Autocar magazine has suddenly woken-up to the threat to UK jobs posed by the Government's new CO2-based car taxes. And boy are they miffed! After listing the auto industry's contribution to the island nation's economy– 800k employees, £200b turnover– Julian Rendell lets 'em have it with half a barrel: "And yet the government's policies could be putting that business, and those jobs, in increasing jeopardy." [emphasis added]. Ya think? CO2- belching Bentley, Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Lotus all call Britain home. Instead of bringing out the big guns to attack the anti-car jihad– union leaders, car makers' reps, opposition politicians, analysts– Autocar picks up the cudgel on behalf of the working stiff. "Those who govern our country are making cars prohibitively costly to buy and to own, and by doing so they've giving the ordinary people who make, sell, service and repair those vehicles real concern for their jobs and their futures." That said, the guys on the line really know their onions. “I feel the government’s policies are clearly anti-car,” said Craig Caves, line manager at Ford of Britain’s Dagenham Diesel Centre. “On a daily basis they are producing an anti-car mentality that can only threaten jobs in the car industry. And it’s not just us at risk; it’s all the people supplying us and the people local to the plant.” News flash: the time to bring-up this issue was five years ago. At least.
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This government is increasingly hypocritical. They claim that they believe in a “free market” and that the “market will determine supply and a demand”. Unless they want to engineer a particular scenario, then, they’ll tax the hell out of a particular industry.
Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Ford and GM are lucky, they can up sticks and move production abroad if they wanted to. Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Lotus, Rolls Royce and Bentley don’t have that luxury, unless they want to close up shop here and re-establish themselves abroad.
The funny thing is, Germany has a much bigger car industry. They don’t tax the hell out of them, yet their green policies, bear similar fruit to the UK’s pathetic offerings……
For the record, don’t think things will get any better if the Tories get in. In fact, expect worse!
Katie, the only point i have to disagree on you with, is if the tories do get in, how can the country get any worse than it is now and will do in the next few months because of the clowns who’ve been in power? But this isn’t the newsnight blog though is it!!
BostonTeaParty
I do appreciate that this isn’t “The Truth About Current Affairs”, but I have to correct you about the Tories.
When they were in power (between 1979 to 1997) we had:
MP’s killing themselves in freak masturbation accidents
Weak leadership from John Major.
Tories selling off anything they could lay their hands on.
Tories berating Labour for being “Pro Europe”, yet signing the UK up to the Maastrict Treaty when the country was against it.
Corruption.
Support of the South African Apartheid system
Virtually no workers’ rights.
Utter anhiliation of the coal, steel and ship-building industries.
The list goes on and on! Labour aren’t angels by any means, but I jest ye not, I’d rather Labour were in power than the Tories! The country was in a much worse state under the Tories…..
Crazy in the UK! Goes with this story about a proposal for carbon credit ration cards for fuel, home energy, etc.!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1021983/Every-adult-Britain-forced-carry-carbon-ration-cards-say-MPs.html
I find it worrying that the UK’s economy today seems to be a perpetual motion machine of service industries. But while it took decades to erode the primary and secondary industries to virtually nothing, banking and retail can be moved offshore as fast as the internet connection will let them. Also I think a pensions fund manager is less likely stand in the cold throwing rocks at the police when he finds his accounts have been transferred to India, than Longbridge and Yorkshire coal miners were.
I think it’s interesting that it’s bad for large manufacturing firms to fail in England, but in America it’s okay because Toyondissan will take up the slack.
If you think it’s bad that national industries fail, why are we eagerly awaiting GM’s come-uppance?
If you don’t think it’s bad that national industries fail who cares if Lotus, TVR, and Bentley shift headquarters to Mumbai?
In both cases you have old-line industrial firms that appear incapable of producing products that satisfy consumer desires and national regulations.
Mj0lnir,
Detroit aren’t being taxed out of existence. They made their own mistakes and now it’s biting them in the jacksie.
Jaguar, Land Rover, Lotus, Rolls Royce and Bentley are in brackets which are (by definition) gas-guzzlers. That’s their raison d’etre they don’t have a mass produced model to fall back on.
katie you want the UAW in the UK??
KatiePuckrik all of those points could easily apply to the labour government (well apart from the wanking one)
but for bliar and brown you’d have to add
War crimes
selling off the nations gold reserves for a £2 billion loss
making education even worse
the dome
the NHS IT project
and the utter shambles that is/will be the olympics
I see a lot of similarity between how the UK is treating drivers and how governments treat cigarette smokers.
1. Smoking is bad for you but we don’t dare ban it outright (remember Prohibition?)
2. To discourage smoking, tax the hell out of cigarettes
3. Gradually and continually restrict where you can smoke and with whom. The goal is to make it virtually impossible to smoke anywhere, even in your home.
4. Socially isolate smokers by demonizing them. Make them embarrassed and apologetic to be smoking.
ps: I am a non-smoker
DrBrian,
The Dome was actually the Tories’ idea, Labour just expanded on it.
This has more to do with the nature of automobile manufacture (read: there isn’t any, aside from coahbuilders) in the UK than it does with green policy.
If there was a UK equivalent to VW, then this would be more of an issue. As it is, there’s no point to any of the UK coach shops (and very little for captive domestics like Jag, Ashton or Bentley) to protest as environmental regulations barely impact them and their customers. It’s similar to Lamborghini’s snubbing CAFE, in that respect.
And yes, cars are going to be more and more of a luxury item and the average buyer anywhere in the G8 is going to have to realize that, very soon, their car buying dollar won’t go as far. And that’s in Europe, where conspicuous consumption has been curtailed to a far greater degree than North America.
KatiePuckrik :
Detroit aren’t being taxed out of existence. They made their own mistakes and now it’s biting them in the jacksie.
What difference does it make what combination of regulation and customer satisfaction caused the problem?
Either it’s bad for local industrial firms to fail, or it isn’t.
Which perspective do you take?
KatiePuckrik :
Jaguar, Land Rover, Lotus, Rolls Royce and Bentley are in brackets which are (by definition) gas-guzzlers. That’s their raison d’etre they don’t have a mass produced model to fall back on.
Did you just tell me that firms made bad decision about product? Did you just say that several british manufacturers locked themselves into a business model that is unsustainable when gas prices increase radically? Did you just tell me that it’s not an auto manufacturers responsibility to make strategic decisions that take market and regulatory changes into account?
Because if you did, and you don’t think it’s acceptable for those firms to close their doors, then why is it okay for GM to go bankrupt? It’s okay for Bentley to fail to recognize that gas wouldn’t always be $1.25/gallon and that there wouldn’t always be another internet mogul in the showroom but GM should reap the “rewards” of the same thought process?
Why is it a legitimate national concern if Aston Martin closes it’s doors due to bad planning and limited product development, but TTAC posters are giddy with joy at the thought of a far larger american manufacturer going chapter 11?
If it doesn’t matter what company americans buy family sedans from, why are TTAC posters discussing what firms britons will buy luxury coupes from?
If 2+2=4 in America, it should probably equal four in Britain as well, and vice versa.
If the failure of manufacturing firms based in Britain are a problem for the british economy, it’s probably a problem here too.
If it’s not a problem here, then it shouldn’t matter to brits who they buy $150,000 sports cars and $300,000 sedans from any more than it matters who we buy $20,000 commuters from.
I’ll add to DRBrians point of a poodle government
with no backbone to stand up for what is right i.e. a false war that the country never wanted to be in.
one where taxes have increased exponentially
through stealth and other means
the fiasco that became more important that was “spin” in the current government. better to release bad news about the government on a day when the news is covering the death of a national icon.
people emigrating at an all time high,
political correctness that has got out of control and ruined the nation.
the general living standard that has decreased.
confidence in the country and economy that is at an all time low
could go on and on, about how labour has helped bring down a once great country. so yeah i don’t see how it could get worse, bring back the tories, god bless margaret thatcher, even on a cold day!!
The Italians have a saying about politicians – ‘politicians are like nappies, they begin to stink if you don’t change them often enough’.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Brown is a useless …. and I think Cameron would do much better; but, after a term or two we should go back to Labour; as long as Brown has gone.
Mj0lnir-
I could get into it, but…yup.
Phil