Hear the word on the street

Richard Butt
19/ 2/2008

SHOULD the long-term unemployed be forced to work before they get benefits?

That was a question I asked people at Grey Mare Lane Market in east Manchester for a story for Channel M News.

The answer was an emphatic yes.

OK, my ‘survey’ was not at all scientific. I just shoved a microphone under shoppers’ noses and asked the question.

There was, however, unanimity in the answer and I was struck by the vehemence of the replies. It didn’t take much for the respondents to unleash their inner Tory.

David Cameron has made noises about forcing people who’ve been out of work for two years to do community work. Politicians from other parties have pooh-poohed the idea.

But if Margaret Thatcher – with her large parliamentary majorities and her zeal for others’ self-improvement – didn’t do it, I wonder if Cameron would really dare. It does go against the liberal political consensus, with all those concerns about ‘dignity’ at work.

Besides, tidying up parks or streets would do others out of a job, which would be counter-productive.

To avoid that sort of thing, the long-term unemployed could just dig a hole in the morning and fill it in the afternoon to be instilled with the work ethic, if nothing else.

Judging from the strength of feeling I found when I did the story, I bet if a political party dared to have that in its manifesto, it wouldn’t need to count its votes. It could weigh them.

If politicians really would do anything to get votes, they’d do that.

They’d also bring back hanging, flogging and national service.

Indeed, Helen Newlove’s recipe to fight crime and disorder – after the murder of her husband Garry in Warrington last summer – features some of those solutions.

She wants to see murderers hanged. She wants what to see violent thugs facing real "consequences". I was in Chester Crown Court when the boys who killed her husband were sentenced. Minutes later, I saw Mrs Newlove make a brave and moving speech to the assembled media about why she thinks Britain is "broken."

The next day, I went into Irlam to find out whether people in her original home town agreed with her. They did.

Again, there was nothing scientific about my research. I just went along to the area with a microphone and asked questions. The feelings were, however, sincere and heartfelt.

I personally doubt there would be any real deterrence in the death penalty or the birch and if I were the president of the Republic of Britain (no half measures for me) I wouldn’t bring them back. And I’d have qualms about making the unemployed dig pointless holes.

But I have no doubt that other people would be less cautious about such things. The politicians’ views and theirs don’t coincide. What would it be like if we did bring in such measures? Would we all become Americans? That is the land of ‘workfare’ and, in many states, of the death penalty.

If we went for hardline crime and disorder policies, would we develop an irresistible urge to invade Poland? (Rather than vice versa, before anyone else makes that joke.)

I don’t claim to have the finger on the pulse of the nation. But most days at work I do have the opportunity to speak to a dozen or so ordinary people about an issue in the news.

The gut feelings they have about politics can be reactionary. But they have few echoes in mainstream politics.

It’s no wonder that so many people don’t feel as though they have a say.

Richard Butt edits Channel M’s early evening news – every weeknight from 5pm