2 of 23

Yes

Write now Print Email Article Invite a writer™ Add to Favorites Contact this writer

The answer's a lemon.

Once upon a time, Britain was "The Workshop of the World". We made all sorts of things, from steam engines to spinning jennies, and our produce was the envy of the world.

All that has changed now, of course. With the advent of industrial legislation, numerous currency devaluations and general incompetence at both a macro- and micro-managerial level, all we seem to be good for now is the odd financial service and a few nuts. If we have any manufacturing companies at all, they seem to have most of their production facilities abroad - eastern Europe, India and the far east. This is because the going rate for labour is what the British worker would struggle to subsist on.

Indeed, many of our once proud manufacturing companies have closed down - one most famous recent example being the once-great Rover Group, late of Longbridge, Birmingham. This was perhaps more famously snapped up by the Chinese, after much prevarocation caused the shape of the deal to go pretty-much of the pear as far as British interests were concerned. Now, I don't know what Shanghai Automotive's newly relaunched MG is going to be like, but judging by the shoddy quality of some of the other products to come from the land of the panda, it doesn't bode well. At all.

You see, it isn't just the panda China is famous for. When Chairman Mao started the cultural revolution, branding his country with a communism even Stalin would have blanched at, he started a trend which, even though there have been outbursts of sanity since, still haunts the Chinese political state. And whilst it nowadays wears the sober blue pin-stripe of capitalism, China is still red in tooth and claw beneath. And no seriously good car has ever come from a communist country.

You may argue that the likes of Lada, Moskvich, Skoda et al. were owned by the state, and the state is to business what Guy the gorilla was to needlepoint; but what of the likes of FSO Polski-Fiat, Zastava Yugo and so on which were in nominally private hands? And you can't tell me that the totally unsuitable lead-painted toys which come from China and the sandals which hideously disfigure people's feet due to the toxicity of the materials used bode well for a people who aspire to manufacture something so complicated as a car. Especially as the cars they sell will have to pass rigorous tests if they are to be allowed to be sold, let alone be good enough to compete with the likes of Volkswagen, Mercedes and General Motors.

It is possible I'm being alarmist. Somehow, though, I fear not.

Learn more about this author, Tabitha Hergest.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

more options

hide

Add your voice

Know something about First Chinese import coming to the US: Will the Chery be a lemon??
We want to hear your view. Write now!