Graham Hiscott

IT has been another busy year in the world of business and finance, dominated again by the cost of living crisis for millions of ordinary households.

But amid the onslaught of statistics, it is vital to always remember the impact on individuals.

This was very much the case when Graham Hiscott revealed how one frail pensioner, Barry Seckerson, was having to raid his own funeral fund to pay an energy bill which had rocketed.

Just as important was to contrast the plight of individuals, and give them a voice, with the profits being raked in by big business, in this case British Gas, Mr Seckerson’s supplier.

Highlighting this divide was also the focus of another exclusive splash by Graham over the past year, that at Royal Mail.

While workers fought for a pay rise, the Mirror revealed Royal Mail shareholders - including a billionaire investor - had netted £1.9billion.

This and very many other stories around the treatment of striking Royal Mail workers piled pressure on the company, which eventually agreed a settlement with its main union.

Back to the cost of living crisis and one of the other big themes was the Bank of England’s interest rate hikes.

For this reason, Graham arranged for Bank Governor Andrew Bailey to tackle readers’ concerns through an exclusive splash, in which he warned the pain was not over - which very much turned out to be the case.