Labour bid to work with Jeremy Kyle

[T_i_B]

Is this really the best that they can do for "relaunching" themselves?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/07/labour.itv

The government is in talks with ITV about spending almost half a million pounds on a television series aimed at getting people off benefits and back to work, fronted by Jeremy Kyle, the controversial talk show host.

Last year Judge Alan Berg branded the Jeremy Kyle Show the human equivalent of 'bear baiting' after sentencing a man who had headbutted a love rival while the two were guests on the programme. 'It seems to me that the whole purpose of the Jeremy Kyle Show is to effect a morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people who are in some kind of turmoil,' Berg said. Following his comments, the Central Office of Information (COI), which handles publicity for Whitehall departments, dropped Learndirect's £400,000 sponsorship of the programme, saying it was 'no longer appropriate to be associated' with it.

Details of the putative deal with ITV were still being thrashed out between the broadcaster and a government appointed media agency last week. But according to insiders, the series, which is provisionally titled Jeremy Kyle Gets Britain Working, would cost the government £400,000. It would be used to highlight the role of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and explore how government policies can help people get jobs.

Watched on weekday mornings by an audience of about 1.5 million, Kyle's programme is seen as Britain's answer to the Jerry Springer Show in the US. It has features entitled 'I'm A Binge Drinker And A Drug Dealer, But I'll Be A Great Dad!' and 'Your Baby's Too White To Be Mine!' One popular segment of the show sees men taking paternity tests to see if they are the father of their partner's children.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. "Jeremy Kyle’s Underclass Deathmatch"

In a move to get the feckless and the dressing-gowned off their sofas and into the 21st century economy, which offers so very many golden opportunities to the under-trained and under-educated, New Labour are seeking to recruit motivational speaker, Jeremy Kyle.

A man who has made his career from humiliating the lower classes and inciting them to violence is seen as the ideal choice for easing the unemployed back into indentured servitude. Jeremy Kyle’s Underclass Deathmatch will see carefully selected layabouts facing off in a number of disciplines. Hair-pulling, head-locking, and broken bottle brawls will be just some of the events to feature.

Speaking about Kyle’s chequered history as a talk show host, a government source said: ‘Of course the government deplores violence when it affect voters and the deserving poor. But surveys conducted amongst tabloid newspaper readers tell us that, in a control environment, it could be extremely useful in getting the unemployed active again, reducing jobless figures, and fostering vote-winning class hatred.’

The show will be shown on weekday mornings when real people are either at work or having a cup of tea with the nanny.

http://www.chickyog.net/2008/09/07/brown-backs-jeremy-kyles-underclass-deathmatch/