They are all programmes which the BBC can rightly be proud of. More importantly, too much of Britain's main stream news and current affairs programming has ignored or failed to understand the real business agenda. Whilst the coverage of politics and international affairs has, I think, been first class, the coverage of business hasn't always been of the same quality. And it wasn't long before many other industries endured the shock of those same forces. But it's when you read the rest of the business pages from 20 years ago that the change really hits you.
Unions threaten to widen docks stoppage.
And if you look at the stock market pages in 1980 and compare them with today you see just how many of the biggest companies have disappeared. That revolution came not in the '80's but in the 1990s. But over the following ten years, sixty seven of the top 100 companies have either disappeared, been radically changed, or have just been displaced from the FTSE 100 list. Only thirty three companies survive on the list. And of course the whole public attitude to business has changed.