Jeremy Kyle And Labour

This week, it was revealed that the government wants to spend £400 000, so Jeremy Kyle can "highlight the role of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and explore how government policies can help people get jobs."

Meanwhile, in the real world, Elaine Peace, children's services director at the charity NCH:

"I think [Jeremy Kyle's show] is exploiting vulnerable young people ... But because of the extent of their problems, are they really able to consent to it rationally; are they really aware of the repercussions? It seems that these vulnerable people who are bullied and humiliated in their own lives are then bullied and humiliated on screen. The audience jeers, shouts, stamps. It's like a grotesque gladiatorial combat, watching people abuse each other."

Sounds like a perfect match for the DWP so far ...

And today, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that Kyle's show:

"could be viewed as a rather brutal form of entertainment that is based on derision of the lower-working-class population ... The inference to be drawn is that (those experiencing poverty) are not like us and are not deserving of what we have. Public support for anti-poverty measures is that bit more difficult to achieve when programmes such as the Jeremy Kyle Show continue to present those less fortunate in society as undeserving objects to be used for the purpose of public entertainment."

It's hard to take Harriet Harman seriously when, today at the TUC Congress, she talks about tackling the gap between the rich and poor.

Compass found, in 2007, that life expectancy had worsened under Labour, and that infant mortality in the working class had grown under Labour. The share of wealth owned by the top 1% rose, and the share owned by the bottom 50% fell. 1 in 7 children lived in bad housing after 10 years of Labour. Two-thirds of ethnic minorities lived in the 88 most deprived wards after 10 years of Labour.

For 11 years, Labour has maintained the pro-war, pro-privatisation, status quo. It hasn't changed society to benefit working people in Britain. If you choose Jeremy Kyle as your DWP messenger, it just confirms what people are experiencing in the 11th year of a Labour government -- Labour isn't working for working people.

See also: Chicken Yoghurt