I’ve been hearing a lot of people around Croydon running down the the television programme  ‘Benefits Street’ which aired on Channel 4 this week.

I watched the first episode last night and thought that they were all really likeable characters who were trying to survive in a place without a great deal of opportunity?   Not sure where the high and mighty are coming from calling them the scum of the planet??

I’ve got a massive love for the people of the West Midlands and how down to Earth people are there; certainly there are some rough places (got friends who would probably make it onto the show!) but benefits Street looks an awful lot like parts of Croydon, Thornton Heath, Peckham, Streatham…..

Just on my lunchtime walk today, I saw one suit barge into the entrance of Sainsburys without any consideration to the old lady who was exciting at the same time with several bags of shopping.   What a gentleman.

People scattered around my office are usually too focused on their own tasks or too afraid to stop and talk to talk to each other?  People up in Brum will talk to you at bus stops, funeral parlours and even in the Gents loos!  

So I have to ask myself?   Where is the problem in society?   Certainly, people manipulating benefits is not great, but what do you expect them to do if there is almost zero potential for work in the area that they live?

I’ll leave you with a picture I took today which made me smile.  It’s of three people walking down the road, two chaps with a can of lager and a woman wearing a Christmas onesie in broad daylight.  

What do you make of it?