Andrew Alexander of the Daily Mail on the Rover 状況／情勢

By This Is Money
Updated: 00:00 BST, 16 March 2000

?

Steering Rover out of its 溝へはまらせる／不時着する is not a 仕事 for the taxpayer

THE faint 可能性 that BMW wi ll keep Rover if Brussels will at last 是認する the 政府's 援助（する） 一括 for Longbridge has 持続するd a flicker of hope in some ４半期/4分の1s.

But the £152m of 援助（する） 伴う／関わるd is peanuts in the wider 計画／陰謀 of things. Losses last year at the 会社／堅い are thought to have been between £800m and £1bn, rather worse than the year before. And this is にもかかわらず BMW having 投資するd £3bn in modernising the 商売／仕事.

The question that hangs over the German 会社／堅い's 活動／戦闘s is not why they want to sell Rover (apart from the Land Rover and the 小型の 商売／仕事) but why they bought it in the first place?

Admittedly, the £800m price paid in 1994 to buy the company from British 航空宇宙学 looked decidedly small for a car 製造者. But as every 実業家 should know, there is no such thing as a cheap 黒人／ボイコット 穴を開ける.

The problem for BMW has been 構内／化合物d by the chronic over-capacity in car 製造業の throughout the EU. But that has been a ぼんやり現れるing prospect for some years.

The Rover debacle derives from two faults. There had been the 失敗 of the Longbridge 全労働人口 to 配達する 適する 生産性 and the, 式のs, conceited 仮定／引き受けること by BMW that it could manage a turn 一連の会議、交渉／完成する. 生産性 at Rover is a fraction of what has been 達成するd, for example, by the Japanese 工場／植物s どこかよそで in Britain.

Admittedly, Longbridge is something of a logistical nightmare and not what anyone would have built on a greenfield 場所／位置, as the Japanese have done.

But the BMW 管理／経営 should have 高く評価する／（相場などが）上がるd this at the time. It is said that three 上級の 人物／姿／数字s at the German 会社／堅い will be axed today because of the 失敗 of the 投資.

Tony Blair 宣言するd yesterday

that Rover was of enormous '戦略の' importance (he did not mean 軍の) and that 'we will do everything we can' to 保護（する）／緊急輸入制限 the 会社／堅い's 未来.

There is good 推論する／理由 to 疑問 the 総理大臣's 誠実 --fortunately.

支援する in the 1960s and the 1970s, the question about Rover's 未来 would have turned q uite 簡単に on how much taxpayers' money was going to be flung at the 商売／仕事 to keep it afloat.

These are, we hope, better and wiser times. 可能性のある 職業 losses if Longbridge is の近くにd 範囲 up to 80,000. But that 伴う／関わるs the 仮定／引き受けること that if the factory の近くにs, its 職業 losses are multiplied through the 供給者s' loss of 職業s which in turn keep 地元の economies going.

This ignores the way that many 構成要素s 会社／堅いs have turned themselves into 全世界の rather than 国家の 供給者s.

But in any 事例／患者 redundancies are part and 小包 of a continually modernising economy. The 拒絶する／低下する in the 製造業の base in Britain has led to 大規模な 落ちるs in factory 全労働人口s. In services, the banks have laid off tens of thousands in 最近の years.

Yet 失業, 負かす／撃墜する again last month by 6,000 to 1.15m, is at it lowest for 20 years. JobCentre vacancies at 238,000 are one of the highest on 記録，記録的な／記録する.

Even if the 政府 was to succumb to a 投票（する）-奮起させるd 勧める to keep Rover going at public expense, it is not （疑いを）晴らす who would run the 商売／仕事. BMW would prefer to 削減（する） its links with the main 商売／仕事.

Longbridge is hardly a 事例／患者 for a 管理／経営 buyout. And though there is said to be a group of Cayman Islands 投資家s wanting Rover, it is hard to see how a bunch of amateurs could 後継する where BMW has failed.

Any serious 救助（する）, however disguised, would 論理（学）上 mean 所有権 - in other words nationalisation.

That would have all its attendant problems, 含むing the need to find more 資本／首都 for 投資 同様に as money to 持続する the 現在の 商売／仕事.

The 厳しい truth is that there is little that the 政府 can do - and even いっそう少なく that it せねばならない.