Loads of trouble...

A friend of mine, who is an expert on the global car market, once described Lotus as Loads of Trouble Usually Serious. the build quality of the Norfolk car maker was not, at the time, of the highest.

So maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that the company looks like it is about to close down in the UK, it is losing money hand over fist, has “supply issues” and Trump’s tariffs seem to have been the final straw.

It is not the only one with problems, last month car production in the UK was at the lowest level since 1949. The madness of King Trump is to blame for the latest slump but it is only the final blow. Industry watchers and experts I know sincerely believe that mass car production is a dead man walking in the UK, post Brexit.

We are no longer part of the seamless supply chain that criss crosses the continent, the European wide industry is facing turmoil, huge changes and new competition. Supporting outliers in the UK is not top of many people’s list.

So on the current trend we will be a bespoke, niche, luxury car maker before too long. Which will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs at car plants and their suppliers the length and breadth of the country. That will hit investment, our technology and our productivity very hard. We are throwing away a sector that has attracted billions in foreign money, new tech, and extremely efficient factories.

Brexit equals L.O.T.U.S.

Jonty’s Jottings

From Jonty Bloom Media Ltd

Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.