It is believed that the first motor car built in Britain was built in Small Heath by the Lanchester company in 1895. From that moment on Birmingham’s history was intertwined with that of car production. Birmingham is a young city by the standards of the U.K., most of its growth occurred in the twentieth century and its fortunes have mirrored that of the British motor industry. It was not until just after the second world that its population overtook that of Glasgow to make it the second city at the outset of Golden Age of British car building. As that industry has died so Birmingham has declined along with it.
The sad list of the great car factories like the Talbot in Small Heath, the Austin at Longbridge, Peugeot at Ryton, and the Jaguar at Browns Lane is a litany of tragedy. Likewise the roll call of British car companies now inspires shame rather than pride; Morris, Riley, Austin, BSA, Daimler, Wolseley, Triumph, Sunbeam, Talbot, Alvis and Rover all are now part of history. Today’s announcement that Ford are seeking to sell Land Rover and Jaguar probably spells the end of large scale car production in Birmingham. Perhaps the Castle Bromwich and Solihull plants will linger on for a few years as in the case of Rover at Longbridge but their fate is all but sealed. The simple fact of the matter is that car production in Western Europe can only be maintained at the insistence of the relevant state, and while this might protect Volkswagen and Citroen to some extent there is no possibility of the British government doing the same for our industry. Globalisation means that industrial production will almost always take place where Labour the is cheapest available (not including unstable regions such as Africa). If it were not for the E.U.’s import tariffs it is likely that this would be China or India. That is cold comfort for British car industry workers as their jobs are packed off to Eastern Europe.
And let us not forget that for every worker in the assembly plants there are several working in the component manufacturers. The future looks bleak for them and they are unlikely to get the payouts and re-training that the assembly workers will no doubt be getting, Probably, as in the case of Rover, at the taxpayers rather than BMW’s (in that case) expense.
The most likely buyers for Jaguar and Land Rover will be asset stripping companies. The land alone upon which the sixty five acre Solihull plant stands must be worth tens if not hundreds of millions of pounds. No doubt Chinese and Indian companies are already eying the valuable R and D facilities of the two companies (as they did Rover itself) and perhaps the globally known brand names as well. The tools and machines of the factories might be worth a few bob into the bargain. Unlike Ford the asset stripper can make off with the spoils of the two companies without having the liabilities of pensions and redundancy pay if they declare themselves bankrupt at the end of the exercise. Directors of the Phoenix consortium which asset stripped Rover are thought to have made tens of millions while the company went down with over a billion pounds worth of debt. Unlike Ford asset stripper do not care about damage to their worthless companies reputations. For one thing no-one has ever heard of them anyway and for another they can simply start another for the next raid. Ford’s good name is simply to valuable to allow them to undertake the grisly business of scraping an industry so they will allow another company to take the flack in return for the salvage pickings. Just as BMW did with Rover.
The “investment team” which bought LDV based in Ward End is doing little better, halting production of all but one of the models in its range recently and laying off hundreds of workers. No doubt it will soon follow in the footsteps of the other British commercial vehicle companies like Leyland, ERF, Atkinson, Sedan and Foden into oblivion.
The BNP is not in the business of soft soaking issues and this section will be uncomfortable reading for many who work in the factories concerned.
When considering the decline and fall of the British car industry certain obvious villains come to the fore. One culpable group would be the planks who ran the industry, the assorted managing directors of the various companies failed time and time again to develop new models or invest in those few which were successful. One in particular stands out even amongst the incompetent buffoons which made up his peer group. Sir William Rootes, of Rootes Group fame, who spent his time building Warwick University while foreign competitors were building shiny new efficient car factories. Warwick University today continues Sir William’s life’s work of destroying British achievements, however instead of turning out sub standard cars Warwick mass produces political correct storm troopers for the liberal establishment. When it comes to liberal indoctrination Warwick is probably the foremost university in the land. Meanwhile the factories Rootes was responsible for are long gone, replaced with housing estates and shopping centres.
An allied group of the clueless company directors were the various government ministers whose ham fisted attempts to use the car industry for social engineering instead of wealth creation speed the death of British car building. For example misters insisted that the innovative Hillman Imp should be built in Scotland, 400 miles away from the bulk of the component manufacturers in the West Midlands. With the result that this car, an early forerunner of the hatchbacks of today was nothing like the success it should have been.
However the workers of the industry also have to take their share of blame. There is no need to recount the senseless history of Derek Robinson, class war warrior and one time shop steward of Longbridge (AKA “red robbo”) who lead thousands of car workers straight to the doors of the dole office. Yet even with this terrible example before them the car workers have allowed themselves to be goaded into conflict with the management of their plants by politically motivated hard line trade unionists. The workers of Ryton frequently threatened, and occasionally did, strike over pay and conditions even as the plant was threatened with closure. Surely a significant contributor to the decision to build new Peugeot models in Eastern Europe rather than Coventry. There can be few more pathetic sights than a shop steward of a doomed car plant threatening action unless “management” tow the line as we have seen time and time again. Strike action just does not have much impact if your factory is about to be closed down anyway (unless your French). And while the mislead car workers struggle to find work after their factory has closed the shop steward will be getting settled in to his comfy new job at Union HQ.
The trade union movement has been hijacked by left wing extremists, who rather than campaigning to halt the flow of wage cutting Eastern European labour actually recently flew to Poland to sign them up to their unions before that had even arrived in the UK! Meanwhile working conditions in the private sector sink ever lower with ever longer hours getting you ever less spending power. And where are the Unions? Spending your subs in campaigns to “stop the BNP” and getting slaps on the back at the TUC from the very Labour politicians who have sold our country and its workers out. Labour politicians I might add who finance their Party from trade union subs rather than from their own bloated salaries. The BNP supports trade unionism in principle, indeed we have our own affiliated union, Solidarity, but not the fanatics who have helped ruin our industries, our country and countless British families.
The effects of Ford’s desertion of Jaguar and Land Rover is almost certain to be disastrous. You will hear no hint of the truth from MP’s or trade unionists on this matter. Just as in the case of Rover they will pretend that whichever asset stripping company is handed the job of running down these factories represents a bright new age. Don’t believe them. Our advice to car workers is to get some serious qualifications if you can now while you’ve got a few years to play with and hang on for the redundancy. If you are offered it, for god sake take it, the optimists at Rover ended up with nothing when the company went into receivership. Margaret Hodge, Labour MP and Department of Work and Pensions MINSTER offered the advice that Rover workers could get a job at Tesco’s when asked what was going to happen to the workforce there. Expect no better.
We can only speculate on the effects of the closure of the Castle Brom and Solihull plants on Eastern Birmingham and Solihull. However we can be certain that it will not have a positive effect on the local community. We in the BNP can only offer our assurance that we will continue to fight for our communities whenever and wherever we get the chance. We have warned time and time again about the disastrous effects of globalisation on our communities, maybe now more people will be finally willing to listen to the hard truth that unless our political elite is removed things can only deteriorate for the British people.
