Lowest Common Domnominator

Regaining consciousness on Monday morning, I heard the following words:

"This granny had been fiddling her benefits. Defrauding me and you. The British taxpayer!"

Who was this British taxpayer? Dominic Littlewood, pint-sized consumer champion and pro- haggler and the show is "Saints & Scroungers". It's about the type of people who defraud your benefits system, closely monitored by a team of ANGELS working for your local councils, on your behalf, especially for you. They've got halos, they're just buried under a mound of paperwork and general harrassments.

Mountingly pathological property programmes and de-clutterization doctrines masquerading as antiques shows rule the daytime slots, but every so often the BBC will throw in something a bit different. "Heir Hunters" for example - the everday story of sharks in suits who protect beneficiaries in cardigans from being exploited by an uncaring government.

"Saints & Scroungers" may look bizarre in this current climate - instead of tackling the current recession head on, production companies are looking to either milk the delusion or point and laugh at the detritus - but it follows a long tradition of televised bugbears Auntie Beeb likes to scratch at every so often.

A triumvirate of issues concerning the interaction of the working and aspirational classes regularly appear on the BBC. Immigration is frequently highlighted with a string of "we just thought you'd like to know" reports. Jeremy Paxman's exasperation with anyone to do with a trade union is a familiar sight on "Newsnight". The third is of course the role of the state to provide for the less fortunate.

People with long memories and nothing better to do may recall "Kilroy", where every few weeks a debate about the welfare state would be held in order for ordinary decent taxpayers to belt opinions at the greasy, untelegenic bastards who were scraping away at their hard-earned loot.

"Moneyspinners", hosted by travel-agent-waiting-to-happen Lorne Spicer, was a lifestyle reboot series where poor families were urged to kick their lives up the jacksie and, to coin a phrase, "get a job" (a vocal tradition currently revived by the DJ Jeremy Kyle).

When "Saints & Scroungers" does present those who deserve support, it is like watching the ocular equivalent of an interview at the Jobcentre. An elderly chap with a degenerative eye condition is justified and re-justified for the viewer - first, an explanation from the man himself about how he is losing his sight.

Then an interview with the optician who treated him. You can never be too careful about an optician.

Then a defnitive account of how he has done everything within his power to find work. Not just that. He loves work. Hard work. "I've never been out of work in my life. I love hard work me." You know, just in case you thought... well, maybe you don't need to think. Just because he's old and infirmed it doesn't necessarily mean he's a scrounger, right Dom?

"Benefit Busters", coming soon on Channel 4, will take what the League Of Gentlemen hinted at and make it real. Dependancy as entertainment in now officially engrained. What is worth remembering is that it is the people who are being scrutinized, not the system. Anyone can take a criticism of the welfare state or the current health service and use it as an excuse to question its workings. It's presented as a tough choice when it's really an easy answer. A dangerous culture of casino banking is still in operation. Do we automatically question capitalism?

In a new age of supposed austerity, it would help if a public service broadcaster wasn't running itself like a jamboree.