MG Rover just won’t go away, will it? There’s no chance of the corporate corpse being pushed into a quiet grave and left to rot in piece.
I’m talking about the Department of Trade and Industry’s inquiry into the downfall of our last indigenous volume car-maker. The current cost to Johnny Taxpayer for this is £13.5m – but it seems that, despite spending that, we’re not allowed to see it yet.
According to reports elsewhere, the so-called ‘Phoenix Four’ – erstwhile directors of the consortium which owned MG Rover – have intervened. John Towers, Nick Stephenson, John Edwards and Peter Beale have demanded that investigators conduct a new series of interviews before the report gets published. Apparently, they think that the Government should take more of the blame.
Of course, I can’t comment on blame or otherwise until I actually see a copy of the report. But even without that, I have to say the fantastic four should feel a bit sheepish about adding yet more expense to the whole thing, what with their huge salaries, £12.9m pension fund and various other windfalls they split between them as the company withered and died.
Many, certainly in the Birmingham area believe that the estimated £40m that the four amassed should be paid back, especially as the workers who lost their jobs as a direct result of the foursome’s management of MG Rover left Longbridge with just £2,800 each – and most of them are now earning substantially less than they were.
There, I’m glad I’ve got that off my chest.