UK Timeline : Benefits Street

[Jimmy-J]

I believe the child bride has had a baby.

[Gary L]

I drove through that road last Saturday. I saw white Dee.

there's a fund set up to raise some money to buy her a bra.

Originally Posted by alferret

Watched the first 2 episodes today. Didn't find it upsetting, in fact found it to be quite interesting and educational. I didn't know that lining your bag with tin foil should/could evade rfid tags.

Originally Posted by Chris

What are you planning to do with that information then?

thing is it will give others ideas. If they want a educational program for shoplifters and criminals they are going the right way

[weenie]

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

thing is it will give others ideas. If they want a educational program for shoplifters and criminals they are going the right way

could not agree more

---------- Post added at 23:34 ---------- Previous post was at 23:31 ----------

Originally Posted by alferret

Watched the first 2 episodes today. Didn't find it upsetting, in fact found it to be quite interesting and educational. I didn't know that lining your bag with tin foil should/could evade rfid tags.

What I found upsetting is how the little children had to live what does child aid say no child should live in poverty...

[Derek]

No scandal has been more successfully covered up than the appalling truth about what happens to Britain’s poorest people. We have, as a country, grown used to pretending they don’t exist; we shovel them off to edge-of-town housing estates and pay them to stay there in economic exile. We give them welfare for the foreseeable future, and wish them luck in their drug-addled welfare ghettos. This is our country’s dirty little secret, which has just been exposed by a devastating Channel*4 documentary. And the left are furious.

---------- Post added at 08:20 ---------- Previous post was at 08:19 ----------

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/...-dirty-secret/

Originally Posted by Derek

---------- Post added at 08:20 ---------- Previous post was at 08:19 ----------

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/...-dirty-secret/

That was a good article and I think he is mostly right. However I think he misrepresents the view of those on the left.

They would say it's a case of further demonisation of those on benefits rather than a serious examination of social injustice. I guess whose right depends on if you view the residents of Benefit Street as victims of economics or if you view them as lazy scourgers. It's highlighted by the fact the reaction to show has mostly been anger on either side. Either people are angry at the people in the show or angry at those who made it. Thoughtful reflections on the show or the situation it depicts, Fraser Nelson aside, are few and far between.

[weenie]

I see them as Victims and the only winners here are the people making a documentary about them, I hope with the profit they make out this programme they help them in some way I doubt it though...

Originally Posted by weenie

I see them as Victims and the only winners here are the people making a documentary about them, I hope with the profit they make out this programme they help them in some way I doubt it though...

If people aren't prepared to help themselves i don't see why they should keep getting handouts and extra help

[weenie]

Originally Posted by martyh

If people aren't prepared to help themselves i don't see why they should keep getting handouts and extra help

You sound like my husband he beliefs in what you are saying, I just felt a tad sorry for them especially the little kids, but I know what you mean as my eldest son is at uni and has to works part time in Sainsburys to put himself through his course as he is entitled to nothing and I mean nothing no dental treatment etc but he has been brought up to expect nothing for nothing so I totally get your point and it is a

Originally Posted by Damien

That was a good article and I think he is mostly right. However I think he misrepresents the view of those on the left.

They would say it's a case of further demonisation of those on benefits rather than a serious examination of social injustice. I guess whose right depends on if you view the residents of Benefit Street as victims of economics or if you view them as lazy scourgers. It's highlighted by the fact the reaction to show has mostly been anger on either side. Either people are angry at the people in the show or angry at those who made it. Thoughtful reflections on the show or the situation it depicts, Fraser Nelson aside, are few and far between.

What gave me pause for thought is that they edited out the only working couple..The reasoning being that one of them was a benefit officer.Seems a poor reason to me unless the producers had an agenda or couldn't sell the programme as it was edited.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ngham-25750475

[weenie]

I did not know that, food for thought as WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT

Because (perhaps), the benefits officers recorded comments could reflect badly upon his views on claimants or his employers, which can be a dismissable offence in some companies.

Originally Posted by Hugh

Because (perhaps), the benefits officers recorded comments could reflect badly upon his views on claimants or his employers, which can be a dismissable offence in some companies.

Well that's why you have editors and producers..It certainly would have been nice to have some 'balance' of a working couple to provide a contrast.

[weenie]

I think it would have been good if they filmed the working couple it would have been good to see what they thought of the street they lived in and generally give there point of view...

The main criticism of the program is that there is no context,no balance and no examination of how people ended up like they are in the street.Basically it is just a peep show