X Factor culture fuelled the UK riots, says Iain Duncan Smith (UK labour sec'y)

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Source: The Guardian

A "get rich quick" celebrity culture exemplified by The X Factor and the dysfunctional lives of footballers has created a society "out of balance", the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, says today in an interview surveying Britain after the summer riots.

Duncan Smith, who as chair of the social justice cabinet committee is one of the key figures shaping a coalition response to the riots, warned there was "every chance" riots would recur unless structural reforms were made to repair "communities in which so many families are broken".

He is due to call next week for major investment from the private sector to help prevent social breakdown. He will argue that public-private spending can reduce social failure.

In an interview with the Guardian, Duncan Smith welcomed this newspaper's research into the disturbances, carried out jointly with the London School of Economics, and argued that some of the looting and robbery was fuelled by an acquisitive consumer culture. "If you look at the footballers, you look at our celebrity culture, we seem to be saying, 'This is the way you want to be'. We seem to be a society that celebrates all the wrong people," he said.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/09/x-factor-culture-fuelled-riots

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The X Factor, a British singing competition show, now has an American version that premiered in the US on Fox this year.