"This Is Ridiculous" appears frequently as hand-written comments in recently released Cabinet Papers.

Courtesy of "The Royal Television Society", Stewart Purvis has examined newly-released Cabinet papers for 1989- 1990.

In his report, he observes the relationship between Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, her Cabinet Colleagues and various broadcasting councils, Broadcasting Authorities, and the BBC in general.

His article refers to the granting of ITV licences and Channel Four's management.

He also points out that some of Mrs.Thatcher's Cabinet colleagues were worried about "Broadcasting Quality". In particular, Stewart quotes Bernard Ingham as advising (when speaking to Mrs. Thatcher) "You, above all people must not go down in history as the person who turned British Television".

Stewart's feature may be found here, in the web-site of The Royal Television Society.

Stewart Purvis was at ITN while the 1990 Broadcasting act was being discussed in Parliament. He is now at Channel 4 where he is a non-executive director.

He wrote the article in a personal capacity.