turn up in Teesside and get pelted with eggs.
> 
> http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/t...?ref=BreakingNewsTeesside&utm_medium=facebook



Another egging in Southampton this week 

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/11394985.Immigration_Street_TV_crew_pelted_with_eggs/



> A Channel 4 spokesman said no-one was hurt in the incident.
> 
> She added: “We intend to continue to film with residents who are very happy to share their experience of living in Derby Road.



Apart from the residents who had a big public meeting and unanimously decided that Love productions and all their shitty machinations could fuck off.



> Campaigners urging the firm to drop the programme and “go home” and were backed by local councillors and MPs.



'Go home' is a nice touch


----------



## Puddy_Tat (Aug 7, 2014)

SpookyFrank said:


> 'Go home' is a nice touch



maybe the residents should say it with a van


----------



## scum hater (May 12, 2015)

editor said:


> Anyone see this tonight?
> 
> I thought it was pretty interesting stuff. There was some real community spirit on the street:
> http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefits-street
> ...


----------



## scum hater (May 12, 2015)

editor said:


> Anyone see this tonight?
> 
> I thought it was pretty interesting stuff. There was some real community spirit on the street:
> http://www.channel4.com/programmes/benefits-street
> ...


Community spirit? ?? Supplying drugs to society scum yes real nice


----------



## editor (May 12, 2015)

scum hater said:


> Community spirit? ?? Supplying drugs to society scum yes real nice


Oh dear.


----------



## Libertad (May 12, 2015)

Welcome scum hater You'll be right at home here, stick around.


----------



## DotCommunist (May 12, 2015)

I hope he works hard, I need that tax money for my massive tele and all them scratchcards etc


----------



## ViolentPanda (May 12, 2015)

DotCommunist said:


> I hope he works hard, I need that tax money for my massive tele and all them scratchcards etc



What, flimsier? Nah, he's a lazy cunt.


----------

