Reply to: Rover bosses took £40 million !

[eliquant]

Yep have to agree with sasguru there, I am not entirely happy about it. The government should have waded in and helped with a rescue package, instead the fatcats were allowed to plunder the last capital that may have helped salvage the situation.

Well done regulators and well done New Liebour, for all your administration and civil servants you fail to avert failure / disaster.

[TinTrump]

The crazy thing about this situation is that the other party interested in buying Rover was a venture capitalist group. They were quite upfront that there would be a drive for profits and there would be downsizing and refocusing Rover to a more niche market.

Dead right. They made it clear that things had to change; I think they planned a lower volume, sports car product. Stephen Byers then trumpeted the government's role in bringing the Phoenix 4 into negotiations. Typical career politician without a clue about manufacturing; used to be a law lecturer at a poly apparently.

[Lithium]

So some people made some money out of a car company??? Who wouldn't?

[TimberWolf]

Still chicken feed compared to the £billions laundered on government IT projects.

[motoukenin]

16 Million for making a report ! I knew I was doing it too cheap , Im putting my prices up.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I know this is hardly radical thinking, but Mandleson is scum. He knows those tossers don't need to work so he's just grandstanding again - what a grade A git.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

What about the trickle down effect?

It doesn't exist.

[BrilloPad]

They were pretty competent at extracting £40 million, oh yes, there was no problem with that.
Don't be naive, folks - that's what passes for capitalism nowadays - its not about wealth creation, just about number 1.

Why would I bother creating wealth unless it was for me?

What about the trickle down effect?

[BrilloPad]

Is it socialist sasguru again this morning?

Looks more like emoticon sasguru.

[centurian]

Haven't people been destroying businesses for their own personal gain since the beginning of capitalism? There are countless asset-strippers who are more than happy to destroy a company for their own personal gain.

Admittedly, Rover was ultimately sunk by their own complete ineptitude at running it, and their willingness to take out huge sums from what was a struggling company, but I think the analogy still holds.

The crazy thing about this situation is that the other party interested in buying Rover was a venture capitalist group. They were quite upfront that there would be a drive for profits and there would be downsizing and refocusing Rover to a more niche market.

The unions were up in arms and insisted that not a single job be lost. Enter the Phoenix Four who were seen as saviours, because they basically weren't going to change anything.

We can never know what would have been, but it's amazing what you can get away with - just as long as you tell people what they want to hear.

[George Parr]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090911...m-6323e80.html

Basically the greedy flipers cold bloodedly destroyed the last major indigenous car manufacturer in the UK, for their own gain.
Makes my blood boil

Then the inquiry took another £16 million.

Basically our business leaders, as well as politicians, are the most greedy, selfish, venal, devious, inept, useless koonts going

Yep, although for that money NuLab made sure that they came out of it with clean hands.

Robert Peston's blog
And some may be surprised that a report - which took more than four years to produce and has cost £16m of taxpayers money - contains no serious criticism of government, even though what was then called the Department of Trade and Industry, and is now called the Business Department, was intimately involved in attempts to save MG Rover.

[chris79]

So it's taken another £16 million quid of taxpayers money to basically say 'yes, the bosses f**ked you all over and there's nothing legally we can do about it'.

No doubt the civil servants who wrote it were on £100k+ salaries each too.

[sasguru]

As that wee french geezer said "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence".

They were pretty competent at extracting £40 million, oh yes, there was no problem with that.
Don't be naive, folks - that's what passes for capitalism nowadays - its not about wealth creation, just about number 1.

[minestrone]

There's one view that says that the "Phoenix Consortium" obtained a bargain and then ****ed it up. There's another view that says that there was malice in their actions - I think that the key here revolves around the question of weret he actions malicious or incompetent.

As that wee french geezer said "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence".

[Menelaus]

There's one view that says that the "Phoenix Consortium" obtained a bargain and then ****ed it up. There's another view that says that there was malice in their actions - I think that the key here revolves around the question of weret he actions malicious or incompetent.