OllyK

I briefly caught breakfast TV this morning and a familly, were being interviewed, the father works/ed at the Rover plant. The mother was the one doing most of the talking.

Now I appreciate being made redundant (or in this case the prospect of being made redundant) isn't pleasant, it happened to me 2 years ago. But this woman was complaining that the government should be doing more. "Why did the government let the company get in to this state?". "Yes the government were going to pay up to 2 years costs to re-train her husband, but who was going to pay the mortgage and the bills while that was happening??"

Seems to me that the government are being more than generous (with my tax money) as none of that was offered to me (and Rover is a private company), and she is still complaining. Do people expect the government to bail them out of everything? Why can't people actually make some provision and try and stand on their own 2 feet now and again?

Iain Young

I agree Olly. In fact I don't really see why the government should get involved at all. It's a private / public company (not state owned) and so has not really got anything to do with government.

Seems to me as though with trying to negotiate a deal, and offering to help retrain employees, they've already done more than should be expected...

OllyK

If I were cynical I might think they were trying to "buy" themselves a few thousand votes!

Phil

I have to agree but the fallout i.e. in dole payments will no doubt excide what the government is putting in at the moment

and of course there is a general election


Been made redundant twice now and never got a single penny from the governmet labour and conservative

GaryScoobNCBR

the government get involved because otherwise they will have 7000 (not sure of figures) unemployed people on there hands and thats not good for anyone.

But i also see your point.

OllyK

This wasn't intended as a government attack, more that some woman whose husband may be made redundant seems to think the government should be paying their bills and mortgage for the next 2 years while the government is also paying for his re-training. I was wondering if anybody else thought her expectations are just so way out of line as to be laughable? What makes a person think that everybody else owes them so much? Does she have no pride?

A&E

I hate the way everyone expects to be supported by benefits of some kind for everything. I work hard to pay for what I have, and I would never expect anyone to bail me out if things went pear-shaped

jasey

There was a statement on one of the News broadcasts that at the time Rover was given to the Phoenix 4 the other option was to Pay the Workers £30k each in redundancy and shut the thing down.

If they had done that then I'm sure the local economy would have had some sort of chance to recover - Flogging a dead horse springs to mind when it comes to how things have gone since then .

There is definately too much "The Government owes us" in this country in General - But I'd rather it came from a Rover employee than some fanny with 48 kids looking for hand-outs cos she wants to have more kids !

Didn't see the show this morning (some of us have to work for a living ) but I suspect the wife was simply worried about her future .

davegtt

so send the silly cow out to work whilst he is retraining. bl00dy women!!!!

OllyK

It was about 7.15am IIRC
Yes, I am sure she was worried. I was concerned when the company I worked for entered a consultation period and I was told I was at risk. But rather than appearing on GMTV berating the governement (something I would normally be happy to do ) I dug out my redundancy cover policy and then got the local papers and looked for a job. OK I was lucky, I found a new job before I finished at the existing place so there was no break in my income, but I had made provision in case I hadn't been so lucky.

Freak

Agree 100%

Im self employed- and I stick aside a load of cash in a seperate account to prepare for such times as i may be not working as regularly as i would like....

Whats the problem with other people doing it>? Laziness, and its too easy to get the old begging bowl out for another hand out.

ChrisB

My understanding is that the Alchemy Partners bid was going to be a done deal. That would have seen a lot of redundancies but MG kept as more of a specialist sports car company.

However, some big protests in Birmingham and suddenly the Phoenix 4 "bid" floats to the top. I believe the Government prefered the Phoenix 4 option as it avoided large redundancies. Oops!

Spoon

Totally agree.

I had a sum of money stolen by a fraudulent investment company and last Friday he got 7 years for his trouble. Even though the Judge recognised the devastation this caused to the home lives of the people affected, there was no "compensation" available.

The money has all gone or it's hidden nicely for when he gets out of jail.

thundertiger

add to that the fact that rover cars are **ite...

wish the gov would inject 25m into my company.

i'd employ 6000 people (for a week)

lol
BB

Buckrogers

Got **** all to do with the goverment. More to do with the big 4 Directors, who over 5 years paid themselves £40 million. Not bad for 5 years work....

unclebuck

Some are trying to blame Rovers demise on Clarkson and Top Gear. Nobody takes responsibility for anything anymore.

LMAO

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4432279.stm

Markus

Trying to blame TG for Rover's demise? Oh please! Are they going to blame SN as well, because many of us quite happily 'deride' Rover by saying their products are crap.

As for the government helping out in with regards to Rover. Why should it? If it was a state owned company, then yes, fair enough, but a private company? No I don't think so. If that was the case then any of us who may be made redundant should be able to claim money from the government.

It is sad and worrying for those who are/were working for Rover, but I don't see why money from tax payers should be diverted to help them out, I'd not get anything, so why should they. The benefits agency is there for a reason, and yes, a strain will be put on it due to the massive increase in claimants from the demise of Rover, but use the system that you have been paying into. If you're too proud too do so then tough!

matt85

I wouldn't call that cynical. I would call that the truth.

By paying a private company £6m out of governemnt revenue to pay that firms weekly wage bill, it certainly isnt an economic decison because it doesn't scratch the surface on their problems and it wil barely change things for the company and only make a marginal change to the employees.

Its a flagship British firm (at least it was) and by showing the country it is helping the course people are going to look favourably at Labour.

Im not a politician but i would say that by giving Rover money it hasnt done them any harm at all.


(Isn't it funny how every thread seems to turn political recently?)

Buckrogers

"We want to see Top Gear taken off the screens," says Steve Hounsham, of Transport 2000.

And I want to see Tranny's 2000 members hung, drawn and quartered, but hey we can't always have what we want!

OllyK

Flagship?? Damn you have to go back to before it was BMC to be able to make statements like that, the company has been in the poo scraping along from one disaster to the next for as long as I can remember

Phil

PMSL

jasey

Paying the £6m is to keep Rover from sinking today - although what difference a week makes remains to be seen. Maybe Tony's going to siphon of £6m a week 'til after the election and hopes no one will notice - lets face it PSLewis hasn't noticed the billions missing from his pension - another £6m wont be missed

Daz34

I seem to remember him being well impressed with the MG ZT 260

GaryK

LMAO!

As has already been pointed out, the company didnt just go oops were in trouble gotta lay some people off, this has been in steady decline for many years.

Dieseldog

You should try reading the http://forums.mg-rover.org/ . The sad deluded fools are blaming the Press (from Mail to Guardian), the Government, the unpatriotic Public, the Chinese, BMW drivers - you name it, they blame it. Log on and suggest maybe it's because the products are crap and the bosses are dodgy and one or two will actually self combust in a fit of rage. Now they're suggesting that Tesco's should take over!

unclebuck

LOL a sad, sad place to visit is that!

Shark Man

LMAO ...if there ever was a company that could possibly turn around Rover it would be Tescos

But Tesco are a shrewed very well run profitable company. Meaning they wouldn't even think of taking on such a massively unprofitable, unworkable money pit with aboslutely zero to offer its investors.

When I first heard of SAIC were in negociations with MG-Rover some months back I thought to myself "Run, Run SAIC run while you can. Surely a large corporation like that isn't that gullible to join up and invest in such a blatantly obvious bad business venture".




BUT One good thing about this blame culture we're having though...

Hopefully, everyone who works at Rover or supplying companies, or has concerns over the demise of yet another large UK manufacturing business WILL blame the government...

Blame the goverment = Less votes for labour
....Well 6000 less at least anyway, which should make a nice dent for their Midland constituancy (historically Labour dominated round Birmingham)

Buckrogers

Very true, except its nearer 18,000 people affected, with Rover's suppliers. 18,000 plus their family and friends not voting for labour!

Freak

If that had any impact at all, vauxhall would have gone bust a long time ago!!!!

Brit_in_Japan

I've just emailed Mr Hounsham to tell him I disagree with his campaign against Top Gear.

For those interested his email address (readliy found on the Transport 2000 website) is steve.hounsham@transport2000.org.uk

If you do decide to email him, please keep it polite and civil.