Has anyone else been watching this and what do you think?
I have no problem with people being on benefits that's not what gets me mad at this programme, it's how they are as parents, they are terrible! For example in tonight's episode what excuse did white dee have for not being one of the parents cheering on her daughter why she raced? Also, why don't any of them seem to clean their houses? It's not like they haven't got the time. I find it sickening, those poor kids don't stand a chance.
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Its the smoking and drinking around them
Her 5 year old knew what a spliff was and she let's a crack head methodone addict into their lives
The houses are a shit hole and their kids are out of control
Oops, been reading the Guardian again haven't I!
I've watch the whole series, last nights I thought the most depressing.
Its the children I feel soory for, their lives are broken before they've started.
Mission accomplished.
Why does a programme documenting people on benefits have to focus on such vile people when they could/should show the big picture?
Because it would be boring Sadie. These programmes are just entertainment.
Hundreds of thousands more in work but the jobless falling a fraction----more in work than ever before but still nearly 3 million on the dole-----------------work it out !! Dear Mr Brown said "2.5 million jobs British jobs for British workers (not Enoch Powell note) but over 70% went to NONE British workers.
Seen this week in a BrookStreet Employment exchange in Sutton "Immediate start electricians on building site must speak Polish"
Kids today have to compete with the whole work force of the EU and be prepared to take shit wages.
Labour have smashed the wage scale---but not going upwards going downwards with their deliberate mass immigration policy---Labour for the working classes LAUGHABLE.
Torys hate immigration---please do F__K Off its cheap Labour + bigger profit margins and one of the biggest lies spun ever . Tories LOVE immigration--they dont have to pay decent wages.
As for Benefit Street is tabloid TV but lets not say there arnt many streets like it out there.
Just because people are on benefits doesn't mean you can lie to them in order to get access to their home lives to shame them in front of the nation - although of course the arseholes that lied to them couldn't give a fuck anyway and are well pleased because the ratings are through the roof and their careers will be nicely boosted.
Regardless, the bottom line is that there have been places like this for years since de-industrialisation started in the 1970's and no government has been able - or willing - to do anything about it.
The only UK politician I have heard seriously address re-generation of these areas - and that does NOT mean just building new arts centres or re-locating government agencies there - was Michael Heseltine who argued ferociously that Thatcher was creating a time-bomb in the abandoned industrial areas. And no, this is not putting the blame solely on Thatcher.
There is a cycle of poverty in these parts of the world that is so hard to break, the only way to really break it is through educating the kids but how can you do that when so many of the parents are awful or absent?
Another great show on this issue - far better than this - was The Scheme, set in Kilmarnock, which looked at the lives of people living on a council estate.
It was amazing because one old retired bloke still had real genuine old-fashioned working-class pride in his council home and kept everything immaculate, he said that when he and his wife moved to their home in the 1960's that the area had full employment and people could walk out of one job and into another but said that, "Now there are generations of families here that have never even had a job."
Ultimately there have always been feckless, lazy people in society but its exacerbated now because so many of the low-skill manual labour jobs have gone either offshore or disappeared entirely because of automation so whole areas suffer from mass unemployment.
Even as a Labour man you have to start to question the role of the "Cradle to Grave" welfare state in the modern age, this system was set up by governments over 100 years ago - BUT ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT PEOPLE HAD TO PAY INTO THE SYSTEM IN ORDER TO TAKE OUT OF IT!
As things stand we have generations of people who have never paid into the system - and who probably never will - and yet they will be funded by the state from birth to death.
This is a serious problem and we have to wait and see if it is properly addressed.
Society should be ashamed that it allows such a disaster to occur. But it's the cheap option.
My niece would fit nicely into the street. Parents both teachers, she lost the plot while at school. Had mental health issues and was kicked out of school. Got pregnant with a decent but dumb kid. Moved on to a clever super nice heroin addict, with 2 more kids arriving. Like most in her circle drink and drugs got the better of her. She's been in court loads, mainly for shop lifting.
The heroin addict is dead. My sister fought social services and fortunately has ended up as the legal guardian of the kids.
My niece struggles along. She never got the support she needed then or now. She is bi-polar. She is still in the community because it's the cheap option. She should be in a mental hospital but it costs way to much.
I haven't watched the show but I'm sure mental issues, abuse, coming from similar backgrounds and a lack of opportunities has caused most of the residents to end up there. The spiral continues.
NB Not cleaning points to depression.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2536208/Truth-White-Dee-Channel-4s-Benefits-Street-stole-cash-poor-fund-lovers-crack-habit.html
It is this sort of thing that I find makes the programme more than anything, sad. there are people there who are struggling, trying to make something of their lives (as seen by the lady working in the takeaway shop) and look after those around her. But then at the same time has hopes and aspirations to be a model. Whilst there is nothing wrong in having hopes and dreams, in certain situations it is important not to spend £20 of the £40 you have to live on, in entering a modelling competition. Someone has at some point told the lady that she could be a model, and has now made her think of nothing else.
There are other elements of the show which wind me up, and I find wrong with society, and people are right, it isn't a true reflection on what society is like, nor even like on James Turner street, but there are the chances to see that there is an element of community spirit within the neighbourhood (however bad it may be for people) better than there is around where I live.
Giving some of the people benefits that are shown on the show however isn't going to help them on its own. they need people, not care workers or social services, but people who are willing to help them and support them, in helping them with addiction, money related issues, and giving general support.
It's about people whose life is dominated by drugs and thieving to survive. Attack the drug problem to improve streets like this. Instead of softly softly "educating" young people about drugs so they can make up their own mind, as if it's a valid lifestyle choice, how often are the likes of Fungi allowed access to tell it how it really is. Went from feeling disgust to feeling sorry for him, as he said, he made the wrong choice in life.