BBC Sinks To The Gutter

Over the last few years, the BBC did its bit to contribute to the Credit Crunch with all of the assorted property shows it flooded the screen with that attempted to persuade people that they could make easy money from becoming a property developer, or by simply carrying out some superficial tidying and decorating of their houses when they sold them. The Credit Crunch, which was in part the result of this kind of idea that wealth can come from such activities rather than the need to actually produce something, and the consequent drop in the housing market, fortunately meant that such programmes disappeared from the screen, though they have been quick to try to re-format, now to programmes that in some ways contradict the very things they were previously promoting. But, the BBC must be finding difficulty getting replacement programming - certainly if the dreadful new "comedy" with Dawn French is anything to go by - to attract viewers. Unfortunately, it now seems to be sinking to the level of the Daily Mail, and the other gutter press to do the job.

I had the misfortune whilst changing channels to happen across "Saints & Scroungers" hosted by one of the former property programme presenters, now obviously looking for another easy money job. It was supposed to look at both sides of a coin - the deserving "Saints" in need of benefits and State support, and on the other the benefit cheats. In fact, for what I could stand to watch of the programme, which was even conveyed in the kind of voice that the BBC used to retain, for taking the piss out of Sun Editorials, it was mostly just a chance to depict some people who were engaging in Benefit Fraud on an industrial scale, as being in some way typical of Benefit Fraudsters. The couple depicted had stolen the ID of something like 100 people in order to fraudulently claim benefits, of around £1 million.

There are Four things to say about that. Firstly, no one would condone such criminal activity. Secondly, its by no means typical. Most of the people who are guilty of benefit Fraud are people who are basically piss poor, and do the odd job in order to make their benefit stretch a bit further. Thirdly, even this million pounds is chicken feed compared to the billions of pounds that goes missing every year in tax fraud. HMRC themselves estimate that something like £120 billion goes unpaid in tax by the rich, and big companies. Can we expect to see similar programmes each week tracking down the rich tax cheats at prime time, rather than tucked away in a Panorama, or some other news programme? Finally, the amount that goes in Benefit Fraud is less than the benefits unlcaimed, and the kinds of scurrilous programme presented by the BBC here, will only act to frighten many more people off claiming.

A short amount of time was given over to a family who needed support as a result of having a child born with Autism. The end of this piece before going back to the real purpose of the programme a sting on the fraudsters, showed the family getting various benefits and support to buy equipment for their son etc., and the comment from the presenter, "If you need something, and you are entitled, just ask?"

Obviously, being on a BBC presenter's salary he's never had to try that himself, or he'd have known how inane such a comment is. In fact, my own eldest son has Autism. Through all his time at school, because, like many people with his form of ASD, Aspergers, he his high functioning, that is he is very, intelligent and gifted, he lacked any kind of support, because naturally the school's tend to focus their attention on those kids with other behavioural problems, and learning difficulties. Certainly, they did then, when few people had any real understanding of ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder. That meant that the only support he got was from us his family, which is very stressful.

Even now, when knowledge of the disorder is better, it was not until a year ago, and after considerable effort on our part, and the support of the local Autistic Society that he was diagnosed. But, having been diagnosed, we were basically told, "Well that's it, you've been diagnosed, off you go," because, as in most areas, the only thing that exists is a diagnostic service not any kind of support service. The only Support Services that exist are those from voluntary bodies such as the Autistic Societies, and Aspergers groups, which are themselves heavily dependent on the families of sufferers to organise events and so on. I'm sure that people who have experience of dealing with family members with other disabilities could relate similar stories, and the problems of sufferers, and of carers will get even worse as a result of the Liberal-Tory Cuts, and attacks on welfare.

That the BBC should jump on that bandwagon is disgusting. I'm glad we have Freesat, so that we've got a choice of channels if this is the kind of programming the BBC is sinking to.