MG Rover has went into administration after slumping sales and bad management after the sale of the company by BMW to the Pheonix Venture Holdings back in 2000. There has been massive calls from the workers for the government to arrange some sort of huge bail out package and the government has obliged with a £6.5m loan to the company. Its no surprise with the general election coming up that they would be so willing to give this loan and with Birmingham being a marginal labour area and that the company going under could potentially be a very bad thing for newLabour as the party has been boasting about the economy and low unemployment. The EU prohibits state aid like this as it is against its competition rules but no decision has been made by the commission yet. The question is, why on earth should the government bail out MG Rover? They have been banging on for years about how cars are really bad, to start getting the bus, to stop using the roads and to keep hiking up fuel prices. Its against the EU competition rules. And besides all that, if a company cant sell a product because it is not attractive to the consumer and have apointed terrible management who gave theirselves huge bonuses just last year even when they knew the company was making record losses then surely they actually deserve to go bust. This is just an election ploy, is it not?
to help the little workers keep there jobs maybe? just one point, the goverments are not ALWAYS evil, sometimes they are just trying to help the little guy keep his job and therfor pay his morgage
This is capitalism, when you as a company are not competitive and therefore cannot sell an unattractive product; you lose business as people have the right of choice of which product they purchase - If you go bankrupt as a result of this then its your own fault. State hand outs to unsuccessful companies is banned under EU rules, the only difference here is that MG Rover is the only surviving British car manufacturer and the company happens to be in a newLabour marginal area with the general election under way. Governments may not always be evil but you can bank on this kind of stunt when a general election is coming up because it's the only time that governments in this country will listen to the electorate. When we protested about the Iraq war in the millions, nobody listened. When we protested about University top fees, nobody listened. When we protested about the National ID card, nobody listened. The list could go on but this time they are all too prepared to listen when its a small amount of newLabour voters that could potentially lose their jobs giving a loan of taxpayer's money to a company that will not be able to pay it back. Government is supposed to serve the people, no matter who they voted for. This in reality doesn't happen; it only happens when their voters are in trouble with a general election coming up.
Quite true. On an unrelated note, I'd like to get the MG Rover's bosses who made millions whilst the company collapsed and give them a hearty kicking
This happens with lots of companys. And I have to place it on the company, more then the individuals. Thats not to say they arn't wrong, but you have to wonder more about the company, who lets people decide thier own pay/benifits. When someone says: "Hey, lets give ourselves a raise." There are usally not many dissenting votes. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! And I'm sure these guys think they deserve it. Of couse in my opinion, they really have much less power/impact then they think. CEO -> Headquarters -> Upper Managment -> Regonal -> State -> District -> Office/Store -> Lower Managment -> Grunts So they are depending on the staff, of the staff, of the staff, of the staff, of the staff, of the staff, of their staff, to have things done thier way.
Don't you love democracy? /sarcasm Seriously, this isn't democracy. The people should have the power. Have a system like jury duty, but with politics. Not the houses of parliament, they get paid too much and are therefore not connected with society. Yes, sometimes the government has referendums, but if they don't like the answer they call it invalid and have more and more until they get the answer they like.
People are stupid. They don't have a clue about what is going on with the world and it would take too damn long to catch them up from the natural human state of ignorance. The whole reason for a representative democracy is that you can elect someone you trust to work in your best interests and then pay them to understand things which you do not have the time or the frame of reference to understand.
Exactly, Clockwood! But you'll notice that here at sciforums, they seem to know everything about everything? ...LOL! And more to the point, they trust no one, too! We have a nasty habit of voting a person into office, then proceed to curse him and malign him for being a politician! ...LOL! It's a national passtime, isn't it? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Baron Max
The only shock in all this is why it took MG Rover so long to die?. They had old cars that nobody wanted to buy, it's the law of trade, if you build products nobody wants to buy then you are dead!!.
why is it that if a goverment backs entilments for workers to make sure they get what they are owed they are wrong but everytime there is a drout we have to pay to surport farmers? what would effect more workers if a few farmers went belly up or coles myer did????
the people who took over after bmw should be shot.they gave themselves massive bonus' while the company was crumbling around them.
