Benefits street

[wiltshire builders]

Has anyone been watching this?
There's been a lot written about it in the press from calls for benefits to be stopped to accusations of misrepresentation of a section of society.

Chanel 4 claim it's an insight into the daily life of the people of James Turner street and their tight knit community.
The title suggests otherwise.
Much like their other flagship shows, embarrassing bodies and Big fat gypsy thieving b*stards..... Or whatever it was called.

So is this a simple fly on the wall documentary highlighting the plight of the lower classes and their community spirit in the face of adversity or yet another way of poking fun at a minority group in order to chase ratings?

[Brizzer]

yea there so hard done by on that program my heart bleeds for them , and then them poor immigrants that are complaining about this country.




Gets my blood boiling, this country's a fecking pushover in my opinion.

[pilninggas]

I vote we all pay 90% income tax so these poor victims of this nasty, fascist state can have a better standard of living. How dare we selfish taxpayers enjoy a better quality of life? Who do we think we are?

I notice that horrible little gobsh*te Owen Jones is loving it - he'd hate to see a country where people were empowered to work and look after their own. Food vouchers for those on benefits. Long term reduction in payments. Let's give these people their lives back, and move them back into work, just like the street cleaner on the show suggested.

Makes my piss boil.

[Grey haired bloke]

While sitting on the fence about this particular programme, I thought of this, and Wiltshire Builders has already got there,
any TV programme can be filmed and edited to show what the editors and programme makers would like to show the viewers, the ratings are what the programmes are aimed at, with a view to, was this project successful ?, in this case it would seem it was simply by how many people are talking about it after each edition has been shown, this in turn will go the majority of the way for the production team to have their next production/ project funded by an outside company thus reducing any financial risk to the production team should that project fail.
It's not what you see on the TV, it's what goes on behind the scenes that should be given some thought, and yes, I have had some experience of how some of the programmes that are shown on TV are put together.

[Swanny]

Haven't watched tele for years, they are called programs for a reason

[WR6133]

We do have a benefit culture problem in this country though I doubt shows like this have much if any part in creating sensible debate to fix that issue. If anything they cause enough division and posturing they likely harm the chances of ever having any sensible debate.

[Nelly]

Sadly, although the subject could be an interesting programme, it has been manhandled to the extreme to gain exactly what C4 wanted. Exposure.
As usual with this type of programme, selective presentation and some very clever editing has brought the residents of this show some degree of notoriety. Being filmed over the course of a year it becomes obvious that the scene selection is edited to the most damaging effect. Short hair, long hair then quickly back to short.! Getting a true reflection of a "social" group over the course of a year in 5 hours is a big ask! Having said that i guess the director had quite a say in explaining what he wanted the "stars" to say. I figure there was quite a lot of prompting going on. I.E, I would imaging that getting someone to say "I only have 6p to my name" whilst holding a pack of Benson & hedges and a can of Special Brew would have been deemed a beaut of a line to come out with

Ive no doubt that C4 knew exactly what they wanted to achieve when making this programme.

[Goldie]

Sadly, although the subject could be an interesting programme, it has been manhandled to the extreme to gain exactly what C4 wanted. Exposure.
As usual with this type of programme, selective presentation and some very clever editing has brought the residents of this show some degree of notoriety. Being filmed over the course of a year it becomes obvious that the scene selection is edited to the most damaging effect. Short hair, long hair then quickly back to short.! Getting a true reflection of a "social" group over the course of a year in 5 hours is a big ask! Having said that i guess the director had quite a say in explaining what he wanted the "stars" to say. I figure there was quite a lot of prompting going on. I.E, I would imaging that getting someone to say "I only have 6p to my name" whilst holding a pack of Benson & hedges and a can of Special Brew would have been deemed a beaut of a line to come out with

Ive no doubt that C4 knew exactly what they wanted to achieve when making this programme.

what he said.

[Trev]

Let's give these people their lives back, and move them back into work, just like the street cleaner on the show suggested.

Makes my piss boil.

Quite funny it took a guy from Africa to point out that our country couldn't afford to continue the structure and scale of the benefits system we have at the moment.

[Senna(Dan)]

Having watched similar programs to this previously, they all seem to be geared the same way.

The thing that gets me the most is that a few individuals I have met who are on benefits complain that they don't receive enough to live by day to day. The expression on their face when I asked about them giving up their pay tv, games consoles or massive television was priceless.

The main issue with these individuals is that they have never worked at all! Therefore British taxpayers paying for their way for the entireity of their life is downright criminal. A now very good friend of mine was caught in the vicious trap of his parents had never worked a day in their lives and had always been on benefits. He was struggling, but could afford to drink at the pub on a weekly basis.

He is a switched on cookie and had plenty of qualifications, but just didn't have the inclination to work because of his parents attitude towards work. A little nudge and he is now working full time and really enjoying the pleasures of being able to do things that he never thought he could do.