Story: Kate Atkinson
In an apparent departure from the usual studio audience format, Jeremy Kyle visited Sheffield in a recent programme to ‘learn’ more about gun and knife crime and those affected by it.
His first stop was Leeds where he met Shane Fenton, son of Pat Regan, who has taken over his mum’s cause after she became a victim of the knife crime she had long campaigned against. Jeremy brought him to Sheffield to see if he could put his skills and experience working with young people to use here. In amongst the obligatory shots of ‘menacing’ looking groups of male adolescents in tracksuits with bikes, Jeremy had a whistlestop tour of Pitsmoor, Shiregreen, Shirecliffe, Firth Park and Manor.
He connected with a number of youth workers in our area and sought opinions on ‘the state of our streets’, as he might put it, from residents and community workers alike. Tony, one of the youth workers Jeremy spent time with, arranged for some youths affected by and engaging in crime and ‘gang culture’, to speak on camera.
What had started as an honest and frank discussion with youth workers, Chief Constable Med Hughes, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council as well as some of the very youths all the attention is focusing on, actually lead to quite a disappointing resolution.
I was left with the resounding impression that Jeremy didn’t learn anything from talking to some of Sheffield’s young people. They told him: “It’s not normal [carrying knives and committing crimes]. It’s what we’ve been brought up with…we’ve been brought up doing this so obviously you just do it.” Others said: “I don’t choose this. This is what I was born into… It all comes down to drugs. You can’t stop this drugs thing. The drug game’s big. It’s fast money. What’s the point in going to college for £30 a week [referring to the EMA which entitles post 16s to £30 a week when they stay in education] when I can make that in a day selling drugs?”
Instead, as his ‘solution’ to wrap up his hour long show, he opted to open a ‘club’ in Stubbins Community Centre, “to keep the kids off the streets”. A club that’s open longer hours which offers activities young people can engage in enthusiastically is a positive and welcome provision, but Sheffield’s streets do not compare to Jeremy Kyle’s studio. Jeremy cannot sum up the problems faced by our young people and provide solutions in a neat, hour long programme. The origins of youth disaffection in Sheffield (and other areas), and its consequences, run deeper than Jeremy’s soundbites can cover.
In the end, the kind of judgment of ‘the problem’ that Jeremy gave is one I would have expected from someone who had not been involved in making this programme, not one that is formed after hearing opinions from those that have been stabbed, that carry knives and see crime as a way of life.
The programme is available to watch until 19th June 2009 here: http://www.itv.com/ITVPlayer/Video/default.html?ViewType=5&Filter=42031