By Stephen Blease

Last updated 11:45, Tuesday, 16 September 2008

If you are unemployed but able to work you have lots of options. There are jobs sections in Thursday’s News & Star, and Friday’s Cumberland News, recruitment agencies in many towns and advice from Jobcentres.

But now there could be a new option: Jeremy Kyle. The Government is considering spending £400,000 on a TV series offering advice on finding work, to be presented by the daytime TV host.

For those who haven’t seen him – because they already have jobs – Jeremy Kyle presents a TV show on weekday mornings called, imaginatively, The Jeremy Kyle Show.

It is horrible – and therefore hugely entertaining. All kinds of dysfunctional people, often with serious problems in their lives, are paraded before us.

There are couples who are splitting up because one has had an affair, or has a drink or drugs problem. There are parents and children who won’t speak to each other, feckless dads who won’t pay child support and others who question whether their baby is really theirs.

The programme masquerades as a way of helping people tackle their problems. But really it is about holding these people up for ridicule or contempt.

However unlike Jerry Springer, who perhaps inspired him, Jeremy Kyle is no neutral presenter. He is more than happy to take sides in the arguments.

Switch on and you’ll hear him shout at guests: “Why don’t you go and get a job?” or “You’re a disgrace as a parent!”.

It’s meant to be all part of the fun.

So he’s a strange choice of presenter for a Government-sponsored series.

One has to ask which civil servant or minister came up with the idea of asking him to front the programme?

Yes, Mr Kyle loves shouting at workshy layabouts on his show.

But many unemployed people are desperate to find jobs.

Someone who makes light entertainment out of social problems is the last person who should be asked to help them.