Only one word has power to shock Benefits Street - Work

JUDGING from readers' reactions to Monday's item, we have discovered an election winner: scrap the TV licence. It seems to be about as popular as the poll tax. In fact, it is a poll tax.

BENEFITS Street (C4) was a depressing study of the shoplifting, drug-addicted underclass in one of the scrattier ends of Birmingham. It was peppered with foul language but in this sad little community, only one four-letter word has the power to shock. One resident was visibly rocked at the news that he was being lined up for a work programme. "Work?" he said in disgust. "I've never worked in me life."

YOU could not fail to be impressed by the home-delivery service in Benefits Street. It is faster than John Lewis, simpler than eBay, more user-friendly than PayPal. I refer, of course, to the drugs deliveries. Just pick up the phone and your stash arrives at your door within minutes. Idiotic politicians still talk fiercely about "the war on drugs." The truth is they put up the white flag and surrendered years ago.

ANYONE over 60 was born into a world where, as we were constantly told in church and school, one-third of the earth's people were hungry. We learn today that one-third of the earth's people are overweight or obese. Surely that's some sort of progress.

A READER asks: "Why is it on newspaper billboards that any kind of problem is a drama, any unexpected move is a shock, any fire is a blaze and any degree of anger is fury?" I can only suggest you take one billboard and one very thick felt-tip marker pen and try to make confrontation, disturbance, conflagration or incandescence fit the space.

THE headlines said Ukip leader Nigel Farage supported Enoch Powell. The truth is that Farage was read some extracts from a speech, and agreed with them. It was then revealed that the words came from Powell's infamous "Rivers of Blood" tirade. Even that most anti-Farage newspaper, the Guardian, conceded: "Clearly, he was tricked." It is a pathetically easy trick to spring. Every tub-thumping politician uses the language of sweet reason to conceal the uglier side of his policies, the sort of language that ordinary decent people nod along with. When Gordon Brown famously promised "British jobs for British workers," which sounds so fair, BNP leader Nick Griffin gleefully pointed out that this was his own party's slogan. These days, all the parties bang on about "hard-working people," and if you asked most politicians whether they agreed that employment is the key to independence and happiness, they would probably nod in agreement, just as Nigel Farage nodded to Enoch Powell's words. In 2006 an Italian centre-left politician Tommaso Coletti, used the slogan "Work makes you free" in her election brochures. She said: " I don't remember where I read this phrase but it was one of those quotes that have an instant impact on you because they tell an immense truth." It actually appeared in German, "Arbeit macht Frei," over the gate to the death camp at Auschwitz.

UNDER orders from Brussels, the speed limits on some sections of British motorways are to be reduced from 70 to 60mph to comply with EU targets on air pollution. The sooner we get that referendum, the better.

AND can anyone explain the logic in reducing motorway limits to 60mph while at the same time spending £40,000 million-plus on a horrendously gas-guzzling train that will do 250mph?

THE fields are alive with fieldfares. These cheerful little chaps are relatives of the thrush and share its family name, Turdidae. The fieldfare's full name is Turdus pilaris, proving that in nature as in human life, you rarely get to choose your own name.