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Private Notes
Mrs Thatcher has now been in office for 3,167 days - overtaking Asquith as the longest serving Prime
Minister this century. Only four premiers have now served longer terms - Robert Walpole , William Pitt the Younger and Lords Liverpool and Salisbury.
Robert Harris, Political
Editor of the Observer, looks at how the Prime Minister has stamped her personality on the government of Britain, and talks to more than a dozen men who have worked closely with her.
Lord Hailsham on her place in history:
'You've got to put her in the same category as Bloody Mary, Elizabeth 1, Queen
Anne and Queen Victoria.' Lord Havers on her ruthlessness:
'If she thinks a minister is no longer up t
Later this month Britain's 100,000 miners will vote on the future direction of their leadership and in particular on Arthur Scargill. It's the first opportunity since the bitter year-long coal strike in 1984 for miners to express support or condemnation for their charismatic president. Panorama investigates who and what made Arthur Scargill, his record as union leader and what would be the impact of his re-election.
Steve Bradshaw has been on the campaign trail, talks to miners at the coalface and examines the extraordinary influence Arthur Scargill still exerts over the NUM.
As an airline pilot,
Rajiv Gandhi would press a button, pull a lever and get results. Now, as Prime Minister of India, he's discovering that the world's largest democracy doesn't respond so readily. Ruefully he tells
Panorama's Richard Lindley 'there's a bit of slack in the controls'. In New Delhi, Rajiv is attacked for being too dependent on foreign technology, almost a stranger in his own country. In the Punjab he's at daggers drawn with the Sikhs in the Golden Temple, and in Sri Lanka his bold initiative to send troops to protect the Tamils could still turn it into India's Vietnam.
Flying with Rajiv Gandhi across the vast expanse of India, Panorama watches the pilot prime minister tug at the nation's controls, hoping that India will respond to him.
The Prime Minister, the Right Hon Margaret Thatcher, MP, in a live interview with David Dimbleby.
At the beginning of this year, Mrs Thatcher became the longest-serving British Prime Minister this century. Now in its third term in office, her Government shows no sign of flagging. It is embarking upon a set of radical proposals for education, for local Government, for welfare provision and for privatising water and electricity industries.
Her critics, not all of them from the Opposition benches, accuse her of pursuing her vision of a new Britain at the expense of the social fabric of society. Mrs Thatcher answers her critics and talks to Panorama about her plans for Britain's future.
Forty years after its birth, the National Health Service is in the grip of continued crisis. Can it be resourced by more money and better management, or is its disease so serious that the only remedy is dismemberment and a vastly boosted private sector?
At St Bartholomew's
Hospital in London and in the health district of Gloucestershire reporter David Lomax talks to managers, health economists, doctors and patients, and at Westminster asks what Government and Opposition would prescribe as NHS medicine.
The Two Billion Pound Rip-Off With few effective controls and checks the EEC's
Common Agricultural Policy has been described as 'the greatest incentive to crime in Western Europe'.
In Northern Ireland grain and cattle are smuggled over the border and in some cases the IRA takes a cut of the Profits.
In Germany, beef traders have earned millions by forging export documents. And in Sicily the Mafia claims subsidies for tons of oranges that don't even exist. As the near-bankrupt
Common Market prepares for Thursday's emergency summit on its finances,
Robin Denselow investigates Eurofraud - who's involved, how it's done and why it's estimated to cost the Community ten per cent of its budget each year.
Violence on Television Since the Hungerford massacre violence on television has become a hot political issue. The
Government is acting on the belief that there is a connection between TV violence and increased violence in society, and is now introducing new controls over programmes showing violence. What is the evidence that violence harms the viewer?
A history of the Provisional IRA political and military campaign.
Vice President George Bush and Senator Bob Dole are battling for the Republican Presidential nomination.
Their mutual dislike is now a major factor in a bad-tempered campaign.
John Ware examines the records and reputations of the two men determined to inherit President Reagan's mantle.
The Underclass of 88 In tomorrow's Budget the Chancellor is widely expected to announce further tax cuts for the better off. But what of Britain's poor? Next month will see the most radical change to the Social Security system in 40 years. Nine million claimants will be affected. The Government says the changes will help those in greatest need.
Others say that many of the poor will be made more dependent on charity and that far from escaping poverty they're falling further behind.
Disturbing new evidence of a connection between electricity and small but significant increases in childhood and adult cancers are mystifying scientists and causing international concern. In the USA property values under power lines have already begun to tumble.
Tom Mangold investigates the latest developments in this scientific detective story, reporting from Britain, in the USA and Sweden on the race to find out whether the ubiquitous source of energy for life may also have a shock in store.
In the Church of England the recent passionate arguments about the ordination to the priesthood of women or of practising homosexuals are symptoms of a much wider debate. Should the hierarchy of the established church - with its historical emphasis on compromise and consensus - yield to the increasingly vocal calls from both Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics for a more clearly defined lead? Should the C of E be more involved in politics or less?
David Lomax talks to the Archbishop of Canterbury and assesses the mood of the Anglican faithful in parishes in Essex, Cornwall and County Durham.
Charles, Prince of Conscience Is the Prince of Wales sharpening an impression that he is increasingly out of tune with Thatcherite
Britain? Or is he ahead of the times, exploiting a freedom he will lose as King - to lead public crusades for more community co-operation in national regeneration?
Panorama goes behind the tabloid preoccupations with the Royal Family to examine the implications when an activist prince expounds policies beyond partisan concerns. Out with the Prince - in the inner cities and with the unemployed young - Fred Emery reports that the Prince's frustration lies not in his lack of active involvement but in the lack of attention to the results he is getting.
Clare is 4, and her mother fears she has been sexually abused by her father. She's just one of 30,000 children on the local authority 'at risk' register - an increase of 22 per cent in a year.
Robin Denselow reports from Greenwich and from
Newcastle on the effects of this increase on social workers, a group who have often been criticised for their handling of cases, but who face considerable personal risk as they try to protect children. Have they the right training for the job, and can they cope with the rise in child abuse alongside all their other responsibilities?
Next week, as Israel celebrates 40 years of statehood, Panorama reports on the growing-problems of the troubled nation which has yet to find peace with its neighbours and within itself. Tom Mangold speaks to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, now in their fourth month of uprising against Israeli occupation, and reports from the West Bank where the first Israeli settler has been killed in the uprising. And as the Schultz peace initiative remains deadlocked, Panorama reports from inside Israel and asks politicians and soldiers, Jews and Arabs - why does the Zionist dream still remain elusive?
Ten years after Pol Pot 's reign of terror, Cambodians fear that the horror of the killing fields may return.
Britain and the West recognise the exiled Khmer Rouge and their allies as the true government, so Cambodia is denied the aid her people so desperately need. The Khmer Rouge continue to wage a bloody guerrilla war.
Russia supports the Vietnamese controlled government in the capital Phnom Penh. After
Afghanistan, Mr Gorbachev wants a settlement here too. But if the Vietnamese army go, will Pol Pot return?
Jane Corbin reports on the desperation of a people trapped in the land the world forgot.
Few people know that Britain has a class of nuclear bombs other than those carried in the Polaris submarines. Even their name was kept secret for 20 years. Now, without consulting Parliament, the Government has started work on a replacement. What Britain does next will have vital implications for our future defence and for relations with both Europe and America.
For Panorama, Mark Urban , defence correspondent of the Independent, unravels the story of Britain's 'other' bomb. questions the military and political leaders involved in the decisions and the pilots who may have to bear the consequences.
Mikhail Gorbachev has called his attempt to reform the Soviet Union 'a revolution without shots'. But he is facing stiff resistance from bureaucrats and officials. The battle is largely being fought in code, through differing attitudes toward the former dictator
Stalin.
Panorama has been to the Ukraine, Soviet Central Asia and the Russian Republic to examine how the reforms are working, where the opposition comes from and what the limits to the new freedom are.
When the Government privatises the electricity industry, everyone in Britain will have the chance to buy a stake in nuclear power. But while the Government wants to protect the nuclear industry, there are fears that privatisation may seriously undermine it. In America, some politicians are trying to take private nuclear power stations into public ownership, blaming them for high electricity prices. Is the dream of power 'too cheap to meter' finally over? Or can the Government succeed in persuading 'Sid' to back nuclear power with his own money?
Stephen Bradshaw talks to Energy Secretary, the Rt Hon Cecil Parkinson , mp, and reports from nuclear installations in Britain and America on the prospects for a nuclear future.
After 20 years of unrest, there are the first signs of a wind of political change in Northern Ireland. The Anglo-Irish Agreement between London and Dublin has changed the political assumptions of a generation. Northern Unionists are prepared to talk to Dublin, while the nationalist parties of the North - the SDLP and Sinn Fein, try to work out a common front.
Peter Taylor examines the tortuous road towards an elusive solution in Ireland.
In his last Budget, Chancellor Lawson gave to those who already had. He cut tax for the well-off.
The Opposition now accuse him of creating a 'loadsamoney' economy - a spendthrift generation, who will not secure the nation's future. The
Government argue that the enterprise culture will spread wealth and encourage a new morality.
Ian Smith asks Britain's millionaires how they will spend their money. Will they be exhorted by the Government and their conscience to give more away in charity to those for whom the heat of the free market is too great?
Britain's South East is beginning to boom. In a crescent around London, new business parks and housing estates are fast expanding. But as house prices spiral and skill shortages grow, many who have so far admired the results of a free market economy are beginning to protest at its effects.
Do the Home Counties need planning constraints to preserve what green is left and to close the widening gap between North and South?
Or will the South East inevitably float away from the rest of Britain?
David Lomax reports from his home county of Berkshire - where the environmental battle is fiercest - visits the latest enterprise zone in Scotland and talks to
Environment Minister, the Rt Hon Nicholas Ridley , mp, and the Rt Hon
Michael Heseltine , MP about their conflicting views of how the heat of the South East should be conducted to those who have been left out in the cold.
The death of hole-in-the-heart baby, Matthew Collier , has provoked the most fundamental review of the National Health Service for 40 years. The decisions are ready to be taken and an expansion of private medicine with tax breaks for private patients is on the agenda.
Jane Corbin examines how those changes may affect everyone in Britain. The NHS is 40 years old this week. Will there continue to be free medicine for all?
As the son of Greek immigrants is about to be sent forth as the Democratic Party's challenger to recapture the American Presidency, Panorama examines the credentials of Michael Dukakis. As
Democrats prepare to gather for their Convention in Atlanta, Fred Emery assesses Mr Dukakis 's record over nine years as Governor of Massachusetts, and, from California to Georgia, asks voters whether or not they want a change from the Reagan years.
The property boom has brought with it a brand new crime - mortgage fraud. It involves estate agents, valuers and solicitors as well as ordinary purchasers, and it's happening both because mortgages are so easily available and because the bodies set up to monitor house sales seem unable to cope with the frantic buying market.
Robin Denselow reports from London and Birmingham, where house prices have risen by 50 per cent this year, and where building societies and financial institutions are buying up strings of estate agents. Will the arrival of the powerful new player clean up the property market or just bring new problems?
At a time when the Opposition should have been making capital of the Government's difficulties,
Labour's leaders have helped create something of a crisis of confidence in themselves. In the week of the TUC, Fred Emery reports on what's behind the fundamental reappraisal of policies launched by Neil Kinnock and his trade union allies. And with the Kinnock-
Hattersley leadership facing re-election challenges from Tony Benn , Eric Heffer and John Prescott , Panorama reports from Scotland and Southampton on the conflicting directions the party is being urged to take to regain power in the 90s.
By the year 2000, there will be up to 30 per cent more cars on the road. Peter Taylor examines ways of getting out of the jam and interviews Secretary of State The Rt Hon Paul Channon. The
Government wants private enterprise to invest in transport. But if urban motorways are ruled out would the Government charge motorists directly for their journeys?
In July, 167 men were killed in the world's worst ever oil disaster. Jane Corbin talks to crucial eyewitnesses aboard the Piper Alpha that nigbt and examines what mighr have gone wrong. There are lessons for the whole industry. Did the oil companies design for disaster - are their safety and maintenance procedures effective enough and what are the implications for the men who produce Britain's black gold?
One-hundred-and-eighty children have just begun term at the most controversial school in Britain, the brand new
City Technology College in Solihull.
Robin Denselow reports on the bitter national debate behind the glare of publicity. Are CTCs the new departure in hi-tech education for the next generation? Or are they wasteful in resources and part of a wider political design, to undermine Local Education Authorities and the whole system of comprehensive education?
On the eve of the Conservative Party Conference, the Home Secretary the Rt Hon Douglas Hurd , MP is preparing for one of his toughest challenges of the year - his speech in the law and order debate.
In the face of rising public concern about violent crime, Andrew Marr of the Scotsman interviews the Home Secretary and some of his fiercest critics about a new initiative which will mean fewer young criminals behind bars. Will the Home Office alternatives, like imposing curfews, be acceptable to the Tory party and the public? Panorama talks to young offenders, their victims and the police about the future for an increasingly violent Britain.
Few people know that Britain has a class of nuclear bombs other than those carried in the Polaris submarines. Even their name was kept secret for 20 years. Now, without consulting Parliament, the Government has started work on a replacement. What Britain does next will have vital implications for our future defence and for relations with both Europe and America.
For Panorama, Mark Urban , defence correspondent of the Independent, unravels the story of Britain's 'other' bomb. questions the military and political leaders involved in the decisions and the pilots who may have to bear the consequences.
Using the latest DNA technology, scientists are identifying the genes which help to determine the kind of people we are. In an exclusive interview, Nobel Prize winner Dr James Watson , who helped to discover the structure of DNA, warns their work may harm our lives as well as improve them.
Steve Bradshaw analyses the genetic revolution with scientists, Baroness
Warnock, and some of the people whose lives have already been profoundly affected by choices that may later confront us all.
Pakistan has been the chief backer of the Afghan guerrillas in their Holy War against the Soviet army. But what price has Pakistan paid for being a frontline state? Panorama examines how
KGB-trained agents brought terror to Pakistan; how the war has bred a Kalashnikov culture and an epidemic of heroin addiction. And, as Pakistan goes to the polls following the death of President Zia, the programme talks to Benazir Bhutto , his likely successor. From inside Pakistan and Afghanistan, Gavin Hewitt reports on the prospects for peace for the region as the Soviets withdraw.
Mrs Thatcher claims the Conservatives are green at heart. The local authorities monitoring Britain's booming waste industry have yet to be convinced.
Ever since she came to power, they've been asking for tougher laws to regulate the waste cowboys.
John Ware investigates the legal loopholes that have made Britain dirty.
After 15 years, the people of Chile have voted to get rid of General Pinochet. But his dictatorship continues for the next year-and-a-half as a nation, divided hy hatred, tries to move towards democracy. David Lomax reports on whether the military junta will really surrender power to the opposition without a fight.
On the eve of the Summit of Common Market Leaders, Fred Emery reports on the battle for the future of Europe after 1992.
Mrs Thatcher has challenged
Britain's European partners not to rush ahead with schemes for a united Europe, introducing socialism by the back door. The Rt Hon
Norman Tebbit , MP and the Rt Hon Michael Heseltine , MP, EEC Commissioner
Lord Cockfield, Eurochief Jacques Delors and former French president Valery Giscard D'Estaing join the argument.
Council estates are the Conservatives' next political battlefield.
Once, council housing, subsidised and secure, symbolised the Welfare State. But the Government has cut back council housing and introduced the right to buy; and now the Tories plan to sell off whole estates to new style 'social landlords'. If the Tories replace council-house culture by enterprise culture, who will lose and who will gain? Vivian White reports.
Half a century after the war, the hunting down of old Nazis has never been more intense. In America, Canada and Israel, Nazis and their collaborators are facing trial. Soon Britain will decide whether to try alleged war criminals in British courts.
Jane Corbin investigates the Nazi-hunters, their methods, and the problems of finding evidence 40 years on.
