Poverty Porn: Off Our Streets!

The Birmingham Mail reports today  (I know people in Brum well who have signalled this to me).

It was supposed to a moment of pride for the residents of one of Birmingham’s most deprived neighbourhoods, now infamously known as Benefits Street .

James Turner Street was awarded eighth place in the West Midlands heat of Britain in Bloom.

But the results ceremony, staged at a local school, descended into a battle ground between parents – as ‘White Dee’ accused another mum’s child of biting her son Gerard.

“He’s been bitten,” Dee accuses the women while crossing her arms in anger.

“No-one bites anyone,” she demands, her voice rising as she becomes more irate as the other mum attempts to offer an explanation for the alleged incident and by-standers watch with concern.

The parents are caught on camera by crews filming for the controversial Channel 4 series Benefits Street.

These scenes of anger are due to be screened in the latest episode on Monday night.

It was supposed to a moment of pride for the residents of one of Birmingham’s most deprived neighbourhoods, now infamously known as Benefits Street .

James Turner Street was awarded eighth place in the West Midlands heat of Britain in Bloom.

But the results ceremony, staged at a local school, descended into a battle ground between parents – as ‘White Dee’ accused another mum’s child of biting her son Gerard.

“He’s been bitten,” Dee accuses the women while crossing her arms in anger.

Watched by 4.3million people – far more than any Channel 4 show during, and since, Christmas week – the opening episode was littered with swear words and criminality.

Death threats were made against some of the show’s contributors after shoplifting, theft, benefit fraud, drug taking and anti-social behaviour were featured on the programme.

West Midlands Police officers are viewing the broadcast to assess whether to mount criminal investigations.

The Department for Work and Pensions is also understood to be monitoring the series.

Ofcom received over 400 complaints about the episode, and a petition, calling for Channel 4 to bin the series, has attracted close to 20,000 signatures.

Owen Jones said of this pile of cack,

How edgy Channel 4 must think it is, courageously reinforcing widespread prejudices, heroically hammering away at a message that is heard relentlessly already, bravely echoing the Government mantra about skivers. I hesitate to write about Benefits Street, their miserable programme which aired this week, knowing as I do that I’m partly satisfying its producers’ lust for attention. After all, these are people who seemingly show little concern for people’s well-being in their stampede for ratings. Columns like this one could be passed off by disingenuous TV executives as a sign of the “debate” that their trash has helped to provoke. But the only debate to be opened is why we let our media get away with it.

Johnny  Void comments, with justified anger,

There are few things more unpleasant than a bunch of coked up media wankers deciding it would be a jolly jape to make a film exploiting the lives of people in poverty.

You can imagine the braying laughter as the makers of Channel 4’s Benefits Street egged on people with drink problems to perform in front of the camera, even allegedly supplying them with alcohol to make sure they were shown in the worst possible light.  With clever editing, and in one participant’s case at least, genuinely vulnerable people, it isn’t hard to create the desired freak show.  People perform for the camera.  Fill them full of booze first and film the resulting carnage and watch the ratings soar –  particularly if the group you are stigmatising are already a target of tabloid fuelled hate.

The resulting and all too predictable reaction on twitter, where some people called for benefit claimants to be killed – yes killed – must have been a huge source of amusement to the programme makers.  Boss of documentaries at Channel 4, Nick Mursky, even claims this justified the show, saying to The Guardian that: “the furore surrounding it reinforces my view that we should absolutely be making programmes in this territory.”

Channel Four have been contacting unemployed campaigners during the week asking for our co-operation in a new documentary, for the News programme, about Universal Job Match.

The words, fuck off ! come to mind.