The Money Programme

In the 18 months since its stock market flotation, Google has been transformed from a company that prided itself on being simple and effective, into a multi-headed high tech beast which wants to get involved in everything.

Some of Britain's richest people pay remarkably little tax. A Money Programme special investigates how they do it.

The Real Big Brother Increasingly we're all being watched at work, at home, even out shopping. The Money Programme investigates the new technology which allows businesses to track their goods, their workforce and their customers. What are the dangers in this all-knowing, all-seeing world? Could we all end up with implanted chips that help us run our lives from birth to death?

If you've ever taken out a mortgage or loan, or hold a credit card, you've probably been offered Payment Protection Insurance, or PPI as it's called. It's meant to help you if you become ill or get made redundant, so that you can meet your repayments, but all too often, it's letting people down.

Some of the world's biggest airlines, including our very own British Airways, stand accused of ripping off consumers in price fixing conspiracies. The Office of Fair Trading in the UK and the Department of Justice in the US have launched investigations into two alleged conspiracies with a series of dawn raids on airline offices.

Forget the campaigning celebrity chefs and the growth in farmers markets: as a nation we are hooked on convenience foods. We spent £1.6bn on ready meals last year and ate nearly half of those consumed in Europe.

We've all had to break a motorway journey, whether it is for petrol, food or to go to the loo. Yet, many of us will hesitate before taking the slip-road to a service area for fears about the quality and the price of the food on offer, or even the state of the loos.

The website eBay has become the focus of a new breed of entrepreneurs who hope to make money by trading online. Jameel Verjee is a corporate lawyer turned entrepreneur, who wants to raise funds from potential investors in the city.

In the fast moving world of fashion, 2005 has unquestionably been the year of the budget chain Primark. With 123 shops in the UK and more on the way, it has become a leading player in the high street. It scooped one of the major prizes at the High Street fashion awards this autumn, and its low-cost, high-fashion clothing has even appeared in the fashion bible Vogue.