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Panorama's week that was - 25 May to 1 June

Last week, with the MPs' expenses uproar dominating the news, Panorama looked beyond the scandal to other areas of politicians' working lives. In Is Your MP Working for You?
Shelley Jofre reported on the other avenues available to MPs to bring in money, either for themselves or their families, without technically breaking any rules.

But the expenses scandal is just the beginning of a new wave of scrutiny at Westminster. Three weeks on, the story appears to have moved on to the perhaps more enduring debate over what it all means for the UK's political landscape, particularly as the financial crisis continues.

As European elections draw closer, many people are commentating on whether the degree of public anger felt about expenses, combined with the credit crunch, will change the electorate's views so much that we could see a populist backlash. Speaking on the Today programme, Historian Niall Ferguson explained how the we've witnessed will be even more powerful because it has coincided with the biggest financial crisis in recent history.

Significantly, Ferguson explains the way in which political upheaval has historically followed on from financial shock, typically benefitting nationalistic parties of the far right.
Back in 2001, Panorama reported on the British National Party's claims it has renounced its past associations with racism, violence and Nazi ideology. In , we revealed, through the testimony of insiders, a very different take on the organisation.

On Saturday, Pakistani troops drove Taliban rebels out of Mingora, the main city in the Swat valley - an area that has seen over the past few months, starting with a new and intense criticism of the Taliban from the Pakistani public, and culminating with military action.

In Britain's Terror Heartland, Jane Corbin made the hazardous journey to the frontlines to report on the Pakistan government's renewed commitment to fighting militants on its border with Afghanistan.


Last week, the widow of Kevin Brendan McDaid, the Catholic father of four who was beaten to death by a sectarian gang in Coleraine, against retaliation, saying that her husband would not have wanted it. He was attacked and beaten by a loyalist mob close to his home last Sunday.

Just over a year ago, Declan Lawn returned to Northern Ireland to see how much things have changed 10 years on from the Good Friday Agreement. His conclusion, a decade on, is that life is .

Also from Northern Ireland, the five main teachers' unions have called on politicians to work together to come up with ways to reduce the stress levels on pupils while protecting the curriculum.

The unions want urgent meetings with the education minister and the assembly's education committee amid claims that some schools are considering being forced to abandon the curriculum to focus on the tests.

Vivian White reported on the pressure that primary school children were facing from exams in

On a similar note, musician and ex-teacher Sting gave a at the Hay Literary festival for an end to the scaling down of music lessons for school children.

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