Who measures this supposed excess of power?

Do the reckless banks, bailed out at public expense, exercise too much power and abuse that power?

Do you think that the UK is now in a more stable and prosperous condition because the conviction politicians of
days gone by are almost universally replaced by career politicians who depend on theory rather than experience?

I recall the old BL days, Red Robbo etc, the trouble was the gap between him and Edwardes was so enormous, they would never be able to find any common ground. It was all out war. The Govt was pumping millions into it - it could not be seen to fail. and, they were not helped by cheap imports of vastly superior cars flooding the market. BL had become a joke amoungst its own employees, let alone the rest of the country.

As a young 'un I remember the announcements on Beacon / BRMB given during comercial breaks to striking workers. "Will shift A please return to work tomorrow morning" etc
There's footage on youtube (or there was) of a young Chris Tarrant covering the Longbridge strikes on ATV Today. It was the gig no one wanted - stood in the freezing cold with a very hostile workforce giving you dogs abuse!

No wonder CT went onto Tiswas.

The closed shops were controlled by the shop stewards, some of whom used it line their own pockets.

A former colleague once told me that at age 18 he had to put borrow money from his parents to stuff in an envelope, in order to bribe a seaman's union steward, so he could get a Union card and start his job as a chef on a cruise ship.

IIRC there was a piece on Nationwide about Southend Council binmen which was one of the first privatised Council services, (OK it was David Evans who took on the contract and he later became a Conservative MP so it was maybe a bit one-sided), but he went on camera stating that only a handful of the binmen were earning a decent wage.
Somehow only the shop steward and his friends and relations were getting any of the overtime, as it was a closed shop it was the Union that allocated the overtime and shifts.
There was even a suggestion that it was physically impossible for them to actually be doing the overtime, so they were just allocating themselves "worked hours" without doing any, and the rest of the binmen just got their basic wage.

In the USA this is how the mobs take over the Unions.

In Fleet Street it was impossible to get a printing job unless you had a relative who worked there.''Old Spanish customs'' as they were known were also endemic in ITV in the 60s and 70s. The number of people working on an ITV OB unit was double a BBC OB.There were extraordinary stories about people in ITV who appeared to be on double-time for everything they did in their normal working day.

I wish something like this would happen today. No one has any guts in TV. Full of liberals. Apart from reporters.

I remember switching to ITV during the strike to see that message on the blue background. I would sometimes just stare at it and think the words were "throbbing."

It was more interesting than watching BBC1.

I wonder if it caused screen burn in on some people's TVs?

I seem to recall Brian Moore during one Big Match Live telling us they were unable to show replays due to a technicians strike. I can't remember the year.

ANCHOR was certainly a very early electronic capgen, but its use was limited because it could only generate that one very computery-looking font which was hardly suitable for everything. Pres and Sport were probably its biggest users, although it did get used from time to time in the likes of Doctor Who and Blake's 7 when they wanted to create futuristic readouts on monitor screens.

Well into the 80s, the BBC (like most broadcasters) was still using printed caption cards extensively and had its own Print Graphics unit for supplying them. Typically, Masseeley hot foil presses were used to print the cards.

I completely agree with your last sentence. Most MPs now are from upper middle class backgrounds with little experience of the real world. I'd much rather have someone like Denis Healey over Ed Miliband,

Before Blair you knew where you were, ex- Public schoolboys were mostly conservatives and Labour was mostly ex trades union activists.

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