UK car industry is on right road

Published on Friday 1 August 2008 09:19

THE British Motor Show opened this week with the Prime Minister visiting it, no doubt hoping for some much-needed respite.

I wonder if he marvelled at what was once ruined in the sixties and seventies – the many dud models, the duff management and the dinosaur trades unions – now forms an example of how the British can still make things people want to buy?

It's an interesting lesson of how market specialisation and allowing business to get on and sort itself out has seen a renaissance of the Britain's car industry.

Of course many people would say that there are no British volume car manufacturers any more. They would be right, but does that really matter?

Many politicians, trade unionists and national newspaper editors have rushed to the barricades to defend various firms, such as Rover, Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, Land Rover, as if their wives and daughters were being molested by some Johnny Foreigner – but why?

Has the Land Rover not blossomed under BMW and has the same German firm not revived the Mini beautifully with further models planned and over 200,000 cars built at Cowley each year? Has Volkswagen not breathed new life into Bentley? So what makes a British car these days?

The 70,000 Nissan, Honda and Toyota cars manufactured in the UK are surely as British as the Rolls-Royce (made by BMW in Britain) and more so than the latest Vauxhall Insignia (made by General Motors in Germany).

Jaguar and Land Rover, both recently bought from Ford by Indian car manufacturer, Tata, will certainly continue to be built in Britain for the foreseeable future with serious amounts of money now likely to be invested. Are they now Indian because of a change in ownership?

While volume production has, at about 1.6 million units, flourished towards the record levels of 1972's 1.9 million, the other story is the design and engineering expertise that causes foreign manufacturers to locate in Britain to purchase our expertise. In world motor racing at all levels there is often a British expert at the heart of the team.

Then there's the brand names, which for all our often-cynical view of the world are sought after and seen as possessing heaps of motorists' goodwill, that's why MG refuses to die and there was a bidding war for the Triumph name.

Gordon Brown should take solace from the British car industry – there's always hope for a quality product that has its admirers. Hmm. Well, on the other hand maybe he should call it a day.

No need for secrecy

SO it is alleged there have been top-secret high-level discussions between the Westminster Tories and the SNP about post-election scenarios. Annabel Goldie denies all knowledge – but who said she was asked? David Cameron will be worried about a constitutional crisis following a UK Tory victory but with few MPs in Scotland and a large swathe of Nats. The leaked plan would, apparently, mean Cameron granting full financial powers for Holyrood in return for some peace and quiet from the Nats (a nave suggestion, surely).

It is, of course, clever politics from Cameron, but there's a problem with this wheeze. If it is generally accepted that the English Tories will only make the Scottish Parliament more responsible because of SNP strength – then it pays to vote SNP to force Cameron's hand – especially given that the Tories aren't offering this and voting Tory in Scotland probably won't make enough difference.

Surely a more clever idea would be for Goldie to actually advocate the policy openly and so attract new votes to the Tories from people who don't want to vote SNP but do want Labour out and greater accountability in Edinburgh?

It drives me to drink

THE brave new world of an independent Scotland occasionally peeps through – and this week was no exception when Edinburgh's SNP Lib Dem council denied two petrol stations a licence to continue alcohol sales in their M&S-run outlets.

The new licensing act gives councils the power to remove the off-licence capability if there is no specific need. The council's licensing board argued that as there were alternatives elsewhere, there was no specific need, even though liquor sales in both garages were high. If that's not a specific need, what is? The Chamber of Commerce warned petrol stations would close, as they don't make money on petrol but on their shop sales.

The quality of SNP decision making was there for all to see when an SNP councillor said letting petrol stations sell alcohol was like encouraging drink driving. In an oil-rich independent Scotland, you'll have to drive farther for your petrol – probably to a supermarket – the only petrol stations still open – where you can, er, fill up your trolley with booze before you fill up your car with petrol. Independence? It can't come quickly enough.