w.atching the w.orld unw.ind

Our Cooper is in for its first service today. We're not expecting anything more than an oil and plugs change - certainly there's no list of fixes for the garage to work through. Maybe there's something to be said for Teutonic engineering?

Unlike my final company car, the MG ZR 120. While it was the sure-footed pocket rocket I chose it for (an 1800cc engine and fat tyres saw to that) there were far too many minor niggles for a new car. I wouldn't have recommended it for a private purchase. Not when you're picking up the repair tabs.

Now, in the past, both my Bruv and I have been made redundant. We've both known the stomach-turning feeling of the certain loss of steady and lucrative incomes. So I have an empathy with the workers at MG Rover, who now also face that threat of major changes to their lifeplans through, technically, no fault of their own.

But if enough people are not buying what you're making, you either reduce or cease production. That's a simple fact of commerce. No-one buys mangles any more. And if the product is not deemed sturdy enough for the diminishing Fleet market to buy, a major source of revenue runs in the direction of away. What was it they used to say?
"There are three things you can see from Space. The Great Barrier Reef, the Great Wall of China and row upon row of unsold Rover 75s.

So I do not want my taxpayer's money to be used to support what used to be called, in pre-PC times, a lame duck. Even though I appreciate the financial considerations of not only the MG workforce being on the Old King Cole, but parts suppliers, showroom salespeople, the sandwich suppliers, the bakers who make the bread for the sandwich suppliers etc. etc.

I am sorry for them all. But we had to move on.