It looks as if this video clip is not available online yet.
Use the enquiry button on the right and we’ll get back to you to discuss the quickest way for you to view it.
Programme presented by Jon Lander. On film Lander looks back at the previous twelve months in the life of Tony Benn as it is now a year since he won re-election in the Chesterfield seat. We see library pictures of Benn talking to miners on a picket line, at a meeting and speaking at a Militant rally in October 1984. In the studio Reg Harcourt interviews Benn about the last year in politics and in particular his involvement with the miners strike. We then see brief shots of the first television pictures from the House of Lords (obscured by graphics about the low number of women in the house). This links into a studio debate chaired by Lander between Lord Harmar Nicholls, the former Peterborough MP and Lesley Abdela who is campaigning for more women in politics. Next in a regular series in which MPs report on an issue of their choosing, the Conservative MP for Birmingham Northfield, Roger King, calls for an increase in the promotion of British built cars. King’s constituency includes the Austin Rover plant at Longbridge and he began his working life as an apprentice for Morris Commercial Cars at their Adderley Park works in Birmingham. He begins his report by revisiting the factory which closed in the 1960s when production moved to Scotland. We then see library pictures of Mini production lines at BMC Longbridge in the 1960s as King discusses the firm’s bankruptcy and nationalisation. We then see Metro cars on transporters and a row of Metro, Maestro and Montego cars on a dealer’s forecourt. King interviews with dealer Bill Foster who is optimistic about Austin Rover’s future. After brief clips from promotional films of Austin Rover’s competitors we see Mini and Metro cars being assembled on the Longbridge production line and King talks to Trevor Taylor, Director of Sales and Marketing for Austin Rover. We then see library pictures of a Longbridge union meeting and King talks to union convenor Jack Adams about the improved labour relations at the firm.
Political Editor: Reg Harcourt
Production Editor: Bruce Grocott
Film Editor: Adrian Tuck
Graphics: Phill Dunn
Production Team: Rob Whitehouse; Mark Astaire; Margaret Mitchell
Directors: John Pullen; Richie Stewart
Editor: Mike Warman
Production number 5207/85.