Friday, January 28, 2011

When reality doesn't make good TV

The BBC is coming in for some criticism following reports that they employed a dozen dog owners to walk up and down a street and encourage their animals to foul the pavement.

It's a stunt to promote a new series about how the public sector cuts affect an ordinary suburban street. In the series, the street residents lose services such as waste collection, street lighting and access to libraries.

To be honest, I have some sympathy with the BBC. My sources tell me that they originally tried just removing the plethora of "services" provided by the council which aren't deemed essential - lesbian outreach workers, climate change oordinators, youth offending teams, street scene directors, health and safety inspectors, safety camera partnerships, asylum seekers support, translation facilities and so on - but it didn't make good TV.

No one noticed these services had gone.

2 comments:

Edwin Greenwood said...

"youth offending teams"

A vitally important service, I should have thought. Youths should be offended regularly, although this is admittedly an uphill task with the stupider and/or more thick-skinned ones. But it's very character-building in the end.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

Eh?

Some filthy selfish people don't pick up their dogs' mess and suddenly it's because council services have been cut?

Huh?

Is nobody responsible for their own actions any more?