David Dimbleby: I thought the free market was with us forever – then Trump came along

I remember 1974 well. With inflation on the rise, the government had been locked in battle with trade unions over worker pay. The government appeared paralysed: stand up to the miners and strikes could shut down the power system, but give in and pay them more money and inflation would rocket.
And then the global oil crisis came out of nowhere. It threw economies, including Britain’s, into chaos. The government introduced a three-day week. Power cuts were common – we would be plunged into darkness without warning. And seemingly, the government just expected us to deal with it.
This was also the year I began presenting the BBC’s current affairs programme Panorama. We spent a lot of time debating these issues. People came on with all kinds of different ideas of what to do.
There were even suggestions that what the country really needed to take back control from the unions was a military takeover – a coup.
There was another idea out there too. It was proposed by the Conservative politician Keith Joseph and was entirely radical – so removed from the mainstream, in fact, that during filming of Panorama, Joseph turned to the production team and asked exasperatedly if they understood what he meant.

Courtesy: BBC