Sky on the dole - opium of the masses

How accurate of Simon Garfield to identify the triumvirate of booze, fags and satellite dishes on tower blocks as the considered necessities of Britain's underclass (Cable, digital, satellite ... or Strictly Come Dancing?, November 29). But wasn't satellite TV the trade-off, alongside incapacity benefit, of the Thatcherite revolution; Thatcher shed the jobs and Murdoch kept the unemployed entertained via the emergent digital services. Alf Garnett, the fictional protagonist of Till Death Us Do Part, claimed Liverpool Football Club's peerless record was funded via the Giro cheque; perhaps the same could be said for Sky TV, the digital leader.

An integral feature of Sky's television revolution was 24/7 rolling news, which helps the viewer succumb to the notion that real things only happen on TV, while the world around them, including employment, is irrelevant. The BBC has embraced, via News 24, this concept that important events are always happening somewhere else. As for any suggestion that subscriptions will fall away during this recession, the reverse will most likely be true - why engage with the world outside when there are so many worlds to get lost in on TV? Besides, in a country that will soon make nothing, why bother to do anything other than nip down to Poundland once a year for a 12-pack of AA batteries for the remote?
Rob Billington
Spital, Merseyside

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