Rover... Rest in Piecework
Having a few problems posting to the FTP server at the moment, and my browser wasn't working properly with Blogger last night. It kept saying "document contains no data"... I could feed the manifestos into my PC next week and probably get the same result.
Anyway, unless you avoid news like an anthrax outbreak (and good for you, but then are you safe reading this?) you'll have seen that Rover has gone under. Bad timing for those 6,000 Longbridge workers. Let me tell you something about Rover... in fact about what was once the UK car industry in general. Its decline is almost entirely due to the total and complete incompetence of its management from the 1950s onward. They were a collection of bowler hats who were still in the mindset of relying on the good ol' British Empire to provide a steady stream of investment income and, in the latter days, cheap immigrant workers, whilst they could get on with the job of De-Industrialisation. Meanwhile, the trade unions, knowing they couldn't rely 1% on these bosses to actually make any sensible decisions, got on with the job of taking as big a cut of whatever meagre profits could be eked out in a good year.
The Government's response through the 60s and early 70s was to encourage small crap firms to merge into one larger crap firm (Austin Morris, British Leyland, Austin Rover, Austin Powers, Leland Palmer, what-have-you) and to dole out large sums of money to private industry in state aid with no accountability as to how it was spent. The only serious chance for British Leyland (as was) to sort itself out was nationalisation in '75. Unfortunately, as with every other nationalised industry, it was still run like the worst type of arthritic British private company, just with bigger government handouts. The only guy who realised the potential of nationalisation to transform Britain was Tony Benn... and he was kicked out of the Industry Secretary job after 18 months.
the late 70s was the era of the 'pyjama shift' when car workers clocked in for the night shift with sleeping bags and used the factory as a Travelodge. And arseholes like Michael Edwardes (the managing director of Leyland) were paid millions for sacking the people whose fault it wasn't that the company was so crap. Not to mention 'classic' marques such as the Rover SD1, the Triumph TR7 and the Morris Marina (couldn't find a link you'd actually want to look at for that last one - sorry). Actually the SD1 invented the Ford Sierra shape 6 years before its time, but very few of them actually came out of the factory without a key component falling out, the workmen's sandwiches left in the boot, etc.
Privatisation didn't work none, as the same idiots were still left in charge of the show. By 2000 all the good bits (Mini, Land Rover) had been sold off, and what we were left with was a minnow trying to compete with huge behemoths like GM, VW and Toyota: like riding a Sinclair C5 at the TT races. Volume car production has been subject to continuous agglomeration since the 1900s and that will not change any time soon; in the next 10 years it is likely that the mid-size guys, which mainly means the Europeans - Volvo, Fiat, Citroen, etc. - will either get bought out, collapse, or make increasing losses. The truth is, it was all over for British car-making by the 70s, when we were already failing to crack the crucial export markets.
Rover's collapse 3 days into the campaign might make a difference in a few of the Birmingham marginals... which if the election comes out really close (a la Feb 1974) might make the difference between Labour and the Tories being the largest party. But so might many factors, including Howard Flight, the weather, and whether a Tory candidate is rude to the waiters in a restaurant he goes into just before polling day (this happened to Rupert Allison, who was MP for Torbay prior to 1997, and lost by about 12 votes... about the same as the number of waiters in the restaurant.) But nothing has happened yet of epoch making proportions in this campaign. The Pope has now been buried and with the Royal registry office do tomorrow, most of the bollocks will be out the way and the real nonsense can begin. Mine's a gin & bitter lemon... "seedy South London drink". (as my mate Foley once said). Chow.
Anyway, unless you avoid news like an anthrax outbreak (and good for you, but then are you safe reading this?) you'll have seen that Rover has gone under. Bad timing for those 6,000 Longbridge workers. Let me tell you something about Rover... in fact about what was once the UK car industry in general. Its decline is almost entirely due to the total and complete incompetence of its management from the 1950s onward. They were a collection of bowler hats who were still in the mindset of relying on the good ol' British Empire to provide a steady stream of investment income and, in the latter days, cheap immigrant workers, whilst they could get on with the job of De-Industrialisation. Meanwhile, the trade unions, knowing they couldn't rely 1% on these bosses to actually make any sensible decisions, got on with the job of taking as big a cut of whatever meagre profits could be eked out in a good year.
The Government's response through the 60s and early 70s was to encourage small crap firms to merge into one larger crap firm (Austin Morris, British Leyland, Austin Rover, Austin Powers, Leland Palmer, what-have-you) and to dole out large sums of money to private industry in state aid with no accountability as to how it was spent. The only serious chance for British Leyland (as was) to sort itself out was nationalisation in '75. Unfortunately, as with every other nationalised industry, it was still run like the worst type of arthritic British private company, just with bigger government handouts. The only guy who realised the potential of nationalisation to transform Britain was Tony Benn... and he was kicked out of the Industry Secretary job after 18 months.
the late 70s was the era of the 'pyjama shift' when car workers clocked in for the night shift with sleeping bags and used the factory as a Travelodge. And arseholes like Michael Edwardes (the managing director of Leyland) were paid millions for sacking the people whose fault it wasn't that the company was so crap. Not to mention 'classic' marques such as the Rover SD1, the Triumph TR7 and the Morris Marina (couldn't find a link you'd actually want to look at for that last one - sorry). Actually the SD1 invented the Ford Sierra shape 6 years before its time, but very few of them actually came out of the factory without a key component falling out, the workmen's sandwiches left in the boot, etc.
Privatisation didn't work none, as the same idiots were still left in charge of the show. By 2000 all the good bits (Mini, Land Rover) had been sold off, and what we were left with was a minnow trying to compete with huge behemoths like GM, VW and Toyota: like riding a Sinclair C5 at the TT races. Volume car production has been subject to continuous agglomeration since the 1900s and that will not change any time soon; in the next 10 years it is likely that the mid-size guys, which mainly means the Europeans - Volvo, Fiat, Citroen, etc. - will either get bought out, collapse, or make increasing losses. The truth is, it was all over for British car-making by the 70s, when we were already failing to crack the crucial export markets.
Rover's collapse 3 days into the campaign might make a difference in a few of the Birmingham marginals... which if the election comes out really close (a la Feb 1974) might make the difference between Labour and the Tories being the largest party. But so might many factors, including Howard Flight, the weather, and whether a Tory candidate is rude to the waiters in a restaurant he goes into just before polling day (this happened to Rupert Allison, who was MP for Torbay prior to 1997, and lost by about 12 votes... about the same as the number of waiters in the restaurant.) But nothing has happened yet of epoch making proportions in this campaign. The Pope has now been buried and with the Royal registry office do tomorrow, most of the bollocks will be out the way and the real nonsense can begin. Mine's a gin & bitter lemon... "seedy South London drink". (as my mate Foley once said). Chow.
2 Comments:
Whilst acknowledging the general inadequacy of the BL/Rover Group management, I feel your rosy picture of the workforce as entirely blameless for the demise of Rover Group verges on the insane. You rightly point out that models were notorious for their unreliability, which begs the question 'who was assembling them?' . Whilst I understand your wish for workers to have as easy a life as possible, international competition from countries where workers tend to pay attention to detail during their shift rather than play table-tennis, may have something to do with why the company is in such a dire state.
That said , good analysis of the future of the global car industry's future - keep on posting.
Van Patten
Whilst acknowledging the general inadequacy of the BL/Rover Group management, I feel your rosy picture of the workforce as entirely blameless for the demise of Rover Group verges on the insane. You rightly point out that models were notorious for their unreliability, which begs the question 'who was assembling them?' . Whilst I understand your wish for workers to have as easy a life as possible, international competition from countries where workers tend to pay attention to detail during their shift rather than play table-tennis, may have something to do with why the company is in such a dire state.
That said , good analysis of the future of the global car industry's future - keep on posting.
Van Patten
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