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(not satire!)
Channel 4 executives should be proud of themselves.
Their attempt to stereotype and demonise all of Britain’s 2.49 million unemployed by focussing on just 6 carefully chosen people and showing them in the worst possible light in their programme Benefits Street last night was so successful that Twitter exploded with threats of violence and even death against the participants:
The producers of the programme meanwhile defended it is a ‘sympathetic, humane and objective portrayal’ of those struggling to cope with austerity.
Not much sympathy, humanity or objectivity on display on Twitter however.
Isn’t there a law against this kind of incitement to violence in the UK?
If so, if any police officer would like to take this further, I’ve kept the names and IDs of the people responsible for the above (and more below) threatening tweets and I would be more than happy to help you with your enquiries..
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UPDATE – here are some more threats on Twitter (thanks to @jadesaladem for compiling these):
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Here’s my letter of complaint to Channel 4. I’ll let you know if I get a reply.
Dear Channel 4,
Here are examples of just a few of the threats of violence and even death against the participants of your irresponsible programme Benefits Street last night on Twitter:
“I want to walk down #BenefitStreet with a baseball bat and brain a few of these scumbags”
“Set fire to #BenefitStreet”
“Why haven’t they castrated these people. Creatures #BenefitStreet”
“#BenefitStreet they need to be put down like dogs. #scum”
This is possibly the worst example of irresponsible broadcasting I have seen for a very long time.
You should be ashamed of yourselves. But you won’t be.
Yours in disgust,
Tom Pride
tompride.wordpress.com
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Related article by Tom Pride:
Benefits Street producers previously accused of putting children at risk for TV shows
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Please feel free to comment.
Pride's Purge 
A disgusting way to portray people struggling to survive in our OH SO DEVIDED COUNTRY.
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More people will watch X factor and be drawn into, than will ever read CHAVS or THE SPIRIT LEVEL.
I hope some day we get a sense of responsibility and cause and effect intelligence in the broadcast media.
I personally didn’t (couldn’t) watch the programme.
But your twitter feed says it all.
So much for “reality TV.
Broadcast media really are being run by smoke & mirrors marketing types.
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Are people really so blind as to what is happening in this country NO FUTURE FOR YOU everything will be taken away by the gov & handed on a plate to the elite.Why not TAX DODGERS STREET by CH4
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The Coalition government, its apologists and acolytes as well as the right wing media have been so successful at demonising the poorest and most vulnerable; that this is the result.
I have no doubt that what is happening is akin to that that happened in Germany in the 1930s.
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I detest what Britain is becoming. All the main TV channels are as bad as one another in peddling these attacks on the most vulnerable in society. To all those that threaten violence against benefit claimants I know you would be the first in line to volunteer to be stormtroopers in Hitlers army if he was still around. I am deeply ashamed of you.
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This sort of thing terrifies me because it encourages vigilantes to attack and demonise people who are just trying to make ends meet while they are unable to work, either because they are unable to find work, or because they are too sick or disabled to work. It even includes those who work, but need extra money because their menial wages won’t cover the cost of survival. But that’s not what the government want, they want us to die of poverty, and if we manage to survive, then they’re going to set us against each other until we wipe ourselves out. The next election is so far away right now 😦
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Good work.
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I’ve never been so conscious of the fact that, as my mum and dad so elegantly put it, ‘They all pee in the same pot’ – a moneyed elite has control of this society and the only code of behaviour they have is loyalty to each other and the propagation of their own power.
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james miller @jimmyshashin 24m
Conservative Party linked TV Execs Richard McKerrow & Anna Beattie the brains behind #benefitsstreet #IDS #LordFreud http://www.loveproductions.co.uk/people
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Mandy, rest easy. All these comments are by keyboard warriors who wouldn’t dare say boo to any of the people in the documentary for fear of their Sun/Daily Mail inspired paranoic lives being exposed for the fascist fragility they are. It’s easy to type a throwaway 12 word knee jerk sentence and feel better about yourself, and relieved you aren’t like one of them.
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The sheeple have not used their brains what so ever! Makes them worse than the very people they are condoning idiots! All they needed to do was to simply Google the programme and do their homework a lot of them in the programme were set up by ch4 portraying stuff falsely as propaganda to do just what you have said to divide and create hatred! I’m really disappointed in ch4 to be fair doing this to vulnerable members of society! And even more disgusted and outraged by the biggots comments on twitter shameful!!!!!!!
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Murder-obsessed Nazis with castration fantasies. Whoah.
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Shame you’ve hidden their identities. I imagine their employers would be thrilled to find out what goes on the heads of their workers…
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Just because a programme may unfairly tar a large group of people with the same proverbial brush, it does not take away from the fact that there are a LOT of people out there who abuse the benefit system. I personally know a lot that do, however I’m not one of those people who would dob them in, as I find those that do as abhorrent as the cheaters themselves. But seriously don’t fool yourself into thinking there aren’t a lot like those “portrayed” on benefit street… because there are.
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They may be keyboard warriors, but what happens when a political party stands for those things? They’ll be voting warriors then. That’s exactly how Nazi Germany happened. Exactly the same. Fascists control the media, the media feeds the people the bullshit, then the people get all fired up about “scroungers”, or “parasites”, or “untermenschen”. Next thing you know there’s forced labour, persecution of the sick and disabled, and women having babies stolen from their wombs…
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Yes, what was that other programme? #Skint? Same narrator, same premise, same agenda, same bullshit. Yeh there are some scuzzy people. But a lot more honest and good people, left on the benefits shelf by this horrendous pincer movement “coalition”. #Anonymous.
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At no point did the programme makers infer or imply the notion that the people featured are a representation of benefit claimants nationwide.
If anyone is guilty its the claimants featured,due to their Nievity in agreeing to take part without any editorial input.
Also a handful of Daily Mail readers twitting the usual hateful bile doesn’t constitute death threats.
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I commend you for your willingness to hand this information to the police, but I strongly advise against holding your breath while you wait for them to turn up.
Better, I think, to mail a copy to New Scotland Yard. Don’t take it yourself – you might regret it.
Copies to whatever reputable press remains in this country too – probably just 2 copies needed, to the Indy and Guardian.
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Why have you hidden the names of these people? They’ve posted it online now, and publicly too, using hashtags to get as many people to see it as possible. What does blanking out their names and Twitter handles achieve?
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Yes, there are, there’s no mistaking that and no-one here denies the fact. But for every one that does rip the system off, there are a multitude who aren’t trying to pull a fast one and are just trying to make ends meet – some of them living very difficult lives, with medical conditions over which they have no real control.
But the Tories and their propaganda don’t give a rat’s about any of those people who’re honestly trying to get by — they only want people to see the ones who’re yanking the chain, and by portraying everyone this way, they’re tarring us all with the same brush. It’s THIS that people are objecting to, not the behaviour of the so-called ‘stars’ of the program itself.
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Er… The UK Government’s OWN STATISTICS say that less than ONE PERCENT of benefit claims are fraudulent.
Just sayin’ like…
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I don’t think anyone has issue with disabled or those looking for work being paid benefits. It’s those, which were featured heavily, who choose crime and benefits over work due to insolence, ignorance and drug addiction. Work is available – it’s just whether those deem the wage a worthwhile trade off for loss of leisure time, which for the majority in this show is alcohol and drug abuse.
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We must form soviets , workers’ councils, quickly! In all major cities and suburbs. The working class can no longer stand by and watch as we compelled to drag each other down the lowest depths of human existence. We must formulate our own voice and our own demands to counter the poisonous and deceitful narrative of the corporate elite. The working class is sole defender of democratic rights, equality and freedom and we must protect our interests and the future of humanity against the decay of the capitalist system, which has broken down and descended into new heights of criminality and hypocrisy. We must fight for a workers government before its too late.
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This programme portrayed a few people who sadly are struggling to make ends meet,
Some not being able to work through possibly no fault of their own, Such as illiteracy/learning problems or plain and simply the fact that our Government discriminate against their own people in favor of immigrants who are prepared to basically do slave labour,
What chance does the next generation have if all the jobs are given to immigrants……. UKIP all the way!!!……..
Go on hit me with all the hate replies if you must, But I am a Mum of 5, Who also has a full time job, But can relate to the struggle of being on benefits and not knowing where your kids next meal is going to come from…….
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Reblogged this on Diary of an SAH Stroke Survivor.
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This is discrimination and a disgrace, my how people mouth off before thinking someone seriously needs to bring the press and media into court and sue
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and don’t forget, this was filmed and as such it’s been cleverly edited to portray them in a bad way. Like the girls said, when she walked down the street pointing at houses saying “Unemployed, on benefits”. they haven’t showed the parts where she pointed and said, “these work, this guy is working full time”
Then there’s the phone calls they were making looking for jobs, which weren’t shown, or were edited to make em look like they were laughing for not being offered a job when in actual fact the laughing was for a completely different reason.
It’s completely been twisted round, edited & re edited to make it extremely bad.
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I’m not so much disgusted by the people on the street I am disgusted that this is going on all over this country. While the people on the program should never be seen as victims, they are people who clearly need help and structure in their lives and that is the responsibility of us all and of our social services. The system is failing them as much as they are failing themselves. This is a sore that is spreading across this country and its shameful for any of us to watch. We need a better social services system to deal with people like this. These people clearly need help and persuasion to get them back into being productive and participating citizens so that they can meet their own needs and grow as people. I think Channel 4 has done the right thing to highlight the kinds of problems neighbourhoods are facing. It is the working people who are getting their houses broken into and things stolen while they are out at work. The suffering spreads right across society.
The answer could be not to give money to the unemployed for doing nothing but give them the same money for their labour in return. Councils could pay them in an amount of hours of work to meet their basic needs. This is the only way to bring people back into productivity. If they want more and better things then they can work there way out of it. They could take training programs, apprenticeships or any other scheme that kept them on the straight and narrow. Surely this is better for them and for the country as a whole.
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There isn’t enough work available for everyone. Especially in certain areas. And there are plenty of people who DO have a problem with ANYONE on benefits; people born disabled, people crippled in accidents, military service or from violent victimisation, people who have developed a disease, it doesn’t matter. Some people need a group to hate, these people aren’t usually very clever and so go for the easier option of hating people they can see, hating people the mainstream media tells them to as opposed to hating the less visible neoliberal elitists corrupting our country and governments.
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Did they imply that the so-called stars were NOT representative though? If not then that alone is easily arguably implication that they were representative. Only someone who already know enough about the subject matter would no it wasn’t representative.
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Well said Harry, you took the words out of my mouth. This whole debacle is nothing other than a demonstration that our Media really is State-controlled. They can’t deny it now.
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Well done channel 4and to people who have commented u ate no better with ya acts of violence , and this country has gone to the dogs for many reasons but government is just created a bigger divide between the rich an poor
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These sort of programs have been purposely made to get the employed on side with the governments desitions to cut benefits think about it if twat face can get the minority to believe he’s doing the rite thing then there gunna keep voting for him unfortunately everyone on benefits such as myself all gets tarnd with the same brush and I have 7 children which makes it look worse when in actual fact both me and my husband both worked full time even with 2 of our children having autism and then our world went tits up when he had an accident and now is disabled and my youngest sons condition worstend due to the change in out life’s so I am a full time carer for my husband my 2 autistic children and 5 other children on top but I live off benefits so there for I must be a scumbag and yes I would steel food from a supermarket to feed my children if that’s what I had to do
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Reblogged this on Same Difference and commented:
Speechless.
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I’m sure it said in the programme that this street (or area) had suffered such huge levels of unemployment for SEVEN years. This street wasn’t as a result of recent cuts in benefit or the ‘bedroom tax’ – although I do wish Channel 4 hadn’t concentrated solely on people like this.
What about the people out of work who are actually trying hard to find a job? I got the impression few people on the programme were even looking – but that’s not representative of all people on benefits.
Still, what can you expect from a channel that exploits just about everyone (and gets the ratings, so it’s actually ourselves to blame).
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It is sad that under this Government with it’s ‘divide & rule’ tactics this country is no longer the tolerant & compassionate nation it once was. The tactics used by Cameron and his ilk to demonise the sick & disabled, those on benefits, the unemployed, immigrants and so forth are not far removed from those followed by the Nazis and other right-wing and fascist movements during the ’30s. For those who propagate these views, I have a word of warning – they should remember the words of Martin Niemoller;
“First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me”.
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Here, here. I worked myself into a sick bed as a single mum raising 3 kids. Any problems I’ve had who my kids is because I havnt been there for them because of work commitments!
I Lost my job due to an accident at work and subsequently have become a benefit scrounger, selling my soul and integrity for DLA and a free bus pass!! Yeah complex neurosurgery and now a diagnosis of PTSD because of the inhumane ATOSities they call medicals and extensive social phobias due to the intolerant behaviour of the public insensed by government propaganda playing “hate crime” with me because my disabilities are invisable
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I am sorry, but we must have seen different programmes. Sure, Danny and his moronic mate seemed at first to be working from a script, but then it became clear that they really are that thick. On the other hand we had the quite wonderful Dee who acts as everyone’s mum and gives free advice to all and sundry. To say nothing of the 50p man who goes door to door selling household items for 50p to earn a living. In between there are people who may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, but who are trying to get by as best they can, and most of them came over sympathetically.
As for the retards who are screaming on Twitter. Really, why bother? Do you honestly think that this type of person is ever going to be sympathetic to any claimant? I had a taste of people like this a few years ago, in fact I blogged about it just the other day, and I honestly think that the best policy is to keep working to unite all claimants into the biggest pressure group possible and ignore the ones who are never going to support us anyway.
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Why are these people who are on benefits so fat? If benefits are NOT over-generous, they’d be skeletally thin and with few clothes and (perhaps) no shoes.
Let’s be clear, ladies – size 10 is normal, 12 is ‘should lose a few pounds’ and size 14 + is fat, grotesque or ‘morbidly obese and can barely waddle’
Yet the most overweight demographic of society are those on benefits of low incomes (heavily subsidised through Tax Credits).
That’s taxpayer’s money, borrowed against their grand-children’s earnings, being spent on making people unhealthy and unemployable.
Time for proper Home Economics lessons to be restored to UK schools and for people to ditch ‘phone-up take-aways’ for ‘prepared from scratch’ meals.
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These tweets are an absolute disgrace. How can they call themselves human. Do they not realise that they cud be in those same shoes in a heartbeat. Cud go to work tomorrow and lose it. Step out for a pint and have an accident. Any of them got kids. Then they are on benefits. sounds like this programme is a disgrace to media television. You shud all be ashamed. yes you evil tweeters too!
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I totally agree with you! It is disgusting that they are allowed to air this kind of rubbish & yes it is inciting violence. My husband was watching it, I wouldn’t lower myself to do so as I don’t believe a word any media outlet puts forward anymore. It ended up with a blazing row as my husband totally brainwashed by the program was ranting about how he has to work for minimum wage whilst these scroungers etc etc & started to tell me a little about the characters being aired & that I should go on BBC iPlayer to watch it. My response was it sounds like it is all made up for your entertainment & perhaps they used actors as the people shown would not be so stupid as to commit crimes on TV as the police would have video evidence & they could face jail sentences, a lot more was said & my husband then went ballistic & accused me of being political, which I explained no I am not just informed. We had a film crew in our town who created a fictitious street and put families into the houses recreating different eras, that was for as mini series, as I said earlier I don’t trust the media to give us the truth anymore. . I t is only my opinion & as I say I didn’t watch it so only going off what my husband told me..
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So…watched benefit street…same old same old…pick on the feckless…the damaged and the useless….the addicts and the screw ups.
Well Dave…I would like to congratulate you on the hatchet job….the super distraction.
The billions owed in tax by the rich…who avoid via loopholes…via cheats…and by having friends in high places…the Eton brotherhood.
The queen….eligible for fuel allowance? ?? Why not means test it…I mean…I am sure she can afford to warm her spare bedrooms on the money she gets from wonga…or prince charles (also eligible for fuel allowance)…the money he gets for renting out duchy land to the likes of ocado. .I am sure he can afford a 2 bar leccy fire…
You are screwing up our children’s lives…why should they have to work in a place where they earn less money then those a couple of years older then them who do exactly the same job
. You mentioned “parents who can’t pay for their kids to go to college”…did your parent’s pay for you? Did they fuck. ..you still had access to free education and grants…even though you are a multi millionaire.
I am so sick of hearing about your big society dave. .. care in the community? Leave desperately mentally ill people to fend for themselves. ..till the only solution they have is to throw themselves under a fucking train.
Gideon. ..crying at maggies funeral…the woman who took away the jobs that you claim exist?!
Nick Clegg…man up and disolve this farce of a parliament. ..on the day when a the PMs barber gets an MBE…for what? Services to a fucking slaphead posh boy…you can make them stop Nick…
I know labour don’t have the answers…but there has to be something better than this!
We’re all in this together?
No we aren’t.
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Reblogged this on kickingthecat.
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Pingback: Threats of death and violence after Channel 4 p...
Have you ever thought that a lot of people who rely on benefit’s are sick and disabled and the fact that certain medication’s and condition’s DO result in weight gain as does living on cheap food..I.E a box of 20 burger’s for £1..no nutrient’s at all..A lot of people on benefit’s can’t afford to eat like you, sorry to say…They can’t afford to buy fresh food and good food..Only the bargain stuff..believe me I know only to well..We worked all our life upto 13 year’s ago and wanted for nothing.Own House,2 car’s No debt’s whatsoever then our world fell apart after my wife’s accident..Within 3 year’s we had used up all our saving’s,Lost the house,Had to sell both car’s..Oh and yes..Because of my wife’s immobilty she has gained a lot of weight..not through over eating but the affect’s of the CONSTANT MEDICATION THAT SHE HAS TO TAKE FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE….You don’t know the half of it till you are put into it….
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dabraham@channel4.co.uk is the email address of the CEO of Channel 4. Mr David Abraham. Please feel free to email him!
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How TOTALLY UNINFORMED You are @ Paul Vickers before commenting please get your facts straight. You can be 4′ 2 size 10 and be overweight you can be 6′ 2 and be size 14 and be underweight. I agree with DavidDaveyBoy you can also have a condition that affects your weight for example Hyperthyroidism where you lose weight no matter what you eat or what lifesyle you live OR Hypothyroidism which is the opposite and you gain weight no matter what you eat or what your lifestyle is. To say people that are a size 14 are obese is just bloody nonsense.as is the rest of your reply.
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The reason you got the impression no one was looking for work was because they were edited out. The reports in the Brum press made that clear. There were some scuzzy, criminal characters – but also some decent people keen to make an honest living. How many people watching that thought ‘that looks like a good life, I envy them’? No one, that’s who. That’s about the only positive thing to be said for that exploitative trash.
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i totally agree with this comment. well said.
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They do have a problem with the disabled getting benefits. I have personally been abused for claiming benefits because of my mental health.
The abusers thought it was perfectly acceptable to humiliate me in a pub full of people because “they” paid “my” benefits and this was long before the Tories ratcheted up the “benefit scrounger” narrative.
If this shameful display on twitter is anything to go by… It’s worse now.
Much worse.
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I totally agree with this comment also.. well said.
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I didn’t want to watch it because I knew how it was going to be viewed, However I was working when it came on and my colleagues had the TV switched to that channel. My heart sank within the first few seconds, because I know that these people aren’t representative of everyone that is currently claiming benefits, for instance the sick and disabled or the people who would love to work but the opportunities where they live are limited or who would be willing to relocate but will not be able to find the deposit needed to pay for private rentals and to do so requires at least £1000 + and that’s just for a room in a shared house. People end up being trapped in a system they struggle to get out of. This programme did nothing except support the current governments view of claimants and its ideological cap on Welfare, which rather than supports people back into work merely stops that support, thus making them ‘disappear’ from the unemployment statistics, making them homeless and then reliant on charities to help them get back on their feet. A lot of these people will likely have spent a number of years working and thus contributing to their NI that should be there in the unpleasant event of not being able to work. This Government is systematically removing that support regardless of what you might have done in the past. I’m thankfully in full time employment, but I have been unemployed when made redundant twice. It’s not nice being made to feel a pariah when you have done nothing wrong but have no control over circumstances. People should, before throwing stones, take a moment to think how easy it could be for them to be a benefit claimant through no fault of their own.
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So may small minded blinkered people in this world myself and my partner both work full time and I see the struggle of people who are unable to find work or cannot work due to being full time careers or have a disability themselves for channel 4 to portray all benefit claimants the way they have is totally wrong and all they seem to be doing is increasing the divid between the rich and poor correct me if I am wrong but are they not doing our corrupt governments job for them all we have to do is look back to the late 70’s early 80’s to see how this will play out . NOBODY KNOWS WHATS AROUND THE CORNER WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THESE PEOPLE WHO SEEM TO HAVE THESE NASTY MINDED COMMENTS IF FOR SOME REASON THEY LOSE THIER JOBS DUE TO UNFORESEEN REASON LIKE DOWN TURN IN THE NEED FOR THE JOB THEY DO OR A ACCIDENT OR ILLNESS THAT DEAMS THEM UNABLE TO WORK THEY WILL THEM BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO CRY DISCRIMINATION
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i am disgusted and will no longer be watching Channel 4 not that i watched it much anyway.
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They appear to be so brain-dead I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them forgot they were claiming some sort of benefit themselves.
I do hope some action is taken. If this had been a programme on Islam and those had been similarly threatening Islamophobic tweets the police would already be in action. Unfortunately it seems the poor get little such protection.
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Thanks just sent him a lovely email xx
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We all know that there are folk all across the UK like those featured in “Benefits Street,” who are not putting anything into the system. They survive on the edge of society, just above the gutter and homelessness. Despite the outcry that they receive benefits and don’t work for a living, I defy anyone out there to swap with them – would you? I certainly wouldn’t want to. Channel 4 keep making these TV programmes because the rating are obviously high enough to warrant it. Just look at the reaction above on social media – people watch this stuff. Should they be making TV like this? No I don’t think so. These programmes are always cleverly edited to make the “stars” of them look like complete idiots in the name of entertainment.
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I could film my avenue where most of my neighbours are on some sort of benefit . However all you would see was people nipping the shop for a loaf of bread or a carton of milk or just having a nice chat .this has assume to be the reality of benefits
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These opinionated jerks are probably tabloid reading, opinionated vigilante wannabe types with nothing better to do than rage at the brainwashing box in their living rooms digesting curry and beers on an evening. Well more fool them. There are myriad reasons (NOT excuses) for people not being in work. Disability, ill health, lack of support and ‘proper’ guidance, not some washed up useless shit from the DWP, there’s also competition from other jobseekers where applicants available is significantly more than the number of jobs available in most areas. Of course the media likes to put a spin on this stuff as often as possible, successfully providing ammunition to stupid clueless twits like the ones so big n’ hard they have to type such tripe behind a computer screen or on their mobiles. None more deserving of death are those who would wish it on others. I hope those poor, stupid, clueless and narrow-minded people never have the same problems as those less fortunate in life. I’m sure they wouldn’t like to wear the same shoes as the disabled, the terminally ill, the jobless. These things can happen to anyone at any time.
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I think you make your intentions clear in your “let’s be clear, LADIES”. Your response has nothing to do with benefits, and everything to do with prescribing what you, a man, think it is acceptable for women to look like. You are clearly no doctor, spouting “10 is normal”, as most medical professionals are aware that even the rather more complex and reliable BMI system is massively flawed, you are simply a patronising chauvinist.
This isn’t sour grapes, by the way. I’m living on disability benefits and am a size 8 – yay me! I must be genuinely poor! One of the many things you don’t seem to grasp while you’re judging us is that living on this pittance is exhausting and miserable, and often a bag of chips or a twix is all the comfort you can afford. How dare you?
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I assume sorry
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Reblogged this on Mentally Wealthy.
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Oh wonderful. We’ve reached the point where people genuinely consider us inhuman vermin. Let the march to the gas chambers commence. 😦
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“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.”
Benefits Street: Channel 4 documentary stars hit out at portrayal of life in James Turner Street, Birmingham – Mirror Online
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I can pretty much guarantee that these peeps would have been paid a backhander for there roles as most were addicted to some or other substance, asks whether C4 have been criminal by paying these peeps whilst on benefits.
Andy
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This is what the government wants you to think that all on benefits are skivers and scroungers, there are those saying we are not on benefits, have children get child tax credits, it’s a benefit, low paid get tax credits and a little top up of housing allowance/benefit. Even those in government get benefits, i.e second houses allowance, claim for children, and money for meals etc they are all benefits. It has to stop as everyone is turning against each other that is what they want, to take away attention from themselves. The dwp is run by ids, who is running a campaign of propaganda against those on benefits, or disabled or low paid. It’s said 90% of the people on the street are on benefits but how many realised that instead of showing them to be looking for work they would instead show the bits that would confirm the governments theory that the are scroungers and skivers. Oh and just rmember duncan smith had claimed benefits before he married into money
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Yes – have to second that. There are NOT ‘a lot of people like that’ i.e. wrongly claiming benefits.
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sorry why have you protected the identity of people posting this bile? They shared this on a public forum, surely it wouldn’t be against any law for you to let us see them in all their hellish glory?
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Lola Lou! Spot on!
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It looks like the foreigners will be ‘introduced’ to the programme next week. I think we can already predict the hatred that will be awaiting them on Twitter right now…
(One thought; if Twitter had existed ten years ago, I expect we’d have seen the same level of hatred and prejudice from people then. I doubt a lot of these people suddenly became like this in May 2010 after being very tolerant and open minded).
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Well folks, I’m not a lady. I find the term exceptionally patronising to start with. I’m a woman. A size 10 is not the average size for a woman. Paul Vickers, you have a lot to learn about life not just women. Women all over the globe are different shapes and sizes, it can be genetic, there are many different reasons. I am so pleased I don’t know men like you.
Your naivety astounds me that in this day and age men still think like that! I also love the way you have dragged tax credits into the equation. So we aren’t just talking about JSA or similar, we are talking about everyone and anyone who is on Child Tax Credit. Working Tax Credit, etc. If wages were not being kept deliberately low in a huge section of the work force, then people would not need the assistance. What about the people that for the last twenty – thirty years have paid tax and through no fault of their own, suddenly find they are now in the situation where they are entitled to TC’s due to their wages not have risen enough to keep up with inflation, the horrific rise in fuel costs etc etc etc? And please don’t say they should get another job as you may not have noticed but there are not many vacancies for jobs out there let alone well paid jobs. Some areas are far worse than others. Just because there are 40 jobs in one area does not mean there are 40 in every area. And for every job vacancy, the amount of applicants is massive. And just because there is a vacancy, that does not mean to say you will get it as many many people naively think! The rise of the Zero hour contracts has opened up many many issues, none of which are good! Zero contracts should be banned!
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Personally I try to avoid these programes the jeremy kyle show has done so much harm in insighting hatered and violence against the lower classes already.
People who claim any type of benefit for any type of reason are treated sub-human by society sterotyped and demonised …. All propoganda to ease the welfare responsability of the mega rich, government and elite.
It is sad that like sheep the public our manipulated this way as the welfare system is a PUBLIC saftey net by buying into this portrayal of a minority of claimants there stripping themselves of this net.
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I hope they all become reality stars like those in towie or made in chelsea, they are obviously less plastic.
Anything that get’s the heckles up of the nasty party et al is ok with me, but is about as representative of those on benefits as the tory party is sympathetic to them.
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It’s no coincidence that one of the most reviled school subjects the rightwing always have such screaming hatred for is media studies. Why? It’s nothing to do with it being a “soft, easy” subject. It’s more to do with the fact that propaganda doesn’t work so well once you’ve been shown how it works, and how things are edited and filtered by the media. This programme is a prime example of cynical class propaganda under the guise of a ‘docu-tainment’. Goebbels would have been proud of this. In Britain we’ve now got ourselves a while new style of fascism – free of the usual give-away signs of a repressive régime. There are no flags, no logos, very few uniformed thugs, no giant posters on every street corner of Cameron with ‘Big Society is watching you’ but everything else is in place. The scapegoating, the ‘blame the victim mentality’, the divide and rule, the working poor set against the unemployed and the immigrants, the bullying, and yes, if we’re not careful the next stage will be vigilante groups. Maybe there’ll be a channel four docu-tainment on that too.
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The fact that so many of these comments are littered with atrocious spelling and grammar indicates the utter lack of education and intellect that drives this sentiment. Sad.
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You obviously didn’t hear the woman when she said she had a job topped up with in-work benefits.
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Let me start off by saying I have not watched this programme,so my opinion is based on other peoples views who I respect. I stopped watching Tv a year ago because of this biased based ,easy journalism that has sadly become the norm.I source my news online from real people and real events.It is so easy to demonise any group of people when you already have a waiting audience.What ever happened to compassion and fairness?Scapegoating the poor and vulnerable in our society has become our national sport.Although it is refreshing to see that not all of the world is made up of judgmental fascists,It is sad that they seem to monopolise the spotlight.
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Unfortunately Hector, people always blame each other for their misery, instead of finding out the obvious truth for themselves, i do not watch T.V.
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Ooooh, I like that. Getting volunteers for the show might be difficult though.
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Boils my piss how gullible the mass public are …so filled with hatred ..not for the goverment or german royal family living on benifits …oh thats fine we will wave a flag for them lot !!! mass madness !!!I see the bankers, politicians,and mega rich tax dodgers…are trying to pin the blame again !! how much is it to build a warship again? Oh yes 50 bill … It just proves channel 4 lap dogs have done the evil goverment wants ….dont belive me the proof is above ..causing hate racism looking at the poor and neady like rats …!! the middle classes hate it because they are dumb slaves that …get there whole lives on tick house car morgage tv washer you name it !! then when the goverment squeezes them …who does everyone blame …the poorest !!!! WAKE UP YOU FUCKING IDIOTS !!!
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You blame channel 4 for showing a mirror up? .. Your letter of complaint should be to twitter and police to investigate these people for their threats and inciting violence.
What has CH4 done wrong? … they did not script this.
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Where are all the documentaries about the dirty scumbag bankers and politicians!! It’s a game they turn you against everyone on benefits by showing some of the worst examples on television. There are honest people on benefits too. I would like to see a program showing us the rich bankers and politicians behind closed doors, laughing at us because majority buy into their bullshit to turn us against each other.
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I didn’t realise that grammar, spelling etc was being tested on forums these days. Forums are a quick way of posting thoughts etc. If I am writing a letter, email etc, then my spelling and grammar are always correct. No-one should be judges on a quick posting. Good grief. Is one meant to list all of ones education results prior to being allowed to posting on a forum! But in saying that, the education has failed thousands and thousands of people. Whether it be due to missed disabilities, failing schools etc. What about dyslexia?
What you are basically doing is discriminating against learning disabilities. Disgraceful! I have a list of exam results including English Language, but my son has major learning disabilities, but if he wanted to post on a forum he has every right to do so.
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http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/benefits-street-tv-show-lied-6470342
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http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/benefits-street-tv-show-lied-6470342
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Pingback: I’m ranting, but I’m sighing too. Seriously folks, wake up and see the Political Social Engineering. #Benefitsstreet #Channel4 « Mentally Wealthy
Some of these Tweeters may, possibly, have been intoxicated therefore, the avoidance of “an eye for an eye” situation, The method taken by hiding the handles is a correct action in media, one that is slipping in the mainstream unfortunately.
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funny how a couple of people involved with producing this programme have links to the tories, this was nothing more than another attempt by people in the media with political links, to dehumanise benefits claimants and therefore creating more anti-benefit supporters, recently in the news was a blind man who had taken his own life after being deemed fit to work. not everyone on benefits is a scrounger, the people in this programme represent a minority i have no sympathy for them, in particular the young couple who were complaining that their benefits were stopped because they were caught making fraudulent claims, these people are not only milking the system but are also making it harder for genuine people in need to get what they are entitled to. it’s just a shame when people fail to see when they are having the wool pulled over their eyes.
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sadly my partner saw one of the daily fail readers verbally abuse a big issue seller in our local market town the other day with some onlookers calling on in support. The only person who tried to help was my partner. The poor big issue seller picked up his bag and fled.
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If people had written lets go to Downing Street with a gun and baseball bat you can bet the police would have been brought in and arrests made. The people shown in this debacle of a tv programme will have no right to reply, will be given no police protection and will be further hounded by the dwp.
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Let me get this straight. You suggest Ch 4 purposely selected 6 individuals to portray the worse side of benefit culture etc.THEN you,a vastly more intelligent individual, select a few nutters on twitter to portray anybody who disagrees with your left wing view?
Let me help with your efforts with the Police.Threats of any kind are a judged as matter of “intent” compared to “comment” in our democracy.Any police or prosecution action would fail…and I know YOU know that.
Is it possible these are just bad people and is there a smidgen doubt in your mind they may tell fibs about the Ch 4 promises .?…or is the reality of Labours disgraceful policies legacy too much for you too ?
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I’ve seen more food kitchens and homeless on the streets this past year than ever before, how come the mainstream media don’t cover this? Why a programme on ‘benefit scroungers’? I can only assume the makers of this ‘documentary’ are trying to earn an Oscar, the sad news for them, and happy news for us is that they won’t.
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I’ve read Chavs and from personal experience I can say that the stereotypes the media portray represent a tiny fraction of the working class, do people really think that someone on JSA of £71 is living it up? Anyone who believes that must be either incredibly stupid, plain vindictive or both, how can anyone resent someone existing on a tenner a day? Someone bargain hunting for beans has no job, no money and is no threat, my local MP claimed a £75 kettle on expenses and laughed it off yet people who live on less than this are fair game for a hate campaign.
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One of the biggest critics of the unemployed and low paid is New Zealand ACT party blogger Clint Heine who once advocated sterilisation of the ‘poor’ and is an advocate of workfare, ironically he ‘works’ as a careers advisor/social media consultant and given his salary and considering he lives in London and claiming housing benefit himself there is a certain amount of irony there.
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Most benefit claimants are unemployed, the tories oppose minimum wage and benefit cuts, truly the nasty party.
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I’m so naive that I can’t spell naivety!
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How many of those people are working and claiming some form of benefits themselves?
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to be quite honest it dosent matter wat street they live on or if they work or not,they dont control the benifits that they get.ITS UP TO THE GOVERMENT IT SAYS FAMILYS,ONE PARENT FAMILYS DISABILITIES RENT LIVING ON THE STREETS,OR WAT EVER THE CASE MAYBE,WAT EVER THEY CALCULATE THERE MONEY/S TO LIVE ON ITS WRONG.BUT THE REASON FOR THAT IS THE SO CALLED GOVERMENT IS LETTING IN EVERY TOM DICK AND HARRY IN OUR COUNTRY AND THEY ARE GETTING LOOKED AFTER BETTER THAN OURSELFS IF THE GOVERMENT DIDNT SPEND SO MUCH TIME SMOKING £200 POUND BOX OF CIGARS AND DOING WAT THEY DO,WHY DONT THE GOVERMENT TRADE PLACES WITH THE LESS UNFORTUNATE THAN THEM SELFS,YES Y DONT THEY TAKE A CUT IN RAISED WAGES AN GIVE IT TO THE PEOPLE LIKE THE HOMLESS,TRADE PLACES WITH THE PEOPLE WHO ARE STRUGGLING FOR A WHOLE MONTH AND THEN TELL EVERYBODY HOW YOU FEEL AFTER.YOU WILL OPEN YOUR EYES THEN WONT YOU IF I WAS THE RICHEST MAN ON THIS PLANET I WOULD HELP MORE THAN OUR SO CALLED GOVERMENT IS DOING THEY JUST SEE MONEY SIGNS AND SLIP THE PROFITS IN THERE BACK POCKETS WHEN IT CUD DO TO HELP THOSE WHO ARE ON BENIFITS AND STRUGGLING NO WONDER PEOPLE ARE ROBBING,STEALING ETC….TO SURVIVE TO LIVE I KNOW I HAVE BEEN THERE MYSELF MANY YEARS AGO DO YOU KNOW WAT IM NO BETTER OFF SO THAT SAYS ALOT DOESNT IT PEOPLE GOVERMENT PEOPLE WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE NOT WHISKEY COFFEE YOUR HEADS ARE SO FAR UP YOUR ARSES YOU CARE ABOUT THE BENIFIT COMMUNITY.AND FOR ME I REALLY ENJOYED WATCHING BENIFIT STREET IT REALLY SHOWS HOW THE WORLD IS LIVING WOULD ANY BODY FROM THE GOVERMENT TRADE PLACES WITH THEM ON BENIFIT STREET AND SEE HOW YOU WUD SURVIVE,I HAVE NO MORE TO SAY THANK YOU EMAIL ME IF YOU THINK MY COMMENT IS SPOT ON.
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When are these thick people going to realise that most of the wealth of this country is wasted by the establishment and not the poor on benefits who have very little to live on, stop being bullies and realise who your real enermy is
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It’s ignorance. A lot of the public think that JSA is around £140 a week, nearly twice what it is, and that over 40%(when it’s around 3%) of welfare is spent on the unemployed.
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why don’t you report them to the police instead of asking online for a n officer to contact you? Just send the names and comments to crimestoppers; might be a reward in it if they get convicted which you could donate to to an appropriate charity (or not, your call).
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Police are going to investigate Benefits Street, not for the incitement to violence and death outlined here though. Read this… http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/latest-news/press-release.asp?ID=5690
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What an ignorant comment from SS. There aren’t enough jobs for everyone who wants one. 5 people chasing every job. And many of those are part time, zero hours or don’t pay enough. Check the facts. This government are relying on people like you to further their agenda but you’ll all be done over in the end. Aggressive Capitalism requires high unemployment. And did you not hear the bloke with addiction problems say he’s been abused as a child? Or maybe you conveniently had your fingers in your ears at that point. I’m sure you would be the first to condemn child abusers but what happens when those children grow up with problems? Suddenly you’re not interested. Just shows the inability of ignoramuses to think things through. I worked for many years with heavy drug users and many of them were using drugs to blot out painful memories of abuse so I think I know what I’m talking about.
Shame on you.
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All of this is not important, even the comments we add, there is no one other than each other that will read them, no one with the ability to change anything will ever read it, nor change any of it for that matter. we had the same thing with single mothers, never mind that some were single because they were cheated on and lied to, or that they were in abusive relationships and moved to protect themselves and their children, of course all single mothers got pregnant to get a council house and to scrounge off benefits. the same scaremongering we are seeing today and its all a ploy to bring in sweeping changes to the way the country is run, there were loads of single parents after the war, many because they lost husbands in the war and they weren’t sent off to work the minute they were single, they were allowed the choice and given the support of the benefits system to give their children a good upbringing and to be there to support their child, i don’t want childcare paid for so i can go back to work, i want the right to bring my children up, to be there for them when they finish school and to make them their food without feeling like i am a drain on society because i don’t want my children to go to after school clubs and childminders. it used to be that single parents were given until their child was 16 to take care of them and they weren’t classed as unemployed. they were classed as unavailable for work unless they wanted to go out and work full time. everyone shouts about family values because there are fewer parents bringing up their children and more leaving them with childminders and after school clubs, and now we are shouting about rights for the sick and disabled but what will we be doing in 20 years time when there are fewer benefits to help the sick, will we be putting disabled relatives into homes and ignoring them because the government don’t help those wanting to care for their families. we are going backwards in time not forward, this government isn’t supporting family values and it isn’t helping the families who need it most.
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Actually, I felt empathy for the claimants. It showed them dealing with the having enough money to live on, scrabbling to make ends meet, children going hungry, people turning to crime to live, people threatened with eviction because of the bedroom tax and one woman trying to help her neighbours. It showed the community pulling together. That is the reality for people living a hand-to-mouth existence and Channel 4 succeeded in portraying it like it is.
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I managed to watch it in increasing horror as it was inevitable what the reaction would be. “Sympathetic”? That would require some real reportage of the value of benefits, what people actually get, how it has diminished, and especially the disabled – who are in this piece of shite were represented by a recovering drug addict/ alcoholic.
They could have also included at least a reference to the reality of sanctions, what they are, and how they are applied, rather than focus on those committing fraud.
The rest of us, trying to achieve a life style of shabby gentility will never be of use to these idiots and fifth columnists. We are, however the majority, as Jack is like many single mums.
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Sorry, but most benefits are paid to people in work.
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I’ve been reading the same tyoe of comments on Facebook, it makes you wonder whether or not cameron sponsored this as he makes no secret about despising the poor.
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Pingback: Threats of death and violence after Channel 4 programme Benefits Street
I eat one meal a day. A lay awake at night, with hunger pains. I am on pay as you go Gas and Electric, I can only afford one, so it has to be electricity. Its officially as cold in my flat as it is outside. From the beginning of December till today (07-01-2014) I have applied for 57 separate jobs. I haven’t even had one reply. There are no jobs for me where I live,what’s the alternative? Someone tell me? Where’s my documentary?
I hate the vilification of the poor and needy. I don’t watch the TV, out of principle. But did the documentary state that no-one, whatsoever can claim JSA without proving they are actively seeking work?
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I agree with Moggy. I know of people where I live who are in the same situation. The programme was focusing on people who could get a job but choose not to and live the way that they do. For those of you who are upset about this programme who are disabled, the programme was not aimed at disability, it did not show a disabled person. We need our eyes opening upto what is happening in our country, people need to take a step back instead of marching forward without thinking (government), I think things have got out of hand. In the Victorian days people lived this way too, its just followed through.
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Neti Murphy just another sad snob.
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That is a very odd comment. Let’s put it like this:
what part of your life would you want a drug addict with 80 convictions, and 200 offences admitted, to pop up in? Supermarket? Street maintenance? Hospital cleaner? Cafe table cleaner?
Now try this one:
as an employer, and a job to fill, and you had 1700 people apply for 7 unskilled roles, and the first one was someone with a history of drug addiction, who would get the job?
Be realistic. By the time someone’s life has become so out of control, getting them to find a job is just nonsense, even in a time of full employment. In times of full employment there has been better care and help for people with multiple problems before they hit the bottom, and even then there used to be help. Trouble was, it can be initially expensive, but a cost benefit analysis shows it save money, and it costs huge amounts to put someone through the justice system & in prison.
But hey, they Tories love their privatised prisons, their paymasters in G4$, so that’s where they have put our money.
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Reblogged this on Leyla's Alternative News and Views.
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The best comment so far
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The coments made here are not only worring but deeply disturbing ….it seems half the nation are fueled by a disire to totally cause, insight a mass extermination of a sector of society a
classism more than likley caused by thisgovernments high taxation on fuel food ect not caring that that sector of society is not accountable for there anger or living standards even if they scraped the welfare system complety and scrapped the NHS (and if we believed what we read in the national press , is now only used by drunks ) the high cost of living would still continue and the “work till you drop” attitude.
The only very real truth would be you better not get sick have an accident because if you havnt paid high insurence your going to be in a life threatening situation with no where to turn.
The other half of society are apathetic and prepared to stand back and allow the dismantle of all public saftey nets as they think it dosent concern them it concerns us all .
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Are the characters real of plain old actors?
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or not of – typo
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Reblogged this on Vox Political.
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Why have you sensored what is essentially public posts on twitter?
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Pingback: Threats of death and violence after Channel 4 programme Benefits Street | Fabulous Fifi
Already planned and heading to your local council, M&S, Tesco, Poundland, Salvation Army, and many many more.
It’s called workfare, and it is institutionalised slave labour. People expected to work for 35 hours, getting £71 benefits – you work it out – £2 per hour. Would you be able to work 35 hours a week, and then look for PAID work, and pay for transport, on starvation money? If there is a job in any of these companies that need doing, here’s an idea, how about EMPLOYING someone to do it? The real motivation is the profit factor, or for councils to sack employees and replace them with “free” labour. Those sent on workfare have to do it, or not only loose their benefits, but loose them for up to three years. Really great yes? And if some petty official or a co-worker at workfare think you’re not “doing enough” or “not taking it seriously” or maybe have the wrong whatever-sets-your-prejudices-off, well, they can get your benefit sanctioned and you will STILL be expected to toil for absolutely nothing.
Oh and also note – you’re not allowed to go on training courses or education while claiming out of work benefits. Apparently it means you can’t spend every waking hour job searching.
So could you help me understand from your perspective, how your scheme would help (1) the unemployed find work (2) be “”good” for the unemployed and disabled already pushed into servitude and (3) improve the employability of those in need of training?
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Oh dear, the trolls are here.
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Yeah, a whole 7 people out of every thousand claimants are receiving benefits either fraudulently OR *IN*ERROR* (often error at DWP end). Such a huge number that, isn’t it?
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I stopped watching this spurious and irresponsible programme. This government has targeted the poor, the needy and the vulnerable of this country. It is nothing to do with austerity measures it is all about an ideology to dismantle the welfare state. They have successfully used propaganda and skewed statistics to make the poor of this country the pariahs of society. The people who caused this crisis the bankers and the rich friends of the Tory party have not been subjected to similar vitriolic outpourings. It iis becoming like Nazi Germany when the use of propaganda successfully made scapegoats of the Jews. Hitler blamed the Jewish community for the recession and financial hardship endured in Germany post- ww1. This government is using the same tactics, and it a diversion, whilst they are continually keeping the focus on the poor by stealth they give tax cuts to the rich of this country, allow their friends to use loop holes in the tax system to avoid paying their fair share of tax. This country had a strong tradition of collectivism, people fought and died so that the less fortunate could lead more equal lives and in a few short years Cameron and his cronies have taken us back to the Victorian era, eroded the rights and benefits that ,my predecessors fought to achieve
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Reblogged this on Launchpad: By and for mental health service users and commented:
Shameful by Ch4
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If you’ve read 1984, you’ll have noticed a chilling similarity to the part when at the cinema, ppl are whipped up into a hate frenzy when shown pics of their alleged ‘enemy’.
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I agree with Lola Lou totally,i have Just been in a charity shop for a browse and this lovely family came in..Dad was a face i am sure i saw in a certain electric goods store and sold us a tv,by the time they left i was so angry and almost in tears..they were looking for first shoes for the baby and were visiting every charity shop to find some,so tell me channel 4 and all you pathetic morons who voted for this bunch of evil cretins how have a little family like this caused austerity …2014 and it’s acceptable for people to be abused and vilified for not working..my town was a really good place for aero industry Jobs. there are no jobs left at all now.Except care homes.What hope or future is there for the coming generations some one must at least try to rebuild the country…from the bottom up..not top down…nothing grows with out strong roots.
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I think you’ll find it’s TAX DODGERS MEWS RESIDENCE.
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I agree with the claims that the elites of this nation also are a cause for concern. But for all those who would be so quick to defend the people in the documentary – how would you feel if the govt purchased a section of housing in your street and moved these people in? Would your right-on attitudes protect you and your hard-earned resources? Do you think that being around a better section of society (i.e. you) would bring these people up? Or would they rather destroy what they have been given and then destroy yours as well? As my upper-working class Nan said when a bunch of drunk, bloody chavs were put into beds opposite hers in A&E one night – ‘they aren’t like us’.
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These comments are breaking both the Malicious Communications Act and Serious Crime Act but the program itself is incited them in the first place with such a biased program.
If you’d like to complain to Ofcom about the program visit.
http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/tv-and-radio
Report hate crime to the Police. http://www.report-it.org.uk/your_police_force
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The obvious exception to what I said was the guy with the micropayment products. What a great man, obviously more intelligent and capable than his circumstances. Someone ought to employ him just on the evidence of this documentary.
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I totally agree with you, Harry Trotter. Why don’t these programmes show people like my son who is wheelchair bound and has learning difficulties (and will never get a job), being verbally abused in the street? Or my wife, who is his carer, struggling to care for him because of her Rheumatoid Arthritis and other medical conditions – it would cost the government more if he had a place of his own or if he was in a care home! I am also unable to work ever again because of an accident at work two years ago. Yes, we are on benefits – and having to pay rent because I get Industrial Injuries Benefit, and having to pay the dreaded Bedroom Tax because we need a room for our son’s medical equipment!
All the media channels are making people target the unemployed and disabled, but they won’t produce programmes about that, will they?
If I was able to work, I would emigrate away from this Nazi run country they call GREAT Britain!
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It’s funny, all of these posts ‘set fire to the street’ ‘spay them’ etc. Obviously the people making these comments seem to believe they are in some way superior to the people in Benefits street yet their comments are possibly the most ignorant thing I have ever read. I pity the people making these comments, I really do. Such ignorance, such uneducated, rude comments. These comments really show me who in fact is ‘scum’.
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What I find troubling is that working class people “on benefits” are automatically scapegoated as feckless and morally defective, whilst the middle class person with a good job is portrayed as being hard-working and virtuous.
In my experience, the people making big money from drug-dealing often have good jobs, own their own homes in pleasant middle-class areas and rarely take any of the risks themselves. These people exploit the poor, the desperate and people with mental problems by “helping them” by lending them drugs and small amounts of money (in a similar way to how a paedophile grooms a child). Many of these poor people have never had anyone “help them” before and become loyal subjects to the middle class dealer with his flash car and designer clothes, who becomes a role model and best friend to them.
Often the punters buying Class A drugs like Cocaine which costs something like £40/gram have good jobs and come from middle-class backgrounds themselves So the demand for these drugs come from the middle classes, the lion’s share of the profits from selling these drugs go to the middle class dealers, whilst the poor people who do the street deals to buy fags and alcohol are the ones who end up with the ten year prison sentences. What percentage of adults in prison have the mental age of a child? Look at how on Benefit Street those committing petty crimes were happy to be filmed breaking the law, nobody of even average intelligence would be so stupid.
Normal, decent people don’t blame the child for the crimes of the paedophile, so why blame the people of “Benefit Street” for the desperate, chaotic state of their short, poverty-stricken lives. It wasn’t the unemployed couple growing weed in their spare bedroom that caused the global financial crisis. It wasn’t the mentally-ill man with 200 convictions for shoplifting that decided to export millions of British job to India to cut costs. In the current economic climate, even the most hard-working person can lose their job, fail to find another quickly enough and slide down the slippery slope into poverty, social exclusion, depression and despair.
TV programmes like Benefit Street are engineered to displace blame from the politicians, the bankers and the corporate heads that have caused the problems facing ordinary people today and instead project it onto the very weakest members of society. These kind of TV programmes contribute to the hate and prejudice that exist in the world and is why homeless people are set on fire in their cardboard boxes.
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‘Work is available – it’s just whether those deem the wage a worthwhile trade off for loss of leisure time, which for the majority in this show is alcohol and drug abuse.
‘
I’m struggling to find work; I have a post grad and a long work history- what I don’t have due to a decade of being a Carer and isolation is a second reference. I am still a Carer, I just know my mental health won’t take another decade of this isolation so am ready to offload some to my husband, if I can find work that makes up for the wages he would lose.
I don’t get the castrate comments, do they beleive nobody ever lost a job after having children? If they do they are too dim for their opinion to matter anyway.
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To be fair, the programme wasn’t entirely biased or ‘agenda ridden’ – that guy who went from house to house selling stuff at just 50p a go, to try and help his neighbours out (and giving them stuff when they couldn’t afford even 50p) : to me, that guy was a hero. He must have got some applause even from the hard-hearted scum who posted on Twitter? At least they couldn’t accuse him of not getting off his backside and trying!
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I take my hat off to you, i could not have put that better myself.
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In places with large numbers of unemployed people it is not uncommon for over 400 people to apply for a single vacancy. If there are more people unemployed than there are job vacancies then it is mathematically impossible for everyone to have a job.
If there were more jobs available than there were unemployed, I’m sure many of the people on “Benefits Street” would be in work. In the 1950s and 1960s when the government had a full employment policy almost everyone in Britain worked, people could quit their job one day, walk down the street and start a new job the next day.
In the 1980s the politicians decided that “unemployment was a price worth paying” and the full employment policy was dropped. Since then we have always had millions of people unemployed, you can hardly blame the poorest people in society for a change in the economic priorities of the government or the impact of globalisation.
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So you want UKIP to get in, so they can remove the pitiful levels of worker rights we currently have and everyone will be forced into slave labour?
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Reblogged this on Guy Debord's Cat and commented:
Channel Four have, once again, shown us how far they’ve travelled from their former position as an innovative broadcaster. These days the channel flits between posh people helping other posh people to buy homes to outright voyeuristic trash like “My Big Gypsy Wedding”. Last night C4 took a leaf from Channel 5’s book and screened “Benefits Street”. Programmes such as these are produced for one purpose only: to give certain sections of the public a chance to indulge in a weekly 60 minutes of hate. The distorted picture of benefit claimants as pathologically workshy, shiftless and criminally-inclined is one that this venal government has worked tirelessly to construct. However it’s odd that the real villains (those who cheat their tax, for example or those companies who are addicted to state handouts) are given a free pass. C4 should not only hang its head in shame but those responsible for producing programmes like “Benefits Street” should be prosecuted for inciting hatred.
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Reblogged this on Blog By Lightsourcetrickster and commented:
Must be wonderful to be *that* popular!
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Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
This shows you just how far the former radical channel has sunk. It was founded to present genuinely alternative programming, with its head, Jeremy Isaacs, enthusing about ‘miner’s oral history’, as well as shows, like the Mahabharata, the great Hindu epic, aimed at ethnic minorities. And the channel duly delivered. Admittedly, it also carried shows like ‘Right Talk’, catering for Tories, but there was genuinely radical and alternative programming, often of a very high quality. Then it was re-invented in the 1990s as another commercial channel pretty much like the other terrestrial channels. Now it has gone one step further, and produced a rabid piece of demonization that has provoked its viewers into a violent hatred of the poor and jobless in general. Dear God! When faced with this, you really do long for a return to some of the old Reithian values.
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In fact it is imperative that the number of potential workers outstrips the number of jobs as this helps suppress wages and increases profits… Even thatcher knew this and as a nod to its affects slid a huge proportion onto “the sick” to hide the true employment numbers… she was also intelligent enough to keep benefits (both sick and ub) at a moderate level to make sure the masses didn’t revolt, then she screwed it up with the introduction of the poll tax which had one huge side effect (1), it pissed of the formally compliant out of work and in work “poor” alike.
This gov has failed to see the mistakes of the past and just started off from the points and policies that screwed the pooch for Thatcher, all purely ideological policies and demonisation of the poor, sick, and unemployed; no doubt instilled in them due to their educational backgrounds, a PPE, an idolised love of “thatcher” in here most vociferous hatred of the “working class” and “union scum” and membership of the bullingdon club.
(1) I should say that I actually thought the idea of the poll tax was not a bad one, per-say, but its implementation was hugely poor and unworkable, when first muted I assumed it would take the council tax, divide it by a nominal 3, then multiply by the number of over 18’s resident, or some such calculation… small households would gain (as they used less) and larger household would loose (they used more) instead it seemed as though the implementation was “take the CT amount, ignore it and pull a higher figure out of thin air, then multiply that by the number of 18’s”
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Exactly. If you didn’t like the programme then perhaps you should ban channel 4 in your household. The only thing that will affect their attitude is a massive national drop in their ratings. I think I’ll do that and send them an email saying why i have. Can you imagine what would happen if we all did that!
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First of all there are many reasons why people are overweight, others have enumerated some. Being unemployed can be very stressful one response to this is comfort eating.
I am a comfort eater (for reasons other than unemployment as it happens) and loosing the weight was a struggle. If you think size 14 is morbidly obese you really don’t know what you are talking about. 7 years ago I was a size 28 – now that is morbidly obese!
I am now a size 12 and yes I do feel I need to loose more but then I’m only 5ft tall. For many size 12 is perfectly OK.
The size zero culture is another way in which people are marginalised this time by weight/size not lack of money or job. The fat come in for a lot of abuse – I should know! If the fat are known to be unemployed as well the abuse knows no bounds as that twitter feed showed.
We all need to take Martin Luther King’s advice and judge people by the content of their character not the colour of their skin or indeed their size or their economic circumstances.
This government encourages us to do otherwise we need to ask who benefits from this.
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I don’t see any difference between these people and the Muslim protests threatening to behead people for insulting Islam. What some of them have said constitutes a criminal offence in the UK ie incitement to commit murder. Other people have been prosecuted, some even for insinuating certain things. This lot should be treated no differently. I’m really sick of the number of TV programmes about benefit claimants. The economic reality is that the government does not need to cut or borrow anything at all, as it has the ability to print as much money as it needs to bring unemployment down and vreate full employment. However, the Tory party are ideologically opposed to the welfare state and will do anything to destroy, no matter the human cost.
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Reblogged this on The Greater Fool.
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One of the hashtags these cretins was trying to start was #stoptherebenefits (sic). These morons can’t even spell when they’re hating on others!
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It’s not ignorance. It’s evil, and it emanates from the highest echelons of the ruling parties of Britain (even Labour has been sucked in.) If anyone needs to be lynched, it’s not benefit recipients but willfully mean-spirited and rotten-hearted politicians.
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The 0.7% figure is not the number of claimants, it’s the amount of money lost to fraud, so it would be more accurate to say for every £7 claimed fraudulently, £1000 is spent on genuine claimants.
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Yep. Journalism is power without responsibility. Media laws about objective reporting dictate that government can get a news story about something as small as the cat at number ten going for a walk to cover the front pages to act as a smoke screen whilst they try and pass crippling laws behind our backs
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I can understand that it really annoys people but not all people on benefits are scroungers my partner lost his job due to the company letting people go and has not been able to find a job since he attends a job interview at every chance one comes up but never gets the job and im now qualified to be a teaching assistant but i keep getting told that there are no applications for any jobs in the area i live in but am applying out of my area and still no luck but what makes me angry is there’s genuine people out there looking for work and then u get the ones that cant be bothered and like to sit in a bookies or a pub all day and don’t get their benefit stopped but my partner missed an appointment he didn’t know about and had his money sanctioned its not right at all why are the genuine ones being punished and the ones who cant be bothered getting away with it.
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Jane Murphy you are spot on. This Government are taking us to a place that I never thought I would live to see – it happened in Nazi Germany as you rightly point out with their disgusting propaganda against Jews, Homosexuals, Disabled and Gypsies and there is more than a hint of this in what is happening in the UK today.
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To create a stereotype based on a minority is irresponsible and is as far from a solution as you could get, all it does is incite misguided hatred …. what if I was to say all politicians are, mmmm maybe not a good example that.
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The programme was blatant tory propaganda designed to show that anyone on benefits is a workshy scrounger! The truth is that the majority of people on benefits would rather be in work! About time these journalists stopped sitting in the tory pockets and actually showed people who desperately want to work and how this poor excuse for a tory government could not care less!
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To create a stereotype based on a minority is irresponsible and is as far from a solution as you could get, all it does is incite misguided hatred …. what if I was to say all politicians are lying scum, mmmm maybe not a good example that.
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I am so ashamed of the country I fought for, I fought to protect the freedom of speech these morons are using. We have now got a feral society, its what the condems want serf fighting serf fighting for the scraps off the lordships tables. Many years ago our ancestors fought a ciil war to stop this sort of thing happening they will be turning in their graves.
I allways said the hooray henries of this world were the most dangerous to our way of life and I am being proved correct by this, I can hear them braying in the country seat at the display of last nights drivel.
I dont know if our society is so far gone that we allow this to happen I blame the media for bringing this to our doorsteps with their lust for a “story” Get rid of them.
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The Tory’s have very strong connections with the media, something that seems to be forgotten and the lengths they’ll go to manipulate it, for one minute i’m not convinced they had nothing to do with the phone hacking scandel, they thrive on control and surveillance and use the media as a tool, wasn’t Esther Mcvile a Channel 4 presenter, they really have been taking tips from Hitlers book of influence, very dangerous.
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I agree wholeheartedly with both Roy and Jane, almost every night on the Nazi propaganda channel (AKA BBC) we see some pink cheeked well fed wealthy self promoting coalition MP trotting out the party line which is mostly composed of lies. This feeble excuse of a government comprised as it is of party sheep, liars, thieves, wealthy clowns keen on social experiment, and not forgetting the odd mass murderer. Instituting massive division on our country almost exactly as Germany did in the 1920s and 1930s, thus far they have been fairly successful in so far as the sick, the poor, the disabled, the unemployed, the ill, the pensioners, are now being labeled by Cameron and Ian Duncan Smith as scrounging scum taking all and giving nothing back, so they’ve created the smokescreen to try and disguise their immoral thieving lying cheating activities, hell these swine even granted themselves a legal term in government so we cannot legally get rid of them. Were we asleep? Or were we conned? Let’s get a petition going listing each and every coalition MP we have no confidence in and whom we believe is a menace to this, OUR country, let’s also include anyone whom we believe is committing a crime against humanity. We also need to demand resignations of the real dummies. Let’s produce this report prior to the election and watch the bastards squirm.
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As a gentle reminder – Ch 4 is actually a form of Public Service Television. It’s part funded by HM Govt (with revenue from advertising).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_4
I’m a little surprised it’s not on Channel 5 (whose stable mate is The Daily Express)
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Now compare this programme with the massive gap between the perception and the reality of benefits…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/voters-brainwashed-by-tory-welfare-myths-shows-new-poll-8437872.html
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I’ve experienced plenty of discrimination, verbal abuse, even physical assault over the years that I’ve been disabled. They’re not just keyboard warriors.
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What chance will anyone have of getting a job on that street now.. everyone there will be classed as the same.. and so will the neighbouring streets.. and everyone who is unemployed. what employer would risk hiring anyone who is unemployed
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(Quote from DS’ Comment) “my local MP claimed a £75 kettle on expenses and laughed it off ” – there you have it folks, i have no idea who this lady or gentleman is but when taken in the context of the comments on here and all round “Austerity” – it turns my stomach…and thats not out of envy, that’s pure disgust. One mans income for the week buys a KETTLE for an MP! Politicians of all parties should understand the action of their policies lead to certain consequence. Oh, and its funny how now a centre-right party is in – Prices can go Up – and seem to go down – till the humble man / woman on the street realise they’ve been had.
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Good Gods. I was not going to say something on this subject at all but after seeing the comment above this, I am utterly dumbfounded. The size of a woman’s clothes is not only determined by her lifestyle, but also on her bone and muscle structure. Healthy women can range from a size eight to a size 14-16 purely because of their one and muscle structure. Saying that a size 14 woman is “obese” is really awful. I’m a size 16! Why? Because I have been abused by a local priest, bullied by students and teachers my entire life and even at my most active, I was called “fat” and “useless” by the kids and teachers at my schools (of which I have been to five because of these VERY issues as well as a move out of London which my parents saved up for about 15 years) because I was and am not a fast runner and/or swimmer, I fare better over distance. All this meant that, I comfort ate, and instead of getting my qualifications at the “correct” age of 16, I got them at 17 and even then, I failed three of the essential ones. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. I am supposed to have been a STRAIGHT A STUDENT from a working class family originating from North London. It gets better from there, I also have chronic depression and Asperger’s Syndrome (High Functioning Autism) all of that has led to issues such as social anxiety and a form of OCD that means I’m known to self harm (my college tried to get a check on me to see if I was safe to be around other people in the college because of that) I should have gone to university but I haven’t. Instead, I am at home trying to get a job in a part of the UK that hates the disabled, especially where the disability/disabilities are invisible and will only employ you if you were born in the area so you can imagine how hard it is. But I try not to let that wear me down even if it makes me feel like I am sub-human half the time. I’m grateful for the fact that I do not yet have a family because I don’t know how I would cope as a single mum looking for a job and studying at the same time. Yes, I study through the Open University just to increase my chance of getting a job even though I can’t afford it and I am determined to get a PhD in Dark Age and Mediaeval History with Funerary Archaeology not only because it’s a subject I love, but also so that I am going to be able to look after my parents when they’re in their winter years. I’m fortunate enough that they are more then willing for me to still be living here when I’m only 12 weeks off being 19. Yes I get benefits but a vast majority of it, I deliberately put into actually getting better which I do through exercise and I’m gradually squirreling away little bits and bobs of my JSA and DLA into savings because I don’t think my pension will be worth ANYTHING! They make you search for anywhere from ten to sixty jobs a fortnight as well.
So there you go, I am an intelligent and more then capable woman who can do a good job, on benefits because of the past, no jobs going and not being given a chance, on benefits and juggling studying with looking for a job and getting better.
I hope that’s food for thought for all those who think that everyone on benefits are thick scroungers.
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Pingback: Threats of death and violence after Channel 4 programme Benefits Street | Jay's Journal
I also forgot to mention that my parents are working class. My father is a truck driver who we often don’t see from Sunday to Friday because that’s the nature of his work. They cut as many costs as they can by turning our back garden into a veg garden.
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It’s a sad society when food that has no nutrients at all is cheaper then fresh produce.
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FAIR????????????????????????? fuck off
What planet are you from – the tories and new labour previously have spent 10 years demonising the unemployed and the poor – how much lower does this have to get??????????????
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“Prince William “should not be discriminated against” for his blue-blooded background while studying for his Cambridge course, according to a professor.
The Duke of Cambridge started a “bespoke” 10 week agricultural course at St John’s College today.
Prof Ross Anderson, of Cambridge University’s computer laboratory, told the Cambridge News no one who attends a specialist course should face prejudice “because of the circumstances of their birth”.
funny that!
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Reblogged this on The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive and commented:
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).
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This is the thin edge of a precision government engineered wedge. The ill, the disabled, the old and the poorly educated next the poor can all “Do the right thing” and fuck off and die.
Welcome to the UK that the politicians have a believe we deserve
Tommaz Jay
Drowning in the shit of politicians
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I don’t watch TV, but due to the subject matter and press attention I watch ‘Benefit Street’ on 4OD.
Firstly I would like to send out my support to some of the people featured in the program. It is clear to anyone with half a brain these people have been duped in to taking part. ‘Fungi’ a man who suffered child abuse and subsequently struggled in his adult life with various addictions was a grotesque abuse of information. It was clearly not a subject he spoke of due to the fact ‘White Dee’ a friend and aid had no prior knowledge on the matter.
I found the episode incredible intrusive and unfair. Whilst there were ‘characters’ with whom I struggled to relate to and sympathise with, on the hole I found it very difficult to watch these people try to struggle through daily life knowing they had been hung out to dry by the production company and Channel 4. ‘White Dee’, as far as the episode showed, and the ’50p Man’ are genuine, kind people. They have hardly been spoken of in the press (I have read to date). Its clear the aim of the product company involved, Channel 4 and the media in general are only interested in slandering and belittling people in an effort to make money in selling the programme, the channel and their papers.
Who cares about the people who’s lives have been turned upside down? Who cares about the children featured in the programme? Who cares that these people have been slandered, duped, sold out and as a result are now being slated and ridiculed? Not the people interested in making money out of them that’s for sure!
Does no one think to question why the government announced 24 BILLION POUNDS IN WELFARE CUTS the day this show aired!? Talk about propaganda! Exactly how much are the people of the UK prepared take before we say enough is enough?
My suggestion is to watch the programme with a different mindset. Don’t watch it with the intention of ridiculing these people, watch it and actually see them as human beings. Not a statistics. Not a problem. Not propaganda. Not as anything lower than they are worth.. They ARE human beings, just like YOU. On the hole THEY ARE NOT THE PROBLEM!!!
Never take someone elses word for it, do your own reserch into the REAL problems behind the situation… BEDROOM TAX, WELLFARE CUTS, BANKERS BONUSES, CORPORATE TAX EVASION, MP’s EXPENSES, THE UKs GROWING DEPT..the list could go on and on… These are the REAL problems. ‘Benefit Street’ is, unfortunately, nothing more than propaganda to distraction from the REAL problems at the expense and demise of the unknowing individuals who took part. And finally question: What are the prospects of these individuals finding gainful employment after such a programme?
Shame on Channel 4 and the UK people who have bought into it with such ferocity and hate!
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Sorry maths failure for every £7 spent on fraud, £9993 is spent on genuine claimants
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The letter should be addressed (or copied in to) Love Productions, the people responsible for making the programme –
http://www.loveproductions.co.uk/
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Can I ask one question? Would a Labour government help change this vile, malicious, stupid culture that is polluting Britain?
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I can’t believe that out of this programme you complain about the media… ok so they sensationalised the situation and put it over in a provocative way, that is exactly what the media do so why the surprise.
But the sad truth is that the people and the likes of the people they covered do exist, moreover I do not for one moment believe that they are a minority.
We all know that there are deserving and normal people in a bad situation that are on benifits, the out rage is not at them. No we don’t all think that everyone on benefits is living it up, those ligitamately claiming are often not even getting what they are entitled to and nor are they thieving underhand liers that are coining it in from ill gotten gains whilst on their benefit basic salary.
Like the recent programme about shop lifting, these programmes highlight a growing problem that is only getting worse.
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Well said!
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Pingback: Demonisation of the poor by Globally Attuned
When that black woman phoned up to apply for a job on Gumtree (a proper site), that the jobcentre had probably told her to use, the ‘care worker’ ad was a lie. It was a dodgy random bloke who ordered her to have sex with him. HE is the scum we should be going after.
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I would bet those twitter comments are from Trolls, they know well it is an intense issue and so will jump all over it and upset anyone with a soul, whether the issue is unemployed, black, white, gay, lesbian etc etc they will be there like flies on poo, very sad bullies.
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Oh jeez what a diatribe of left wing, liberal apologists. Norman Tebbit summed it up – get on your bike. Get up in the morning, find a job. If you can’t find a job get into education and make yourself employable.
Ooh I have a hormonal problem, ooh I have mental issues, I have a disability. Yes well deal with them – do something and stop expecting me to feed, clothe and house you through my tax. Why should I? If you genuinely need I’m happy to help, after you’ve cancelled your Sky subscription, returned your mobile and started to buy Tesco value lines rather than Tesco finest!
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Well done florence! Council work could be:
_Picking up litter (Bad back, standing, cold/wet weather, walking, broken glass, drugs/blood HIV needles; get abused or attacked in the street as ‘workfare scum’/confused with convicted criminals on punishment orders)
-Cleaning off graffiti (You didn’t do the graffiti. All the above plus allergies to cleaning products)
-Cleaning up dog mess (really gross. No PPE provided. Go home every day often to no washing facilities or spare clothes, covered in and stinking of dogshit. Which boosts your employability massively!! People will be being sick, passing out or getting ill, eg going blind. Plus all the above other reasons re. outdoor work)
-Cutting tree branches etc (all the above plus danger of things falling on you, power tools)
-Working in old people’s home (Indoors, but have to do lifting, toileting. No good if you can’t do it physically. And you’re not checked, so could be an abuser/thief etc. Nothing to stop you verbally abusing or bullying patients, ditto if sent to work with kids or disabled, or learning disabled people)
Councils don’t seem to have other jobs anyway.
If you’ve finished workfare and are sick/injured there, you get no time off or compensation, and are sent straight back onto more workfare, while being expected to look fulltime for work!
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Man, 4’8″, disabled, on benefits. 40kg, ‘skeletally thin’. Officially either underweight or ‘just about heavy enough for height’. Unable to gain weight, fat or muscle. Normal thyroid. Non smoker, teetotal, no drugs, strict vegetarian, athlete. Have also ME/CFS, so constantly weak and tired. Lung infection for last 4 months, difficulty breathing now made much worse. Asthma, epilepsy, allergies, bad immune system.
After rent and bills I’ve almost nothing to live on. A pack of economy pasta for two days has gone up to 40p and that is now more than I can afford a lot of the time, bearing in mind I now eat 250g of it once every 2 or 3 days. And nowt else.
Wanna swap ‘lifestyles’, IDS?
PS I have not resorted to criminal activity to stay alive. I wish they didn’t get away with saying we all do it.
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Excuse my typo, I meant to say most benefit claimants are employed, we often hear about getting people off benefits and into work when many people merely come off JSA, start work and are still on benefits, once again apologies for my typo.
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Have you also noticed how the media now love the immigrants they hated a few weeks ago
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Chris I think you may have missed the point a little. The problem is stereotyping, scapegoating, propaganda, misrepresentation, distraction, misleading information, exaggeration and misinformation. I think for the purpose of the discussion it would be helpful if you could in fact clarify your source for the following statement..
“moreover I do not for one moment believe that they are a minority.”????
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Pingback: Inciting hatred is a crime. | Social Action
Ni hao, wu mao?
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Apparently, the threats made on Twitter are being investigated too, but not necessarily by the West Midlands police.
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Me too. I have told him that I hope he loses everything he has and has to go to a foodbank.
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This was irresponsible programming intended to fuel people’s stereotypes of benefit claimants.
The film crew was actually filming for a whole year in that road in Birmingham, but with careful editing, the parts that showed the community in a good light were edited out. The programme ended up concentrating mainly on only a handful of the road’s residents.
One resident on ‘Midlands Today’ said they had been duped into taking part as they were told that it was about being part of a community and community spirit.
They do not blame the film crew but the way it was edited afterwards.
The people of Birmingham are saying that once again, a poor image of Birmingham is being shown to the rest of Britain and has put back relations years
So please think again when seeing programmes like this, instead question why and do not take it at face value.
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Agreed, thick bullies who know nothing & can solve nothing!!!
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Probably the evil bastard…..
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It was a deplorable and biased attack on the Welfare State. None of the TV channels are looking at the continued and self serving financial disparities of the political system
Who works for a company that asks you to work away from home and ends up buying you another house?
Why don’t the politicians attack the tax avoidance issue? Solving that problem has the potential for raising over £100 BILLION! Let’s be fair, it was David Cameron who brought it to public view when he named Jimmy Carr (Labour supporter), but shut up quickly when Gary Barlow (Tory supporter) was mentioned
Does anybody else feel that the media is saying thank you to David Cameron for not implementing the recommendations after the News of the World scandals?
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Give me a left wing liberal apologist any day over the closed minded with a leaning towards fascism. Or maybe you were just over impressed when you were taught a little Nietzsche. He cried over a beaten horse, but that didn’t deter Hitler from turning his philosophy into a means of inciting hatred. Sky subscription and Tesco’s finest on £70.00 per week??? Why the diatribe against the disabled? Great mindset – a girl in my village with cancer died recently. They informed her she was fit for work, and stopped her money just weeks before. She lived her last few weeks sleeping on a friends floor, as she had no money for rent, and living off food parcels – you must be proud that we in the UK have brought things to this, and you blame the sick for it and make facetious comments!!!! It is by no means a one off. The disabled and sick are killing themselves at an unprecidented rate as they are stripped of the means of living, but no employer wants a sick worker (in fact they have a tendancy to force them out if they are employed prior to getting a long term disability), Can we please ensure that if you get, say, cancer my taxes don’t go to paying for your treatment or upkeep, since you obviously wouldn’t want us to, under your ethical system. And of course we shan’t need to pay for you your relations end of life care either (try to get insurance for that one). As a society we care for our weak, or we are not entitled to call ourselves a civilisation. Seriously, amoral as you are, I would still be prepared to ensure that you and yours did not actually die of starvation, cold, or a cureable disease, just because there were not enough jobs to go round, or you were too ill to work. Any other way would be selfish, and certainly would be neither humanist or Christian, and against most other religions and ethical systems. I pity your lack of empathy. You sound young and untested by life. I hope that you gain some understanding as you get older. This is not left wing – it is sheer humanity.
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totally agree Tracy xx
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Well said Jean, I only hope Don does not need my taxes should he have an accident or illness & be unable to work, wake up Don it can happen to anyone. My husband had and extremely well paid job with excellent benefits and guess what he was made redundant and guess what he now works for minimum wages & guess what we don’t begrudge helping the less fortunate than ourselves. My friend lost her business last September due to the recession & austerity cuts as people just don’t have the money to spend anymore & guess what she is now claiming benefits. My advice to you Don is to wake up before it’s too late. It is disgusting what is happening to our once great Country, where is the compassion, the humanity?? God help us all ..
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If someone did a program called “Muslim Street” “Black Street” or “Jew Street” and portrayed Muslims, blacks or Jewish people as the worst of the worst, they would get arrested for inciting racial or religious hatred. But it’s ok to pour hatred on those who just happen not to have a job. I’m not saying that all people on benefits are good people, but it’s wrong to scapegoat groups because of a few people.
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half of the music and television industry is on drugs, even food godesses.
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Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.
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This is just what our government want, and these same people are the ones that attack the old and handicapped.
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I am a wheelchair user & was spat at & called “scrounger scum” while I was shopping. I am ASHAMED To be British!
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Well said, Jane Murphy, I couldn’t have put it better myself. It’s good to see that some people here haven’t been fooled by this vile propaganda spreading throughout Britain.
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Pingback: Squeezing welfare out of the system | Red Brick
I reported the comments as a Hate Crime.
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Be careful the government and channel 4 don’t twist the argument around to one of doing the country a service by “flushing out those that would attack the unemployed,sick,old, disabled, black, jewish etc.”
They can see the speck in others’ eyes but fail to see the plank in their own that is creating hatred.
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Sorry cant get to Tesco’s Its too far too walk at 5 miles with a broken spine and £70 a week basic rates ESA while ATMOS and the DWP state you are fit for work two days before you are due in for heart surgery dosnt run to the £4.31 it would cost to get their and back on the bus.
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petition….
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/08/benefits-street-petition-series-axed-channel-4
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Exactly, Thomas.
Any more than all black people, Jews, gays, Moslems etc are good people. You get good and bad in all walks of life.
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I like some of your comments, some I don’t like.
Generally speaking, I agree that you can not use the people in the programme as a representation of ALL people on benefits … but, I do not believe that they are all blameless victims either.
The comments I REALLY like are the ones complaining about the current government.
Below are 2 links from the Governments e-petition website, both expired now. 1 is petitioning for the resignation of Cameron and Osbourne, asking for a general election. The 2nd is to stop a proposed badger cull. If memory serves they ran at the same time. (Or at the very least their dates overlapped.)
Approximately 30,000 people signed for the general election verses approximately 300,000 for the prevention of a badger cull.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33327
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257
Now, i’m not saying had there been enough votes they would have been made to resign …. I don’t know how all that works … but in my mind, we the people vote and should there be a vote of no confidence by the people, the current government should step aside for the purpose of a new vote.
The point I am making, however, is approximately 10x more people voted for badgers over a government, that apparently, nobody wants. Other countries are literally up in arms at the disgust of their current government, trying to oust them … while we in Britain fight to save badgers! (No disrespect to badgers!)
Just something to ponder 🙂
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I watched this programme, and was amazed to see that these people, who are claiming to have no job, no money, and no prospects, are openly laughing in the face of the those of us that have always worked hard to achieve what we have, and these people think we should be paying them to sit around, smoking, drinking and go out stealing, so they can have their sky TV, numerous mobile phones and huge flat screen TV’s. Where do they think the money comes from that they receive ? Who do they think picks up the tab for the things they steal ? HONEST HARD WORKING PEOPLE !!! There is no “pot of gold” at the end of the rainbow !! And to say there is “no work” is pathetic, if you want to work, you will find it, whether it’s window cleaning, gardening, car washing, door to door, or whatever, the list is endless, if you want it it’s there, these, and I’m sure there are thousands like them, don’t want to work, and are quite happy for others to subsidise their life for them !!
Irate viewer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Well said, Jane Murphy: I agree with all my heart and soul – and mind! Only one banker has been prosecuted; pitifully few MPs and Lords have been brought to book for fiddling their expenses. When are these people going to be held responsible for what they’ve done? Whether the government likes it or not, and whatever demonisation they bring to bear on the poor, the fact remains that the poor simply don’t have the money to bail out the rich: full stop. That Channel 4 should gleefully compound lies about and misrepresentation of benefits claimants is downright wicked.
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@Hmmmm… You are comparing apples and oranges.
Firstly petitions like those have no real effect, even if they reach the threshold of 100,000 signatures, that only means they *may* be raised in Parliament (if a Committee decides they’re worth raising in the limited amount of time available to them).
Secondly, petitions succeed on how much publicity they get. The anti-cull petition had a lot of backing (support from Brian May of Queen etc) and there was a lot of media coverage and social media sharing which probably contributed to the number of signatures.
Finally, most people realise that a petition calling on politicians to resign and call a government is just a waste of time because it will be ignored. Or, surprisingly, they still believe in our electoral process (even though it’s fundamentally broken).
So, whatever the case, there is no point in comparing these petitions.
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@russell – Oh dear, you have really swallowed the Tory Party line (and hook and sinker) with their constantly trotted out nonsense about “Honest hard working people” as if anyone who needs to claim benefits is a dishonest workshy scrounger.
I have friends who are on benefits who *want* to work, they and many others apply for dozens of jobs, but there are many more unemployed than jobs are available.
Look at the figures instead of the spin and try to understand that benefit fraud is a tiny fraction of the amount that people believe it is, but the Tory propaganda attempts to demonise them all and fool people like yourselves into thinking that that TV programme is representative of most of those who are on benefits.
Oh and it’s clear you have no idea how the benefits system works at the moment, try reading some of the following reasons that people have had their benefits sanctioned (such as not turning up at the right time to sign on because they were at a job interview or spending too much time selling poppies or not looking for work because you’ve got a job starting in two weeks so your benefit is docked for those two weeks!) and then weep for what our country has become.
http://stupidsanctions.tumblr.com/
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I’m not saying that “all” people on benefits are workshy scroungers, but the people on this programme were completely reliant on others subsidising them. I haven’t got sky TV. I haven’t a huge wall mounted flat screen TV, I do have a (1) mobile phone, during the programme someone had four mobile phones. How many of the people on this programme were out “actively” looking for work ? NON !! So please don’t say I have been “sucked in” !! And as far as people having their benefits sanctioned, If you know you have to be in a certain place at a certain time, to ensure you’re benefits are not sanctioned, as you are “so dependant on them” you make damn sure you are were you need to be, and stop trying to flannel your way through !!
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http://refuted.org.uk/2014/01/06/sexindustry
Yes Tom now the DWP gives advice on the sex industry ..how kind.
Btw there is a petition against benefit street and BTC have a blog about it by Owen jones about the media ..
Isnt it a
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What a coincidence this shit program at same time osbourne more welfare cuts
And this hate pouring on top of the 10,000 plus deaths due to welfare reforms…
Btw I a friend took their life after being accused of benefit fraud ..they were very unwell at the time..
And lord fraud admits benefit fraud is quite
Low..why didnt they say that earlier ..
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What is this obsession with flat screen televisions ? Never heard of the switchover to digital ?
Next it will be ” fridges are a luxury ”
Ffs…
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Oh fuck off.. You are not saying …when you bloody well are..fucking hell there are sanction targets you muppet and are talking about sanctioning ppl when the weather is severe. Are you one of these idiots that believe that starvation creates jobs ? A shit tv show is your world view on claimants ? I guess x factor is real and shameless too..
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@graham. Gov UK ” making work pay ” yeah I am sure they contact all the bogus employers making sure the wages are up to scratch..
I see Goves wife is doing quite well from DWP promoting her business..how kind of them
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Russell thinks that everything on telly is real..watch out the telly tubbies are coming for you…
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They are a fucking hate crime..some idiot out there will act on it. Its happened before ..eg “Disabled Are Scum ” message posted on car window of disabled woman BTC blog..then a wheelchair user regularly pushed into traffic..after atos site..
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@gail am sorry you had this ..a friend took her own life because of benefit fraud accusations ..
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I don’t live in fricking mansion or drive about in a free BMW. Despite what Richard Littledick says.. All that coke snorting must have affected him..
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Norman Tebbit had a chip on his shoulder the twat slagged off people as lazy just after Thatcher laid waste to industry..
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Are you really thick or something ..? I think you must be. ‘ the daily mail tells the truth “…you will be saying next..
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People profiting from misery in this case a ministers wife…
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” I do not for one moment believe that they are a minority.”. Yeah and you can easily prove that can you ?
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Er you are wrong…as far as some people are concerned disabled and scroungers is same thing …on many threads I am reading” iI don’t mean those who can’t work only those who don’t want to ” which is then followed up with ” anyway all those disabled are faking it so they are all scroungers “. I can even add ” I don’t care if they are disabled they are just scum “…
Thats the UK today…
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Anthony Wade you even wrote that crap with a sneer….
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@neti that makes you a superior being I guess…
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Vickers. What an ignorant .cnut…
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@gib Of course and you can name every single one of them …
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Hear hear!!!
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@ Graham……
I agree with your first point wholeheartedly, my penultimate paragraph starts off by saying as much, although not directly.
Your second point, I can see your logic, but in my opinion, the politicians / government / policies are in the media week in week out, usually something that the general public are perceived to be not happy about.
So while you may be correct in saying the badger petition directly received publicity, you can not claim that the government received no publicity (although, obviously, the petition itself did not), the publicity of negative government seems almost a daily occurrence, and continues to be.
Your final point, again, I agree with, and therein lies the problem! The petitions are useless, pointless and that in itself is a problem. Why are they not listened to, where do we voice our concerns, what CAN we do???
People claim to be against the current government, yet do nothing about it…. but can they do anything about it? They signed the badger petition, so they thought they could change that, so why not the same for something (I claim to be) more important?
I don’t believe I was comparing apples to oranges, the comparisons point out that, in general, people will take the time to sign a petition to save a badger, but, will not take the time to remove a government that is perceived to be deficient.
Regardless of our differing opinion, apples and oranges are both a type of fruit, so in that sense are comparable….. surely that we can agree on ?
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Hi Tom, inserting a link to this article in my latest blog, as I’m writing an economic response to the show. Hope that’s okay with you. Christian.
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No problem!
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What you believe and the truth are 2 completely different things.
I have no doubt these people exist, but they are very few in number up and down the country, the real people on benefits struggle daily to feed themselves and their families, struggle to find the money to put in the Gas and Electric meters, often spending days with no power or heating huddled together under a quilt on the sofa.
When you (as I did in my younger days) had to stand in the Dole office and BEG for the money I was entitled to just to buy Formulae Milk for a 3 month old baby, then come and tell me I am a scrounger.
It makes me sick to the stomach to see this vile program not because it is untrue, but because it makes idiots like you think everyone who is unemployed sick or disabled is a thief or s scrounger.
And yes I am back on benefits, I suffered four heart attacks, have had surgery six times and now am beyond medical help, I live on pills and pain meds, and handouts from the welfare state. BITE ME
I also over the previous 15 years worked and earned over £75,000 a year and paid Tax and NI at a rate that would make your eyes water. Previous to that I worked as a tradesman and paid my share in tax etc under PAYE rules.
So do not go tarring everyone with the same brush, 99% of claimants have paid in and paid in and paid in.
Benefit Fraud overall is less that 1.6% of the entire benefits budget, and benefit “error” is more than 3% which means a claim has not been correctly assessed either by the DSS or the claimant made an error. That error may well be in favour of the Government, in other words people are not getting the benefits they deserve.
By far the biggest proportion of benefits are paid to pensioners (65% +) the rest of it is made up of IN-WORK benefits such as Tax Credits paid to low paid workers to subsides bad employers who will not pay a living wage. The Tax Credits they get more often than not only just cover the Rent and Council tax, they do not actually get any money as it is gone before they get it.
The real fraud is the fraud perpetrated by the Government and Tory Press who vilify anyone who as much as looks like they are on benefits. Yet it is the Tories and their ilk who are taking the most from this country.
Expenses for Moats and a Duck Houses, 2nd home switching, getting a FREE house to live in from the state, claiming expenses for Food in there 2nd homes, (everyone eats ffs why should we pay for it?). Lowering Taxes for the wealthy while punishing the poor with a bedroom tax, The list is endless…..
How about we impose a Bedroom Tax on the wealthy, anyone with a spare room who earns more than £70k has to pay an extra 3% income tax and moving up on a sliding scale for every 10k by 1% per 10K that will mike there eyes water!
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Oh really?
And your paltry pathetic tax and ni pays about 0.00003 of my benefits.
I have farted better than you into the toilet
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Police have come and have taken a report-The London Met-They are passing it on to their online team and looking at Channel 4’s liability in this.You will get an email or will be contacted for the twitter handles.
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I’m guessing you are not claiming JSA, but a sickness based benefit – and consequently can’t estimate how much you might be getting.
But JSA is something like £71 per week, I think…. Which is £3,692 a year. I’ve just written a check for £3,216.00 to the inland revenue – for the half year 2013/14. I can’t speak for the other guy whose paying the other £476, but I hope my claimant is not as unhappy as the folks portrayed in the programme. In fact, of course I’m supporting 1.74215 claimants in total this year.
Turning to your benefits, at £6,432 equating to 0.00003 of your benefits… That gives us £214,400,000 which is slightly more than the payroll for all 600 MPs while the coalition has been in power!!! Only a little bit of me hopes you filled your claim form correctly, or that Ian clicked inappropriately.
Silly argument to suggest that I should’nt care because its so little
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put a bullet in your brain you retarded small c conservative monkey
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Those people don’t exist you brain dead tory moron and i also don’t believe you.
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Bullet in the brain!!! You are aware that this post is about inciting hatred, guessing that has escaped you.
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Sorry moron your dumb opinion is worth jack and shit
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You really should blow your own brain out with a pistol for being this incredibly dumb and a smelly right-wing turd
People are already fleeing Britain because of a lack of jobs.
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Why shouldn’t people like you be aborted before birth?
MAKES U THINK
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Can someone expose the Facebook comments too? Screenshots and everything and submit it to an internationalist publication?
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Pingback: Benefits Street: Open Letter to Channel Four | Rantings From a Virtual Soapbox
I don’t think there is anything that can be done. To say programmes like that should be banned would be sensorship of the media, which I think everyone can agree would be wrong. But then I agree they go too far. I can only be glad that there are people out there who see it as wrong.
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Left wing or right wing, your comments are frankly disgusting.
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While I have every sympathy for people who cannot work, or who cannot get work, having watched ‘On benefits and proud’last night I despair. People spend thrir benefits on fags, drink, nail etc while , whilecenjoying the advantage of being at home with their children, do nothing to encourage them. Congratulations to the daughter who got a job, and shame on the mother whomput her down instead of congratulating her! Shame on the man who felt his house was’ nt good enough-why not put down his drink and fag, and do some painting.
Congratulations to those who use their benefits responsibly for the good of their families.
Shamevon those who wastectheir benefits, expect more, and have no shame.
Congratulations to those working for little, who cannot afford sky tellies and smartphones, but fee and nurture thaeir families.
No wonder this country is on its knees.
LETS GET BRITAIN GREAT AGAIN!
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Another one falling into the properganda trap-hook line and sinker.
Tommaz Jay.
Drowning in the shit of the political maffia
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Given these people are full of hate, why has whoever done the screenshot even bothered to go to all the effort of opening an image editor and striking out the names of the people behind these vile comments, I’d rather see exactly who they are.
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Indeed. I seem to recall seeing an unedited version out there somewhere.
These people need to be known – so that we can have much less to do with them and their venomous, less than civilized thoughts..
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Congratulations on working for little. Really? This is to be congratulated? In society – or rather the social hierarchy of things – there’s little to be congratulated for when you work for very little or not enough. Those higher up the chain tend to sneer on the those who don’t have that much in the way of social status and material substance. I think you’re very confused – and to be honest with you, I suspect that you’re one of those who thinks – but doesn’t KNOW – that fraudulent claims for benefits far outweigh the genuine ones. In the meantime, whilst you’re quite comfortable supping on your evening glass of plonk, comfortable in the glow of your brainwashing box – sorry, TV – the government is quite happy to have the media portray benefit claimants as absolute scum of the earth. You are as bad as they that should think working for little is sufficient enough to be congratulated, when you and I both know that this government has done everything it can to make everything as impossible to acquire as illegally obtaining gold from Fort Knox.
Just remember this as well: Iain Duncan Smith/The DWP had to defend their decision to stop a university student’s benefits from being stopped. At the same time, people claiming benefits who are genuinely disabled, or genuinely seriously ill, are being made to work when they clearly *should not be working at all*, with the help of ATOS assessments (and this has been documented) that have been *deliberately designed to kick these people off benefits*. in the meantime, we have David Cameron telling people to aspire to be greater!
If you cannot get it into your head that those creatures that are occupying the front benches of the House of Commons are a ruse, a con, a complete waste of space, then you are just as out of touch as they are.
Unfortunately, when it comes to these things, people aren’t cross-referencing and double-checking, and they AREN’T GETTING OUT. STOP WATCHING YOUR BLOODY TELEVISION AND SEE THINGS WITH YOUR OWN EYES. ASK REAL PEOPLE, WHO ARE REALLY DISABLED, REALLY CLAIMING EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING ON and you will get a VERY different picture.
Congratulations to those who aren’t falling this media tripe, shame on those who really do believe what they watch.
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@Tom i think as a species we are doomed…
We went below the gutter ages ago…
As I posted before a close friend took her life after being accused of benefit fraud when was innocent ..noe these rabid ” lets blame someone ” morons want claimants dead…I see the disgusting daily sexpress rrun by a pornographer has jumped on the band wagon by getting some half arsed nobody to ” shame ” the workshy on ” benefit street “…tacky and stupid..
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” congrats for those working for very little ” thankee guvnor for my meagre wages I promise to spend it wisely and pay it into a bank where the nice people there will look after it for me..
Oh and god willing I will pay back my wages
when saved up enough as working for the master is a privilege in itself ..
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@Bob I am surmising that you are referring to the hideous Katie Hopkins? She was given a slot on the Andrew Neil show last Thursday where she spouted her poisonous vile about people on benefits, and spoke in an exceptionally condescending manner to Diane Abbot. Katie Hopkins appears to have made herself the voice of the ‘offended taxpayer.’ However, I think Katie is more concerned with promoting herself, she is a blatant self publicist who has opted for this contentious view as it gains her notoriety and by default air time and space in a sleezy rag. I think we need to vote with our feet, or our remote controls, do not watch these programmes, do not watch any programme that has Katie Hopkins in it and do not buy the papers that spread this propaganda. Giving up is not an option, we cannot roll over and let the right wing fascist win. Collectively we are powerful, and you can hit these people where it really hurts in their pockets.
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@don ” yes well deal with them ” what would be the point ?..more trips to NHS which will cost tax
Payer money…and you will be pissing and moaning about that…
If people took their own lives you would complain about an item on the news about them ruining your telly watching ..
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Benefits Street: Iain Duncan Smith uses ‘poverty porn’ show to justify savage Tory welfare cuts – Mirror Online
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Pingback: Benefits : Poverty Porn that Demeans the Poor | vividhope
i lived there for two years and its nothing like that c4 is a disgrace what they did i was on james turner street today and to everyone complete rubbish
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I think you’re confusing trolling with reasoned debate, and are unwise to try and go down this route with channel 4. You cannot handpick a bunch of moronic comments from Twitter and say that this somehow represents the collective masses, in exactly the same way as you are arguing benefits street is selective and doesn’t represent the large majority of claimants. Channel 4 is also surely not responsible for any idiot with a keyboard – just look at what happened to Caroline Perez and the Jane Austen banknote – was that irresponsible of her because of the death threats it produced against her and her supporters? The fact is Channel 4 has hit gold with this show – it’s their most popular for years – and any TV producer would kill for those stats. That’s the real issue you have to come to terms with – why?
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I respect the fact that you believe it all to be made up….and I wouldn’t go that far but would say it is edited to create reactions. I have no doubt the people on the show are real, but have in some sense been exploited by better educated film producers who can manipulate them into admitting things that others would never air. It is human nature to make judgments. The last show was awash with perfect examples of how most people would never live – fags constantly hanging out their mouths, swearing in front of small children, and living in complete squalor. I think alot of people look at the state of it and think “pick up a brush!” or “stop swearing like a navy deckhand” and in a sense most people can relate to that frustration. And therefore we take sides either defending them (and sometimes patronisingly) or condemning them. Your husband is taking the bait – but then you have swung the other way and refused to see any of it as a problem to do with the individuals responsibilities and blame it all on the nasty government.
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It’s called The Wolf of Wall Street. Unfortunately everyone in Canary Wharf thinks they are heroes http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2543619/How-Wolf-Wall-Street-folk-hero-Britains-bankers-City-traders-dress-honour-sleazy-crook-story-hit-film.html?ico=home^editors_choice
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channel 4 i used to live on that street and was on the same street yesterday u bribed these people your a joke i know alot of people who dont watch channel 4 at all now and i hear u are doing a show on 10th of feb with tennants from james turner st i like very much to this id be careful after what you did you may have a jerry springer show on your hands you deserve nothing this
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Seems labour are jumping to the Torie right wing tune as well.
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i used to live on james turner st i wanted to be invited on show on 10th of feb
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