There is a great deal of debate going on about Benefits Street and what the show is trying to show. Channel 4 say it is a "fair and balanced observational documentary". whilst commentators on the left claim it is about Demonizing those claiming Benefits.
Now I hadn't planned on having a view on this as I have simply never seen the show and so don't know what the fuss is about. but I have read a great deal of the opposition about it and it appears to me to break down along the lines.
1) Benefit Claimants are not like this
From the things I have read about being shown, then I have to say that SOME are, in my time as a local Councillor and even more so simply from my time living in a deprived neighborhood I have heard nothing about the residents that I find shocking. Whilst I would never say that everyone on Benefits is "Playing" the system or "up to no good" I have met enough of them to know it isn't an isolated occurrence.
2) All Residents of James Turner Street are crooks.
The first I heard about the show stated that the street had 90% claimant rate, I assume this would have been challenged if it wasn't true so assuming this is right they are still saying that 10% do not receive any benefits. Also to argue that most people on Benefits are not unemployed (Including Pensioners and Low Paid) is fine but is there evidence that people claiming benefits were purposely ignored for the show? Maybe there is but I haven't seen it.
3) It tries to show that ALL benefit claimants are crooks.
One thing I have never heard claimed is that Benefit Street is a typical representation of ALL claimants and if anyone did (other than a few mupwits on twitter) I would refute that, as just as I have experienced many people the likes of which seem to be represented on the show, I have met many who are simply trying to do the best with the situation they are in, and it is these people who should feel the most anger to the people featured as it is not the TV company who make people on Benefits look bad, it is the people on Benefits who act badly.
4) People were mislead to appear
I have heard this many times (Although never with a direct quote) but from what I understand the name of the show and the focus on benefits was known to everyone who was filmed. Even if we assume that the premise of the show was kept secret then I still don't think that the film company would be responsible as surely all they did was point a camera at the people, they didn't make them go out and steal (And if they did the person being filmed should have said no, after all if they asked them to jump of a bridge would they?)
So whilst I think that this show sounds like gross examples of the Benefit system for the Left Wing Commentators to pretend it doesn't exist explains why they never tried to get a handle on the issue, personally I think this is a lot more to do with the fact that all the Champagne and Idealism Socialists are angry because their argument of 100% or benefit claimants belonging to the Noble Poor doesn't stand up to scrutiny of placing SOME of them in front of the camera, at the end of the day the Daily Mail could try and Demonize the Poor all day long but it will never be as efficient as letting the people who are taking advantage of the system Demonize themselves.
FINAL NOTE - I just wanted to stress one last time, before the hate mail starts coming in. The views here are based SOLELY on MY experiences with living in a deprived area and meeting SOME people like the ones portrayed as well as SOME who were not. I do not believe nor do I claim that it was ALL people either in the area I lived or ALL people who claim benefits.
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