Are they still part of the MG Rover brand you want to save? Or are we still talking about the sunken ship that is left?
They could easily have been had MG Rover had been... saved prior to BMW taking them over and legaslly raping them. Surely the success of the Mini design proved that given the right backing MG Rover had the capability within it to design cars the market wanted.
Is that an answer to the original question? Nope. Just because minis now sit in Berlin doesnt mean we should nationalise MG Rover. Oh look what we could have had is not a business plan. Can you give me one viable reason as to why today we should nationalise MG Rover gambling hundreds of millions of pounds of our money? I can give you loads why we shouldn't. Then - before you post benchmark your answer against that of say saving Littlewoods and all the other companies that have gone to the wall.
Like the charge of Seeing an opportunity and having the balls to take it - and making sure that since you put your own house on the line you made damn well sure you got your money back and more for keeping people in work a few more years after BMW were prepared to throw them all on the scrap heap. Or a charge of playing the system - the same system and same rules that everyone else in the country is allowed to play and just cos they made a few bob they should be victimised despite giving thousands of people in Birmingham a couple of extra years in work. BMW would not invest in Rover. They would not allow the further development of the Rover 800? (the big one) because it was mainly stealing sales from the 3 series. The other models were in markets where BMW intended to launch vehicles such as the 1 series. They raped the technology from Land Rover to launch the X5, etc. Rover was shafted by BMW before these guys got hold of it. And frankly Rover was shafted by our own goverment who delisted teh company as a preferred supplier for civil service cars - can you imagine a french bobby in an Italien, German or Japanese ( about the closest you can get to british) Car? I think not. So why does the british govt. insist on playing fair with European legislation when all around it is abused by other nations. And that's not to mention the British public who seem intent on destroying this countries economy by buying German and French cars. Given all that - and as the commies love a good scape goat as much as the next tyranous political system you're right. Lets fry these guys.
MG Rover no longer exists therefore it cannot be nationalised. We did not hesitate to take on the banks and the toxic debts they had accrued. It would have benefited the nation IMHO to have a car company based in the UK who provided decent quality vehicles at an economical cost. This would have enabled the UK to retain significant personnel and talent as well as money. Unemployment is a long term cost and how many from MG Rover are likely to find other similar jobs? Not that many I'd guess. I guess retail is slightly different in that there are already too many stores as it is. That is not to devalue the loss of any jobs in this sector, but to question the need for so much "choice". I'd say that saving Littlewoods was not in the national interest as manufacturing should be the basis of our economy, not retail. Retail of goods could be done through single outlets. As Tesco are proving.
and let's not forget the unions with 'red robbo' in the late 70s they fecked British Leyland up as a viable car producer.</p> That should do it !</p> </p>
Agree with most of that... what they did does not excuse what BMW did, but hey they are all capitalists together... I believe that they actually put SFA into it. Just took and took and took. You are quite right about the government. That's why I support a withdrawal from the European Capitalist Club. But it's a shame there is no choice now if a government wished to do that. So I guess it should have been nationalised prior to these clowns getting a sniff of an easy buck. And let's not forget to note that everyone's favourite despicable bank was involved in their shady dealings...Barclays. Frying is a bit harsh, I don't think they would taste too good, but the point is we have to start somewhere and prevent these things from happening.
Can't disagree with that... To a large extent though BL was fecked by poor car design, a lack of investment and of course the perennial issue of quality or rather the lack of it, which the workers could and should have improved.
