Even in Britain, the trade unions tell me that employment contracts have less protection than in the past.

The unions still have a job to do, representing their members' interests to governments and parliaments. And I think collective agreements still have a role, alongside markets and laws.

Cinema explains American society. It's like a Western, with good guys and bad guys, where the weak don't have a place.

These days there are not enough of such intermediary groups, between the state and the individual, with the result that political leaders are often unduly guided by opinion polls.