Panorama - 1989 (1989)

Peter Taylor asks whether a decade of Conservative government has eroded or enhanced democratic liberties in the UK.

In four days, George Bush becomes the 41st President of the United States, taking office at a time of momentous change in the structure of world power.

This year looks set to be a record year for charity appeals, not only for the Third World but for poor children in Britain.

There's growing concern that Britain's prisons are a breeding ground for AIDS. Senior prison workers warn that smuggled drugs are widespread and many prisoners continue to share syringes and needles.

It began as an 'epidemic' of salmonella in eggs. It frightened consumers, cost egg producers dear, and lost Mrs. Edwina Currie her job. Now it has put the record and future of British farming on trial.

Ruled by an Islamic government, where the aged Ayatollah Khomenei still holds the key to power and the future, Iran still shows the scars of failure in war and is beset by rumours of executions and internal strife.

Polly Toynbee reports on the divide between rich and poor old people in the UK. Some feel life has never been better, while many on the state pension are finding it hard to make ends meet, especially if they are coping with elderly or disabled spouses.

By August, every council in England and Wales will have to start putting six essential services out to tender. Will the home owner get better value for money or will the quality of services decline?

The murder of Chico Mendes , the Brazilian rubber-tappers' leader and defender of the Amazon rainforest has focused world attention on the violent conflict over the future of the Amazon.

The Government has embarked on most radical reforms to National Health Service in its history.

Mrs. Thatcher says that water privatisation has not been handled well. As the Government redoubles its campaign to sell the idea to the public, Panorama asks what's in it for the consumer?

Tomorrow NATO celebrates its 40th anniversary. But the Western Alliance, forged in the Cold War, now faces the challenge of the new Soviet peace offensive.

Panorama Episode featuring Jane Corbin on threat posed by Argentinian Condor Missile Programme.

The High Court is closed today. For the first time in history, judges have downed wigs to debate what they suspect may be a threat to justice itself. On trial are the Government's plans to reform the legal profession.

From Czechoslovakia where Soviet tanks crushed the experiment of 'Communism with a human face' in 1968. Today the Government in Prague, paralysed by the fear of change, has embarked on a new repression.

Ten years ago the last Labour government was defeated by the Tories under Margaret Thatcher. What has been the impact of Thatcherism on the Labour party? Thatcher once declared that her aim was to 'eliminate socialism'. Has she succeeded?

Whatever the outcome of the inquiry into the Hillsborough tragedy, Britain's worst sporting disaster has already provoked a crisis of confidence in our national game.

Latest Police figures show an increase in crimes of domestic violence, unmatched since records began. One in four assaults is by a man on a wife or girlfriend. In London alone, a thousand battered women ask the police for help each week.

Alan Young comes from Bedlington near Newcastle. His father was a miner, his mother works at the local hospital. Alan is one of Oxford's brightest mathematicians. But will there be any more like him?

When the Exxon Valdez ran aground off the coast of Alaska last March, it was the worst oil spill in American history. Now the implications may affect the future of America's entire oil industry.

The leader of Westminster's Conservative council, Lady Porter, one of a new breed of town-hall Tories. Lady Porter's reputation has been in the doldrums since her policy of selling Westminster's cemeteries to developers for a pittance.

In the 10 yrs since Thatcher came to power the bill for Gov't advertising has doubled to E150 million. The water privatisation advertising campaign has cost more than that of Nescafe Gold Blend, Persil, Guinness and Coca Cola put together.

This September, Poland is living through some of the most momentous days in its history. For the first time in Eastern Europe for 40 years, a non-Communist Prime Minister leads the Government.

One in three marriages ends in divorce. A quarter of all babies are now born to mothers who have never married at all. Without a father as a breadwinner, most single mothers and children end up on social security.

As the hunt to bring to justice the murderers of 270 passengers and crew continues into its tenth month, Gavin Hewitt has traced the story from Scotland to the United States, to the Middle East and West Germany.

When the Soviet army withdrew from Afghanistan last February, the regime in Kabul was expected to fall to the Afghan rebels within weeks. But, ten months later, victory in the Holy War against the Communists has degenerated into civil war.

Anthony Howard reports for BBC Panorama into the thoughts and stratagems of the Conservative powerbrokers, from 1989.

Fred Emery reports on reaction round the country to the many changes already affecting British Rail services in what's being seen as the run-up to privatisation.

Crack; the drug which President Bush says is turning American cities into battle zones. Is now starting to appear on some British streets. One of President Bush's top advisers warned that Britain could have a similar epidemic to New York.

From the Aral Sea, evidence of a catastrophe that rivals Chernobyl. The planning decisions of the Brezhnev years have left a great many facing disease, deformity and death. As the sea dries up, the ecology of the region disintegrates.

In Tblisi, the capital of Soviet Georgia, troops encircled a crowd of peaceful demonstrators and attacked them with truncheons, entrenching tools and gas. 20 people were killed - more than 3/4 were women - and over 500 taken to hospital.

How is it that every year 1,500 teenage boys - all 16 years old or younger - can be locked up in British prisons, two to a cell, 20 hours a day, on remand sometimes for offences as trivial as absconding and car theft?

With the shock waves of the recent political crisis still reverberating through the Government, is Mrs. Thatcher's famous conviction and single-mindedness now more of a liability than an asset to the Tories?

Investigates the S.A.-Ulster Alliance in arms.